<p>In most academic papers, it is avoided... but is that even possible in an application essay?</p>
<p>First-person is possible, and certainly encouraged, in application essays. After all, your application would sound dry to the adcoms without your voice and perspective (plus writing college essays is nothing like writing academic essays), so you should definitely use first-person.</p>
<p>In general, I don’t think there’s any benefit to avoiding first-person.</p>
<p>Absolutely write in the first person. You don’t want your personal statement to sound anything like an academic paper. </p>
<p>When was the last time you’ve read an interesting academic paper that you couldn’t bear to put down? </p>
<p>And this is coming from someone who read encyclopedias for fun as a young kid. </p>
<p>If you are too used to expository writing, read some quality non-fiction to help get you reacquainted with the right style to use. A lot of students have trouble getting out of the ‘essay mentality’ because they do their school assignments and their personal statements side by side.</p>
<p>This kid I know wrote his in third person about himself. Say his name was Joe.
“Joe met this person when he was 3. This person really inspired Joe”
That wasn’t his essay, but I found it interesting. I do not know where he’s heading to college though.</p>
<p>Writing in first person makes it seems like telling a story in your own voice. It sounds more “genuine” in my opinion. I pretty much wrote my essay in first person.</p>