<p>Hello, I began to brainstorm over some ideas for University of Richmond's writing supplement. I have chosen the prompt: Tell us about spiders. Not specifically to this prompt, but what do colleges look for in a prompt like this? I ran into trouble because I found myself writing things that they know about themselves. For a prompt like this, would it be alright to put information about the school, and then how I plan to use it?</p>
<p>First and foremost, they want an essay that doesn’t suck. Because 90% of them do - read anything written by admissions officers about reading essays and they have horror stories about how bad most essays are. Everyone on CC assures us that their essays are stellar, yet admissions people keep telling us they aren’t. Pass the suck test and that’s half the battle.</p>
<p>Your best bet is to run anything by a GC or English teacher who knows the admissions process for a school of the type you are applying to and take their advice seriously, even if they hate your essay. Most large public school GCs aren’t very good about that, but if you happen to have a good one, that’s your best bet at getting your essay into good shape. Remember, they see hundreds of essays a year, not just yours. They’ll know a good one when they see it, so listen to them.</p>
<p>Colleges always, always, always want to know about you. The question could be “Write about One Direction,” and they’d still want you to write something that gives them insight into your lifestyle, personality, values, passions, etc. </p>
<p>So the fact that you’ve recognized that writing exclusively about U Richmond and spiders / Spiders is wrong will put you above most other applicants. Basically, you do want to tell them, of all the resources and opportunities their school offers, which ones will you utilize? How will you embody their values? What will you bring to their community?</p>
<p>The Spider part of the prompt allows you to get even more creative than a regular “Why Richmond?” prompt because you can talk about actual spiders! Are they creative, formidable, hardworking, clever, etc.? And then go from there…</p>
<p>I suggest talking to an English teacher, or anybody you may know that’s familiar with the admissions process. They usually have information to pass along regarding what the readers look for. If you have the resources, I’d also look into college admissions tutoring, it really helped me enhance the quality of my essays. Try a service like College Zoom.</p>