<p>HI. The going professional wisdom that when we apply for university we should "keep it simple" by using, for the essays, fonts like Arial or Times New Roman.</p>
<p>I find both of them hideous! I am thinking of using something that looks similar to Times New Roman, but a little smarter, sharper. Nothing too decorative, just a smart professional font that my company does use in its business communication.</p>
<p>My question: would using a professional corporate font be a risky strategy? Does anyone have any experience with this or any views? Thanks. </p>
<p>PS: The font is similar to the one we use when we use the academic tool called "Latex". Lovely academic looking classic font.</p>
<p>Latex is a pretty basic font, so I would think that would be okay. I use Latex a lot, and it is indeed nice. Not nicer than TNR, in my opinion, because they are so similar.</p>
<p>I am not an adcom, but I have two ideas that I think would be "common sense." Because I am not in an authoritative position, I may be wrong (if I am, PLEASE correct me).</p>
<p>1) You will not get kudos or brownie points for using a particular font. I can't imagine that it matters at all. In that regard, I don't see why you would want to deviate at all.</p>
<p>2) If the adcoms notice the font, even to say it's nice, it hasn't served its purpose.</p>
<p>As long as it's legible (and not like kidprint or something), you're probably fine. I think Baelor's completely right, if your essay serves it's purpose they probably won't notice the font.</p>
<p>And then there's always the potential problem of using a non-standard font. If you you use a different font, better make sure it's a common/built-in font. Otherwise it'll defeat the purpose since the recipient might not be able to read it at all since they don't have that font.</p>
<p>If you don't like the way TNR looks, you could always write your essay in the font of your choice and change it before you send it off.</p>
<p>Use a serif font, though. Sans-serif fonts in general look less professional and are more difficult to read because they don't have the serifs to move your eye along the words.</p>