<p>Which dimension is more important to you in college essay writing; the concrete experience of everyday life or the metaphorical experience of the mind? </p>
<p>I'm applying to the following colleges (long list, looking to cut it down. You can help me by looking at the following links</p>
<p>Reed College
Oberlin College
Whitman College
Grinnell College
Vassar College
Middlebury College
Lewis and Clark College
Macalester College
Bard College</p>
<p>Do you think essays of the concrete experience or metaphorical experience work best for these colleges? See, I've written an essay that is more metaphorical than concrete, and my english teacher(s) read it and loved it, but my counselor seemed to denounce it outright as a college essay, so I'm unsure of what to do and wanted your opinions..</p>
<p>Well, honestly, my current essay is metaphorical in the sense that I talk about people having desires. I designed my own topic of choice that essentially asks:</p>
<p>"How would you define a likeness you have for something and what do you call your desires to differentiate them from others?"</p>
<p>I discuss this philosophy (I hate using that word in the context of a college essay) of how we all have different wishes and desires, and how we can make them unique by calling them something. I explain my own personal experience by calling my desires "splendors" a term coined by my father that has stuck with my through the years...</p>
<p>It starts with the concrete, but evolves into the metaphorical...I'm making a few edits to it this weekend, if anyone would mind reading it? I'm also going to write a more concrete essay though.</p>
<p>See, my counselor is a very old fashioned guy who thinks college essays should all be about an experience that changed you. And I totally agree with that. But it feels so...Cliche and overdone to me. Hence my metaphorical writings. My english teacher likes my essay, thinking it describes me and my intellectual writing style.</p>
<p>Still, I understand my counselor's arguement too...</p>