<p>Okay I know I'm a junior and still have like 7 months until I have to apply to college, but its great getting a head start right? </p>
<p>Anyways Stanford is my number 1 choice for college, and needless to say that's the same for a lot of people. I know they receive and reject applications from some of the best students in the world, but I also know the essay is a major factor. Anyone wanna help me out with this? Much appreciated.</p>
<p>You should write it yourself, then get an editor. No one can help you too much.</p>
<p>obviously i’ll write it, but anyway i’ve been hearing mixed beliefs on this but do they care about complexity or do they prefer an essay that’s simple but can get their attention?</p>
<p>It should be very unique, catch their attention, and show excellent writing skills. Simple or complex doesn’t matter as long as it gets done what you want it to. I would assume complicated is what essays tend to be, though.</p>
<p>ok well what I did was make a list (Essentially brainstorm) of important events of my high school career. For me it was summer college at Stanford, studying abroad in Spain, etc. Also, I thought of my hobbies and important events and experiences I’ve gone through (struggles where I triumphed, and interests that aren’t listed on other parts of the application). After the list, I looked at all the questions and started mixing and matching topics and life experiences I could use. Since I love creative writing, I tried to make all of my essays like I was telling a story (everyone doesn’t like this writing style and it isn’t necessarily the best way). Since I started early I had a lot of time to draft, rewrite, and come up with new ideas. It doesn’t necessarily have to be simple v. complex, but it should be powerful, creative, and unique. Complicated may be difficult since the essays have to be pretty short but if you start early you can do it.</p>
<p>I know this sounds obvious, but sometimes hearing it over and over can help.</p>
<p>I ordered College Essays That Made a Difference from Amazon, and it really helped me with my applications. It’s a book full of students profiles with stats like you’d see on CC, but it has the actual essays they submitted with their application. It helps you determine the caliber of the essays that get accepted, rejected, etc.</p>
<p>I wrote my essays in feature story/personal column format because I’m so used to writing that way for the school newspaper. I personally didn’t have anyone else edit my essays. The subject matter of some of my essays were very personal, and I didnt want the “voice” of my essays to be diluted by an editor. I don’t make many mistakes in my writing anyway, so I felt that an editor would’ve been unnecessary. </p>
<p>Just make sure your essays are sincere and make sure they all have powerful intros/leads.</p>
<p>Best advice I can give you is to be personal. How did you specifically grow as a person/intellectually/whatever from some experience(s) you had? That’s what I did and it worked out well for me.</p>
<p>Well I went from that F student in the corner whom no one believed could do anything in middle school to like one of the best at my high school i.e. a lot of the best students usually turn to me to help them with homework, tutoring and checking their essays and what not. haha idk if these would be considered major but i almost changed our county’s school start times and that somehow got to the washington post and i had one green alternative in portable electronics that somehow caught the eye of a big investor firm (of course it was rejected but still it was a surprise). I guess I could write about that?</p>
<p>To me, trying to make yourself look good in the essay is not unique enough. Of course you want to come across as a good student, but it’s about catching the reader’s attention.</p>
<p>when you write your essays, whatever you write, make sure its something that <em>only you</em> could have written (in terms of the story, the style of writing, the thought process, etc). that’s a great paradigm to follow for creative writing, but it goes doubly for the college process if you ask me, because if you got the grades and the scores, its ur job to make yourself unique, not to get across some disembodied ethos of intelligence and enthusiasm. you want your voice to come through, and telling some generic story of how good of a student you are doesn’t do a lot for that cause.</p>
<p>i wrote one of my essays on finding unique ways to drench my physics teacher in water, how i make techno music in my free time, and like my personal analysis of the way my parents think because of their respective cultures. those things are pretty insignificant academically, but i wrote my essays in my own voice very personally, and apparently stanford liked that. </p>
<p>got any weird hobbies or habits? any pet peeves, or interesting stories that attest to who you are as a person? both of the ideas you mentioned sound at face like good topics: F student to badass student sounds like not only something you’d want to get across, but can be pretty interesting and descriptive of who you are depending on how you write it; and while i don’t know what happened, changing the school start times jst sounds like it could be hilarious and meaningful, regardless of what happened. go for it.</p>
<p>Okay I think I’ve got it now. By the way for the common app essay they give you a list of topics or can you just pick your own?</p>
<p>Common app gives you a list but the sixth and last option is always “a topic of your choice”. So you can write about basically anything. Here’s the list to hopefully give you some ideas. </p>
<p>Common app essay topics: </p>
<p>-Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
-Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
-Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
-Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
-A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
-Topic of your choice.</p>
<p>To me, the common app essay is hard. When I can do whatever I want, I become indecisive.</p>