Wow, all of you guys have posted some incredible and amazing advice on here. Thanks to all of the wisdom you guys have provided for the members of this group and for future readers!
While I am far from an admissions counselor as well, and I am merely a member of the Class of 2024 applying to universities this fall and winter, I definitely want to emphasize that essays are very important in the college admissions process, but not for the reasons we may believe them to be, and also provide tips for essays not just for the college application but for writing them in general.
The key thing to remember about the essays are that they are opportunities to be authentic and to practice your free will. Nearly all the information on the applications are just letters and grades, from your GPA, SAT/ACT, Subject Tests, etc. Pretty much the only really good opportunities to showcase your identity are through essays, letters of recommendation, interviews/video portfolios, and out of all those events, your essays are your best shot at showcasing your identity simply because it is the activity in which you have the most amount of choice in deciding how you would like to plan it out.
This sense of freedom you get with the essay is both liberating yet daunting. It’s liberating in that it gives you an opportunity to showcase your identity, like I said earlier, but the fact that it is so broad makes it a challenge in itself. There are so many topics you can talk about, from philosophy, your passions, general daily life, etc. that it seems almost illogical that all you get is less than 650 words on the Common and Coalition App to write a personal statement.
Because it can be so broad, you want to take the topic you want to talk about and connect it to your life. For example, let’s say you were instructed to write an essay in which you must argue whether the trees in New York City should be preserved or cut. Then, the first things that you may want to consider is, “How do trees connect with my life?” Well, let’s say you have a hobby of reading. So, first, you would think, “Well, if I don’t have any trees, I can’t read because then I can’t breathe, and therefore, I will die.” Then, you may form an opinion that you would like to argue to preserve trees, as it connects to your life. The fact that it connects to you, personally, is important, and we’ll elaborate on that later.
After you have formulated your opinion, you want to dedicate your first paragraph to completely grabbing the reader’s attention but not without losing your authenticity. Basically, you are going from the big to the small- deductive reasoning. For example, for the trees essay, you would start off your essay with something like, “Trees have served as a pivotal part of world history even longer than humans gained the ability to understand time, a man-made mathematical concept.” Essentially, you are hooking the reader by introducing something that seems unrelated to the essay yet doesn’t break the rules. Then, after elaborating philosophically for a few sentences, you would make a transition in which you go from the broad to the specific by introducing your thesis. For example, you may say, “While many business owners and community leaders may oppose tree preservation movements in efforts to create new homes, programs, and public facilities for the general welfare, I believe in the preservation of trees because… so and so reasons.”
Then, you want to spend the second, third, and fourth paragraphs elaborating your argument, going into explanations for your reasoning behind your opinion. The main goal of these three paragraphs is to relate them back to your thesis without repeating the statement unnecessarily.
With the final paragraph, this is your chance to go as wild and crazy as you would like. This is the one where there are no boundaries, and the paragraph in which I recommend taking as many risks you possibly can. The goal is to go from the specific to the broad, basically erasing the development you created in your first paragraph. Instead of restating your thesis and wrapping it up, you want to go beyond the prompt and provoke a further question. With the trees essay, for example, you might say in the last paragraph, “While the tree preservation movements have compelling arguments, there is a key motivation behind these movements that both sides have ignored. Trees aid not only in creating a peaceful, prosperous, and beautiful environment for everyone, but they allow the most miraculous marvel of all: life. In an universe where it is so rare to exist, let alone live, how can we allow the death of the very beings that allow us to exist? We view dogs as humans’ best friends, and for good reason, but why have we not made trees our best friends too?” Then, with your provocative diction, you would elaborate on why trees are so essential to life and be able tot wrap your piece off with a question left to the reader.
While I wrote mostly about writing a five paragraph essay in school, the reason why I stated this process is important for personal statements is because personal statements are all about taking snapshots of your life and conveying an epiphany. What event in your life sparked character development in you? Life is a cinematic and literary universe, and our lives are installments in a book or film series in which all our lives loosely connected. We play protagonists in our life film or novel, best friends in our best friends’ installments, cameos in the films and books of strangers, and sidekicks in others. We are dynamic characters, and YOU have a story to tell. YOU are everlasting, for you will exist in this time period and always will, and nothing can change that.
When you write an essay authentically, you not only write it better, but you go through another character development and reach an epiphany. In its own right, writing an essay is kinda like metawriting and metaepiphany. It’s writing about writing and discovering an epiphany in an epiphany.
@Lunarlitgend and @Bippitybopity are 100% correct in that we should not write essays based on what we think admissions counselors would like to see. All they want you to see is the amazing aspects of you. They’re all rooting for you, just like everyone in this group is too! @herewego2024 You got this! Good luck.
Have a nice day.
So I already know what I’m going to write about and I’ll start writing my essay today.