I had a difficult experience in which I lied to my parents so they could not help me without me exposing my lie. Should I include this in my essay?
If you do you need to explain it better than you did in your post.
The purpose of your essay is to provide the admissions committee with information about who you are and what makes you tick…things that are difficult to demonstrate in more quantitative sections of the application. If you wanted to include the “difficult experience” in your essay, you’re probably doing it so show how your overcame this experience and learned some life lessons. Sharing that you lied to your parents would seem to add little to the story and could be a black mark against you.
Sure, lots of kids lie to their parents…but I doubt very many highlight it in their college application essay.
Good luck!
“information about who you are and what makes you tick” And that your targets will find relevant when reviewing you for an admit.
This writing isn’t psych confession. Ask yourself if lying is relevant to your point, makes the right impression to adcoms, shows you in your best light, the attributes they want.
You want to give ADCOMS a reason to pull for you, not the other way around.
Why would you bring up an incident they know nothing about and don’t need to know about, if it paints you in a bad light?
This isn’t True Confessions. It’s a sales job. The point behind this essay is to sell your application. Don’t choose to include a story that has you lying to anyone.