r/CollegeEssays

This might be a dumb question sorry!!! Here’s the background: Basically i unintentionally “blew up” on social media when i was 13 for learning how to play an instrument. I originally started posting to track my own progress on the instrument and save storage by posting it to TikTok so i wouldn’t have to save it to my phone. It got a lot bigger than I expected and kind of impactful to not only me but other people on the internet? I went from posting simple daily progress videos to giving tutorials, tips, advice, etc. to new learners and the traction was pretty insane. A bunch of people started replicating my account too and I found out I was the reason a lot of people started learning said instrument. Anyways this experience was what pushed me to get out into the music scene and face some of my biggest fears so I started writing, producing, and even performing my own music at open mics and tipped gigs. But aside from just music, the experience taught me a lot about facing exorbitant amounts of hate and discouragement, self-expression, confidence, perseverance, and what it means to be yourself. Years later I still not only play the instrument and continue to build my music “career” but people still find me to ask questions about the instrument and seek tips and advice!
HOWEVER—the only reason any of this was able to happen was because i lied about my age on social media 😭 eventually the platforms found out and my account got permanently shadowbanned so now i don’t really get much traction at all. I really want to write about this but I’m scared that a lot of prestigious universities especially will see through the experience and only focus on the fact that I lied…so my chances would be ruined.
Am i overthinking this? Is this “lie” not at all as serious as im making it out to be? IDK!!!!!!!!
ALSO this topic technically has nothing to do with my desired major since im not trying to pursue an education in music so would it be pointless to write about anyway?

I wrote an essay for college about how AI is replacing jobs. To be honest I am not brighter student I am an average one and I rarely use AI for assignments. With curiosity I ran it through AI detectors and it came back at 42% and 30% AI generated. I never opened my ChatGPT on that day nor used any type of writing website my teacher thinks I cheated and is questioning me about it.
So I tried few other detectors to see what would happen almost all of them showed 60% , 30% and 40% except one that showed 0%. It's frustrating because I know what I wrote and how to wrote it. I did not use AI detector on my work before because I was confident in myself.
Has anyone deal with this Is there anything I can actually do to avoid getting flagged like this in the future?

I genuinely need help on my essay. I preferably want T25 students/ admissions consultant help. But of course, anything helps.

Are there guidelines for the personal statement? Word length? Things you should and shouldn't talk about?

Would anyone who has been accepted be willing to share their personal statement as an example?

So far I’ve only written one essay and I just wanna know how it is so I can figure out what I need to do.

Can anyone give me a brief case on how to make an essay for applying to university? I want to learn from now (i'm currently 10th grade) and interested in study abroad and searching for scholarship too. It would be very helpful to me if someone answer! English is my second language btw

Hi, so I have a common app essay thats pretty much done already cause one of my teachers made me write one before school ended and I wanted to see how ppl felt ab my idea cause I don’t wanna actually share the essay lol.

I basically wrote ab how im thankful to my friend for introducing me to bloxburg (silly ik), and then went into talking ab how it influenced me to take engineering and interior design classes which has provided me with a good outlet for my passion, which is architecture and interior design, along with building my own things like a desk or making paper mach, then to mentioning some house styles I like and then other crafty/DIY things I like.

I also have an idea that I could write ab how I feel slightly out of place in my family bc my grandfather died right after I was born making me the only person in my family on that side to have no memories of him and I’d like talk ab how I always feel rlly awkward and stuff when ppl mention my grandfather around me? Idk I might write it just to see but thoughts on that idea?

to be clear none of these essays or ideas are necessarily gonna be my common app cause I will be writing a bunch more especially once school starts again as one of my English classes requires us to write a bunch but is this a good direction? Also just to add I would like to major in architecture and maybe minor interior design or urban development in college. 🙂

Hi i want to apply to nyu and i am currently working on essay ideas i have come up with two ideas that revolve around the same topic

The GPS turn essay

So this is gonna be about how one day when my sister and I were driving we took the wrong turn but the GPS didn’t tell us to go back to the start or back through the same road it gave us another way to reach our destination a longer way but it still got us to were we want to be, and I am gonna link that to losing my mother and how when i lost her i didn’t have to stop going or go back to the start no the path I’m on is not a mistake, just a different route to where I’m meant to be.

The cell essay

This is gonna talk about the cell and how each part of the cell had its own function so i am gonna link the losing the nucleus to losing my mother ( because the nucleus is what controls the cell and keeps it stable) and how i thought that now i can never be stable and i cant live until i realised that her memories are my nucleus they are what shaped and guided me to where and that losing her doesn’t mean i have to forget her it means i live for her make her proud even if she isn’t her and then i am gonna link the different parts of the cells like mitochondria and cell membrane to how i adapted and without her and what helped me

Would appreciate any help and feedbacks!!
P.S ill apply to biology with a minor in environmental science

Has anyone seen a good personal statement that has a non-linear strucutre, such as reverse chronology?

Would someone like to review my college personal statement?

