<p>As you could see in the title, is it appropriate to use #YOLO in my application essays?</p>
<p>I don’t think so. more like a emoticon. I am not sure though.</p>
<p>If you are making some sort of interesting statement about this generation, then sure.</p>
<p>why the pound sign? you aren’t posting on twitter. I wouldn’t use it. You can use casual english but this hasn’t yet entered the common lexicon, and the reader may not get the reference.</p>
<p>We teens call it hashtags. But I won’t rant at you because your user is brownparent. Our generation seems a bit more immature than the last generation.
Getting to the topic I wouldn’t use the # and just keep it YOLO</p>
<p>There aren’t a lot of rules for the essays–other than length.</p>
<p>I think there’s some risk in it because it isn’t customary. But if #YOLO is exactly the expression that your essay calls for at that point, and no other wording would do as well to capture your intended meaning and your personality, then I’d say, do it.</p>
<p>I also think–with no disrespect toward BrownParent intended–that anybody who’s working in a college admissions office is likely to be familiar with both a hashtag and the acronym YOLO. College admissions tends to be a young person’s job. And even if your reader is an older person who’s been doing it a long time, he or she will be surrounded by younger, hipper people at work.</p>
<p>I think it’s sloppy and looks immature. The problem is that the applicant has no idea who is reading their essay…could be “younger and hipper”, could be someone who reads great essays all day and thinks Twitter talk is stupid.</p>
<p>As a fellow senior, I think it’d be stupid. Just my opinion. Even in the Tufts essay which specifically asks you what #YOLO means to you, I probably would refrain from actually typing “#YOLO” out.</p>
<p>I don’t think you should use it. It’s lazy, and that’s not the side of you that you want to show colleges. Yes, essay readers may be familiar with it. But you wouldn’t use “u” instead of “you” in an essay. #YOLO (with or without the hashtag) is the same thing</p>
<p>Your essay isn’t supposed to show the reader that you’re 18 or so; the reader knows that. Your essay is supposed to show the reader that you are mature and intelligent. Figure out how to write like an adult, while still keeping your own voice, and you will go much futher.</p>
<p>If you use it well, why not? But you will have to be very careful with it… If you really need to mention it and think you have a way to make a really strong essay with that, go ahead and use it.</p>
<p>come on, it’s not a big deal. 9 reply for a simple thing?</p>
<p>what does YOLO mean? you only live once right? but a student is writing the essay. and telling the admission officer that s/he only live once.</p>
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<p>Only sarcastically, probably in the context of some kind of social commentary. I’d have to see how you’re using it to know whether it’s okay. </p>
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<p>It’s the general you. It means “a person only lives once.”</p>
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<p>I know that. but in college essay, I think it will reflect according to word to word. </p>
<p>anyway, if your essay needs you to add this, then you can use something else but that is slightly different from this.</p>
<p>One of Tufts essay Qs is “what does #YOLO mean to you?” There it is appropriate.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t, generally. The phrase YOLO is faddy (along with other words like swag, shade, etc.), and associated with young people. It might make you seem immature in the eyes of adcoms when put in a proper essay. Using it satirically might be okay.</p>
<p>It’s probably a very bad idea. Depends on where you are applying, and what you are saying. Yes, they will know what you mean, but it is likely far less unique than you think, and probably not humorous. </p>
<p>If it actually is funny, ironic or clever, you can keep it.</p>
<p>(Note: I’ve removed it from six essays this week, and I only teach 87 seniors this year.)</p>
<p>If you really want to write about #YOLO, then Tufts has a supplement question about it…</p>
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<p>The general “you” is very common in English and people understand when you mean that versus “you specifically,” especially when it’s part of a cliche. It’s considered informal, but college essays aren’t formal pieces of writing. </p>
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<p>Was it typically used satirically, or no?</p>
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<p>Most persuasive argument against #YOLO I’ve seen in this whole thread.</p>
<p>What if writing it as, you only live once? I thought YOLO would be unique, but it seems not. YOLO is the word that suited my situation in the essay. Thanks for all the replies!</p>