<p>Ok, so I need my essay to be really good to make up for EC's or rather lack of EC's and I know if I make it an entirely honest essay it will be not so good, but I'm a really good writer and can make an outstanding essay if I add some elements of fiction. By some I mean the whole thing. So what should I do, keep it honest and truthful and rather boring I might add, or not so true and quite amazing? Any answers will be much appreciated.</p>
<p>I wouldn't suggest lying. Ethically questionable, and risky (could have your admission rescinded). </p>
<p>What I would suggest, though, is to be creative with your essay. If you haven't had any amazing experiences to write about, that's fine. But, as an excellent writer, you should be able to find a way to let colleges know that you are a unique, interesting person with a personality (which is, after all, what they're trying to find out--honestly, they don't care if you spent a month building mud huts in Peru or whatever). At the info session for a competitive LAC I heard an adcom talk about how her favorite essay for that year was about a girl just sitting in a coffee shop and people-watching. </p>
<p>If you can pull it off, you could probably write a fabulous essay about how excruciatingly boring your life has been, or write a sarcastic one about how you cured your own brain cancer at age nine while raising millions of dollars for starving llamas. Really, you don't have to resort to lying to write a great essay.</p>
<p>Etselec is right, it's like the same as creative non fiction. Don't make the entire thing up, even if you do consider yourself an excellent writer. Instead, keep a base of truth, and embellish if neccessary.</p>
<p>So I should base it in truth while possibly exaggerating certain details?</p>
<p>Well, perhaps you can take the essay, though often done, of a random page taken from your autobiography in which you can then enter into the realm of fiction yet maintain some sense of reality in all of your statements, because I definitely would not recommend exaggerating your essay to suit your own needs. And since when is the truth more boring then fiction?</p>
<p>Ok now I know pretty much what I am going to do about the essay. I just hope I don't get carried away and write too much. I once ended up with a twelve page short story that was only supposed to be two pages at the most.</p>
<p>And the paradox:</p>
<p>If you're a really good writer, why do you have to add elements of fiction to make your essay interesting?</p>
<p>Food for thought . . .</p>
<p>I could make almost any essay interesting, but that would be it only interesting but not something that would stand out. That's because the fact that my life has been very boring and I have done nothing that I would consider significant enough to even mention in an essay. That's why I would have to add some things to it to make me stand out.</p>
<p>You don't need an exciting life to stand out. As a matter of fact, most people applying to selective universities actively attempt to stand out, and may pursue this over a genuine nature achieved in a genuine essay. So be genuine and interesting . . . and you've done the best you can. Those should be your goals, and ironically might aid you more in standing out than attempting to stand out. You should stand out naturally . . . you just have to expand on the unique elements of your application.</p>
<p>I know a girl who wrote her essay about a childhood obsession with fish. Got into several Ivies. The essay told about her, not a "significant" event.</p>
<p>The essay should tell the reader something about you that is not already evident from the rest of the application. You could even write about your dilemma about what to write about! Just don't "exaggerate details." If you're ever caught "exaggerating" you could be expelled (just as people who "exaggerate" on their resumes often get fired).</p>
<p>For an essay to be excellent, it doesn't need to be based on any lies or embellishment. It simply needs to be thoughtful and well written. Think about good short stories or essays that you've had to read for English class. The best ones were based on ordinary incidents, and were well written with insight and/or humor. They weren't about people saving the world or doing something else exceptional. The same is true of college essays.</p>
<p>Trying to rely on lying or embellishment is IMO the lazy way of doing an essay and is likely to help you get rejected -- whether or not your lies (and embellishing something is still lying) are found out. Put your time into thinking, writing and editing, not lying because the thinking, writing and editing are more likely to pay off than would lying.</p>
<p>Your ESSAY should be 100% true........... this is also a character assessment... and the fact that you're even CONSIDERING lying looks badly towards yourself.... tell them what you learned from your EC's... this could even be some personal quality that you developed or somtething like that... if you're a very good writer... than creativity shouldnt b a problem</p>
<p>My friend read this to me the last day of high school...would have made an interesting admissions essay:</p>
<p>Make the Most of What You've Got
What follows is a real application from a student received by ************ University.
Question 3A - Essay: In order for the admissions staff of our university to get to know you, the applicant, better, we ask that you answer the following question:
Are there any significant experiences you have had, or accomplishments you have realised, that have helped to define you as a person?</p>
<p>I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Kenyan refugees, I write award-winning operas, and manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.</p>
<p>I woo women with my sensuous godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, I cook thirty-minute brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru. Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I single handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I had trials with Manchester United, I am the subject of numerous documentaries.</p>
<p>When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my garden. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.
I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie.</p>
<p>Critics worldwide swoon over my original line in corduroy evening wear. I do not perspire! I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have appeared on Through the Keyhole and won the big gold key. Last summer I toured Eastern Europe with a travelling centrifugal -force demonstration. I run the 100m in 9.65 secs. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in the international botany circles.</p>
<p>Children trust me.</p>
<p>I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick and David Copperfield in one day and refurbished and entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The law of physics do not apply to me.</p>
<p>I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic and my bills are all paid. On weekends I let off some steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down.</p>
<p>I have made extraordinary four course meals using only vegetables and a Breville Toaster. I breed prize winning clams.</p>
<p>I have won bullfights in Madrid, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka and chess competitions at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and have spoken with Elvis.</p>
<p>But I have not yet been to (Fill in University).</p>
<p>result of the applicant?</p>
<p>I talked to an adcom at a highly selective LAC who said the best essay she ever read was about a Chipotle burrito.</p>
<p>Remember, it's a reflective piece with character development, not an action story :)</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Gallagher_(humorist)%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Gallagher_(humorist)</a>. Other articles have talked about him actually being accepted, this one says he's all about his band right now.</p>
<p>I read that the guy who wrote that essay ended up going to NYU. Not sure if that's true.</p>
<p>That's so funny; we must have talked to the same adcom (from Harvard) - I remember the burito comment.</p>
<p>I am disgusted by essays that are embellished.</p>
<p>Admission essays aren't about how well you write, or how great of a story you can come up with, but about YOU. If embellishments and lies are what you're made of... it's pathetic.</p>
<p>If you're a great writer, talk about something, even if it's mundane, that will allow the adcom to enter your mind. The essay should be like a bond for a personal relationship betwen you and the adcom; there's no personal relationship if that bond is created with fibers that are fabricated and non-existent.</p>