essays about death...

rcs0929
Sun, 12 Aug 2007 23:20:00 +0000

i think in this case, it may be appropriate. the main concern of an admissions officer is that when you write about death, you are writing about something that happened to someone else, not you (unless, of course, you have some sort of supernatural power to write an admission essay post-mortem). The officers see this as a chance for the applicant to become more than a number and a piece of paper. They see this as the one chance to get to know the person behind the application. And if you write about something that didn’t happen to you, it doesn’t teach them much.

But, I think that as long as the focus of the essay remains on your personal growth with very little mention of the loss of your friend (which I’m sooo sorry about, by the way!), the admissions officer will get to know how you grew and that you have, in fact, grown. Just be sure to keep your loss as a minimal part of the essay. In fact, I’d almost say only mention it to explain what instigated your personal change/growth. Spend the remaining 475 words talking about how it changed you personally and it should be okay.