<p>My main CommonApp essay is very unique. I don't want to go into too much detail, but is it possible to make an essay too complex? The people who've read my essay say they had to read through it multiple times to fully understand it. I'm thinking this is negative, since College Admissions officers will probably want to only read through it once.</p>
<p>Thoughts? Am I correct in my thinking?</p>
<p>Without having read your essay to know how exactly you went about it, I personally would agree with your thinking.</p>
<p>Look, if they say after multiple readings it’s one of the best essays they’ve ever read, I wouldn’t go messing around with it.</p>
<p>But if all they say is “it’s good,” then I’d give this some serious thought. An admissions officer is probably not going to want to put so much effort into a mediocre/good/even solid essay.</p>
<p>what’re u James Joyce? its not difficult to make an ordinary piece of writing understandable</p>
<p>^ Was that really necessary?</p>
<p>If your essay demands that your reader go through it multiple times, you aren’t doing yourself any favors. You want it to make an impact the first go through and make the admissions officer reading it remember you. Don’t forget, these people are reading thousands of applications and thus thousands of essays. Message > artsy, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Plus the essay is also an exercise demonstrating your writing skills. The audience must understand the material for it to be considered good writing.</p>
<p>If you succeed in holding their attention so that they read your essay once, you are ahead of the game. You will not get them to read it a second time.</p>
<p>Keep it simple.</p>
<p>definitely keep it simple. writing can be as flowery and grandiloquent as you like, but if it isn’t easily understood you’re wasting your time.</p>
<p>Admission Officers don’t have the time to give an essay multiple reads to understand it.</p>