No. And yes.
Getting your essays down under the allotted word count limits is the LAST step in writing your essays. You don't want to focus TOO much on word count limits until you get your overall story nailed down - it's just a waste of time.
AFTER you've figured out what story you want to tell (and how), THEN you can focus on wordsmithing and rephrasing things to get you down under the word count.
Since our Strategic Essay Reviews are meant to help you with the CONTENT of your essays, it is 100% OK if the essay drafts you send us are a LITTLE (15-20%) longer than the allotted limits.
BUT... (and this is a big BUT)
Please do not send us essay drafts that are 2x the allotted word count. Not only will it take us 2x as long to read through them, but a 600 word answer to an essay prompt is a VASTLY different essay than a 300 word answer to that same prompt.
Telling you what can be cut from a 600 word essay to get it closer to a 300 word target starts to be "too much help" in our eyes. We cannot write your essays for you. They need to be your work.
And if your essay is 2x the allotted word count, it needs more work before its ready for a strategic review.
If you DO send us excessively long essays, we will likely tell you that you need to do more work on them before we'll do your review (and if this happens during peak season when we're fully booked, we may ask you to book a new session to do so).