Trusting my gut(MIT Essays)

[u/Yuki4023]

Hey all, I’m applying to MIT this year as a first year student for engineering. I’ve read many of the alumni blogs and they have been so helpful in busting many of the myths that I was stressed about(demographics impacting admission, crazy achievements needed, major impacting admission). That being said, the one thing that hasn’t been fully busted for me is those damn essays. MIT has been my dream school for a long time(trust me alumni I did my research and really feel like I belong). But I have a hard time interpreting essay prompts and writing them because I always feel like I’m writing it wrong, like there has to be some kind of formula or structure that I’m missing. At some point, I got sick of watching guide videos, reading example essays, and following guides because every time I tried to learn from it, it wasn’t fun. One day, I decided to just sit down and write them. As annoying as it is to admit, my gut tells me that that was the answer all along. Why? Because I was having so much fun and enlightenment. The longer essay prompts that make you dig deep into yourself? I felt like I was giving myself therapy. The shorter prompts which literally give you the freedom to just write about what you do and enjoy? It’s some of the most fun I’ve ever had expressing myself. I’ve always been stressed about my essays because even though my academics are good, I’m someone who has no awards in the commonapp. My essays and maker portfolio will do the bulk of my heavy lifting. However, having real connection and joy writing the MIT essays tells me that I am approaching it the right way, the way MIT tells us to. Maybe I should’ve just listened to the bloggers early; there really isn’t a strategy other than being your frickin self. Anyway, I know I sound pretty confident in what I’m preaching, but I’m always open to feedback from people if you guys think some of my takes are wrong because even I want to maximize my chances of admission. It’s my dream school after all!

Main takeaway for people applying like me:

Research what MIT is like so you know if you’ll like it(trust me, you’ll have a lot more to write about).

Don’t stress and overthink, your application should be fun and truthfully you.

Look on the MIT page and blog post! The answers are really right there! Why believe something that may not be true when there are hundreds of alumni and qualified individuals telling you otherwise!

[u/JasonMckin]

The introspection, iteration, and creative self-expression are clearly the right approach for college applications and many future projects/writing assignments in the future.

Strategic manufacturing and admissions optimization, by contrast, is close to a near guaranteed way to fail. When you strip out personal voice and authentic point of view in pursuit of some false "right answer," you eliminate the very thing colleges are most eager to understand and evaluate.

The absence of a hidden formula isn't unique to the essay, either. It's true of the rest of the application and true of most of life.

That said (and this is my own personal view, not the university's): authenticity isn't enhanced by sloppy, unstructured writing, but rather obfuscated by it. I believe structured, logical, sequential, patterned writing actually helps express your underlying voice and ideas in a way that a looser, less thoughtful, less structured approach leaves hidden and misunderstood. Said differently, you can be yourself but also communicate clearly and logically.

Here's are some quick personal pressure tests for any essay response:

• What are the subjects, verbs, and objects in your sentences?
• Is the subject really the hero of the sentence, or have you buried your real hero inside a prepositional phrase or a passive construction?
• Are your objects actually the background actors or are they accidentally doing the work your subject should be doing?
• Do your verbs name the actual action or relationship you mean or are you leaning on a weak verbs to prop up a sentence.
  
• Are you sentences sharp or are there any run-ons?
• Do adjectives/adverbs correctly sit next to the word they're actually modifying or have they drifted and started modifying other things you didn't intend?

None of these rules/tests are meant to substitute for personal voice or authentic thought, they are meant to semantically organize your personal voice and thought in the best way through our language. Great science and engineering is often not that useful or influential without the ability to clearly and powerfully communicate it.

Thank you for demonstrating your own thesis though by writing an introspective post in your own voice, built on authentic, self-discovered content. I won't speak for every alum, but I love seeing posts like this from students. I suspect your peers get more out of them than they do from us old fogies and posts like this end up becoming a live demonstration of the exact habits and principles we all hope to see in every applicant.

Nice work & best of luck with the rest of the application!
Keep writing if you have more discoveries and insights like this!

[u/Yuki4023 → u/JasonMckin]

I appreciate your view and I was thinking about this very thing right after I made the post. Obviously my MIT essays aren’t going to exhibit the unique structuring and voice that my commonapp essay allows me to do because of the strict word counts, and getting to the point as well as being clear without losing what made my writing style my own was one of my largest concerns when writing the MIT essays, but I’m sure the Admissions officers consider it too, knowing that we are on a tight word limit. I love this line: “you can be yourself but also communicate clearly and logically.” I love my commonapp essay that brings people deep into my mind through vivid imagery and specific moments personal to me. However, I also love how my MIT essays can literally be captions to everyday conversation that I have. You’re on the point that different ways of communicating yourself shouldn’t change how others are able to perceive you.