Townsend harris and bar highschool

In both the schools websites they say that the response should be 1200-2500 characters I have 2 questions about this: 1)Does the character count include spaces? 2) in the Townsend Harris website it says in parentheses (approximately 1200-2500 words) does this mean I can write more than 2500 character? BTW the first question I mean for both schools. Tysm any assistance helps