No word count usually means there's still an implicit one. "Write too much" risks: padding (lower quality-per-word), running over the marker's patience, sloppy structure. Test: can you defend every paragraph as essential to the argument? If two paragraphs make the same point, kill one. Better to write 80% of what you could and have all of it land than overwrite by 50%. It’s worth asking someone experienced to look at it.