<p>Will that make them think I'm morbid? And would that make them think I'm not a good fit for sunny-all-the-time Stanford?</p>
<p>It all depends on your essay - it's not about Stanford being terminally optimistic! I would recommend you have your English teacher read it, or your college counselor, and see if they think it is appropriate material. Admissions officers are looking for your voice, but they are also looking for maturity and good judgement....</p>
<p>we got a vampire</p>
<p>yeah agreed with ailey. I guess it depends on context.</p>
<p>I start of with blood in my essay too. I wrote about my fainting experience at research internship (before you make any judgements, consider the "palpitating heart bare against open air"). I was a little worried about appearing too morbid but I think it works pretty well.</p>
<p>nothing like a little jolt of shock to make an essay interesting to read, don't you think? :)</p>
<p>two vampires now</p>
<p>maybe you will get accepted b/c of you're the only one who wrote about blood. Who knows? if it's you, its fine</p>
<p>In fact, I actually thought that I should write about my suicidal attempt, how I had stopped myself and my recovery process. Yet I was advised (by a friend) not to write about depression. Any advice?</p>
<p>There are no hard and fast rules, but yes, several admissions officers in their books advise against writing about death, depression, aneroxia, divorce etc. But only you know what you want to communicate in your essay, so only you can make a judgment call about whether it will help or hurt. As I've said before, they want your voice, but they want good judgment and maturity too.</p>
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There are no hard and fast rules, but yes, several admissions officers in their books advise against writing about death, depression, aneroxia, divorce etc.
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<p>Really? I've read a few success essays about death, anorexia, DIVORCE (lots of these). Those are the kind of tragic essay topics that I'd like the chance to write about with the accompanying real-life grief and misery involved :P You don't want to gross out your readers on the other hand, especially if they're faint-hearted middle-aged women or something like that. So don't make your descriptions nausea-inducing or really gross.</p>
<p>Bubblicious, that essay start with the beating heart in the research lab actually sounds really interesting as a 'hook' intro that wouldn't be too disgusting :)</p>
<p>6Y6Y6Y, I would strongly advise you not to write about a suicide attempt. It's hard to explain why, but I am almost positive you cannot get a good essay out of this topic, no matter how heart-wrenching it is sure to be...</p>
<p>Well, my essay isn't about death -- it's a close encounter with death sort of. And the blood only has to do with a crime scene. And then in another essay, I write about blood cells and such. I'm not writing about suicide and I'm not writing about death per se. So, based on my description, do you think that they'd be appropriate enough for essays.</p>
<p>I think it's a bad idea to write about suicidal attempt as well. If I were an admission officer, it would seem to me like that person is manipulating my emotions, hoping that I would feel sorry for him and would let him in. </p>
<p>Yet I know one girl from my high school who got into Stanford with mediocre SAT (1350/1600), average GPA and ECs. But she wrote essayS about her mother's death. I'm not saying that she got in because her mother died when she was young. I think it's all about how you put the idea forward.</p>
<p>Crime scene and blood cells sound brilliant though!!!</p>