It IS under 3000 characters

[J1515]

Can someone please tell me why AACOM is telling me my essay is over 3000 characters when according to Microsoft Word count it is under? I'm not skipping any lines or using any indentations. I saved it earlier this morning and it was fine, then I went back to the page to make a correction under the volunteer experiences (didn't touch the personal statement) and now it won't let me save again - keeps saying "must be under 3000 characters." Has anybody else had this problem?

 

[otter1812]

I had this same problem. Oddly enough, I gave it a rest because I was so frustrated, and about an hour later it accepted my word count. I'm not sure if anyone else experienced it..but it's worth giving it a shot. Goodluck!

 

[Robz]

a space is considered a character by the AACOMAS system, that was my problem last year.

 

[cardiotonic]

I had the same problem so I called AACOMAS and talked to a representative that told me I could email my PS (<3000 characters) as an attachment. Hope this helps.

 

[bigbassinbob]

Yeah I had that problem too, but it eventually accepted it for some reason. And when I went to print it out, it didn't have any paragraph separations. I hope that is normal..

 

[J1515]

Just to update everyone, there must be some kind of glitch. If you delete the whole essay and re-cut and paste it from notepad with the same exact word count, it'll take it. If you try to go back and edit anything from that page again it tells you your word count is over and you have to delete, cut and paste again. Weird.