The college essay has always offered an opportunity to show someone you may never meet just what kind of person you are. When he reads personal statements, Gregory Sneed, University of Minnesota Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, focusing on recruitment and retention strategies for the liberal arts college looks for an “intensely personal bit of character” that only an applicant can provide.
“From my perspective, unless a student interviews (which is not always an option or a requirement), the personal statement is the only place where an applicant can inject some personality into the application,” Sneed says. “I’ve seen plenty of perfect SAT scores, and straight As are straight As, but a personal statement can truly be one-of-a-kind, in a good way.
”Students (and their parents) ask us all the time if they need to sound professional in their college essays. They wonder if big words will impress admissions officers. In a word, no. Admissions officers from every type of college and university tell us that a high school student should sound like a high school student, not a lawyer, professional writer, English teacher, or essay coach.
They don’t want to read something that sounds like anyone else. Andrea Nadler, Andrea Nadler, Senior Associate Dean of Admissions for Hofstra University, told us, “The college essay should allow us to use our senses to see, feel, taste and experience the kinds of things that are important to these students.”
Christoph Guttentag, former Dean of Admissions for Duke University, has worked in the college world for more than three decades. We see him at college admissions conferences and look forward to chats in the hallways. Time and again, he tells us he is tired of reading essays that sound disingenuous and over-polished.
“By the time the application comes to us, many have gone through so many hands that the essays are sanitized. I wish I saw more of a thoughtful voice of a 17-year-old. ”Colleges want you to be your authentic, honest, and genuine self. They are interested in you, not your mom or dad. Not your teacher or counselor. Not your sibling who is in grad school. And not the writer or editor who lives down the street.”
