<p>While I was writing my essays, I realized that many of them show my character well…like if I was caring, etc but they don’t really show much of what I am/do. For example, an anecdote about helping a hobo…it isn’t gonna say much about what you do since its just a one time thing. However, some people wrote their essays about an extracurricular activity or one of their passions. Yet, I feel like elaboration on an extracurricular might not show as much personality as my one-time anecdotes. What is more important? What are colleges looking for? </p>
<p>I assume colleges can already tell what you “do” from the rest of your application. Can all of my essays have absolutely nothing about what I do, but more like short stories that demonstrate personality? Or will colleges think “hey his essays don’t talk about the things he does, he must not have a life/story to tell”.</p>
<p>I would vote for personality. Colleges are looking for what makes you tick–how you think. If you talk about an EC, you shouldn’t just describe what you “do,” but why you do it, what’s satisfying, what’s frustrating, how you picked it, what you learned or didn’t learn from it, etc.</p>
<p>Personality. It’s great to say “I do such and such activity,” but they can figure that out from looking at the rest of your application. The essay is a place for you to really show who you are as a person, beyond the extracurriculars and the awards and the good grades.</p>
<p>What you do has already been conveyed in your EC list and additional information. Your essays is where you show admissions your uniqueness, emotions, etc… If you talk about who you “are” (as in heritage), then I don’t see a problem. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what you mean by short stories, but if you mean talking about things that have happened throughout your life and influenced you… that would be good, but have a good voice present in the essay.</p>
<p>I don’t think they have a specific preference to what they want you to talk about in your essay. If you have an anecdote or topic that is a powerful demonstration of your personality, go with that. But if you have an extremely unique/impressive EC that is worth elaborating on, you might want to talk about that. Just go with whatever you feel will best convey what YOU want the college to know about you.</p>
<p>I think what they want to see in an essay is two main things. That you can express yourself competently, and that your ideas/thoughts/involvement demonstrates that you will provide some value to the college communities. Write with those thoughts in mind. I think it’d be easier to talk about what you’ve done or maybe combine that with personality. Just make sure the essays demonstrate that you have some sort of value.</p>
<p>Who you are and your personality are almost the same thing, but that’s beside the point. The point of the essay is mostly to tell them who you are, so it seems like you’re on the right track by writing about your personality. However, there’s many ways to do this. What you’re doing isn’t necessarily better or worse than writing about an important EC or your passion because for many people those things are an important part of what defines them.</p>
<p>I wrote about the EC that was most important to me because I took over a small, failing club and turned it into a successful organization over the course of two years, so the essay demonstrated (1) one of the things I was strongly interested in, (2) my leadership abilities, (3) some of my key personality traits, (4) that I had done something meaningful in high school, and (5) my writing abilities. Thus, elaborating on an extracurricular doesn’t necessarily talk only about what a student does. An anecdote is one way to express your personality, but not the only way.</p>
<p>So your essays don’t have to talk about what you do, but often that’s helpful. It may not be the case for you, but it is the case for many students.</p>