Statement of Purpose word limit

[PB&Machiajelly]

Hey gang,

Hope the applications are going well for everyone, and that stress levels are under control!

I just wanted to poll everyone - what's the general wisdom on statement limits? Most seem to top out at 1000 words - is this a rigorously counted and enforced limit? If I were, say, 20 words over, is that a killer?

I know this seems like a first year undergrad question about trying to finesse limits - I know there's always more to cut, always - but I'm just curious about the latitude, if there is any.

[OmniscienceQuest]

Maybe someone else has more authority to answer this but my impression is that when they say "1000 words" they mean 2 single-spaced pages using 12 point Times New Roman or the equivalent and reasonable borders - i.e. no weird tricks to squeeze in 1500 words. So "500 words" means one page and "1000 words" means 2 pages. No one will count the words, they just want what you submit to fit on 2 pages. Other than that it's the content that matters.