<p>Please. It is entirely subjective (and most HS students are nothing close to amazing at writing). One person's amazing essay is another's rough draft. Maybe say that you were proud of it, or that you worked hard on it and you think you had good content, but when every other poster describes their essays as "amazing" or "really good" it's pushing it. Oh and I also hate people who go on rants about things that annoy them =P</p>
<p>Yes, i completely agree</p>
<p>Agreed. However, casual conversation tends to be hyperbolic. Saying it’s “amazing” might just be a person’s way of saying that they spent a huge amount of time on it and that it represents them well (especially if they are asking to be “chanced”).</p>
<p>But mine are amazing. Everyone said so. Even the admissions guy who read them.</p>
<p>I totally agree haha. Whenever people have those chance me threads and they list their essay quality I roll my eyes. Obviously you think your essay is good-- that doesn’t mean it’s good. IDK it just really bugs me that everyone around here posts that their essay is solid. EVERYONE thinks their essay is solid (well, hopefully everyone on a website like CC).</p>
<p>@Pioneerjones Community College doesn’t have an admissions guy.</p>
<p>Silverturtle said it was the best :).</p>
<p>OP, I agree; I didn’t like anyone’s that I read.</p>
<p>Merely, I jest!</p>
<p>Stop complaining</p>
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<p>I agree. Even when I read the “50 most awesome essay ever” books, there were very few that I liked. Grammar and everything was fine, but they all seemed to be either too self-serving or too “unique” (meaning that they were trying way too hard to be different).</p>
<p>I think it’s very hard to write a good college application essay. You have to present yourself in a good light whilst trying not to come off as arrogant.</p>
<p>I feel like I had one great essay. Just one that I’m really proud of, yet I can still sit here and poke holes in it. My other ~5 essays were, imo, less than stellar.</p>
<p>Amen, Samslam! I’m sick of seeing stuff like “Teacher Recs: AMAZINGGG they all love me” or “Essays: AMAZINGGG”.</p>
<p>Out of the 37 different essays I have written and submitted to colleges and scholarships, only one of them was legitimately great, IMO. Even then, it was only amazing FOR ME, since I’m not a stellar writer. It was just a very well-written essay, it showed a lot about myself, and it had my own personal voice in it. It wasn’t any Pulitzer Prize-worthy prose. All of the other ones were meh.</p>
<p>IMO, the only “amazing essays” are “amazing” to adcoms because of the content. They describe a noteworthy achievement (USAMO,USABO, Siemens, ISEF), not the witty, cultural fluff that everyone sends in nowadays.</p>
<p>^Which is exactly what the Harvard essay book ([Amazon.com:</a> 50 Successful Harvard Application Essays: What Worked for Them Can Help You Get into the College of Your Choice (9780312206475): Harvard Crimson: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/50-Successful-Harvard-Application-Essays/dp/031220647X]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/50-Successful-Harvard-Application-Essays/dp/031220647X)) kept regurgitating. It got repetitive after a while. Meteman, Manarius and 2CHiLLaXiN are right.</p>
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<p>That was my least favorite of the essay books I mentioned. I especially hated the way the author waxed poetic about his own essay. Seriously? It wasn’t even one of the best in that book.</p>
<p>Edit: There are 17 five star ratings and 14 one star ratings for it on Amazon. That’s the worst positive/negative review ratio I’ve ever seen on there.</p>
<p>^Fiske’s book was better, imo. Some essays were REALLY good.</p>
<p>silverturtle, why do you have a blank post under your first post?</p>
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<p>The text is white. You have to highlight it to see it against the background.</p>
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<p>I never read it. My favorite was Harry Bauld’s.</p>
<p>I never thought that my essays were good until I got my admit letter from Yale. Then I realized that my essays were amazing, my teachers loved me, and my ECs were fantastic.</p>
<p>Anyone who wants to read my Yale essay, PM me. I still don’t think it’s all that amazing.</p>
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<p>It is a generally well-established convention that an essay does not necessarily have to discuss some “impressive” achievement to be impressive itself (actually, most people suggest to avoid discussing your accomplishments in the personal essay). If you won a medal for radiating fruit flies, then good for you. But unless I learn something significant about your character, personality, and thought process from your descriptions of the achievement, then your essay has failed to meet its purpose. </p>
<p>By all means, write about the time you were a Siemens finalist if it matters to you. But if you simply want to elaborate on the achievement, attach a resume. The personal essay is meant to be just that: personal. It’s “this is who I am”, not “look at what I’ve done”.</p>
<p>I was thoroughly impresssed by most of the essays in the Harvard Crimson’s “50 Successful Harvard Application Essays” because they were actually interesting. What you mistake for “witty, cultural fluff” is the essence of the applicant’s personality, which alone is worth far more than that particular person’s achievements.</p>