@DavidChandler I believe the essay should be UNDER 500 words, not over. The team I mentor won Innovate last year with an essay of around 450 words. This year, their submission is about the same.
@mbrh Thank you for the reply, I ended up getting mine down to 510 words. I’m hoping it won’t be a problem and that it simply needs to be ~500 words. They should probably specify it for future years though. Best of luck to your team at worlds!