<p>Do Princeton admissions expect you to fully describe your summer activities using complete phrases or paragraphs or to list them? I want to show how they changed me or what I learned from it, so should I write a mini essay and continue it in the Additional Information section or what? What did you guys do? Thanks.</p>
<p>I just described my activities. If they wanted an essay, they'd ask for an essay, IMO.</p>
<p>Well it's just that I described my activities so much that it's starting to look like a mini-essay. Does this help me at all, or should I condense my response?</p>
<p>Whatever you feel is necessary to get your point across.</p>
<p>You can describe in detail. For instance, I helped the blind by reading to them, etc. I dont think you should say "I helped the blind, and now I'm a better person, I feel I have a new perspective on life, etc." Theyre asking you to describe an activity, not write an essay about it.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I helped the blind, and now I'm a better person.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>lmao I choked on my drink when I read that.
I am totally writing an essay about that hahahahahha</p>
<p>lol. :D I was just giving exaggerated examples of trying to fit in a essay when there shouldnt be one.</p>
<p>That was the section I filled out in two minutes, using everyday language basically... didn't know what to think afterwards, wondered if I should have done it more formal or if that would have been to rigid and the actual way I did it conveyed some "easy-going"... In my opinion they really only want to know what you did and it doesn't matter much how you present it. But a sense of humour could help, maybe. I used a witty metaphor once.</p>
<p>I only wrote one sentence though.</p>
<p>One sentence is definitely too short. The admissions officers want your essay to be brief but rich in information. Try to elaborate edwinksl.</p>
<p>I did full sentences, but kind of like a list of sentences. It wasn't a full essay, but wasn't just a laundry list either. Somewhere in the middle is best, I think.
And BD89, I enjoyed that example, too! :D</p>
<p>Mine was a casual mini-essay. I think I was like 2 words within the limit (actually I was really close to the limit for every essay lol...not that they could tell). And definitely take abiste adn btlesgirl's advice about imagery and information: I used it too, and I think it brought my essays to life.</p>
<p>I haven't submitted my app yet, but I don't really know what to put here. Two summers ago I spent the entire summer basically going on mission trips with my church to different places (mainly towns in Texas near the border) to do home rehabilitation and stuff. And then last summer I worked 3 jobs.</p>
<p>So how lame/cliche/FAKE do I sound...
"Hi, I definitely helped save the world two summers ago. And then I worked 3 jobs the next summer."</p>
<p>I mean obviously I wouldn't/won't write it like that but I just feel ridiculously brown-noser-ish/y (what a word...) and I don't know how to say what I actually did without seeming righteous or Miss-America-contest-ish.</p>
<p>Just be honest. Tell them what you do, and let them make their minds up about how righteous, etc. You don't need to tell them how you learned from this experience, or how you eradicated malaria from a city or whatever. you did stuff with your time, and that's what they want to know.</p>