Should a personal essay for a college application be poetic or conventional?

[antigone382]

I'm writing a personal essay as part of my application to a university, and I really need it to hit just the right note. What will likely impress whomever reviews my application more: something straightforward and logical, written like your standard English research essay; or something more individual and artistic that takes some stylistic risks? I'm planning to write about my experiences during the two-year gap in my education (involving being thrust into total independence for the first time in my life, the death of a close friend, assisting in the home birth of another close friend, getting my license and teaching myself to drive a stick shift, and generally figuring out how to be an adult), and how they have galvanized me to continue my original goal of earning a master's degree. I think it will be more powerful if I write it in my own voice, but I have my doubts. It's not as if I'm planning to completely ignore the standard rules of punctuation or sentence structure, but I use long, image-heavy, extremely detailed sentences and a sort of stream-of-consciousness technique that may alienate someone looking for a conventional essay who doesn't worship the ground William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy walked/walk on.

[Breeze54]

1. Write from your heart...

and good luck.

If you try to put on 'airs', they'll see through it.

[antigone382]

2. How do you know the difference between someone putting on airs...

... and someone who just talks like that?

I have some friends who were home-schooled by a guy who was very influenced by anthroposophy. They're all extremely well-read and use big words and big concepts in everyday conversation, totally unaware of how much they're blowing the rest of us away. I love, I *love* the precision of the English language...if you look hard enough there's a word that will convey exactly what it is you mean to say...that's what makes writing so fulfilling to me, but I have to be very careful writing or speaking in my own voice because so many people read what you write or hear what you say and they think that you're just stringing big words together to sound smart, when really you're just trying to explain what you mean as well as you can...

...anyway, I'm going off on a tangent here that isn't exactly related to what you said. I think I know what you mean and I appreciate your advice a lot!

[Breeze54]

3. I just meant if you wax poetic....

they'll see through that. I think they want to see the 'real' you, don't they? :shrug:

[ThomCat]

4. That depends on your intended major.

If you are intending to be a science major, then show you can be precise and analytical. If you want to go into literature or theater or the arts, then feel free to be poetic. :)

The people who review your essay will be smart enough to deal with whatever you write.

I hope you do well and get into a great school! :hug:

[antigone382]

6. Thank you!

I'd like to get a B.A. in anthropology, maybe join the Peace Corps or something for two years, come back and get a Master's.--the Sustainable Development program at Appalachian State is one I'm really interested in. Things I'd like to really emphasize in my essay are what I've observed about human interactions and interrelatedness, and my own developing maturity and strength of character as a result of my experiences.

[SallyMander]

5. I think it depends a lot on where your applying

My application essay to college was basically a prose poem. I tried writing standard ones, and i *hated* all of them. The one i used was this flash of inspiration that i scrawled out at 2am, and then i barely edited it. The disclaimer is, i was applying to a pretty lefty liberal-arts school -- so it was risky, but not like i was sending it to business school or something. ;)

Good luck! :hi:

[antigone382]

7. It's a big public university in the south...

They accept about 60% of all applicants, and while I have some less than stellar grades on my transcripts from some pretty stressful times in my life, they're balanced out by good grades in relatively challenging courses. I'm thinking I'm going to go with my instincts on the essay. If it doesn't jive with them then they wouldn't have been a good fit for me anyway.

[Jamastiene]

8. Conventional would be best.

Talk about how enthusiastic you are to enter the work force. Talk about having a vivacious appetite for learning. Talk about loving ALL of the opportunities you see in college and make sure you say you had a hard time picking from all of the WONDERFUL curriculum choices offered.

In other words, kiss their ass and act like you love every single minute of it. Act thankful they are letting you kiss their ass. Act grateful and humbled by their college and all of it's lovely opportunities it has to offer you so you can "grow up" to be a happy little worker bee.

That's what they really want. Period. They don't care about what you like and don't like. They don't care that you are a human being. They don't care about you. They only care about how good you can kiss their asses. That will get you further than anything else in this world, until you finally crack one day and tell them you hate them all and you are sick and fucking tired of kissing their asses.

If you can avoid that at all possibly costs, please do, because they aren't too happy when that day comes. I know. I lost my mind, cracked, and went nuts after so much ass kissing (I could only take so much of it) and told the ones who run my community college I hated their fucking school and their double standards when it comes to women and how they treat women.

I got the ACLU all in their college with letters, threatening to Whoop Ass, ACLU style, if they didn't change their stupid dress code for me to graduate. I got to wear my pant suit, instead of a dress, but I had to shake hands with a Repuke. They got Robin Hayes in their to shake hands with all graduates.

So, you see, they'll get their revenge on you. Oh, you'll get yours, if you ever have to open up a can of ACLU Whoop Ass on them, but at least you'll graduate without being treated "less than." I know I did.

Of course, no amount of bleach or baths or showers or Ajax would make the "dirty" feeling go away from where I had to touch a Republican. I still have nightmares about it sometimes, but I graduated in my pant suit instead of being forced to wear a dress.

:)

[Breeze54]

9. You are a warrior!!

:yourock:

Thank You for fighting back against the corporations and colleges are corporations!!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Jamastiene]

10. Well, thank you, kindly.

A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do, you know? I won. Like I said though, they made me touch a Republican. I guess I shouldn't have brought political parties up in my letters to the President, Vice President, and entire Board of Directors for the college. That's probably why they made me touch a Republican. You think?

[datasuspect]

11. the workaround:

drop out at 16 and get a job. IMMEDIATELY enroll in a junior college while you work. do about 30 hours of prerequisite coursework and maintain a 3.5 or better (in some cases, a 2.5 or better) and you will be able to transfer into any major state school.

[antigone382]

12. Well, I am transferring, actually.

I went to a CC, had a 4.0 for the first year, but went under the second year due to living an hour and a half from campus without a vehicle, and trying to go to school full-time and work full-time at the same time. That's why the essay is so important. I have to show that what I have learned in the two years since then (in essence, how to survive and get shit done like a grown-up), means that I won't screw up this time.

[Kat45]

13. I think conventonal would be better because

that form would be taken more seriously, and the thrust of your essay is describing what you've done in the past two years and how it has caused you to grow up, and now you are ready to go back to school and work hard and do well. (Sorry for giving you one extremely long sentence; it's way past what should have been my bedtime.)

[Orsino]

14. Yes.

Either way, you risk alienating admissions personnel--but conventional may be safer, statistically.

Write from your heart, but clean it up in the second draft. Prove your mad English skilz.