On the Graded Essay

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

Hello all,

I am a QuestBridge finalist finishing up the last touches of my Princeton application, but I am having a bit of trouble on their graded paper supplement. For this college, I want to put my absolute best foot forward, but my essays in junior year have not at all been sufficient for this. Princeton prefers expository writing, which I have none of. My junior year English class was Cambridge AS English Language, in which I practiced a lot of their imaginative prompts and rhetorical analysis. Neither of these really fit the criteria of “Expository writing”, do they? Not to mention, the writing can get pompous at times due to my indulgence in verbosity (from which, as you can see, I have struggled to improve.) In addition, the teacher, while her personality being critical, was not so much on the paper - just a few comments here and there. I am afraid that this supplement will sabotage the already extremely slim chance I have at this university, but I still wish to try my best. What should I do?

(Additional question: Do they want you to scan and upload the paper, or re-type it and upload it?)

2

I believe that a rhetorical analysis essay would count as “expository.” I think they’re mostly trying to weed out creative short stories and the like. However, if you have an essay from sophomore or senior year than you could consider sending that in as well.

As for the last question, they want to see any comments made by the teacher so if she wrote on your page than you should probably upload that document. In my case, I’m uploading scans of a rhetorical analysis essay written last year. My teacher wrote some comments on the page, but my handwriting is a little hard to read in places so I am also going to send in a typed copy along with it, as well as the rubric my teacher used. I don’t know what they “want” per se, but they have confirmed that they allow applicants to submit the original handwritten essay, rubric, and typed version. GL!