Hey everyone! I’m a junior writing a lot of essays for summer programs. One of my biggest extracurricular activities is Amateur Astronomy, but I’m not sure if using technical language is the best way to describe my interests. My goal when describing this is to remain authentic and show passion (I hate this word lol), and I want to know if this is a good way to do so. If not, feel free to suggest other ways of doing so!
And some examples of technical things in amateur astronomy are ascending/descending nodes, right ascension, declination, ecliptic, zenith, focal length, celestial coordinates, planispheres, etc.
Of course you can, though I would personally avoid writing the essay as if you were sure that your reader has a thorough understanding all of the terminology you’re using. You don’t need to go into too much jargon or detail to explain your interest in the subject.
Write your essays as if you were talking to someone who has no experience in your extracurricular areas of strength. In other words, make sure your essay is relatively written in layman’s term. Good luck!
It’s irritating to read/listen to a piece by someone who is trying to impress by deliberately talking over my head w a bunch of specialized technical jargon. It shows insensitivity to one’s audience.
Your admissions essay isn’t going to be read by a committee of professional astronomers.