This is what I have wrote for the beginning of my essay. I kind of like what i have going so far but I need outside input! Please lmk if I should start over or if I have something I need to continue!!

Oranges are my favorite fruit. A hybrid native to Asia, most notably grown in California, is made of 5 elements that work together to create the solid shape and function of the known orange today. As I reflect on the foundational components of this fruit I realize that not only are they the forces that keep an Orange together but represent the individual mechanics in my life that built me to be who I am today.“.

Please lmk honestly how u feel. Any feedback or suggestions is welcome pls

hello everyone!! I am a rising senior from texas that would love to go to ut austin. I would love if anyone could give me some college essays ideas and what to write about. I barely have any ideas on what to write and the only ideas i have i gen don’t know if they’re solid. The only idea i have is the realization that i have people pleased all throughout grade school to now even highschool. I guess like i’ve always changed me, as in I say I dislike the same things and stuff to whoever around me. Basically I feel like i kinda shapeshift into that person and their opinions. I didn’t realize this until my friend had pointed it out to me and etc. Like I don’t know what I like at all sometimes. I feel like this might be an essay idea that isn’t really good and like everyone does this or something. If anyone could offer me some advice I would really appreciate!! Thanks for reading!

Would anyone be willing to review my draft of my personal statement and provide feedback? Either attending a top institution or having experience reviewing/former AO would be immensely helpful, especially. Thanks!

Hi! I am drafting my college essay right now and could use some help. For context. My major is mechanical engineering, and I'm applying to schools like CMU, Cornell, Columbia, BU, and Lehigh. I think I have decent ecs and a pretty good SAT, so I'm hoping this essay can do some heavy lifting for me.

I won't go into too much detail, but I'm thinking of writing about how I was an apathetic person because of family issues, but eventually learned to become outgoing and take control of my life (Prompt 5 Common App). Is this a topic worth exploring more? If it is, how can I improve it and build on it?

I was also considering writing about my love for the outdoors and tying it back to my intellectual curiosity. (Prompt 6)

Which prompt seems more authentic and will stick out to AOs?

Hi everyone! I'm a rising senior who's about to begin writing my Common App personal statement.

I was thinking about writing about a part of my culture, which is Iranian, but I was worried that because of all the controversy and issues, I would be looked at differently.

My EC's are good, and my grades are okay, so I don't want anything to be viewed as "bad," so to speak.

Would writing about my Iranian culture be a bad thing? I'm assuming it depends on the reader, but I am a little worried. Any advice helps, thank you!

for context I'm a first generation immigrant, no money for college consultant or anything fancy, only rlly aiming for the UCs and CSUs because I can't go out of state (CC is pretty much my safety); just writing off of vibes but I keep getting conflicting info abt how to write PIQs...

Initially thought they were supposed to be straight forward but classmates with essay instructors and college consultants have PIQs that are more descriptive, which made me change my writing style a bit more.

So far I've written PIQ #2, #4, #7 and currently writing #6. If anyone who's familiar with the writing style of PIQs can help me out, that would be amazing! (Esp anyone in Berkeley RCNR for plant bio and genetics bc that's my intended major)

Am I the only one who thinks college essays are one of the stupidest things to exist. Like why is a giant portion of getting into schools a persons skills at one particular subject being writing. As someone who’s way better at math I’d much rather just take a math quiz when applying for a scholarship, instead of writing an essay. Like I get that the idea is the essay will let recruiters learn about the person who is writing and what their values are, but literally every human alive has values and cares deeply about different things, the only thing an essay does is show who is good at writing.

I want to study poli sci with a concentration in comp gov and I'm a rising junior (just trying to plan things out).

The topic I want to write about in my essay is how reading and participating in forum discussions about the books I read sparked by interest in exploring different government systems.

Another one is about how I recently became interested in public policy after taking civics in eighth grade and started researching things like universal healthcare and educational reform.

While my interest in reading is more central to who I am, I don't want my essay to seem too focused on fantasy, and what I want to focus on while studying comp gov is comparative public policy. However, as I stated before, reading is more personal to me than my eighth grade civics class.

Which should I choose, and are these strong topics?

Hi everyone,
I’m a first-generation immigrant and high school student applying to college this fall through QuestBridge and the Common App. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of resources available so I was hoping someone in this community might be willing to read my personal statement and offer honest feedback.
I’m looking for constructive criticism on things like clarity, storytelling, authenticity, and overall impact. I’m not asking anyone to rewrite my essay—just to point out areas that could be stronger or more compelling. As a first-generation student, this application process has been a learning experience, and I’d really appreciate any guidance from people who have gone through it or have experience reviewing essays.

Thank you so much to anyone who’s willing to help. It would genuinely mean a lot to me.

hey!

im a rising senior and i just finished my commonapp essay that ive been working on for the past month and a half. ive read it to some ppl close to me and they told me it sounds authentic but i want an outside perspective on it. does anyone know where/who I can seek out for this?

thank u sm