APA word count

[Diana321]

Huh, guess I never really thought about this. Years ago, my professors at the community college I was attending said that only the body of the paper counts. Friends of mine that attended the bigger universities around here say the same thing, only the body and not title pages/reference pages/etc. But the interwebs seem to have a mixed opinion on this, with most stating that the learning institution sets the rule - which is not helpful in your situation as I don't think study.com is clear on this. I thought I saw mention that APA says everything is included.

All of that to say "gee, I don't know" LOL. The papers I've turned in for TESU and for study.com are all APA, I only count the body of the paper and no one's told me I'm way over on my word count. I'm curious to see what others have experienced with this.