<p>As I revise and re-revise my common app essay, I find myself incredibly uncertain about what exactly my goal should be.
Should I be talking about an achievement of mine? Should I be explicitly touting myself?
I picked the 'someone who influenced you' topic - it says to "explain the influence." Do I have to talk about an instance in which an influential person led directly to me taking decisive action, or is it enough to describe how they changed the way I see the world?
Am I supposed to be showing these schools things that I've achieved? That I've done?
Or is it enough to show them who I am?
Can I leave the concrete achievements to the other parts of the applicaton? </p>
<p>What do you think the common app essay is meant to convey?</p>
<p>Any one of those. Colleges usually claim that your essay not only tells them about you as a person in context of what you are writing about, but also how you are as a writer.</p>
<p>I wrote about the struggles of writing a controversial editorial on Obama. At the time of writing, I had been on the newspaper staff for only 2 months, so it was a bit risky in my opinion. I was afraid readers would perceive my essay as off-putting against my community. However, I submitted it to my first choice, Stanford. During my phone call from my admission officer, she specifically noted that essay, saying “she absolutely loved it.” I cannot attest why exactly, but I feel it portrayed who I was as a person. My ethics stood out. I think it’s important to portray an aspect of you that isn’t anywhere else in your application. If it is an achievement, then write it, but I would tie to very close to who you are. Make sure you make it personal. Why are you writing it? How does it affect you? What have you learned? How has the experience changed your life? Just make it yours!</p>
<p>I’m glad to see that most of you think that as long as I convey some aspect of myself, I’m okay.
I was slightly concerned because the majority of my friends are writing about experiences leading up to an achievement or a big award – training for a quiz bowl tournament and then winning, etc, etc.
Keep the responses coming! @Affe - congratulations on what sounds like a slam-dunk essay. I take it you were accepted to Stanford? :P</p>
<p>Thanks. Yes, thankfully I was accepted! And with my SAT scores and the like, it was a big surprise But I think the essays were the big factor.</p>
<p>When I mentioned “controversial,” I used the term loosely. What sparked the story was our school completely banned his back-to-school speech in august or september. If you wanted to see it, you couldn’t. No exceptions. However, our school officials made no notice of the policy unlike other schools. But a week later we had a motivational speaker who talked about drinking, drugs, etc in detail, and we were all forced to watch it unless we had a signed form saying we didn’t have to. </p>
<p>It was going to be a pretty innocent article, but I had to talk with the principle to see what the school policy was on guest speakers. Turns out we don’t have one…! And we were discussing my article, and he kept saying basically outright lies. So it was tough deciding on whether to write an article where the entire community believed the crazy hype (One sub told our class “he was trying to indoctrinate our students to pledge themselves to him” rofl, and that’s where I got my opening line of my essay) My dad told me to watch out in what I write, but my article was boring in my opinion. I just stated facts for the most part and tied them into the current situation like George WH Bush gave a similar speech during his presidency. I didn’t want any more controversy than necessary. One of my friends told me that in class one of the teachers read it and kept shaking her head and then said “Uhh!”</p>
<p>I thought it was a nicely written article and VERY thought out, and there were a few people who came up to me and positively commented on it. I was proud of it.</p>
But I think the essays were the big factor.</p>