<p>Hello fellow GS applicants</p>
<p>As many of you, I am currently in the application process for the School of General Studies at Columbia. Being an international student who has a non traditional background who is currently enrolled in a Community College in the States, I decided to try my luck at Columbia GS.</p>
<p>Even though they ask for specific topics to be addressed in the autobiographical essays, I'm having a hard time putting my background into words.</p>
<p>Is anyone who successfully applied willing to share some ideas/example essays?</p>
<p>Any help greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Not a GS applicant, but . . . what they are really looking for in these essays is a sense of your personality and character. They want to know something about you that may not come through in the rest of your application. You don’t have to convey your entire background and life story in less than 1000 words. Instead, many students choose to focus on a single event or moment in time that reveals something important about them. It could be a chance meeting, a conversation with your grandfather, a mistake you made and learned from, etc. Ultimately, the key is to pick something SMALL enough to be discussed in a few short paragraphs but LARGE enough to show the kind of person you are.</p>
<p>Hey got2begreen, thanks for your response.</p>
<p>However, this is the exact opposite from what I have heard from GS admissions. They seem to want a strict, formal wrap up of my background with little information or bits to convey personality. That’s why I’m asking for some examples/ideas, as I enjoy creative writing rather than to talk about my path (which is very non traditional and information dense, but hard to convey)</p>
<p>Gotcha . . . I just read the essay prompt, and I see where this one is significantly different from a lot of the common app and supplement essays out there.</p>
<p>So, nevermind!</p>
<p>I’d like to suggest using what I did for my essay: First write down your entire life story without any thought to punctuation, order, etc. Just put important highlights of your life, good or bad in chronological order. Then look at the questions the essay posed and answered them directly on another word document, but relate the question to one of your life experiences somehow. Mash it all together and edit for order, brevity, clarity, punctuation, etc.</p>
<p>I believe it worked for me, hope it does for you as well :)</p>
<p>What I did was a little more structured. I mean, if I just wrote it all out it’d feel like an obituary or a textbook sidebar. Some personality has to come through. They probably want to feel like they’re getting to know you as much as they’re getting to know objective facts about you - if that makes sense.</p>
<p>I tried to find the dots in my life and looked to connect them. In doing so I found a course through my life that, out of context, seemed to suggest that fortune conspired in my favor to bring me to GS. This was a good contrast for the tougher moments I had to write - and a good contrast for the reader.</p>
<p>I also gave a lot of thought to the voice. After chewing on my pencil for a while, I picked a really specific moment from my life and wrote the essay from that perspective. Admittedly, it’s a bit like writing for a character and easier for me than straight introspection. But, as a device, it worked and I was able to say everything I needed or wanted to say.</p>
<p>I could keep going but I think you get the idea I’m trying to convey. Craft your essay. Don’t just write what’s happened to you.</p>
<p>I’ve tried structure in the beginning, but it seems to come off stiff / lifeless to me… As if more time is being sent with trying to slowly make everything nice and perfect instead of telling my story. Once the words have come out then I’ll move on to flesh it out and edit. </p>
<p>Then again we all have styles that work, I hope either works for for you Patrick312. PM if I would like any help or opinions!</p>
<p>i used the theme of “why i consider myself a non-traditional student” to tie together all of the information they requested with my own narrative/voice</p>
<p>some good info in here. i think one needs to strike a balance between straight summary and consciously crafting an entertaining essay. i definitely plan on just being myself for this one and letting the chips fall where they may–straight writing my story and explaining why i want to go there–but obviously i want it to be a great read in itself, as well. its kind of a fun essay to write.</p>
<p>I agree, some very helpful information in here. Thank you to all of you participating.</p>
<p>Did anyone talk about special skill/talents? If yes, what sorts of things did you mention, personality wise or more applied (musical, sports, etc)?</p>
<p>My essay pretty much defined my personality… There were a few talents mentioned, but I don’t feel so talented. (lol) I brought up chess and leadership / organizational ability. Most of my talent lies in charisma, introspection, attention to detail and other difficult to quantify things :/</p>
<p>Haha, I feel you Johnny. I am exactly the same and I plan on spending a paragraph on my ideology.</p>
<p>Just finished a brainstorm of personality traits, it’s very hard to put into words though.</p>
<p>Okay, we’re starting to wander in different directions. Can someone please post the essay prompt(s) verbatim?</p>
<p>Remember, if the prompt asks you to speak to something specific and you miss it, that’s a big red flag. If it asks you to write a certain way and you don’t, same thing. So, let’s all get on the same page.</p>
<p>I thought Patrick312 found his question satisfactorily answered and moved on to ask another, not wander in different directions.</p>
<p>For the sake of answering, the only direction given on a certain way was double spaced and 1500-2000 words. Of course there was the essay questions that GS asked that we would answer in the essay response.</p>