Please help me decide if I should go with what I have right now

Hi all, thank you for reading this thread.

I had revised my common app essay draft so many times and I was very happy about what I had after all these revisions. At least initially. The style of the essay is a little flowery and abstract and dramatic but I feel it connects to my passion, my voice, and myself very well.

I gave this essay to three English teachers, and they all said it was pretty good. I asked them if the way I was describing things could feel risky, and their answer was “not at all.” One of them commented “the essay has certain level of depth, you have to reread it to understand the deeper meanings.” But she did said the essay makes sense even if you are reading it the first time. Another of them, when giving advise to my essay, said “I am getting picky here because the essay is good.” I’m not to brag about anything. I list these comments because I become so confused given what happened next.

My mother happened to send this essay to other people, whose native language is not English. (Btw all three English teachers I describe above are all native speakers) I’m not sure how many people she has sent the essay to, because she always exaggerate things a lot. One time she told me she sent it to only one people, but another time she said she sent it to four. Over the course of October we have had so many fights because, according to what she said, I will certainly not get into any elite colleges if I “insist on submitting this essay.” Because all these people (let’s assume she had sent my essay to multiple people) “cannot understand what I have wrote.” It got worse. She began to say “everyone hates your essay and what you have written is totally nonsense.” She says this to me everyday and the most ridiculous thing is I begin to believe my essay is a total trash. I’m not at all certain about my essay right now.

And the strange thing is, as I said above, all the people she has connected with are not native speaker in English. So I guess the reason why they cannot understand my essay is because of the level of vocabulary and comprehension. To test this, I sent my essay to one of my friends who is a native speaker, but who certainly will not have the same experience as my English teachers. She said my essay does make sense. So the reason might be that, but I could not regain any confidence even if this is the case.

I understand this might sound as a psychological factor, but I’m truly confused about what I should do with my essay now. Should I give it to another person who haven’t read it at all? Or should I just go with what I have? I don’t think the Common App Essay is the sole decisive factor in college admission process, but would the AOs reject me instantly because my common app essay is too hard to understand?

Thank you again for reading this long thread!

Feel free to send it to me. I have read a lot of student essays here on CC. I will PM you.

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Thank you so much!!

Overall I would trust teachers opinions over parents, but the thing that gives me pause is the comment about needing to re-read it to understand the deeper meeting. Ad coms are not going to reread your essay so you want to be sure that you are communicating clearly.

Take @compmom up on her offer to read your essay. She’s a long time member here and does this for many students.

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Yes, I had the same pause for the same reason.

You’ve got too many cooks in the kitchen. Stop showing it to people. You said you feel it’s you, and your three teachers said they like it. I think it’s ok however to show it to @compmom, as she sees a lot of essays.

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I asked her about that and she said the overall message was pretty clear. I have already sent compmom about my essay and I will see if that’s truly the case. Thank you so much for the comment!

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Thank you! I’ve already sent my essay to her and I’ll see if it’s truly the case.