Response to Elizabeth

Posted by Dee

AdmitSpit received a comment regarding the UC application from Elizabeth today on the post titled, “Techniques for dealing with character limits.”

I’ll reproduce the comment below:

“Hi I just submitted my uc application yesterday and realized that I went over the word count limit by 35 words. What can I do? Will the college just cut off my essay or should I mail each campus a letter?”

Elizabeth,

I think you needn’t worry about 35 words. The reason I emphasize “think” is because I haven’t seen a print out of your application. I sure hope you, along with every other UC applicant, took the time to print out a copy of your entire application. If so, you could go to the personal statement section and see if it did indeed cut off part of your essay. If it did not you’re probably okay.

The second reason I emphasize “think” is because I hope that this 35 word surplus was not on one response alone, rather that you went maybe 10 words over on one essay and 16 over on another and over by 9 on another; this would be the best scenario as opposed to going 35 words over on one response alone which will be much more obvious.

Obviously it would’ve been ideal to stay within the 1,000 word limit, but in the application instructions it does say, “You must stay within the 1,000-word limit as closely as you can. It is acceptable if you run a little over or under on an individual question. (For example, a word count of 205 or 199 words is fine on your 200-word responses).”

So overall, I don’t see anything you can do about your application now; it seems unnecessary to me to send a letter to each UC campus you applied to–what would you say? Oops, I went over the limit? Sorry?

I would definitely take a look at your paper print-out of the application you submitted. If a few words were cut off your application, it’s not the end of the world and it’s definitely not the end of your chances of getting in, so I wouldn’t stress too much about it.