Forward from: Abdulaziz Sobirov
A common trend that I noticed is people wanting to read others’ common app essays, activities and honors thinking that it will help them.
Ask yourself a simple question: how?
How will that benefit you? Everyone’s application is unique, and nobody knows how they got into a particular university.
Do you think reading someone’s application will increase your chances? It’s like watching an a documentary about a millionaire and thinking your chances of becoming a millionaire will increase out of a sudden.
You already know that the bar for top 20 universities is high, so why bother going through other peoples’ applications? If you’re just interested in how to phrase your activity/honor section, watching (maximum) 2-3 YouTube videos should be more than enough. The more applications you read, the more you will lose your own personal voice in your own app. Go through 2-3 videos on YouTube to familiarize yourself with how to format the application, and that’s it, don’t go beyond that. If an essay worked for someone, it doesn’t mean that it will work for you. Universities don’t have a specific template that an application or essay should fit for them to accept it.
Tldr: stop wasting your time reading other peoples’ applications and go work on yourself. Good luck with ED!
Ask yourself a simple question: how?
How will that benefit you? Everyone’s application is unique, and nobody knows how they got into a particular university.
Do you think reading someone’s application will increase your chances? It’s like watching an a documentary about a millionaire and thinking your chances of becoming a millionaire will increase out of a sudden.
You already know that the bar for top 20 universities is high, so why bother going through other peoples’ applications? If you’re just interested in how to phrase your activity/honor section, watching (maximum) 2-3 YouTube videos should be more than enough. The more applications you read, the more you will lose your own personal voice in your own app. Go through 2-3 videos on YouTube to familiarize yourself with how to format the application, and that’s it, don’t go beyond that. If an essay worked for someone, it doesn’t mean that it will work for you. Universities don’t have a specific template that an application or essay should fit for them to accept it.
Tldr: stop wasting your time reading other peoples’ applications and go work on yourself. Good luck with ED!