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 ...

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 ...

A mark of a good writer, whether fiction, essay, or poetry, is the ability to unflinchingly illuminate the emotional issues that people often try to suppress. An exemplar is Phillip Lopate, long ...

Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter. The personal essay isn’t dead. It’s just found new life. Personal essays are alive and well today, just in a different form ...

I'm not gonna lie: the hardest thing to get printed on Bustle as a freelancer is a personal essay. That said, personal essays are also what I'm most in need of as our features editor. The reason ...

A TikToker went viral showing off a handwritten note she received from UChicago admissions. The letter came in reply to a personal essay she wrote about the meaning of "meep." She said she was ...