Are gimmicks in essays really successful?

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm just curious whether or not "gimmicky" essays - poems, using song lyrics, making the essay a metaphor, etc - are ever really successful. The consensus seems to be that gimmicky essays, if clever enough, are a good idea. When I was writing my essays and applying ED I scoffed at people who thought that gimmicks would "charm" admissions officers but now I'm really curious, how often do they work? Has anyone here written a truly gimmicky essay and been accepted to one of their top-choice colleges?</p>

2

<p>I think there is a difference between a creative essay and a gimmicky essay. A creative essay can work well, a gimmicky essay-no.</p>

3

<p>Gimmicky essays usually lose their charm by the second reading. If the gimmick is the only thing holding your essay together, it’ll get old quickly.</p>

4

<p>Does anyone have any examples of gimmicky or creative essays? Sounds interesting</p>

5

<p>When visiting UVA, the admissions officer told a story of one student whose essay response to the question “What is your favorite word and why?” was “My favorite word is brevity. It’s concise.” The caveat is that the applicant did also write two other conventional essays as part of his application. So I think creative works if its not all the admissions officers see.</p>

6

<p>Quirky works if it’s authentic.</p>

<p>The “brevity, it’s concise” kid applied many years ago and we still talk about that essay because it was authentic. Unfortunately, I’ve seen plenty of people who have tried to be similarly quirky, but have wound up giving us contrived, cheesy essays that don’t sound sincere. </p>

<p>I fear that all the extraordinary examples on websites and in books lead people will very normal things to say to believe that they need to brainstorm ways to be weird or surprising in their essays. </p>

<p>The fact is that most students write about normal things. They write about their families. They write about their activities. They write about something they did over the summer. Those essays aren’t going to make it into a book or on a website about essay writing, but they are very good essays. It’s okay to be normal.</p>

7

<p>Creative essays always work well if they are personal enough. Gimmicky essays also work well if they focus on you and only use the gimmick as an aid; if the gimmick is the main draw of the essay, then it will not work.</p>

8

<p>That one about brevity was so funny :D</p>

9

<p>I have heard a story about a Harvard Applicant who was asked to write an essay on the bravest thing he had ever done. He left the essay blank (that was the bravest thing he ever did). He was accepted into Harvard.</p>

10

<p>^ Is this actually true??</p>

11

<p>I have been trying to find this out myself as a fellow student and teacher told me of this story. I have also heard another version of this story in which the student put “Yale Rocks!”. Pretty brave I would say.</p>

12

<p>Unless you’re really really witty, it will only come off embarrassing and pretentious. I would avoid it.</p>

13

<p>My son attends one of the New England preps and the guidance counselors do encourage creative essays.</p>

14

<p>I wrote a “creative” essay. It seems much safer to me than “safe” essays. And I got into my college, so… yay.</p>

<p>Though anyone who writes a gimmick is just writing herself to hell. You really should know the difference if you’re going to go “creative”, or someone who you can trust to differentiate between the two, and tell you which category your essay falls in.</p>

15

<p>This is purported to be an actual college essay, but even if it’s just a joke, I really like it. Definitely creative:</p>

<p>3A. IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF OF</p>

<br>

<br>

16

<p>^ I read this in English class. I forgot the author’s name. My teacher said she found it on a teen writing website. The website interviewed the author and the guy said he did submit it to Yale or some other ivy. He got in.</p>

17

<p>^The author is a man called Hugh Gallagher. He originally wrote it in high school for a writing competition two decades ago. It was meant to be a satirical piece on college essays that he ended up submitting to a few colleges. He ultimately attended NYU, at least according to Wiki-
<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Gallagher_(humorist[/url])”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Gallagher_(humorist)&lt;/a&gt;
[The</a> Cut-and-Paste Personality - WSJ.com](<a href=“The Cut-and-Paste Personality - WSJ”>The Cut-and-Paste Personality - WSJ)</p>

18

<p>Depends on if it is natural of not. If you are at heart a very good satirist then writing a satirical essay would make a lot of sense because it conveys you in your best light. So gimmicky style like satire or stream-of-consciousness may well work and can be brilliant, however gimmicky forms like acrostics I can not imagine going over well.</p>

<p>The crux of the matter is if you are doing something because you think it will be clever then don’t do it. If it comes naturally to you then go for it.</p>

19

<p>Example of a gimmick someone last year on CC was going to do:</p>

<p>Under awards won, he listed “Time Magazine Person of the Year, 2006”. Clever or Gimmicky? I lean towards the latter.</p>

<p>Example of something I personally found creative rather than gimmicky:</p>

<p>Prompt was something like “describe the highest point or achievement you have attained”
My friend who climbs mountains as a hobby wrote the exact altitude of the tallest mountain he had climbed.</p>

<p>Example of something that I have no idea how it came across:</p>

<p>Prompt: “If you could have any question answered, what would it be?”
My answer: “I like not knowing!”</p>

<p>Not sure if they thought I was just avoiding the question…I did get in, but then again, I doubt my whole admission hinged on that question.</p>

20

<p>Q: Are gimmicks in essays really successful? </p>

<p>A: To a certain extent. </p>

<p>Gimmicks do stand out. For instance, if you are applying to a school that gets around 30,000 apps a year and only accepts less than 9 percent of applicants (Ivys for example), gimmicks are sometimes the way to go. I know someone who applied to an Ivy and used a gimmick in one of their essays. Their essay even was published on the schools’ website and other college essay books. Her essay was a response to one of those prompts that ask: “Why [college name here]”. She answered it by creating a love letter to the school. It was cheesy, but it really worked! It was a really well written essay, and she even did it in the format of a love letter. It was very creative. (She was accepted to Harvard btw)</p>

<p>However, don’t over gimmick your college apps/essays, because it will get old preety fast & the adcoms will see that your trying a little TOO hard to stand out. </p>

<p>-Hope this helps !</p>