<p>I have a feeling that I'm showing too much personality in my essays vs. showing my love/passion for learning. I'm doing a supplement for a college right now and the prompt is "Think of a disappointment you have experienced. What was your response?" (s/o to you if you know what college this is for). I don't want to reveal exactly what I wrote about but let's say it was a simple situation and I exaggerated my disappointment, so something like my parents wouldn't let me buy this artwork that I wanted, but in the end I made my own to hang up in my room. It has nothing to do with my passion (or my interests) but I felt like it showed my personality in that I consistently try to make the best of the situations. When writing college essays, how much do you think showing your intellect matters? I assume that your test scores and GPA and all that stuff show that you're intellectually competent, but should essays be a supplement to that and indicate your love for learning or would it be okay to write about things completely unrelated to learning that show that you are an interesting person that would add to the college dynamic? I know you all aren't admission officers and can't tell me exactly what you think, but any opinions are appreciated, especially from people accepted to top colleges (what did you show more of? Your personality or your intellect?). I know that there can be a mixture of the two, but some college essays have such short word limits that I can't show both.</p>
<p>I think the point of application essays, from the admissions officers’ point of view, is to show the applicants’ personalities. I think admissions officers are bored to tears of applicants trying to show off how smart and impressive they are in their essays – that’s what the rest of your application is for. They’re going to be working on the same campus you’re attending, and quite possibly living in the same town you’ll be living in, so they want to know: Who are these people who I’ll be coexisting with for the next four years? Who are the people who will be the public faces of my university for the rest of their lives after they graduate? </p>
<p>@jpheys thanks for your response! So even if it sacrifices showing some of your intellectual passions, you think it’s better to show your personality? Do you think all colleges will appreciate this? Or do you think for safeties I should play it safe because maybe they’re not used to essays that are different?</p>
<p>I second jpheys. Your essays are supposed to show your personality!</p>
<p>I’d suggest showing some personality in your safety essays, but if that means requiring you to put in extra time and effort into your safety essays (which would be better spent in your reach essays), it’s better to play it safe.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that “intellectual passions” and “personality” are necessarily mutually exclusive, but if you feel that yours are, I would ask yourself what would round out your application. Is there evidence of your intellectual passions elsewhere in your application? If so, admissions officers would probably prefer variety. I have no idea what your safeties are but it’s probably safe to assume that anyone working in admissions has read or is reading a great many very similar essays and would welcome essays that are a bit different.</p>
<p>IMO personality>intellect. The latter you can show through your accomplishments and grades. Why do you think you must sacrifice one for the other though? I certainly showed both my personality and passion in my essay, even though I think the former is more important</p>
<p>Look at it from the admission officers perspective. Most of them are NOT academia, but are mixes of former students and those that are interested in the application process instead. Personality will go a lot further than intellect in impressing admission officers. </p>