<p>can any students that were admitted give me some advice? i really suck at writing- one of my weakest subjects, but that goes against the point. should i try to write my essays in a formal or informal manner? what is generally received better? thanks a bunch in advance</p>
<p>^an.and- it really depends on you. Personal essays are supposed to reflect your character and personality–and for most people, writing in an informal style is the way to go b/c it’s easier to be yourself by being casual. However, take care not to make your essays too flippant–otherwise, the adcoms might misunderstand that you’re not taking things to seriously.</p>
<p>Bottom line: Don’t be terribly formal or carelessly casual. Be sure to find a healthy balance between the two. Oh, and proper grammar and a good range of vocabulary would help (but avoid sounding like a thesaurus–unless that’s what your daily vocabulary is really like).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>^ Good advice right there =] Not much else to add. Just be yourself.</p>
<p>INFORMAL! Definitely. Write as if you were talking to a good intelligent friend of yours. Show enthusiasm! That’s the most important part.</p>
<p>For the book etc essay, it says to just list the books in 2 lines while there is a 200 word limit. o_O Do they want an essay or just a list?</p>
<p>There’s a book essay now? Are you sure it’s not 200 characters or something you saw? I remember just listing about 5 books, not writing an essay about them.</p>
<p>Anyway, for the original question, I think skyraptor summed it up pretty nicely. For me, my commonapp essay was slightly more formal than the rest. My others, particularly my roommate essay, had a more casual tone. I even cracked a joke in one of mine. But definitely don’t be TOO formal. IMO it can be a bit fake and most likely won’t show the real you.</p>
<p>thank you very much! problem is finding the balance between the two but hopefully it’ll work out :D</p>
<p>Oops, sorry-- you’re right! The book thing is just a profile question. 
But still, 200 characters or two lines?</p>
<p>It doesn’t really matter its not like they’re going to throw your application out if you go over some word limits. I think the common app will cut you off at 200 though, even if the 200 is more than two lines.</p>
<p>You’re going to have to preview your application to see how it all fits. Sometimes, everything fits in the text box given, but when you preview the application some of the stuff gets cut off. I would go check my application but it seems as though commonapp has kicked me out after a year. Or maybe I’m doing something wrong. I dunno.</p>
<p>Yeah I can’t log in either. Oh well.</p>