<p>@wallrus75: Here are my thoughts on essays: </p>
<p>Seasoned Admissions Directors, at Harvard and other selective colleges, will be reading your essay looking for glimpses of your “character.” That’s an old fashioned word; it means the way you develop your inner qualities: intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, inclusiveness and love of learning. </p>
<p>You should share your essay with the teacher’s who are writing your recommendation letters, as Admissions Officers look for your teachers to reinforce and confirm the “character” projected in a student’s essay. You want everything to be in sync. My opinion, whatever it may be, is not going to matter as much as your recommendation writers. </p>
<p>If you don’t want to share your essays with your teachers, you should show them to several adults in your life that you know, admire and respect. Ask them: “Does this essay convey who I am?” “Does this sound like me?” That is really critical. Your essay should sound as if you are standing in front of an Admissions Director reading it out loud. I once heard Peter Johnson, an Admissions Director at Columbia, give this tip on essays: “Your essay should be so specific and so personal that if it fell out of your backpack at school, and didn’t have your name on it, that if a classmate, who you knew you well, happened upon it laying on the floor of your school, s/he should be able to read it, immediately know it was your essay and return it to.” As I don’t know you, I can’t really comment on your essay with those kind of specifics that are needed for a successful college applications essay.</p>