Is 12 Pages "About 10 Pages"

[therestishistory]

Hi all, 

After lots of editing I've managed to reduce my writing sample down to 12 pages, double spaced. The program I'm applying to says it should be "about 10 double spaced pages." Is 12 too much? I don't want to look bad by shrinking the margins or the font size, but the application is due in 10 days and I would like to just get it over with. It would be a real pain to reduce by 2 full pages in that time, but I also don't want the admissions committee to think of me poorly for making them read too much. 

Thanks!