<p>Since I go to school in England nobody has given me advice on what my college essay except for a token guidance counselor who is barely-qualified to edit wikipedia and she just utters the mantra "just be yourself" repeatedly as if she had a pull string in her back. Here lies the problem; I usually write as myself EXCATLY how I would say something which is the reason I have quite a bit of trouble with English classes because I have a tendency to speak (and therefore write) in long run-on sentences and use metaphors and similes that others don't usually understand.</p>
<p>While I fully intend to embrace that in my letter to Reed, I don't think the other schools I am applying to will appriciate it in the same weird way Reed would.</p>
<p>Also I have a brilliant idea for an essay that is SO not me, but it is a truly fantastic premise for the college essay...</p>
<p>“Just be yourself” is good advice. That doesn’t mean you have to write like how you would speak. Just go for a safe medium. Let your style show, but make it grammatically correct. Wild metaphors may not be bad. Grammar mistakes would be.</p>
<p>Trust me, ‘just be yourself’ is the mantra of every guidance counselor in the states as well! Honestly, the best advice anyone can give you is to write a well-written essay (about 2 pages, double spaced, 12pt Times New Roman) about something unique that has happened, or you have done in your life. Your goal is to tell the admissions people about yourself in an eloquent way, and to first and foremost make them remember you.</p>
<p>For example, I wrote about how the past two times I’ve gone to England, there have been planned terrorists attacks and how that has affected me and my worldview. Now, I don’t know if it was my grades or my essay, but I got into every college I applied to and they weren’t safety schools either.</p>
<p>Just keep in mind that you want to write about something that no one else is writing about. Like, if you were taking the AP Literature test and had to write an essay about an important tragic hero, you wouldn’t choose Hamlet because that’s what everyone is going to be writing about and therefore the test readers may mark you off if you don’t reach all the points everyone else has been. You would have a better chance if you wrote about something that they hadn’t heard of before.</p>
<p>I REALLY hope this helps you! I have a friend from the UK who’s applying to American schools, so I understand how crazy the whole process seems to an outsider haha.</p>