<p>To get my writing style, I'll just post my description of myself on the Facebook's "About Me" with some artistic edits to stop my stalkers from finding out where I live. </p>
<p>About Me- I make generalized statements about things I don't understand and events I can't comprehend, and get offended when people dare ask about them. I beg for attention by posting status updates that are as vague as can be, and reply with a simple "Nothing lol" and "0mg stahp!" when people dare ask me about them. I post selfies of myself in the nude, and get upset when people dare look at them. I complain about things other people do that they can't control, while begging people not to judge me for who I am. I criticize people for their stupid opinions, whilst begging for world wide tolerance. I harass other people for being who they are, while liking a page to show I am committed to end bullying. I tell people to stop complaining and to think of the starving masses in Africa, while begging my parents to complain to a teacher who dares give me a detention for dropping a few f-bombs. I will ignore the nice boy who will cherish me, while crying over my boyfriend who cheated on me after I fixed him! Who am I? I am Time Person of the Year 2007. I am the Alpha and I am the Omega. I am Batman. </p>
<p>Anyway, is this a good style to do my essays in? </p>
<p>If I were an admissions officer, I’d get annoyed. Perhaps others can offer a more concrete answer, however :)</p>
<p>Then I am in a rut. Serious writing is something I do not have. When I try to be serious, I sound like Meursalt from The Stranger in Part One. The closest thing I can do to insightful commentary is parody in a style of that to Stephen Colbert. Time to look at the thesaurus and practice writing long sentences. </p>
<p>I don’t know you can definitely write like that I think it just depends on what your topic is. Write how you feel comfortable and are most yourself</p>
<p>No. Absolutely do not write your essays like that. I apologize for being blunt, but your “About Me” section and writing style is not as clever as you think, and it will not come off well to anybody on an admissions committee.</p>
<p>A good general rule of thumb for using humor/satire/etc. in any formal essay is: if you have to ask, don’t do it. The type of writer who can successfully pull off humor, wit, or satire in an essay is rare, and the ones that can pull it off don’t have to ask–they already know that their style will be well received, and they are good at judging how they will be received. But most writers should stick to something less colorful. An essay doesn’t have to be colorful to be good. It just has to be good.</p>
<p>Are you the class clown? Do you ever really connect with someone? </p>
<p>In case you are not just trolling…I couldn’t get past the first sentence, literally. The personal statement doesn’t have to be devoid of personality. But this kind of approach is too juvenile. You need to be more insightful and find a way to be honest. This sort of writing (okay, I went back and peeked) is like a defense mechanism.</p>
<p>Do not use a thesaurus or write in long sentences. That is a completely mistaken approach. Guaranteed fail.</p>
<p>Try writing some simple very short prompts, using stories of things in your life. Not to be used for your essay although it might give you ideas. Try to write something you would like to tell someone, without the artificiality you are used to. Try something exuberant, about a triumph or something that excites you. Or something quiet about something that is meaningful to you.</p>
<p>@BrownParent wrote: “This sort of writing (okay, I went back and peeked) is like a defense mechanism.”</p>
<p>Agree 100%.
Very much “poseur” type writing, which has its place on FB, but not when trying to show someone who you really are. My mental image of you, based on that paragraph, is of someone in hipster clothing, wearing a beret “ironically”, lounging in Starbucks while sneering at other FB posts. Which I am sure is NOT what you are like at all in real life. Where it matters - in your heart, mind, spirit and action - who are you?</p>
<p>Yes it is pretty beneficial. See the motive is to blow the officer’s mind. Try to put some well known heavy swear words like mutha…ass…well you know. You could even go bilingual. You know Hindi has some pretty awesome swear words!</p>
<p>Absolutely not. You need to write short, direct, insightful/evocative sentences. That type of writing would totally not fly - it sounds juvenile and too familiar, it sounds a little like “I’m a cool 14 year old look at me make hand gestures my mom would get puzzled by because she’s so not cool”. I guess it wouldn’t hurt too much if you were aiming for a mostly numerical college where you weren’t aiming for honors college (ie., essay is only a sidenote to the big criteria, GPAXSAT), but if you’re aiming for anywhere selective and holistic, I can’t imagine how that style wouldn’t get you cut. HOWEVER if you can manage straight, direct, and insightful, and add a little “funny” touch at some point, that’s okay. </p>
<p>The thing is, I have had zero meaningful life experiences that I would feel uncomfortable telling people about. Besides, most of it happened to me in early childhood, and I only began to realize what they mean now. I doubt experiences that happen in childhood could pull any sympathy or interest points that would do any benefit for me, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable using that as a crutch. If I wouldn’t tell my mother or my psychologist, why would I tell some person I’ll never meet? My life has never really changed anyway from these recognition, besides minor things like “Maybe he wasn’t really offering me candy after all.” Any attempt of trying to to find a minor moment and write an essay would be like lying. Although to be fair, I wrote that paragraph in a few minutes. For a better example, on a World History on a DBQ I compared the Aztec’s tribute system to that of the IRS, they just wanted more and more, and continued on as normal. Not hilarious, but a nice little thing to make the most boring job just a little less terrible. But in summation, I am just a boring white male who studies all day or reads Wikipedia articles about science for fun. You wouldn’t believe my face when I pirated a pdf of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Essentially, I am a Spock. If you were to observe me in life, I would be like Meursullt but without shooting Arabs because of the heat.
