Looking for some advice from other college applicants…
Having never written an application essay before I started looking at various college applications, I was kinda surprised when a few of my applications told me to write an essay based on the following:
Hmm… now that’s really broad. I understand that’s what they’re going for-- broad topics that give a wide variety of responses. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what to write about. If I choose a really local topic, the admissions officer reviewing my essay won’t have a clue what I’m talking about. On the other hand, if I choose a widely recognized national topic, I run the risk of monotony.
For those of you who have written similar essays in the past, what type of essay have you found works best in this situation? What sort of things does the admissions board really look for? Should I be as verbose as possible in 350 words, or simple and concise? What sort of weight do the essays provide in comparison to the rest of the application?
I know most colleges and universities are different in their scoring criteria, but any personal experience that you can relate would be of great assistance.
At least I have until February, if I need that time…
My senior year in high school I had a buttload of personal essays assigned for the principle reason that one of them was aimed at finding me a college app. essay.
I did mine on “what nobody can take away from me: my memories” and based it on my experience growing up in martial arts.
Find something interesting about you that shows you’re not another drone.
Of course, I do say this as someone who was accepted at one of the five schools to which he applied, so maybe you should take your advice from someone intelligent:)
I used to work in Admissions, and if I never read another essay about “How My Classmate’s Suicide Made Me Grow Up And Get Perspective On Life” it will be too soon.
I used to wonder how we’d have enough freshman to fill the colleges, given the rates at which applicant’s friends, cousins, and classmates were apparently offing themselves.
More serious advice: I really liked when someone painted a picture with their words. It’s easy to get in the rut of droning on and on about “I believe” “I feel” and “I’ve always wondered…” What grabs me is when someone described a scene and then explains its relevance. For example, if you were going to write about 9/11 (something tells me that will be a common topic this fall), you might be tempted to just start out talking about how you’ll never forget where you were when you heard the first news. As in, “I know I’ll never forget where I was when the first plane hit…” But what is much, much grabbier is to start with something like “It’s Tuesday morning. I’m staring at the hiking boots of the girl who sits in front of me in English Literature, wishing I’d looked over Beowulf a little more closely before class.” Paint a scene for the reader like that. THEN you can go on to describe how you found out. Those sorts of things completely made an essay stand out for me, just because most people were so eager to discuss their personal philosophy, they wouldn’t set an interesting scene up.
Take what you plan to major in, and write about it. They’re basically telling you “make us interested in what interests you”. Anything you can write about will be covered by those areas. My advice: write multiple drafts, concentrate on your future in those essays in a subtle manner, and really focus on the point that you’re trying to persuade these people to let you go to their school, as well as support you on this topic. If you can get everyone in the committee to agree on abortion; you’re auotomatically in. Choosing something a little less controversial would prbably be a little more in line. And above all else; remember that we’re all just people, and insecurity has become innate. Everyone else feels just the same as you, but being on these message boards definitely gives you a leg up
Good luck!!!
I wrote my undergraduate college essay on my sneeze…which is infamous wherever it is heard (the sneeze not the essay). My old english teacher used it as an example of an essay until he retired a few years back because it was actually pretty damn snappy for all that I didn’t do much homework in high school. For my law school apps I wrote a more traditional essay about my work in politics but tied it in to the new national crisis blah blah blah study of international politics etc etc. However, I think comparatively that law school essays aren’t as key as your grades and LSATs so while I put an effort into it and it is probably more cogent in terms of language (you know, 22 vs. 17) I would say it’s not as unique as my undergraduate essay.
If I were you I would avoid writing on the current crisis because EVERY kid is going to jump at that opportunity. If you must write on it then I choose a completely disparate issue and talk about how the national crisis has affected your alternate issue of choice. But you know without being insensitive. It MIGHT work in terms of them thinking you’ll bring diversity to the campus and whatnot but on a personal note I recently applied to what could be more aptly termed as “conservative” minded law schools and I figured that I didn’t want to take a chance on pissing them off by diminishing the crisis.
Also pay attention to CrankyasanOldMan…even though I wrote a more traditional “me me me” essay this time around I made sure to splash in a lot of imagery and a little sardonic humour here and there. Starting your essay off with imagery is good.
Good tangential topics might be
*Kurdistan
*Palestine and Israel
*International reactions to the crisis and how you feel about that
what they are really looking for though is a personal response. So talk about how the event became personal to you-maybe you could go the opposite way and talk about how it can’t become personal because we’re hit with so much info that it’s too much to absorb.
I would say most of all form a good relationship with an english teacher and harass them. The only homework I ever did in high school was English and History which was good because since I didn’t piss them off they helped me out by editing my essay and talking about it with me.
okay, by stating this please don’t assume that i am insulting your intelligence. i am an intelligent but inordinately lazy person and i learned this the hard way (in college) so i just want to pass it on to you.
DON’T FAKE IT. DON’T FAKE KNOWING ABOUT IT. DON’T FAKE CARING ABOUT IT IF YOU DON’T.
If you really and truly care about international football violence more than the Terrorism crisis then for god’s sake be honest about it. These people are pros. Maybe there are really slimy, exceedingly well-written people out there that can get away with fooling them but for the most part university admissions types seem to be inordinately good at hunting out bullshit. So are some college professors as I learned the C+ way.
