Common App Prompt Interpretation Advice?

College Essays
1

I decided to get an early start on my common app essay and chose the prompt: “Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.”

I have started my essay and in the middle of it I realized that I might have to scrap it!

I wrote about a time when I played piano for some senior citizens at a nursing home in SHORT STORY FORM (I have heard this isn’t a good idea as it does not give adcoms a full picture of who you are?) Anyway, I have really bad public speaking/performance anxiety and I described how I felt during the moments before I played, (anxious/nervous) during the performance, (still nervous but gaining confidence) and how I felt after (accomplished and such. In the end I talk about how I feel I matured from the experience and how it helped me grow and become a more confident person.

My questions are:

Is it acceptable to put in short story form? (The whole essay covers about 20 mins.)

I didn’t exactly explain how it transitioned me from childhood to adulthood, but how it was a stepping stone in the process that I really benefited from, do you think this would be alright? Or would they scrap it because I didn’t directly answer the (somewhat difficult) prompt?

Any advice is welcome and greatly appreciated!!

2
  1. Sure, short story form is a more engaging way to say what you want to say. As long as you don't sacrifice details for the fluff that comes with writing a story, it should be fine.
  2. I don't think they'd necessarily scrap it, because it does take some maturity to realize that going from childhood to adulthood isn't like flipping a light switch. I'm sure that if you said that this moment was one of the many steps you took towards _____________ (that, for you, defines adulthood--for example, you're facing the unknown and the possibility of making mistakes along the way, which adulthood is full of.), that'll be more than sufficient.
3

Thank you very much @OnMyWay2013! Just what I needed/wanted to hear.

I read somewhere that writing vignettes and letting the adcoms draw their own conclusions of what you gained from an experience is an effective way to write an essay. I thought this was creative… only part that scared me was I thought they’d think I did a poor job of answering the prompt and left it open ended unintentionally :-/

4

Hmm… I think that balance is good in that case. On the one hand, your story should be able to speak for itself. If you are writing about adversity, your story should make people think, “Oh, this kid is willing to make sacrifices to achieve his goals. He must be really passionate.” Or “Wow, he can really keep a sense of humor after facing all that?” And in that way, your essay would leave the impression that you want it to. But adcoms have to read hundreds, if not thousands of admissions essays. Someone once told me that if it’s not clear the first time what your point is the first time through, they might not waste time trying to understand you. So even if it’s just a few sentences at the end, it might be good to write out how your experience connects with the prompt.

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Would you be willing to read it once I am finished and give me a few pointers? @OnMyWay2013?

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@columbiaman Of course!

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Thank you! I’ll PM you once I have finished the rough draft @OnMyWay2013