You now know more about me then what my own parents know.
Congrats. </p>
<p>That reply you just made actually told me a lot more about who you are than your FB blurb.
You don’t necessarily have to open up emotionally - the admissions officer is not your shrink.
How about trying to write about some intellectual concepts that excite you or fill you with passion or a sense of wonder.
On the common app prompts, suggestion 2, 3, or 4 might be worth brainstorming from this pov.
It will give the admissions officer a sense of you as to what type of “geek” you are.
Just a suggestion.</p>
<p>My GPA is pretty low do to some huge social anxiety issues in freshman year and large leaves of absence during my Sophomore year due to sickness. I feel if I come out and write an essay that makes me come off as a Sheldon from Big Bang Theory kind of person, they’ll look at my GPA and believe I have been writing down pure lies. </p>
<p>It doesn’t matter what your GPA is to a certain extent wrt to your essay topic – (you’re not applying to HYPS right?), if you apply to holistic schools your essay will be crucial and demonstrating passion for learning is one thing that will get admission officers’ attention. They know that passion for learning isn’t always reflected in grades but it should be reflected in other things - what are you involved with, either on your own or at home?
Your paragraph above * was direct and well-written, exactly the type of writing an admissions officer would look for.
I would add in the commonapp’s “additional information” a brief note such as “Due too traumatic criminal events that happened in childhood and came to roost when I entered adolescence, my 9th and 10th grade results were strongly affected but I’ve been working through it as my 11th and 12th grade results show. This information has not been disclosed to my guidance counselor but if need be official information can be provided by the relevant officials.”</p>
<p>What would you like to major in? What’s in-state for you (or which region of the country do you live in)? What’s your GPA? Do you have an SAT/ACT score?</p>
<p>*CC mods: we need numbers back!</p>
<p>I am a Sophomore as of now. My freshman GPA was 3.3 and my GPA so far is a 3.7, so a 3.5 right now. I want to major in Physics, Chemistry or Nuclear Engineering, with Physics being the #1 choice by a large margin. I live in Indiana, so Purdue is my probable shot. My family is smack dab in the middle of middle class, rich enough to pay lots of taxes and bills and only qualify for chump change when it comes to financial need aid, but poor enough not to be able to afford private school. I haven’t taken the ACT, although I my range on practice exams is 30-33. My extracurriculars are pretty meh as well. Not allowed to have leadership roles (all clubs are hosted by a teacher), student council is a popularity contest, etc. Standard school stuff I think. So far I have been in Debate Club and Board Games for one year. </p>
<p>You’d have a good shot at merit money at Lawrence, which is a top school for physics and also pretty good for science. Go to their website, fill out the “request information” form (indicate ACT 32 and GPA 3.5), run the net price calculator, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
As a reach, Grinnell, Skidmore, and Dickinson; Earlham, St Olaf, Beloit would be other possibilities for science where you’d get good financial aid. Wabash if an all-male college doesn’t bother you.
Run the net price calculators.
If you’re interested in CS or Engineering, with a 30, you can get into UAlabama’s College of Engineering (with state-of-the art facilities), Honors College, Honors Dorm, and receive a full tuition scholarship plus a $2,500 stipend. Very sweet deal if you need merit money to make it work.</p>
<p>Would these colleges be good if my ultimate goal is for a doctorate in Nuclear Physics?
P.S. You have officially eclipsed my guidance counselor of 3 years when it comes to quantity and quality of information. </p>
<p>Probably not a good idea.</p>
<p>If you had trouble due to illness, that would be something you could write about. What you did to overcome it and such; how did it affect you. I wrote to the prompt about failure and wrote about why I got a C+ in physics last year. I got in to pretty much everywhere I applied, and got full tuition at two schools. One of them the dean of admission even wrote a personal note on my acceptance letter about how he enjoyed reading my essay and liked how I learned to advocate for myself.</p>
<p>If you’re a sophomore, why are you thinking about this now? You will have at least a year more of experience when you actually have to write these essays.</p>
<p>Glad to be of help. That’s what this website is for. 
Yes you would, for physics - nuclear physics, that’d depend, in part, on what you’d do (grades, classes, research…). Lawrence is a top producer of PHDs in Physics (top 10 in the country).
If you’d want to man a nuclear reactor as an undergrad, there’s Reed 
but you have to be up to it, it’s not academics for the fainthearted. (Reed and Swarthmore tend to be among the colleges with the heaviest workloads.) Oh, and Reed may actually enjoy a little bit of sarcasm.
<a href=“http://reactor.reed.edu/”>http://reactor.reed.edu/</a>
Reed would likely be a reach but not unreachable. They want students who are equally good at English/literature/classics/humanities, and math/science.
There’s also HarveyMudd which is Engineering AND LAC, but I think it’d be a high reach.
For nuclear engineering, check but I think you can look into:
Missouri School of Science and Tech
North Carolina State
RPI
UMass Lowell
U New Mexico
Run the Net price calculators but some of those have merit scholarships. If you don’t qualify for merit, you wouldn’t qualify for need-based aid except at RPI, which would be a match.</p>