<p>Like the title, is there a limit to how personal these essays can get about you?</p>
<p>And what if there are things that seriously impacted your life that your parents have no idea about... Is it a good idea to write about them?</p>
<p>If the adcoms would feel uncomfortable reading your essay, it will hurt you. Think about your topic from the eyes of a stranger; is it a comfortable thing to know about someone or not? If not, you should try and brainstorm a different topic.</p>
<p>Wow! Lullabies, it is so strange, I came here to post the EXACT same thing, with the EXACT same title. This is intense. Haha. Perhaps you and I could help each other out?</p>
<p>If you would not tell the admissions officers in the flesh…it’s most likely too personal.</p>
<p>In the flesh??</p>
<p>If you don’t want your parents to know about what you wrote, they don’t have to read it. Unless you want them to.</p>
<p>Same dilemma. I can’t really tell if its too personal or just honest. Anyway, my advice is to get someone (an English teacher at school perhaps) to give it a read-through. Lord knows thats what I’m gonna do.</p>
<p>@HMJ,</p>
<p>“in the flesh”, as in, “standing right in front of me.” It’s just slightly more artistic :).</p>
<p>Ahh. I see. :)</p>
<p>Yeah but see my dilemma is that okay I could get an English teacher or someone to read it, but who’s to say they’re trustworthy. What if they like spread it around then I’m screwed. I’m being skeptical here, I know. Hence, I feel someone on CC (hopefully) trustworthy + good at English and stuff would be more “trustworthy” – for lack of a better word?</p>
<p>@HMJ: I totally get you. What I want to write about is very personal… something I would of course talk about during an interview since it’s THAT important, but something my parents don’t know. And I’m afraid to get an English teacher to read it then maybe call my parents or something (idk if they’d do that honestly ahahah but I’m just cautious).</p>
<p>@LikeALeon: Really good point, but peoples’ comfort levels are different. I suppose mine especially so I have a really hard time gauging this. </p>
<p>Basically my subject about abuse haha. Is that too personal?</p>
<p>So is mine!</p>
<p>I would not personally do abuse as my main topic based off the tips from various colleges that I’ve read for my own essay. It’s not a good topic for three reasons:
- it makes the reader uncomfortable, which is always bad
- it most likely has been done many times before and is hard to do w/o being cliche
- most of all, it seems like a plea for pity. Adcoms will not like that.</p>
<p>You could write a good essay around that topic, but it will be very very hard to pull off well in my honest opinion. And, if you are concerned about your parents knowing, for the record if I were an English teacher and some kid showed me an essay about him/her being abused, and then asked me not to tell the parents, I would have a hard time deciding whether or not to do so. Especially if I liked the kid. You should take advantage of the trustworthy, i.e. not six post essay hounds, CCers that read essays, like Anomaly. See what they say. </p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>Teachers are mandated reporters who are required to take action and report the situation to the proper authorities whenever it is revealed to them that a minor has been abused. Take this into consideration. They will probably not tell your parents, but it is possible they will find out if your teacher makes a report.</p>