College and scholarship essays frequently come with hard word limits — 500, 650, sometimes just 250 words for a supplemental prompt. Going over usually means an automatic cut in the application portal; going way under can read as a lack of effort.

Write over, then cut with intent

The most reliable method is to draft 15–20% over your target, then edit down. Overwriting first means you get every idea on the page before you start making the hard calls about what stays.

What to cut first

• Throat-clearing intros ("In today's society...")
• Redundant adjectives and hedging phrases ("very," "really," "I think")
• Backstory the reader doesn't strictly need to understand your point

Track your count as you edit

Keep a live word counter open in another tab while you revise. Watching the number tick down in real time as you trim sentences makes it far easier to stop exactly at your limit instead of guessing and re-pasting into a form only to discover you're 40 words over.