What is the purpose of the college admissions essay?

Parents Forum
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<p>As my D is the throes of writing the college admissions essays, I'm struck by the change in the nature of the writing task compared to when I applied. It used to be that you wrote a straightforward expository essay about an issue of interest or why you wanted to go to College X. I looked at some upscale LAC websites that feature "essays that worked," and the examples seem as if they were written by 30-year-old graduates of M.F.A. programs, very precious and contrived. This kind of creative non-fiction is not even the kind of writing most students will do in college; the ability to write clear expository prose is what matters 99% of the time. So I wonder what the purpose of the new-style college essay is. An 18-year-old applicant is advised to use her "authentic voice," but at the same time is under the obligation to market herself artfully to strangers on an admissions committee. </p>

<p>Does the college admissions essay provide a pretext for rejecting otherwise qualified students that the college doesn't want for some reason, or does it allow an otherwise marginal but "interesting" candidate to get in? Has the definition of good writing changed dramatically in the last two decades?</p>

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<p>Suggest you pickup a copy of Bauld’s book on college essays. And one by Michelle Hernandez, a former adcom at Dartmouth.</p>

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<p>I have the Bauld book; it was recommended to me by a friend who hired an essay consultant for her son. Bauld talks about the “gray area” in admissions and how the essay is the way to get noticed. I’m just interested in the aesthetic values of the admissions committees and what traits get kids noticed now. It doesn’t seem to me that the essay indicates one’s true nature or one’s ability to perform college-level writing tasks well.</p>

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<p>I’m not sure what colleges your D is applying to, but I know at the Ivy League level, the only thing they have to go on is the essay because all the kids are smart. Their looking for something to distinguish between this smart kid and that smart kid, and the essays are the best way. </p>

<p>I suggest that you find someone who knows what the colleges are looking for, such as a college counselor or English teacher, and have them go over your D’s essays. My S is working with someone who does this for a living. Even though he’s a gifted writer, his essays were not up to the standard of Brown, which is a school that looks for good writing skills. </p>

<p>You’re not imagining things - it’s much tougher now than it was when we were kids. An essay these days can make or break your application.</p>

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<p>i think it was devised solely to ensure “fouling of the nest” syndrome, and make it easier for us to let them go!..worst part of the whole college app process for us…i didnt like my S2’s essays, he didnt like my comments or editing!</p>

<p>it was very difficult for S2 to write about himself…through school they usually have a topic to discuss, it is not anything self revealing… so his attempts at humor often sounded self deprecating, as he struggled with trying not to sound “boastful or conceited”</p>

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<p>Yes, my D hates writing about herself in this confessional mode. The defensive default is snarky teenage irony, which doesn’t go over well either. UGH.</p>

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<p>Both of my D’s private HS’s devoted a portion of classroom time to the college essay. That eased the process enormously … especially for kids like NJSue’s D who were reluctant to write about themselves (and then show Mom/Dad the result!).</p>

<p>As for the purpose of the college essay … well, several times I’ve related that one year 90% of D#3’s (public school) class was on the Honor Roll. When the mean GPA is 95, and the Recommendation Letters are from HS staffers who think “A’s for everyone” is OK, the remaining parts of the application become precious.</p>

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<p>DD received some great advice from College Karma and some articles she received on her essays. In a nutshell, her goal was not to make her essay the most sophisticated, the most dramatic, or the most sophisticated. It was to connect with a reader that had reviewed 50 other applications that day, and was just trying to get through one more while stirring dinner on the stove, riding on the subway, or eating his lunch. Connection. She happens to have a sophisticated sense of humor, which when I edited was dulled to the point of boredom by my making her use more precise words, etc. They are not looking for your voice - your husband’s voice - an English teacher’s voice. they are looking to get a sense of your daughter, and how she would fit into their community.</p>

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<p>I have no idea exactly what a college adcom is looking for in an essay and I didn’t read, or want to read, my sons. </p>

<p>He also had a class specifically for all things college every kid in his school takes and they worked on writing their essay. </p>

<p>After all his apps were in and he was accepted (at every school he applied to) he told me he wrote his essay in 15 minutes and it wasn’t even one page long.</p>

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<p>I certainly don’t think of the college essays as a defining moment in my boys’ lives. I read 1 and 2’s after they had written and submitted and the long and short essay did reflect somewhat each boy. I think that’s the primary purpose of the college essay…to add some color to a paper full of numbers and letters and a list of interests.</p>

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<p>Colleges are looking for reasons to say yes to a kid. Ideally the reaction will be something positive like: This kid has a great sense of humor. I’d love to have this kid for a roommate. This kid’s insight might really add to a class. This kid really had fun with one of our creative optional essays. This kid had kind of dumb volunteer job, but has insights about it that show him to be wise beyond his years. This kid isn’t afraid to sell himself as a computer nerd, and look at all the stuff he taught himself, he’s obviously very self motivated. </p>

<p>Generally I think it helps to not be overly seriousm overly flowery or overly pompous. One admissions officer said your essay should be such that if a friend picked it up off the cafeteria floor they would recognize your voice.</p>

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<p>My neighbor, a Yale grad, told me a story about college essays at Yale. Don’t know if it’s true (I only believe about half of what he says) but he said one prompt was something along the lines of asking the applicant to describe their strongest attribute and, according to him, a classmate simply wrote ‘Brevity’ . . . . He claimed it certainly didn’t work against him, while shrugging his shoulders:)</p>

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<p>At the highly selective colleges, the adcoms consider part of their job detective work–figuring out who is “authentic” and who is a construct of clever packaging. Some folks question whether these committees can really tell a very well packaged kid (which means, some of the rough edges are deliberately left in) or not, but they do believe they can see through some fakes. The essay is a place where an adcom can suss out who got a lot of help in writing, revising. An overly polished, distant-voiced essay can give off that vibe at worst, and does nothing to endear themself to the adcom at best. </p>

