<p>I know that the main college essay (like the Common App one that is about 500 words) is very important, but how important are the supplements? Should I give them to people to edit and critique? </p>
<p>How long do I have to spend/exert myself to write a short response that asks why I want to attend a certain college?</p>
<p>All of the essays are very important. You should treat them the same way you treat the main college essay.</p>
<p>Should I try being creative, or just straight to the point?</p>
<p>^ Whichever is more 'you'.</p>
<p>EXTREMELY important. If you have a question "why this school?" and you don't write a solid essay saying why, it shows you aren't very interested in that school and they likely won't admit you.</p>
<p>^Exactly. The supplements are very important in showing that you have the desire and personality to attend the school.</p>
<p>The supplements are MORE important than the main Common App essays. The supplements are where you show the college that you understand why you and they are a match for each other. You don't have to be creative necessarily -- you just need to have thought about the answer to this question: Why are this college and I right for each other? If you know the answer to that question, you will do a good job on the supplemental essays, regardless of the prompts, because you will be writing from your heart.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Isn't the supplement to places like Princeton to pick a quote and write an essay? So you never really mention on the app (maybe in the interviw) why you want to go, making them equally as important...?</p>
<p>I doubt one is more important than the other. They ready EVERYTHING you send them and then decide based on how they see you as a person. The adcoms don't count one for more "points" than the other but instead see how both contribute to your application as a whole.</p>
<p>"Should I give them to people to edit and critique?"--redlight</p>
<p>No. The only time you should have someone read your essay (or any wiritng) is if you are inquirering about grammatical errors, or they are a complete (unprofessional) stranger.</p>
<p>Friends and family are too biased and will tell you that your essay is great even if it is really cr<em>p. Or they might tell you that it is cr</em>p when indeed it is awesome if they have a hidden agenda. </p>
<p>Professional college essay services will pump out something that is too fake, too contrived (same thing), too forced (still the same thing) or just not you. </p>
<p>Just write the best thing that you can write, then put it away for a week and don't think about it. Then go back and rewrite it. Put it away for a day, then come back and rewrite it; put it away, then rewrite it. ETC. Eventually, you will feel that you wrote the best essay that you can possibly write. Rewrite it one more time then send it in knowing that you did your best.</p>
<p>Here is the suggestion on essay writing from the Stanford Admissions website, a slightly different perspective than the one offered by Baracuta:</p>
<p>"In reading all of your writing, we want to hear your individual voice. Write essays that reflect who you are; use specific concrete details and write in a natural style. Begin work on these essays early, and feel free to ask your parents, teachers, and friends to provide constructive feedback. When you ask for feedback on an essay draft, ask if the essay's tone sounds like your voice—it should. If your parents, teachers, and friends do not believe your essay captures who you are or what you believe, surely we will be unable to recognize what is most distinctive about you. While securing feedback is suggested, you should not enlist hired assistance in the writing of your essays."</p>
<p>Tufts has a mandatory supplement, and as we read applications, we place equal importance on the supplemental writing as we do on the common application essay. You don't necessarily need to put as much time into a supplement (our required supplemental essays are shorter than the common app essay), but you should put just as much thought into any supplemental writing you produce. </p>
<p>Regarding editing help from peers, teachers, parents: soliciting suggestions from others is good, to a point. That doesnt mean that editing help cant be beneficial, you just need to be careful about what you pull out of their suggestions. Capturing your own voice is crucial in a college essay, and too much editing editing of syntax, in particular can whitewash your voice and drown you out of your own writing. You want a distinctive and strong voice, and maintaining that voices integrity should be paramount. If, however, critiques are able to help you critically examine what portions are extraneous and what portions need greater fleshing out, then help is welcome. Baracuta_jones stresses the importance of being genuine: he is exactly right to push for as much authenticity as possible. So be aware of how you frame your requests for assistance and what feedback you obtain. Are others trying to reshape your essay in their own images, or encouraging you to think critically about your own writing and to make decisions on your own?</p>
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Capturing your own voice is crucial in a college essay, and too much editing editing of syntax, in particular can whitewash your voice and drown you out of your own writing.
