<p>Personal statements are supposed to give adcoms a sense of our personalities. Myriads of essays have spoken about endless series of "I come, I see, I conquer" stories; piles of others depict some unique moments that change the writers' lives and so on... We've all read and contemplated over such essays. But there is one kind of essay that really captures my curiosity. It's the essays that only describe a beautiful scenery or something similar to that. For instance, I've read a personal statement of a Yale undergraduate student and in the composition, he talked about the flag in his house and its changes in accordance to the changes of seasons. Other than that, the essay doesn't give any vestige of the author's personality at all. Mere description, that essay is. My speculation about this is that you don't need a story with all kinds of twists and turns revolving about your life to paint a picture of your personality; sometimes, your perspective and characteristic are shown through your eyes and how you view the world around ( in this case, the description of scenery). But is it the real rationale for that Yale student's success? ( As Yale relies heavily on the writing proficiency of its applicants, the essay must have a significant contribution to the application, eh?) </p>
<p>I know it's not what you write but how you write it that matters. But is there any university that has actually admitted students with such essays? Yale seems to be the sole one I can think of.</p>