The College Essay

Mrs. Crawford

What it can do and should be:

So, you want to know how to write a college essay that will get you in to the college of your dreams?

Not possible. You will by admitted based on a composite score compiled of many features of your application: your GPA, recs, standardized test scores, ECs, etc..

The one power a college essay has is breathing life into your application: letting the human on the other side of your essay know you. Some of you will have difficulty with this task because you aren’t sure who exactly you are. And that’s okay…many of us are still trying to figure it out. Others may feel insecure (join the club): “I am not really that cool… I haven’t played in a major symphony, fed kids in Ethiopia, or discovered a human genome.” Don’t worry. Writing about an ordinary topic with a precise, specific, and personal perspective is often even better than writing about a momentous occasion that every teen has had.

2. Don’t believe me? Read the words of an expert:

- Excerpt from Assaying the Essay, by Rachel Toor, Admissions Officer at Duke University

… Although we use six criteria to evaluate applicants, it is surprising how similar many of our hopefuls look. They've all taken hard classes and done well. Standardized testing is all in pretty much the same ballpark. Teachers all say they're the greatest thing since sliced bread. Even extracurriculars look pretty similar: captain of three varsity sports, president of student government, accomplished musician, and so forth. So, the personal statement becomes a way of making the applicant a person, explaining to us in a few double-spaced pages who these students are and why we would want to invite them to join our community. As in every profession, admissions has its own jargon, its own conventions. We tend to think in shorthand and in categories. There's a certain inevitability when you ask seventeen-year-olds to write on "a matter of importance" that you will get many similar topics and essays. We understand this commonality of experience and understand, too, how heartfelt and tentative these attempts are, especially given how much our applicants think is riding on their work. They're trying to impress us; they think they should tell us what they think we want to hear. They try to sound smart and sophisticated and profound. Sometimes they succeed. Mostly, they are truly and painfully and wonderfully honest. In terms of subject matter, there are a number of common genres. The catalogue of achievements. The meaningful activity. The community-service essay. The horrible tragedy, the death or illness of a friend, relative, stranger, or dog. The "me" essay, where they find some way to talk about themselves; these are often the best. Even though we lump these together, we try never to forget that for each applicant, the personal statement is personal--and about something intensely important. We resist cynicism even in the face of incredible similarity because we know how powerful these experiences are. As far as we're concerned, any topic for the essay is fair game. It's not so much what they write about, but how they write. The writing doesn't have to be perfect, though some of these applicants are amazing writers. There are often spelling errors, typos, and, sometimes, the last line of their application essay to Duke does read, "and that's why I really want to go to Stanford." One applicant this year said she wanted to go to a private school like Duke, not one of the "big state public institutions." We notice these things, but we're really in the business of content, of looking for substance over style (though we do, of course, appreciate good style). Can a good essay get an average student into a school like Duke? No, not really. In fact, many of our admitted students write fairly average essays. It's just one of the criteria we use in our evaluations. But when we read a good essay, we share it with our colleagues. We tell our friends about it. We get excited about the prospect of having the person, who shared his or her life, insight, or humor with us, come to Duke. College is fundamentally about getting to know other people and oneself. While we all learned a lot in our college courses and from our professors, college students ultimately learn from other students, in the dorms, in the dining halls, during late-night study breaks in the library. What a good essay can do is let us get to know a person whom we think other students would enjoy getting to know. There's no such as the perfect college admissions essay, no formula for writing one's way into college, no winning topic.

Ode to An Admission Officer: I see your empty coffee cup, You haven’t ample time to sup. Your eyes have crossed like tic tac toe 10,000 essays left to go! -All I have besides the essay is a bunch of test scores and activities. I want to see what makes someone tick. -Write us as you would write a letter to a friend…from your soul.

USchool College Counseling Essay Tips

Getting started:

-tips from Janet Robinson’s amazing blog, Essay Hell

1. Start with a defining quality (curious, self-disciplined, creative), and then look for “times” or examples of when you either demonstrated this quality, had this quality challenged or developed this quality. Click HERE to find my Jumpstart Guide to help you with that approach. Don’t know your defining qualities? Click HERE to find them.

2. Try to find something “unexpected” to write about, either something that happened to you that no one would expect to happen to someone like you (you love knot-tying but got stuck in a tree because you used the wrong knot); or something you love or pursue that no one would ever expect of you (a football player who loves to bake cakes.); or some personal trait or characteristic that no one would guess has affected you (you are not even 5-feet-tall but wear a size 9 shoe.) Click HERE and HERE to read more about that.

3. Troll your past for “mundane” or everyday topics as opposed to ones you think might be impressive. Examples: The Day I Washed Dishes at My Dad’s Restaurant; People Think I’m Mean Because I Weigh 300 Pounds; How I Grew to Love Public Busses; I’m a Formal Guy Even Though I Live in Surf City. Click HERE for more posts on the power of mundane topics.

4. Read sample essays. If you are stuck, it’s so worth the little bit of time to get your hands on a cheap collection and skim through them. First, you will see the range of topics that other students have used, and chances are it will trigger your own ideas. Secondly, you will get a feel for the looser, narrative style and structure of these essays, which will help you write yours. Click HERE for books of sample essays. And HERE is a post with online sample essays.

5. Go down memory lane and try to remember “times” when you faced a problem. If you can find a problem, you will find a story. (Problems come in many different shapes and sizes: challenges, change, mistakes, obstacles, phobias, fears, bad luck, physical traits, etc.) If you have a little story (also called an anecdote), chances are you can write an engaging essay. Click HERE to learn more about how this works.

More resources on finding a sparkly topic:

5 Top Topic Finder Tips

Land in the Yes Pile

Do You Have a “Great” Essay?

Use The Unexpected

The Magic of Mundane Topics

General advice on the actual writing process:

-The worst essays are arrogant and pretentious or lack student personality

-Free write about a topic quickly and without editing at first…hours of agonizing over a prompt will not necessarily bring out the true you

-After getting a first draft of your essay down, reread the essay and ask a trusted friend or teacher that knows you well: does this essay reflect me as a unique individual? (if not, revise or start over, after identifying why not).

-After you get that first draft down, really craft the essay by restructuring it logically, eliminating anything that is boring or doesn’t add, inserting specific representative details

-Before hitting submit, be sure to have checked grammar and mechanics

More resources on the process:

Jumila Kansou on How to Find and Write Anecdotes

Amy B on English Teachers: Lesson Plan Ideas for the College Application Essay

Prompts 2015-2016: common application questions

Advice for the Common Application and Supplements:

How to Answer The 5 Common App Prompts

How to Answer Most Popular Supplement

How to Answer Prompt 1 of the Common App

Summary:

Write” SUPER” Essays

Specific

Sensual imagery, actual scenes, anecdotes, detailed description

Unique

“Don’t write an essay that another student could write”

Personal

Entertain and inform through your own voice

Eliminate

The unnecessary: ambiguous, boring, filler…what’s left should be clear, vivid, readable prose

Rewrite

Check mechanics, spelling, rhythm, balance, order; Use this College essay checklist

Student Samples:

See attached pdfs