I’m currently working on my essays for a HADES school. While one of them is more conventional, the other is shaping up more creatively. I’m just wondering if it’s taking too much of a risk to go with an essay that’s structurally unconventional. It answers the question but is almost more like a poem in structure. Has anyone had luck with this?
It is hard to respond without reading the essay. Without more information, it is a risk. If done well and your stats are stellar, then it could help make your application stand out & be memorable. If done poorly, then it may seem as though you did not answer or address the essay prompt.
@MaylaSunshine I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one still working on their essays. The essay that I completed is a lot more serious and doesn’t have much creativity. The one that I’m writing now will be full of imagery and figurative language.
You want to write it in a poem format? I 100% encourage it. Admission officers like to see something different once in a while and that will definitely make you stand out a lot more.
Make sure you have someone like your English teacher read the essay. It needs to answer the prompt.
I’ve absorbed the “do the essays last minute” mindset so well from my college applicant friends… not great.
Anyway go unconventional, but pull it off. I wrote my Concord autobiography essay about using psychological methods on my children—have to do it right.
If it’s honest, well-written and answers the prompt, use it. Would you really want to go to a school that put your application at the bottom of the pile for being yourself? However, I would have someone you trust read it to make sure that it meets those criteria.
@MaylaSunshine : I am an adult poster. I will read & critique your writing if you PM it to me via return PM (you cannot send PMs because you have fewer than 15 posts, but you can respond to a PM sent to you).
I wanted to know this too. I’m trying to write a screenplay sort of thing between my future self and current self. How can you tell if you’ve pulled it off well?
With all due respect to @Publisher, I think a 13-year old’s essay should only be critiqued by people who know him or her personally. I agree with @Altras.
@twinsmama: With all due respect, I disagree. Admissions officers read hundreds of essays from applicants they do not know. The danger of someone who knows the applicant editing it, is that that person might rewrite portions based on their knowledge of the applicant. That is what teacher recs are for, not student application essays.
Editing an application essay for structure, grammar, and whether or not it addresses the point has no relationship as to whether one knows the applicant regardless of age of the applicant.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Please stick to the OP’s question. Thanks.
My kid wrote an essay in screenplay form for one particular school. She was admitted, but we will never know if it was thanks to the essay or in spite of it 
FWIW…the AD at one of the schools on their Revisit Day read out loud to parents and students 4 essays that stood out of the 2,000 they had read. At least two of the essays were very creative and funny - made us all laugh. It was an “ice breaker” to listen to these creative voices - plus gave us hope that there is a future generation of funny and creative writers out there!
Thank you all for your help! I’ve been working on it and I think I’m going for it!