HELP PLEASE! Don't want to rick USC app!

College Essays
1

<p>Okay so this is my problem. I am applying to USC and they require one SHORT ANSWER essay.
"Tell us about an activity that is important to you, and why."
Also, UC Schools have a prompt that looks like this.
"Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?:</p>

<p>I choose an experience for the UC app and wrote FOUR paragraphs on it, 476 words.</p>

<p>I have a college admissions consultant guy and he told me, straight out, "Sumbit your UC app prompt two ESSAY into your USC short answer." I am really afraid to do this because my essay is FOUR paragraphs, not ONE, and is an EXPERIENCE, not activity.
When I said this, he told me "As long as the essay is good, they won't care if it is 4 paragraphs."</p>

<p>Am I crazy or is he right? I don't want to submit 4 paragraphs if they want one. Please give me your advice.</p>

2

<p>476 words is not appropriate for a short answer question. cut it down a bit.</p>

3

<p>USC requires TWO short answers. And your college admissions consultant is an idiot (no offense). There's a reason they labeled those questions "SHORT ANSWERS" not "SHORT ESSAYS". An appropriate response would be one paragraph.</p>

4

<p>With over 35,000 applications they have to go through, you better not make it 4 paragraphs. If you're a good writer, you'll not how to be concise.</p>

5

<p>That's what I figured. Why the hell would I put 4 paragraphs in a prompt that only wants one?</p>

<p>Can it be a leisurely activity? Like playing the guitar?</p>

6

<p>guysssss I need your help lol</p>

7

<p>Bad idea. The short answers are asked to be around 150 words. If you turn in something that's 3 times as long, that's like turning in UC essays that are 3000 words long. If you dont want to make the admissions people mad, dont do it.</p>

<p>If your UC essay was that good, try to paraphrase it, summarize it, or take excerpts from it.</p>

8

<p>A USC admissions guide came to our school and said that we should write new answers to the USC app because they can tell when an applicant just re-uses an essay.</p>

<p>so i would say no. if it's that important to you, then don't do it unless it truly fits</p>

9

<p>Yeah. When the USC admissions guy came to our school, he told us a "funny story" about a kid who submitted 7 teacher recommendations. I feel like this is kind of like that, and I don't want to be a "funny story".</p>

10

<p>Haha, just shorten it...
And I think guitar is a good idea, only you have to make it clear why it is VERY important to you.</p>

11

<p>yeah i ended up shortening it, after a clash with my counselor lol
it ended up being 202 words..
close enough I'd say</p>

12

<p>hehe</p>

<p>i didnt care about how long it should be for my 250 words short answer
so i just submitted a 600 word complete essay lol</p>

<p>I spent so much time polishing though, gGEGEGGE</p>

<p>i wanted to punish the person reading it</p>

<p>shame on me hmmm</p>

13

<p>Did you actually read the directions?</p>

<p>It says "In approximately one paragraph each, please answer the following questions:"</p>

<p>lmao.</p>