The personal essay is an essential component of your application. How compelling it is — or isn't — can make or break your acceptance.

Journalists chase, find and cover stories, and sometimes, they become one. From intriguing exposés to provocative thinkpieces and raw memoirs, the personal essay has long been a media staple, enjoying ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson tells us that poets are the beholders of ideas and the announcers of human experience's necessary and casual details. Poets sing the songs of their selves and of nations. Even ...

Aja Edmond is a 2012 graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business, the No. 3 MBA program in the world in 2021. This is the essay she submitted.

For reasons I will never entirely understand, one of the requirements to get into selective American colleges is a personal essay. A personal statement — something that declares “Here’s what I’m ...

Kennedy family member and environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg documented her final months and healthcare concerns in a personal New Yorker essay before her death at 35 ...

Writing a personal essay can be a full-body activity, replete with tremors and tears and physical aches. Recollection is strenuous. Recreating a scene can be downright exhausting. In those instances, ...

There was the news that made the headlines. And then there were the personal stories that made a lasting impact on only a few people, but touched the lives of millions. This year, CNN invited people ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. As the CEO of Command Education, I write about emotionally intelligent leadership and education. This week, the Common Application ...