Hi! Does anyone have any good tips on how to make your app as strong as it can be? Like things to make sure to put in, or essay topics that will set you apart?
You know you are in the exact place I was in this application season: How to impress the AO’s. How to stand out.
But I swear on my life, this is the best advice for any applicant: Be genuine.
You don’t need to use fancy language, you don’t need to talk about how your brain thinks like Maclurin series or you imagine Gaussian spheres whenever you play ball in Gym.
Just use your voice. It’ll come through, I swear. It’ll sound like the plainest essay, but the more genuine, heartfelt (and I don’t mean heartstrings) essays are, they more they are relatable and represent YOU.
Start writing down things you want brought up by your GC and teachers when they write your Rex’s. Most schools have you and your parent fill out a form with info, but you may not remember little things that really add a personal touch when it comes time to fill out that form so start sending emails with such tidbits now. Things that just sound a lot better and have far more impact coming from someone else. These recs are carefully evaluated.
** Essays:**
Google “Hacking the College Essay 2017” and read it.
Write the Essay No One Else Could Write
“It boils down to this: the essay that gets you in is the essay that no other applicant could write.
Is this a trick? The rest of this guide gives you the best strategies to accomplish this single
most important thing: write the essay no one else could write.
If someone reading your essay gets the feeling some other applicant could have written it,
then you’re in trouble.
Why is this so important? Because most essays sound like they could have been written by
anyone. Remember that most essays fail to do what they should: replace numbers (SAT/GPA) with the real you.
Put yourself in the shoes of an admissions officer. She’s got limited time and a stack of
applications. Each application is mostly numbers and other stuff that looks the same. Then she picks
up your essay. Sixty seconds later, what is her impression of you? Will she know something specifically
about you? Or will you still be indistinguishable from the hundreds of other applicants she has been
reading about?”
** ECs:**
Check out “How to be a High School Superstar” by Cal Newport.
“The basic message of the book is this: Don’t wear yourself out taking as many classes as you can and being involved in every club and sport. Instead, leave yourself enough free time to explore your interests. Cultivate one interest and make it into something special that will make you stand out among the other applicants and get you into the toughest schools, even if your grades and scores aren’t stellar. Newport calls this the “relaxed superstar approach,” and he shows you how to really do this, breaking the process down into three principles, explained and illustrated with real life examples of students who got into top schools: (1) underscheduling—making sure you have copious amounts of free time to pursue interesting things, (2) focusing on one or two pursuits instead of trying to be a “jack of all trades,” and (3) innovation—developing an interesting and important activity or project in your area of interest. This fruit yielded by this strategy, an interesting life and real, meaningful achievements, is sure to help not only with college admissions, but getting a job, starting a business, or whatever your goals.”
http://www.examiner.com/review/be-a-relaxed-high-school-superstar
Sigh. The focus on writing a unique essay too often goes astray. I’ve read some desperate efforts to be creative, individual, stand out, and they do not read well at all. In fact, boring and usual, much better, IMO.
You don’t know who is reading your essay. Not likely it’s some edgy exciting person, though. A well written, easy to follow, nice essay is usually the way to go. If you want to experiment with the avant-garde, go on ahead, but pair that school with a like school getting a more standard essay. I’ve said that to many many kids. I’ve yet to see off the wall individual essay pan out.
Including this advice from admissions officers from Bates and Dartmouth,
Wise words @HKimPOSSIBLE. My son just finished an English project aimed at jump starting college essays. He had to write about a handful of moments in his life that mattered to him, with an underlying theme woven through. Like so much of his narrative writing, the vignettes about things he really, really interested in just jumped off the page. It wasn’t that the writing quality was so much better. It was just obvious from comparing essays side by side which ones came from a place of excitement, joy, enthusiasm and were genuine. Vs. the couple that he wrote to fill in the missing holes but actually cared a lot less about. It was eye opening.
I’m definitely not an AO. But I would take the essay about the seemingly ordinary moment that really triggered enthusiasm and joy and excitement in my kid before the I overcame a huge obstacle essay every time. Maybe it’s just me.