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Writing a strong essay can come quickly or it can take longer than you pencilled in, but we won’t stop until we get it right.
Admissions Officers look for students they hope will contribute meaningfully to their college. The second most important factor is admitting students they can retain. The student has assured them in their application that they will graduate with a degree from their college. Colleges cannot sustain their business model with a low graduation rate.
Admssions Officers look for students who have researched the college they are applying to and determined they are a good fit for each other. The student can see how the college will help them realize their goals and assist them with their career.
The student has demonstrated resilience and maturity. They have overcome an obstacle in life or a personal challenge and learned from them. They have made sense of their journey so far and know where they are headed.
A student who can articulate why an interest or passion has been meaningful to their life and hopes to pursue this at college.
They can’t glean all of this from the student’s academic results or their resume or list of achievements. They learn that from the essays.
The college admissions process is only partly about the essays themselves. The lengthy process is also an opportunity for the student to get to know themselves. In writing their essays, they prepare mentally for what lies ahead and take time to ask themselves which college is right for them? Do they want a small student body? Are they ready to study interstate? Will they thrive at a large campus being a small fish in a large pond? They develop a vision for how they want their college years to unfold. The essays are a byproduct of this journey.
A lot of applications have similar academic or extracurricular achievements in them, but your essays show who you are and how your life has shaped you. If you spend time digging, you’ll find your best essays. It might be in the last place you would think to look.
That doesn’t mean your essay has to be about how you’re going to end world hunger. It doesn’t need to be overly poetic, either. They are reading 50-60 college applications a day and want to get a sense of who you are right away. They aren’t looking for a perfect person, or even a perfect academic record, the challenge is much harder than that. They are hoping to read your story, in the simplest language, about what is important to you, where you are headed and how they can help you get there.
A student of mine wrote a personal statement that said all the right things, but it lacked a sense of who she really was. At the end of our experience, she mentioned knitting with her grandma and that she guides her arthritic hands when her grandmother falters. Another student wrote their essay about how much they love keyboard shortcuts and that it can save a person three months of their lives. Your essay can be something you never considered was interesting about yourself before. The work abroad project or the sports injury isn’t really what they want to know about — it’s the effect it had on you and how it shaped your view of the world. Try to write about something which really brings out your personality. If you love math, you can find a way to say that in a really interesting way. Write about something which you won’t get bored writing about because this essay will be something you write and rewrite many times over.
There’s nothing worse than staring at a blank screen or paper. Inevitably, you’re going to get distracted or doze off and won’t get anything accomplished. Just start writing. Once you get some words down on the page, you’ll get more ideas, and you’ll know the train has left the station.
Even if what you have on the page at first doesn’t impress you, the essay will at least start to take shape.
Write as much as you can about your topic. Even if it doesn’t really make sense, just pour those ideas down on the page. And then, when you’ve written everything you can possibly write down about your topic, it’s time to whittle that novel down into 650 words. For every sentence that gets into your essay, there’s probably going to be four that don’t. That’s when we trim that fat and once edited down, there’s your essay.
If you’re going to write a masterpiece, you have to revise and revise. Read your essay out loud. Does it sound weird? Fix that. Is it boring? Jazz it up a little. Then, rewrite it again to tell your story in the best way possible. Can you write it from a different point of view? Maybe it’s a letter or it’s written as an instructional guide. Get creative with a mysterious opening sentence. I always ask my students to dig deeper and I am always surprised by what they say. So keep rewriting it until you’re proud of it.
Let your parents read it. Just don’t let them rewrite it. Show it to your teacher. Show it to a friend. Everybody wants to hear a sincere or funny story that is told well. But when listening to feedback — consider the source. Does this person actually have any knowledge of what college professors look for in a student? Do they work inside academia?
Showing your essay to people will inevitably make it stronger, but you might want to consider who’s giving you feedback. The most important thing is…
If no, then keep rewriting. Or start from scratch if you think that’s best. Or pick a different topic and write about that. If you are proud of it, well done. You’ve written your college essay, and I’m sure it’s awesome because it’s exactly what you wanted to say and in the way you wanted to say it. Now it’s time to tackle all the supplementary essays!