Should Essays Restate Activities in Resume or Show Untold side of applicant’s Life

FØB Zero

Enthusiastically American
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Jul 30, 2019
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Hello guys,
In my essays should I reinforce the activities on my resume to further explain why I chose about those activities and what I gained from them OR are the essays to reveal a new part of one’s self/life that is not known anywhere else on the application?
Thank you.
 
I don't know what the current questions are, but choose whichever route better answers the question asked. The essays are definitely not for reiterating your list of activities, but if you learned something of value or had some personal growth that relates to one of the questions and happened in one of your activities, then that would be a good way to go. I vaguely remember writing about overcoming a pretty severe injury to get back on the tennis court, even though a large portion of my listed activities were tennis related. I don't know what the prompt was but it was a good fit.
 
I definitely echo what is said by the reply above^. I would recommend talking about a more personal experience that make you who you are today that someone would't know just from looking at your list of accomplishments/resume. Topics that lie along the lines of developing grit, overcoming daunting challenges, going against the flow, trying something uncomfortable/new, and even learning from mistakes are all great platforms and topics for a good writing sample. Best wishes!
 
1) Answer the prompts that you are given
2) Google "Hacking the College Essay 2017" and read it.

Write the Essay No One Else Could Write

"It boils down to this: the essay that gets you in is the essay that no other applicant could write.
Is this a trick? The rest of this guide gives you the best strategies to accomplish this single
most important thing: write the essay no one else could write.
If someone reading your essay gets the feeling some other applicant could have written it,
then you’re in trouble.
Why is this so important? Because most essays sound like they could have been written by
anyone. Remember that most essays fail to do what they should: replace numbers (SAT/GPA) with the real you.
Put yourself in the shoes of an admissions officer. She’s got limited time and a stack of
applications. Each application is mostly numbers and other stuff that looks the same. Then she picks
up your essay. Sixty seconds later, what is her impression of you? Will she know something specifically
about you? Or will you still be indistinguishable from the hundreds of other applicants she has been
reading about?"
 
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