Mentioning pitfalls of "high standards" in common app essay?

College Essays
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>In my common app essay, regarding my high standards, I say
“Sometimes, these standards are unrealistic and overly exacting, and it becomes very easy to lose a sense of who I really am. Without a confident center of being, even the smallest disappointments become the deepest failures.” I then go on to explain how I avoid and prevent these things from happening. </p>

<p>Is this too negative to put in the essay?</p>

<p>Thanks for your help!</p>

2

<p>Well, it depends on the context. I will say that it sort of reminds me of the job interview question “What is your greatest weakness?”. If someone said, “Oh, my standards are too high”, they would NOT make a good impression on the interviewer. It is seen as bragging, even when you don’t mean it that way. And like you might be a pain to work with. It sounds like your essay is about how you avoid letting your perfectionism rule your life. Again… I am not sure an ad com is going to be really taken with that topic.</p>

3

<p>Oh, the brunt of my essay focuses on my love of tea. After that section I talked about how drinking tea tea forces me to humble myself how it keeps me grounded and realistic, so the majority of my essay doesn’t really focus on perfectionism. Does that seem okay?</p>

4

<p>How does the humility of drinking tea transition to “even the smallest disappointments become the deepest failures”? Should you visit a psychiatrist for this condition?</p>

<p>The excerpt from your essay is definitely over the top. It raises many red flags in my mind.</p>

5

<p>I’m curious as to how this fits into the tea thing. Tea humbles you? That piques my interest.</p>

<p>I think you’re probably fine as long as you have concrete examples of how you’ve overcome your high standards. The problem I have with that excerpt is that it’s too vague. But if you follow it with “this one time ____ happened and it was mildly disappointing but I made a HUGE deal out of it. I learned from that experience that I need to ____ instead of acting the way I did before,” then you’ll sound like a real person with a real problem that you really overcame. Huzzah!</p>

6

<p>Would avoid this for sure.</p>