Strict adherence to SOP word limits?

[s58]

How strictly would you follow word limits given for SOPs? I'm applying to a couple of schools where the word limit is either 500 or 1000, and I was wondering would it hurt to submit statements that are 600-650/1100-1150ish words?

[balderdash]

How strictly would you follow word limits given for SOPs? I'm applying to a couple of schools where the word limit is either 500 or 1000, and I was wondering would it hurt to submit statements that are 600-650/1100-1150ish words?

I'll give you the advice I've been given, which I feel puts it in perspective nicely:

"Why give them an excuse to throw out your application?

500+ other applicants can get it under the word limit, and there's nothing special about you, snowflake. Treat it like a speed limit."

Edited November 28, 2010 by balderdash

[LJK]

I'll give you the advice I've been given, which I feel puts it in perspective nicely:

"Why give them an excuse to throw out your application?

500+ other applicants can get it under the word limit, and there's nothing special about you, snowflake. Treat it like a speed limit."

Just an FYI, as I see you are from 'over the atlantic': it is extremely common in the US to drive over the speed limit. Its basically an unwritten rule that slight speeding is ok. My dad heard it from a cop that he had been instructed to never pull someone over for going less than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. In fact, sometimes going the speed limit is dangerous if everyone around you is going considerably faster. So your quote is not quite as clear a demonstration of your meaning as you would think, since speed limits are to be fudged but we Americans can definitely understand that you mean a hard line - perhaps an allusion to blood alcohol concentration while driving is a better analogy for Americans.

And to s58: I agree with Balderdash: if there is an official limit, I would stay inside it.

[balderdash]

...

I'm American.

[aginath]

FWIW, it's not uncommon to encounter faculty and/or committees who stop reading at the limit. Going over the limit risks not having all of your statement read or understood as you intended it.

[eklavya]

How strictly would you follow word limits given for SOPs? I'm applying to a couple of schools where the word limit is either 500 or 1000, and I was wondering would it hurt to submit statements that are 600-650/1100-1150ish words?

you never know, but it's better to stay within the limit. if the way the essay is turned in is by copy-pasting in a box on the online form, essays over the word limit will be truncated, and your essay will be incomplete. if it's something you upload (document files) or send via snail mail, then it's less of an issue. however, the reviewer might not go easy on your application if other applicants have it within the limit whereas yours is evidently much more.

i suggest that you take an extra day or two to trim down the long ones to their size limits.

[s58]

K, thanks a lot guys!

[oasis]

I'll give you the advice I've been given, which I feel puts it in perspective nicely:

"Why give them an excuse to throw out your application?

500+ other applicants can get it under the word limit, and there's nothing special about you, snowflake. Treat it like a speed limit."

A prospie calling someone a snowflake? PSJR much?

[balderdash]

A prospie calling someone a snowflake? PSJR much?

Haha I had never seen PSJR before, so I just googled it... I guess that's probably where the person that told me had initially read it.

[oasis]

Haha I had never seen PSJR before, so I just googled it... I guess that's probably where the person that told me had initially read it.

Don't read it! It will scar you for life.