Telling the ‘Truth’ in College Application Essays

If you are writing a college admissions personal statement, you may have encountered a dilemma experienced by many essayists: whether or not to tell the truth. You may wish to deny an aspect of your identity or life experience, such as when we lie to ourselves about the past. Or you may wish to conceal something about yourself from admissions officers that may hurt your chances of admission, such as a video game addiction that gobbled up hours of your youth that will never be reclaimed.

In the former scenario, the writer risks perpetuating denialism in their writing, thus compromising their status as a reliable narrator. In the latter instance, omitting certain kinds of biographical information serves the practical purpose of avoiding taboo topics known to result in rejections.

Alternatively, the writer of a college essay may assume that the story must be 100% true simply because the essay is part of an application. In cases like this, the writer feels compelled to talk about an experience in agonizing detail, even if it is boring to read.

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So, what does it mean to tell the ‘truth’ in a college application personal statement? Expert college essay coaches agree the admissions essay is NOT a venue for confession. Sure, a writer willing to get real with the reader will gain credibility as a writer, but not necessarily as a college applicant, especially if telling your “T” involves writing about a taboo topic. The college essay is, however, a space to showcase the best and brightest version of yourself with the ultimate goal of inspiring admissions officers to advocate for your acceptance. 

At Seneca, we encourage our clients to write essays that ring true to readers, but that leverage the full creative potential of the essay writing genre. This means finding a balance between truth and plausibility. For an essay to ring true, it must communicate a sentiment that feels true to the reader while at the same time reflecting the applicant’s real-life experience (the true facts of one’s life and circumstances). The best way to make an experience feel true is to write the scenario in a style that seems plausible by making the sequence of events and emotions line up and by linking cause to effect in a logical way. 

This is where the creative process comes into play. At Seneca, we aspire to create essays with what we term the “chill factor”, that goosebumpy feeling that readers experience when words inspire a powerful somatic response. In our experience, this is the highest bar of achievement for the college essay form and one that results in the best admissions outcomes.

To achieve the chill factor, the writer must privilege the creative process over truth to every factual detail of an experience. A mundane experience like changing a tire might have catalyzed an important period of personal growth, but the reader will not care if you put the lug nuts on in a clockwise or counterclockwise order. Likewise, an action scene worthy of Equalizer 2 will anesthetize a reader if told as a series of factual statements unless the style of writing is meant to artfully mimic the narrator’s Autism Spectrum Disorder. The essayist must instead focus on the form and content of the essay to ensure the main messages are communicated successfully using time-tested storytelling principles even if that means adjusting timelines, collapsing multiple events into one single moment, or filling in lacunae in misremembered dialogue with one’s imagination.

Even within the short space of 650 words, there is ample room to tell a powerful story followed by substantive reflection. By balancing truth with plausibility, applicants are free to deploy creative storytelling methods that will enthrall admissions officers while maintaining faithfulness to their lived experiences.