<p>For many adcoms, they claim to read the whole file–picking up hints from the LoRs, classes taken, ECs, jobs, etc–to figure the kid out. If the essay adds to that image, it helps strengthen the application. </p>

<p>FWIW, four years ago, my older son got a call from the admissions rep at Duke who read his file to tell him he had written her favorite essay that season. It was all about his a class he took at UCLA his freshman year in HS and how it kicked his butt. He has a pretty wry, self-deprecating sense of humor and it was there. Very very informal.</p>

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<p>I think that writing in their own style is helpful because it keeps the kids lose and comfortable. It’s fairly easy to tell an essay or really any high school writing that is labored.</p>

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<p>At selective colleges, the main reason to have it is the same reason as all the other requirements: to have another reason to reject an applicant. They have, by definition, more qualified students than they can accept, so any reason they can find is good with them.</p>

<p>Selective colleges are looking for a reason to say NO as well as YES to an applicant. There are (very rarely) students who get in on the strength of the essay, but they are few and far between.</p>

16

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<p>I don’t get this. Your S is a “gifted” writer, yet his essays are not good enough for Brown. Do you think that Brown is looking for writers who are more than gifted? I’m not sure who that would be - J.D. Salinger? My D is a sophomore at Brown and her essay was, I would say, well-written, interesting, and straightforward. She’s a very good writer, but I would hesitate to call her gifted. We recently attended a Brown info session and the dean of admissions admonished all of the applicants not to submit “overwrought” essays. By employing a professional writer, your S may run the risk of losing his authentic voice. You may be over thinking what schools such as Brown are really looking for. </p>

<p>I would caution everyone to keep it honest and above all else, proofread - several times.</p>

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<p>For large state schools, the essays are often secondary to pure numbers (GPA & SATs). For Rutgers, the essay & ECs only come into play when determining merit aid & possibly honors programs, although many of the latter have their own process once you pass the numbers threshold.</p>

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<p>It is a way to show a school that you really, really want to go their school by writing 10+ random essays.</p>

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<p>A few points: </p>

<p>The essays are generally the only thing that let admissions staffs see an applicant’s actual performance, not other people’s assessments of their performance, or standardized test scores that really don’t do enough and aren’t reliable enough to make distinctions among the applicants to highly selective colleges. Granted, that function of the essay has been compromised somewhat by the fashion for having lots of “editing” help from parents, teachers, peers. And it has never fully worked for kids who are hard-core STEM types (a growing proportion of the applicant pool). But even with those caveats the theory still works. Most essays really do show what their authors can do, and not more than that. (And, anyway, knowing how to get effective help is a real-world academic skill.) STEM kids who can communicate effectively in writing do (and should) have a leg up on those who really can’t. And anyone who has read a bunch of college essays knows that they really, truly do distinguish among the applicants. They are a very powerful source of information for colleges that can’t/won’t use SAT/GPA matrices to make their admissions decisions. </p>

<p>I agree that the colleges disserve themselves by holding out only precious “creative” essays as those that work. I am certain that less-creative essays can work, too, as long as they are well-done. On the other hand, it is absolutely the case that the definition of good writing has changed significantly in the past 20-30 years, largely as the result of the “New Journalism” of the 70s and other literary fashions. There is a much higher tolerance for, and indeed appreciation of, personal elements and narrative techniques in nonfiction writing. And I think that may especially be true where the most important objective of the writing is to communicate personal information about the writer (what kind of person he or she is, how he or she thinks, etc.), and the reader has a limited amount of time and attention to devote to each particular essay. In other words, the college admission process.</p>

<p>I think mini and mathmom are both right. Selective colleges need a reason to say no, and clumsy essays often provide that. Very, very often, I suspect. They also need a reason to say yes, and in many cases (but certainly not all of them) a well-written, engaging essay can provide that. For most colleges, though, I think the essay is probably mostly a hurdle, and not such a high one: show that you can write competently, at a level consistent with your GPA and test scores, and you are fine.</p>

<p>I tell kids – not that they listen – that a good analogy for the college essay is conversation on a first date with someone you have a little crush on but don’t know that well. You want that person to like you back, and to like you for who you really are. But you want to feature the best, most interesting, most attractive version of who you really are. And there are lots of different strategies for doing that – depending on who you really are, you can be equally effective telling stories about your childhood, talking about a book you are reading or a movie you saw, or talking about some current political issue. But the good strategies never include simply gushing about how much you like your date (often for superficial reasons), or listing your best qualities like a resume. You want to start a conversation that the other person will want to join.</p>

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JHS-</p>

<p>How refreshing and how totally true, especially when you talk about “good strategies.”</p>

<p>The essay, as has been said here is a way to further separate applicants into individuals. That’s why you never want to brag, complain, or explain in your essay. I always hear kids wanting to talk about how great they are or talk about past issues with drugs/drinking or trying to explain a year of bad grades. I always advise against it.</p>

<p>The “essays that work” that you sometimes see <em>are</em> unattainable for most, BUT there are techniques that <em>do</em> work to provide a great story about yourself that will draw the reader into liking you. </p>

<p>From my book:</p>

<hr>

<p>To: jumpstartessays@**********
Subject: Why am I being tortured?</p>

<p>Writing essays is sheer torture! Do college admissions officers think this is fun?
If it’s so much fun, let them write their own essays.</p>

<hr>

<p>—Robert Cronk, author of Concise Advice: Jump-Starting Your College Admissions Essays</p>