<p>Hi, I have a question about the common application essay. It says a short essay of 250-650 words. Will it be appropriate to include a introduction and conclusion? or is better to just write everything that is relevant to the question?</p>
<p>You can do an introduction and conclusion, but not in the sense that you would an english, academic, essay. </p>
<p>Think of it more as introducing yourself, talking a bit, then saying see you soon! That sounds weird, but in this sort of situation, that’s what you want to do. Pull them in; talk; keep them wanting more! </p>
<p>If you need any advice, feel free to message me!</p>
<p>The conventional rules of English (except for grammar obviously) are out of the window for Common App essay. Expound yourself!</p>
<p>If your essay is pretty conventional already, then use a conventional introduction and conclusion. This does not mean, as a lot of type-A students seem to think, that your introduction needs to be some grandiose thing full of abstractions and other BS.</p>
<p>As an example, my daughter wrote a conventionally organized essay about an unconventional topic. Her introduction is only 110 words long – but it’s there, and it does normal things like identify her topic and thesis. She was waitlisted at UChicago and Williams and admitted to Amherst and Harvard, so at the very least I’d say her essay did not hold her back.</p>
<p>That said, if you want the whole essay to be unconventional, then don’t feel constrained by the conventional rules. One of my daughter’s supplemental essays (the Harvard one, actually) looks nothing like a “normal” essay.</p>
<p>Also be aware that the common app doesn’t allow paragraphing, at least they did’t this year. </p>
<p>I don’t think I even wrote an intro, I just wrote an essay about me (well actually a room but I wrote about me in relation to the room). The first 245 words of my 600 word essay was literally just a super detailed description of the room and then I related it back to me, what it means to me etc. Forget all conventional rules and just go with whatever you like. Make it something that shows something about yourself and lets who you are shine through. Telling a story is always a good route to go (at least in my opinion) - it makes the essays a lot more interesting to read than reading the super philosophical essays people write that end up making my head hurt by all the fancy SAT words they try to cram into one essay.</p>
<p>I ended up getting into Haverford, Wesleyan, Brandeis (and all the SUNY/safety schools I applied to) and wait listed at Swarthmore and Cornell, so it certainly didn’t hold me back. If anything my SAT score of only 2120 did that.</p>
<p>If you want I can post my essay, I don’t really care now seeing as applications are over. I remember seeing sample essays was helpful when I first started =)</p>
<p>My essay was first very conventional in style but then I change it because it looks a little boring. I do not know if they have paragraphing on the common application but what I did was put indents myself. Is that alright, do anyone disagree? But I change my essay because I had written a thesis that I like for my introduction.</p>
<p>Wow wasatchwriter your daughter must be a great writer with only a 110 words. I thought the minimum is 250 words. That is impressive, I wanted to apply for University of Chicago too but it is too late for me because the deadline had passed. It is really a downer for me.</p>
<p>Collegesleuth227 I will really like to take a look at your essay as guidance, since I am also writing a essay for Columbia GS and they demand 1500-2000 words. I finish the essay but I just want to revise it and see if I can include anything in it that can improve my results. </p>
<p>To clarify. My daughter’s introduction was 110 words. My point was that it doesn’t have to be something monstrous to be good. As a college English professor, I see a lot of students who got a lot of praise in high school for writing elaborate introductions (more like 200+ words) that are mostly fluff, and when they continue that in college I have to explain that fluff makes essays worse, not better.</p>
<p>Small correction - the common application did allow paragraphing this year. What it does not allow is indented paragraphing. </p>
<p>However, block-style, left-justified paragraphs are fine, exactly like the paragraphs in the posts on this forum.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice.</p>