<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I have had some conflicting messages. I used my essay to show my character and highlight how I am as a person. I did not mention anything about my intellectual ability or stats or anything academic. I wanted to give the adcoms a sense of my personality. Is this the right approach? Should i add in some stuff about academics? Should my essay be used to highlight my personality or should i also focus on my intellectual side? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>they will learn about your intellectual side from your transcript, test scores, and recs. your approach is smart.</p>
<p>To some extent, it depends on the prompt. Maker sure that your essay clearly addresses the prompt and contains details that are specific to you and your life. Essays don’t need to reproduce information available elsewhere in your application, but they are often used to provide greater insight into something you may have listed as part of your general achievements.</p>
<p>ok any other opinions?</p>
<p>A well written essay can be used to demonstrate your intellecual capabilities without you having to explicitly state them . It gives you a chance to show them rather than just tell them what you can do. A skillful essay says so much more about the author than just the chosen topic. Of course, so does a poor one.</p>
<p>^Are you guys serious? I frankly prefer the essays that are like “Yeah, I love academics. This is clearly shown in the fact that I am taking six AP classes and my awesome maintainance of a 4.0 GPA throughout high school. Added to my 99th percentile SAT score of 2360 (specifically, 780 on math, 800 on reading, and 780 on writing) and my five book awards, I am clearly a great student. My teacher even told me that I was “the best student to walk through Room 305’s doors first period in years” (although maybe me bringing him a Starbucks frappucinno led to this). I spend exactly seven hours on my five extracurricular activities per week, and I find them extremely good times to get my homework done and help myself to some free food. To be frank, you could probably find all of the above information in the common app and teacher recs. I’m beginning to think all I did here was come off as a conceited robot who only cares about school.” </p>
<p>Seriously, though, there may be times when you should reference a specific class, EC, or teacher. But no need to divulge grades, test scores, awards (plural, implying glorified laundry list), and a list of ECs that could otherwise be found in the common app. </p>
<p>And I wrote the above example because I’m extremely bored right now. Not to belittle your question in any way. In fact, I think it would make good satire if you were to use that as your actual essay. But I digress (sort of).</p>
<p>sure i can help. sincerely, james</p>