Ok so this will be a pretty long message… but I think it’s worth reading (or I wouldn’t take the time to type it all out!)
So, why do colleges have you write an essay? It’s not a chance to make excuses or add to your brag list. I suspect they really do care who you are as a person, since you will be not only a student but also someone’s roommate. A lot of the college experience is about who you talk to outside of class, and to sell a good finished product the admissions department has to find students who will enhance other students’ experience. The purpose of the essay, they say, is to give you a chance to let your personality shine through. So therefore your goal should be to make the essay as “you” as possible so they can see what makes you interesting. Note that I didn’t say what makes you unique… trying to be unique isn’t the point here. The goal is to make it so that the essay (or essays) really express who you are, or at least illustrate a couple important points about you. It’s a chance to let the adcoms sit there and think “wow, this person is really awesome, we need to have him/her at our school”.
Start early! Some people can write great essays last minute. Many people can’t. Why risk it? If you start early you will be VERY happy when all your applications are due that you’re all done with your essays while you friends are pulling all nighters.
First of all, the essay should be consistent with the rest of the application. If you have a passion for some activity, the essay is a good place to express that. If you have a really great idea that isn’t about your favorite activity, that’s fine too. Think about what you’ve alread said in the rest of the application and what the adcom still wouldn’t know about you… the essay is a place to tell them about what else makes you someone they would want at their college. You can still take about debate, for example, but talking about the day you won nationals might actually be far less effective than talking about your first debate when you almost threw up, but how you stuck with it anyway and have the award speak for itself.
I think the best essays are clear, concise, and honest. Use your own voice and avoid using big words just to use big words. Write about something that really brings out who are you. For me, the two most important things to me are 1) friends and 2) learning, so I wrote about my friends making bad math/physics puns, just hanging out and having fun joking about intellectual stuff. It was very “me”. I’ve actually sent it to a couple of people I met online in an attempt to quickly explain what’s important to me, etc. That’s the sign of a great essay… it’s so “you” you can use it as an example of what you’re like.
The topic really isn’t important at all, I’ve seen great essays about everything from a humor column to drinking tea. Cliche topics are fine. If your grandmother’s death or your trip to build houses in a third world nation really did have a huge impact on you, you can write about it. You just need to approach them in a way that shows what about the activity is important to you and make it personal, so that no one else could have written your set of essays. I’m pretty confident that if anyone else turned in my 3 short responses and extended essay to stanford it wouldn’t fit as well as it did for me.
Colleges keep saying that they want you to tell a story. One great benefit of this is that it HAS to be unique, since the same exact thing probably didn’t happen to someone else and even if it did they probably reacted differently and got something different out of the experience. A story is 1) easy for them to read and 2) is a logical way to tell them something about yourself. Everyone loves stories where the main character tries, struggles, and ultimately succeeds (think of basically any book or movie), so that’s one approach that works well.
Also, be sure to show, don’t tell. Dialogue can work well. It’s better to describe how you acted than what you felt if you can still get the emotion across.
Some ideas/themes/strategies that can work:
-My personal favorite, a flashback to the past, can help show how you’ve changed (I used this to talk about my experience in debate helping my public speaking skills and thus preparing me for scientific research presentations)
-Dialogue, just telling a story with you talking to friends or family, who said a story had to be all narration?
-Write from another point of view, I’ve seen this done really well once with someone talking about their passion for piano playing
-Analogies, make some analogy to something else… one girl wrote about how life is like a baseball game
-Just a normal story, either a process over a year or a single event in a single day… the latter is probably much easier to make work and really show not tell
I’m sure there are many others… if anyone has any other suggestions, feel free to post them, just trying to throw out some ideas to give you a sense of what you can do.
So you’ve read this far and you agree that the essay should show who you are. So how do you make that happen?
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Brainstorm
Think about what is really important to you. Friends? Family? Is there some activity that you’re really passionate about? Something you believe in very strongly? What are the first few adjectives that come to mind when trying to describe yourself? What are some memories you have of events that show what you’re like or events that changed who you are? Who has influenced you most in your life? What attributes do you admire/respect? What do you read? What are some important lessons you have learned? Have you ever failed and learned something from it? Have you ever overcome a fear? What happened and how did it change you? What is interesting/unique about you? How do you approach life? How would you describe yourself to a complete stranger? Write down whatever comes to mind, even if you think it’s a dumb idea. -
Start Writing
If you don’t know how to start, then begin in the middle, it doesn’t really matter. Pick one or two ideas and start writing about them. I suggest doing this on paper instead of on the computer because I know I personally censor myself less when I scribble on paper than when I type on the computer. Try a few different ideas. Most of what you write will be bad. It doesn’t matter. The point is that you’re exploring different ideas and ways to express yourself. I know I wrote like 15 or so essays (or started that many) before I came close to a final draft. I suggest you give yourself no more than 15 minutes and try to fill up at least one page. If this is giving you too much trouble, go back to step #1. If you have the option of writing more than one essay/short answer question, try to hit upon as many of the important ideas you wrote down in step #1. Don’t write your short response and long essay on the common app on the same aspect of the same activity. Each essay/short answer is an opportunity to say a little bit more about yourself. -
Find what’s worth saving
Now read through all the drafts you just wrote. Any ideas that you liked? Any phrases? Anything that made you go “Wow, that’s so me!”? If not, then go back to step #2. If there was, then rewrite the essay with that thought in mind. If you don’t like it, try again. That’s the beauty of starting early, you get many chances. -
Revise
Revise your essay until it begins to hint at who you are. Does it make sense? Does it have a point? What does it tell the adcom? Whoever reads your essay will probably write a couple of notes summarizing what you say, so think about what a reader might get from you essay. Play around with the idea until you’re pretty happy with the result. Read it outloud and make sure it reads well. Revise again as necessary. Reading it outloud can help you find mistakes you wouldn’t find otherwise, and will help you make sure that it flows well and that it’s your voice.