<p>"One of them is pretty specific about an achievment."</p>
<p>It doesn't have to be winning a game, starting a club, getting an award. The achievement could be anything that you feel good about: getting over shyness; learning to get along with a sibling; having the guts to write a paper on a subject that your friends thought was weird, etc.</p>
<p>I think I have an idea of something to write now, one of the topics on the common app. says something about an ethical dilemma and well this is one. I just don't know if telling them I was even considering to lie is a good idea.</p>
<p>Alternatively, you could make up an experience and then go do it. :D</p>
<p>I've actually thought about doing that.</p>
<p>If you're going to exagerrate, make it outlandish and obviously fake. One of the best essays I have ever read was about a barrista whose coffee machine went berserk and attacked her. The edgy writing was excellent, and the clear lesson was humans becoming too dependent on technology. It made several points: the girl has a job she enjoys and is dedicated to, the girl is a great writer, the girl can think creatively and critically about complex stubjects. The whole essay had a very dreamy, contemplative quality to it; it was perfect.</p>
<p>Ferny Reyes - I should confirm what I meant. I did not mean achieved in life as in SAT scores, awards, scholarships...I meant more spiritual or personal side of things. Any small incidents that changed you in big ways will be especially noteworthy. Like a Chipotle burrito.</p>
<p>I've read hundreds of student essays. One of the best I ever read was about weeding a tomato patch. The student was accepted at several top ranked universities.</p>
<p>Now, don't rush out and write about weeding a tomato patch, a pumpkin patch, or any other kind of patch. What made the essay work wasn't the topic, but that the writer had thought about who HE was, what his values and dreams were, what he wanted out of life. And, he took that SELF-KNOWLEDGE and related it to a very mundane every day task in a way that made you feel you knew something important about him after you finished reading it. He was also the only person who could have written that particular essay because it was very personal and very real. </p>
<p>You can't "make up" who you are. You ARE what you are. So, my advice would be to spend some time in quiet reflection about who you are, what matters to you, why you have become who you are (especially why you are someone who feels you must lie about who you are in order to succeed), and listen to the stories that come out of that self-knowledge. That is where ALL great essays start, not in some manufactured "topic" designed to impress.</p>
<p>Moon_doggy,
What could possibly be so bad about you that you'd have to lie or exaggerate on a college essay to be accepted? As has been said previously, the main point of any college essay is to show what kind of a writer you are and what your personality and character are like.</p>
<p>The fact that you'd consider lying to answer a question about an ethical sitaution indicates that the reason that you may have a tougher time getting college acceptances than you'd anticipate with your stats is that colleges really don't want to accept people with weak ethics. On your recommendation forms that teachers and your GC will fill out, they'll have to give you a rating about your ethics.</p>
<p>Based on how normal you apparently think that cheating is, my guess is that you've said things to your GC and teachers that let them know that you have no qualms about being dishonest or cheating if you think it will get you ahead. If they rate you honestly on ethics, that will hurt you even more than would a weak essay.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
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).
[/QUOTE]
That is brilliant.</p>
<p>I don't get why people keep bringing it up...that essay is actually pretty lame, in my opinion. I don't see it as something that creative, and the last sentence really makes it all sound kind of blah. If anything, it makes the writer sound desperate.</p>
<p>That essay was great until the last sentence.</p>
<p>The ending's the best bit!</p>
<p>Sorry, this maybe be off topic, but how do colleges regard the applications of students who are permanent U.S. residents? Are the applications put in the "international" pile?</p>
<p>Dekans6: Nope :)</p>
<p>I agree with confused_student. It's not that interesting/clever and doesn't say that much about the applicant. It's mildly amusing as an essay in general, but would be a very poor admissions essay.</p>
<p>The Ace Is Back, that essay is a famous one on the internet.</p>
<p>Some guy wrote that a few years ago.</p>
<p>This one's just a modified version.</p>
<p>I don't recommend people to use that.</p>
<p>Why is it a poor admissions essay? It's fairly amusing, it makes a mockery of the entire process and those who are slaves to university applications, it's got a good ending, it's original, it's pretty brave - if I was an admissions officer, I'd take it!</p>
<p>If I didn't care so much about getting into a good college, I would write like that. It sounds like Chuck Norris's admissions essay.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why is it a poor admissions essay? It's fairly amusing, it makes a mockery of the entire process and those who are slaves to university applications, it's got a good ending, it's original, it's pretty brave - if I was an admissions officer, I'd take it!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It may be entertaining but it doesn't tells us about the writer(apart from that he is very witty).
What the use of letting a joker in a univ.</p>
<p>The Ace is Back, I agree that it's a bit witty and it's brave. I does make a mockery of the whole process. How is that a good thing though? The person who reads the essay might think it's funny or might find it offensive. You are mocking what they spend hours a week doing. It's very risky (and not in a good way). And it's not original. Enough people turn their essay into a list of accomplishments that it doesn't take that much thought or creativity to write an essay like the one above. The ending isn't that good either. </p>
<p>One needs to realize that there is a big difference between a good essay and a good admissions essays. There are plenty of bad admissions essays that are good essays. They just don't tell you much about the applicant.</p>