<p>So I have an unusual background and wrote about it in my essay. Anyone willing to read? Will read theirs back </p>
<p>I can, I would love to swap too!</p>
<p>i’ll read it.</p>
<p>i’ll tell you a secret tho, the majority of essays I have read have been that prompt and almost every single person did not have a background critical to their identity. </p>
<p>I’d be happy to read it:)</p>
<p>I will!</p>
<p>I’ll swap with you :)</p>
<p>@bomerr what do you mean they did not have a background critical to their identity? i wrote my essay on the common app essay #1 too, and hearing that worried me haha</p>
<p>@pinkisking
if you are alive then you have a background.
A lot of people tho believe they are a special snowflake. That their trite background is of great importance.
The question is what is a background central to identify? It would have to something that influences (almost) every aspect of a persons character and outlook on life. It’s a tall order IMO. When I think of events that fall into this prompt I think of severe hardships like being homeless or raped or alliteratively great achievements competition at the world olympics. </p>
<p>On a different note. The other 4 prompts provide a theme or narrative to follow. I feel a lot of people are just lazy and instead of figuring out a way to structure their story in a way that answers the prompt, they chose prompt 1 because it’s a free-for-all topic. The downside of this is that the writer needs to create their own theme or narrative in prompt 1. A lot of people don’t realize what colleges are looking for in students. If someone answers the other prompts well then they will have a great chance of saying the right things in the essay. On the other side prompt 1 requires MUCH more careful planning and critical thinking.</p>
<p>FYI the OP’s essay was bad. So that’s another tally to my bad prompt 1 essay list. </p>
<p>@bomerr ahh that’s very interesting. That’s true though, that prompt #1 is probably the most open-ended to answer and can be stretched in different ways.
If you have time, would you be able to take a look at my essay and critique it? You seem to be really good at that (in a complimenting way - because i really need advice). I wrote mine because I didn’t feel it fit into any of the other topics, but maybe you could suggest otherwise?</p>
<p>@pinkisking
sure pm me</p>
<p>@bomerr</p>
<p>Could you reaad my essay too?? I really need the help.</p>
<p>@bomerr </p>
<p>@bomerr Also an FYI, his/her essay they showed me was also very bad. I would take everything said to you with a grain of salt 
Then again, that is just my opinion so I won’t declare it to be right. </p>
<p>I would like to second the statement that @bomerr is a HORRIBLE editor (unless you would like something to laugh about). I think he enjoys criticizing every sentence… My favorite comments include:
“OMG. No one has time to memorize this much information.”
“WAYYYY too complex.” (This sentence was complex yes, hard to understand, no)
“Rest of the essays. For the reasons mentioned above I really can’t force myself to read them. They are too winding, confusing and complex. It’s a huge turn off.” (Actually lol’ed at this one)</p>
<p>Just thought I would warn everyone. If anyone would genuinely like someone to swap essays with for constructive criticism, PM me! </p>
<p>@megans113 @aaly222 </p>
<p>I got essays from 3 different people who got into Berkeley’s Haas School of Business last year. And I have about 5 other ones of people who got rejected. Acceptance rate is about 5%. </p>
<p>Every single one that was accepted wrote a very simple and easy to read essay.
The fact is you guys aren’t doing yourself any favors by writing an essay that is dense it is hard to get through. </p>
<p>Furthermore if you have read as many essays as I have, then you would start seeing the patterns. Writing that is too complex is one of the biggest mistakes people make. </p>