<p>Just curious because I know that people talk about a lot of sensitive topics in their essays such as death, addiction, peer pressure etc. But is it possible to give too much personal information about events in your life or make a mistake by revealing your inner thoughts and secrets in order for colleges to really know you?</p>
<p>Also, I keep a journal and I write my true feelings and thoughts in there and I always thought that based on whatever topic I chose, i can excerpts from my journal to support my point. Is this a bad idea when it comes to writing essays?</p>
<p>I think it’s a great idea. It sounds like you have a great body of reflective material already put together that you can draw from.</p>
<p>What helps me the most in writing my essays is stopping what I’m doing at random parts of my day and asking myself “What am I doing? Why am I doing it?” If the answers to both of those questions are interesting, then chances are I’ve stumbled upon good anecdotal material.</p>
<p>Secondly, you don’t have to reveal everything. Although the adcoms often say that they want to know everything about you, they really only want to know things about you that are going to correlate to your performance at the college to which you’re applying. Use that as a rule of thumb in determining whether a detail is appropriate to mention in an essay.</p>
<p>Yes, it is definitely possible for an essay to be too personal, but common sense should tell you what exactly “too personal” is. It’s great for colleges to get a glimpse of you, so do try to make your essay personal. However, it’s probably not a good idea to write about, for example, a s**xual experience you had. Remember: be personal, but don’t write about anything that will shock the administration office, lol.</p>