Cursing in a college essay? lol.

College Essays
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<p>Hey guys. I am working on a college essay that is centered around my leadership as a cross country captain. At one point in the essay I'm talking about how we, who were the favorites at the Conference meet ended up barely losing. After we lost I gave a sort of inspirational speech to my teammates, and we ended up beating that same team by over fifty points at Regionals a week later and qualified for states. </p>

<p>Anyways, in my speech or whatever I said "ass" in reference to working our asses off all season. I feel really dumb asking this but is this a bad idea? Yeah of course I know ass isn't the most offensive curse word by any means but I still don't want to include it if it could hurt me.</p>

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<p>Are you including the speech in its whole? If not, maybe you should just talk about the rest of the speech. I wouldn’t include it, myself–you can’t account for personal admission’s officers morals or sense of humor.</p>

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<p>It wasn’t like a huge speech, all I said was: “Guys this really sucks but it just didn’t happen. We have to get over it, we can kill these guys at regionals. We’ve worked our asses off all season but that doesnt mean they are gunna give it to us, we have to get up and take what’s ours.”</p>

<p>They were all really disheartened but then this got them hype. Thanks for the quick reply btw</p>

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<p>I agree with MissGen - some admissions officers can find that to be immature as an inability to express yourself in a more learned way. Don’t use the word - find some other way to express your feelings.</p>

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<p>I disagree with some of the others. I think if it has a purpose (re: ■■■■■■ in Huck Finn) then I don’t think it’s uncalled for. It’s in context. And it’s really not that vulgar. You’re saying ass. It’s not offensive to anyone.</p>

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<p>I dont think its offensive either. Bump for any more opinions</p>

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<p>why take the risk? i’d change it to “butts.”</p>

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<p>I reread the quote a couple of times and to me it doesn’t have the same effect with “butts” instead of “asses”. This is one of the most important parts of the essay so I really want it to have a strong effect. HMmmmmmmmmmmmmm anybody else ?</p>

<p>this is such a weird thing to be arguing about hahaha</p>

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<p>I think you’d be taking a chance, but they say having the “real you” come through is important.</p>

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<p>It’s fine, leave it in!</p>

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<p>Take it out…why risk it?</p>

<p>Sent from my SGH-T959V using CC App</p>

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<p>^this is completely irrelevant and inappropriate!</p>

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<p>and as to the question, if it were me, i wouldn’t take the risk but to be honest, i think that most college admissions would take it lightly and appreciate the humor, but im not sure…</p>

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<p>^Agreed. We’re probably making it a bigger deal than it is, most colleges probably would not be offended, but I personally wouldn’t take the risk.</p>

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<p>@bioboy12 my comment was not to you, there was someone who commented spam after you but it seems that their post was deleted</p>

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<p>I don’t know why anyone would be offended by that. You’re not being vulgar; you’re using it for emphasis and it fits the mood. If you use butts to be safe, it becomes boring, which is worse than being slightly offensive (which it shouldn’t be).</p>

<p>Plus there was an essay that used damn that Johns Hopkins put on its website as an example of an essay that worked.</p>

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<p>you should change it buttocks.
That’d be hilarious.</p>

<p>Naaah in all seriousness do whatever you feel like. If you think “asses” conveys more emotion that “Buttocks” than go for it.</p>