My college essays are really really personal. They’re not inappropriate or anything like that. It’s just that I wrote about the things I cared the most about and I don’t really want my friends/teachers to know about such personal things…
Is it OK if I send my essays like that? Is it necessary that someone proofreads them?
I think it is. Are you willing to risk sending an essay with typos or poorly written sentences to keep this personal? As the writer you are intimately knowledgable about the essay and will therefore be less able to pick up typos and poor writing than someone else.
It is not a requirement to have someone proofread your essays but it is generally considered to be a good idea to have someone (I recommend people ask a trusted English teacher – definitely not a friend) read it over to check the grammar, to be sure it is coherent etc. It is entirely your call.
Just a thought – if it is too personal for a teacher to read, consider if it is the essay you want to send to a college admission officer. Keep in mind that the purpose of the essay is to 1) tell something about yourself that can’t be found elsewhere on the application and 2) to show attributes that will make admissions officers want to have you on campus.
From my experience just one year ago, writing my essay and revising it over and over resulted in me missing some obvious grammatical mistakes that would have been submitted. Having someone else with fresh eyes look over your essay won’t hurt. It can only help.
There are a number of trusted readers here on CC (I consider myself among them) that you can ask. Just make sure that the poster has been around for a while and has a track record of many posts.
Check through the following thread.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-essays/552302-consolidated-list-of-essay-readers-on-cc.html#latest
Yes, you should have someone look over your essay to at least check for silly spelling/grammar errors.
@Maria2001 Did you notice you have a grammatical error in your original post? Do you still care about the things you wrote about? If so, I’d edit your post even more and advise you to change the tense you use at one point. I am not saying this to be obnoxious. It’s just that having a second set of eyes read your work is very important.
OH, man, I think you’re making a HUGE mistake.
It can be incredibly difficult to proofread your own work!! You read what you expect to read, and miss the details.
Please-- this is important!!! Have someone proofread your essay!!! Even if you’re positive, at age 18 with no experience in college essays, that you’ve done the absolute best job on the essay, still have someone proofread it.
Of course, it is useful for your compelling errors and improving your writing.