@one1ofeach @Calliemomofgirls Thank you for your comments! I definitely think that the main reason was my essays (I haven’t seen my recommendations but have good relationships with the teachers I asked and my interviews seemed to go well).
I think my essays last year were boring, lacked confidence, and didn’t represent who I was well. Since then, I have become more confident, but I’m still working on the boring and representing who I am parts. I’ve been doing some research, both on CC and the internet (mainly by looking up techniques for college essays since the process seems similar). I took @Calliemomofgirls 's advice and formulated a master document of who I am with points that I wanted to include for all of my schools. I also went ahead and did some brainstorming exercises from the internet with the intent of gathering anecdotes and other topic ideas. I’m having some difficulty making sure that all of the prompts are incorporated into the essays, so I might need some help with that later down the line.
I also made some friends with some really good writers who have been letting me use their college essays for reference and I’ve been taking note of what they do well to try and incorporate them into my own essays. Just things like figure of speech and imagery, structure of the essay, how they introduce and conclude their essays, etc. I think it might still be a little difficult to make sure my essays really pop, as one1ofeach said so if you could look over a couple of them (or even all of them?) to make sure they’re interesting and come across as likable, that would be so awesome.
Two questions: What do you think of my list of schools? I’m not sure if it’s well balanced enough to ensure an acceptance come March 10. Do you generally have any tips for sounding more interesting in essays?