Share Your Frustrations On The Essay Process! How are you guys doing so far?

College Essays
81

<p>I just would like to tell the adcoms who I am, rather than show.</p>

82

<p>I didn't wanna start a thread over this question, so I'll just ask it here: Are contractions allowed in college essays?</p>

83

<p>I have a question. Can you get rejected because of your essay even if your credentials are superior than the school's average?</p>

84

<p>At most of the schools people are looking at here, you can rejected for just about anything or even seemingly without reason. That being said, generally unless the essay is bad to horrible, it's general consensus that the essay won't hurt the person much.</p>

85

<p>if you use baroque phrases like "superior than", then maybe. JUST KIDDING, KIDDING, IT'S A JOKE.</p>

<p>It's obviously okay to write contractions in your essay. Do you use contractions, or are you a Speak N' Spell? Your essay is supposed to be you talking about you, so if you speak like Stephen Hawking (OMG THAT'S SO OFFENSIVE), then write without contractions. If you don't, don't.</p>

<p>I am guaranteeing some kind of hypersensitive overreaction to something I just said.</p>

86

<p>So what would you guys say is the unspoken word limit? 750? 1000?</p>

87

<p>Wow this is becoming the College Essay-version of the Common App FAQ thread haha </p>

<p>The unspoken word limit, as stated earlier is 500 - 600. But its unspoken, not set in stone.</p>

88

<p>So how big of a problem is telling and not showing? I've written a decent essay.. but it tells and not shows.</p>

89

<p>A major problem. It's the difference between a good essay and a not good essay. Especially if you're thinking the unspoken word limit is 750. 750 words of telling is going to be really boring. The rest of your application is for telling what you do, your essay is for showing who you are. Don't waste it.</p>

90

<p>...sigh... bumping this up
im tired of looking at "read my essay" threads
there aren't enough usefuul threads in the essay forum for the general public</p>

91

<p>I keep going on tangents!
I want to explain how I did this or why I did that.
I want to share myself and what I did.</p>

<p>Cafesimone,
I agree.</p>