QueenZi
December 24, 2016, 6:56pm
1
In the "If you could live for a day as another person, past or present, who would it be? Why? " can I name a fictional character?
thank you!
gibby
December 25, 2016, 4:03pm
2
I suppose so, but I would stay away from contemporary fictional characters from Harry Potter, Hunger Games etc, as they are overdone. This from an Admissions Officer at William & Mary several years back. I imagine Yale Admissions Officers feel the same way. http://wmblogs.wm.edu/admiss/you-never-get-a-second-chance-to-make-a-first-impression-or-how-i-continued-venting-and-learned-to-despise-the-college-essay/ .
Someone has to say it; enough with the Harry Potter essays! (The exclamation point provided for emphasis.) Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Harry Potter. I too have read the books, seen the movies…I’ve even been to the theme park. So I get it; Harry Potter is da bomb dot com. However, all Harry Potter essays sound exactly the same. They discuss how the books instilled in you a love of reading (and all love-of-reading essays tend to sound the same too). All students who are now college-age grew up with Harry Potter, so essays on that topic are fairly commonplace. Other works of literature that pop up far too frequently in essays: Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, and Robert Frost’s epic poem, The Road Less Traveled By. Always avoid those topics that tend to be crowd pleasers because again, many people will attempt to write on that exact topic. Also, just a side note, many of my colleagues are not nearly as into Harry Potter as you and me so they may not be as excited or well-versed in your Hogwarts and muggle references as you are.
Perhaps I’m too literal, but “person, past or present” would incline me to avoid fictional characters. And, since there are literally billions of actual persons, and arguably thousands that an AO would have heard of, I personally would not do it. YMMV
I’ve seen them written about offbeat characters like the one from “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”. The Yale applicant that wrote it is EXACTLY like the character in the book.
The most important thing is that it be well written and reveals something about you. Fictional should not be an issue.