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<p>True indeed! Often the worst essays I see are those in which the applicant is using too many "50-cent words" (well, at least that's what we called them in my day. With inflation, they're probably $5 words now ;) ) </p>
<p>Your essay shouldn't sound like an IM message to friends, but it shouldn't sound as if you wrote it with your nose in a thesaurus either.</p>
<p>Last year I read an essay by a local student that I thought was refreshing and delightful and really told me a lot about the person who'd written it, even though the subject was actually her mother. Then, I happened to see the essay a few months later, right before she sent it to her ED college. It was transformed almost beyond recognition, complete with a quote from Robert Kennedy that seemed to come out of the clear blue. When I asked the author what had happened, she said that she'd shown it to her SAT-tutor and he'd suggested some changes. She told me that she didn't really agree with his ideas, but she went along with them anyway, because she felt that he knew more about such things than she did. Luckily, I convinced her to scrap the "improved" version and submit the original. </p>
<p>So, yes, while it's often good to have a sounding board as you craft your essays, do make sure that you--as well as your readers--will recognize the voice in these essays as truly your own.</p>
<p>My advisor told me to be creative, so I went the very creative route- I actually had alot of fun with them. I made the answers into little creative writing short stories. One was like a little future article about myself- something like "Dr. Gibson is highly known for her skills, saving 6 patients this month alone, due to her new found techonolgy... blah blah" I didn't make them silly sounding, though. And it seems that they liked it because I wasn't rejected to any schools!</p>
<p>Are supplementary essays considered as heavily as the main CommonApp one? Because of subject matter, I might end up using the essay that I originally intended for the CommonApp on some supplements and a possibly weaker one as my main one. So, are they all read at the same time and considered equally, or is only the CommonApp one read in the first stage of consideration?</p>
<p>Yes, supplementary essays are read in concert with the primary essay and are weighed just as heavily--and perhaps even more so. Why? Well, for starters, the essay questions on the supplement were designed by officials at that particular college to elicit information that they want (especially those insidious "Why This College?" essays). Secondly, the supplement essays offer admission officials more of an opportunity to compare applicants who are otherwise similar on paper since all are responding to the same prompt (or to one of a choice of several prompts).</p>
<p>Nonetheless, if you have written an essay that you consider to be "weak" (or at least "weaker"), you have plenty of time to revisit it and come up with something that is better, whether it's for the main Common App or a supplement. Depending on where you are applying, the essay could be the tie-breaker that pushes your application towards the "In" or the "Out" pile. So don't settle for anything that you think isn't your best stuff.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice! That's good to hear.</p>
<p>I was kind of inaccurate when I described it as weaker... it's not really that this essay is worse; it's just that the subject matter, the very reason I might need to use it as the "topic of your choice," isn't something I consider as important as that of the other one. But my "better" -- hm, what should I use instead? -- the "more representative" one is about my intended major, and I don't want to be redundant by writing two essays about my intended major for schools with supplements that ask about it, so I'm using the more creative and "quirky" (I guess) one for the CommonApp for those schools...</p>
<p>But you're right. I've still got lots of tweaking to do. I can make it more representative of my personality and less... I don't know... irrelevant, I guess?</p>
<p>Sally and Dan, at the risk of sounding dense, I am not sure what you mean by the writer's voice. I think too many years of legal and business writing may have dulled my sensibilities, but maybe others are also confused. Do you mean that the writer's personality should be ascertainable, or their writing style should be distinctive, or a story that is important to the writer or something else.</p>
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I am not sure what you mean by the writer's voice. I think too many years of legal and business writing may have dulled my sensibilities, but maybe others are also confused. Do you mean that the writer's personality should be ascertainable, or their writing style should be distinctive, or a story that is important to the writer or something else.
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<p>Mostly I mean what I already mentioned:</p>
<p>"Your essay shouldn't sound like an IM message to friends, but it shouldn't sound as if you wrote it with your nose in a thesaurus either."</p>
<p>Here's an example from a real student essay:</p>
<p>As I attained the school bus steps with my voluminous pack on my back and my palpitating heart engulfed with disquietude, I turned timorously to my friend Marie for solace to sumount my stressful anxiety.</p>
<p>These words seem to be screaming, "This isn't really how I write, but I'm trying really hard to show off my literary side."</p>
<p>Most admission folks would be happier to see something like this:</p>
<p>"Have we finally lost our minds?" As I hoisted my bulging backpack onto the school bus steps, I turned to assure myself that my friend Marie, right behind me, was still smiling. And she was.</p>
<p>Although good college essays take many forms and cover varied topics, the best ones are usually those that leave the reader thinking, "Now this is someone we'd like to have on our campus." </p>
<p>When was the last time you read a legal or business document that made you say that? I suspect that you may recognize what NOT to write in a college essay when you see it. ;)</p>
<p>Thanks Sally.</p>