How important is the essay and tips to encourage relucant writers?

College Essays
1

<p>How important is the essay in ratio to the whole application package, those essays on the common application and those on the supplement to the common? I’m not talking about highly selective Ivy or equivalent, but those with mid-range SAT scores, say 600 to low 700’s. And if it is important how do you encourage a boy who’s not comfortable with sharing, put their thoughts and feelings onto paper? </p>

<pre><code> I got off the phone with my son’s GC the other day and out of the 3 sample college essays he had to submit from a specific choice of prompts off the common application, she tells me only one had any depth or feeling to it, the others were very generic, skim-the-surface type essays. One is a good start, but needs a fair amount of work. This is not surprising, to either myself or the GC, or his AP English teacher to be truthful. I had already told S he might as well plan on editing several times. He is a math/science boy, he reads, comprehends and writes above grade level, BUT, he has no use for reading and/or writing except to convey information. In other words, he can write an awesome research paper on a subject he is interested in, but an essay on a great work of literature or a prompt that he cares nothing about? Forget it. Add the fact that he hates, with a passion, to share personal information and/or feelings and you can see a disaster in making.

SAT CR/CW scores, low 600’s (his GC believes he can get at least one of those up to 650, I’m not sure about that, while it might be possible, he’s probably not interested in putting forth that effort), math 700’s, ACT of 29 w/math and science in the 30’s and English at 24. He’s been this way since a small boy, he’s struggle through books way beyond his RL if they were non-fiction, but aside from a few fiction series that sparked his imagination, none of that. So the little fiction he reads is purely for entertainment purposes, he’s on a trip now where no electronics are allowed and his author of choice right now is Arthur C. Clarke (science fiction).

GC and I discussed, there is one area that has held his interest since he was a toddler, where his depth and passion are such that we feel it can’t help but come out in an essay if he makes even some effort. GC says if he’ll write it, she’ll help him make it fit any prompt that’s out there (a slight exaggeration, I’m sure), but when I mentioned to him before he left that he might be writing one more, you can guess the response I received. He’ll do it, if GC says, because that’s the kind of kid he is, but he’s going to question the necessity given that he plans to major in engineering. So assuming it does actually count, I know I can’t have the only boy who is not comfortable sharing personal stories and feelings. How did you encourage your son (or daughter for that matter) to give their stories a personal spin?
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<p>I am similar to your S in that I am much more a math/sci guy than humanities but here is some advice that has been useful to me to start writing:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>If your son is like me, he much more enjoys analysis and finding meaning in things than “boring” stuff like metaphors and describing specific images. In that case, build a top-down approach to writing essays by starting with the easier to find meaning. For example, start with “I like building stuff” then build to “I liked building robots with my robotics club” then move to " I liked building Robot XYZ during my junior year" to finishing with “The room smelled of ozone and solder flux smoking from the soldering iron in my hand as my team rushed to finish Robot XYZ but even though I was light-headed from the lead solder, I realized that there no place I would rather be than building a 20 foot high robot.” In other words, start with what he knows and flesh out the details later.</p></li>
<li><p>Most importantly, start with something he knows and would enjoy. If he’s interested in engineering, work with him to develop a topic around building robots or other cool things. A great way to think about the essay (learned from CC) is what 10 min story would you tell a group of strangers about yourself that would make them laugh, cry or think? What makes him excited about engineering? What has he done that makes him think he wants to be an engineer?</p></li>
<li><p>Like many engineers, I am sure he would also like a procedure to at least get him started with how to go about writing an essay. It could be as simple as think of an EC, what have you learned from that, what is a specific event that shows that meaning, think of 6 specific details from that event, write essay in form of: 1st paragraph, specific details then topic sentence. 2nd paragraph analysis and conclusion. Done. This is at least a framework to work with.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>From,
A Fellow Rising Senior</p>

3

<p>you can get in on the merit of almost the essay alone. your stats and whatnot could be below the average applicant but if your essay stands out well enough, then you can get in. i have talked to an AO at an ivy league institution, and i was told this. but the essay has to be a hell of a good one.</p>

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<p>^ Not really true. At an Ivy, you NEED to have excellent scores and grades not necessarily perfect (3.7+ and 2200+, seems to be a good benchmark) unless you have an amazing hook like curing cancer, super URM, or scion of very wealthy family.</p>

<p>What essays do is differentiate you from the many other applying that year. An exciting essay about what cupcakes mean to your life will be much more interesting than a stock “Winning the Game” or “Serving food at the soup kitchen” essay.</p>

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<p>HitMan, Thanks for the advice, that is actually an excellent suggestion and one I think my son might be able to relate to, especially as it’s coming from another math/science guy. At the very least it’s a plan of attack, which is IMO 90% of what he gets hung up on. Thanks again.</p>

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<p>^ Yup no problem :smiley: . Tell me how it goes at the end!</p>

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<p>hitman, see im confused about you saying a essay about how a cupcake relates to your life is more interesting than a generic essay. i just dont understand how/why an ivy league school would accept someoen who is funny/creative, when thats not necessarily the point of academics or being successful in life. I mean I get your point, can you just explain it to me more? It just seems like essays are getting to the point where topics have been overused that we have to write about frickin cupcakes?</p>

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<p>The cupcake idea was a bit extreme but its all about showing colleges your idiosyncrasies, quirkiness, though process, and personality. As noted above, I am not the creative writer so I don’t think I could pull off an essay about cupcakes nor do I have any important moments about cupcakes. But basically you would show how cupcakes relate to your life and what they show about you.</p>

<p>If you were an avid baker, this topic might make sense and you might describe yourself as (clich</p>

9

<p>hitman, do you know what you are talking about? you seem to be oblivious to what i said. i have spoken with a valid source (senior AO) and you tell me it is not really true and that you NEED some score or grades, NO! you can get in with a (for instance) 1700 on your SATs, but you need the grades to back it up. and you can get in almost solely on the merit of an essay. but if you want, go ahead and lecture a senior AO, be my guest, and tell him/her how the process works because you obviously know it better than him/her.</p>

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<p>Right because somehow a tear jerker essay is supposed to make up for a lack of academic achievement? An essay is a great differentiator but will not make up for low stats from an UNHOOKED applicant.</p>