Can you abbreviate your school's name in college essays?

Applying to College
1

I’m tweaking my UC essays one last time, and I use my school’s full name in the very beginning and abbreviate it later on in the essay. Is that okay, since I used the full name at the beginning of the essay?

2

Personally I think it’s fine and abbreviations help you with word limits. The admissions people probably knows their school’s initials.

3

Thanks for the response! I meant the initials for my high school, not the schools that I’m applying to.

4

I usually doing something like:

“I am from John Smith Highschool (JHSC)…” and then use JHSC from then on.

5

I suggest that you give its full name, followed by its acronym (in parenthesis) in the first instance of usage, and then use its abbreviated form from then on.

For example: I attend the School of Very Long Name (SVLN). … I am grateful to all my teachers at SVLN.

6

Yes, as described above - defining the abbreviation when first using it - is standard writing convention.

7

Question. Why would you list your high schools formal name? Is it prestigious or has a name brand associated with it? I think most kids in their essay would say “my high school” if they ever used it in an essay. Just curious.

8

@socaldad2002 Now that you say it, yeah that is kind of weird. If it were someplace lik Stuy or something, then yeah, but would sound weird to constantly abbreviate their HS name.

9

Unless it’s a top school in your state or region don’t think it’s important. They should have your high school record and report and the name will be on those as well.

10

Because starting an essay with “During my time at CASHS I was a member of…” leaves a reader wondering what you’re talking about.

And even if they quickly figure out what it is, defining acronyms is a standard part of good writing and won’t reflect well on your writing skills.

11

@RichInPitt I think what SoCalDad meant by that was OP could just say, “During high school, I was a member of…”, because there is no reason or point to specify OP’s high school since it’ll show up on their application, transcript, and etc.

The exception would probably be if OP went to Stuyvesant or Bronx HS of Science or something and wanted to use that to “impress” readers.