The Go Write Workshop’s Superb College Application Essay Guide
The concept:
Schools already have your stats; the essay is your chance to show off your personality. The admissions folks are trying to determine if you’ll fit in or perhaps add a new dynamic to campus. They seek students who will to be happy at that particular school, contribute to the community, do well, stay, and graduate. (Yay!)
Keep in mind that most schools receive numerous applications from qualified candidates; you want your essay to stand out from the crowd.
The rules:
The word limit for the Common Application Essay is 650. Your essay can be shorter, but it must not be longer. The prompts are just ideas they’re simply designed to get you thinking, so you’re free to choose your own. You may write about any topic (within reason, see below) that’s meaningful to you.
Remember: Most schools will also ask you to write a few shorter essays about what you want to major in or why you want to go to their school. These topics should probably not be the focus of your main essay.
DO
1) Be you. Be honest.
2) Tell a story.
3) Highlight your strengths. For example: determined, persistent, caring, thoughtful, creative, problem-solving, enthusiastic, open-minded, curious, passionate, funny. (But don’t feel like you have to use all of these. See #1.)
4) SHOW and prove you have the above traits with examples.
5) It’s OK to write about making a mistake, as long as you can show what you learned from it.
6) Anticipate what colleges want to know about you. (How will you react in a crisis? How will you adjust to living away from your parents? Will you be the first ukulele player in the marching band? Make chicken soup for the debate team?)
7) Demonstrate a sense of humor.
8) Show enthusiasm and passion.
9) Create memorable visuals with details.
10) For supplements, make sure you answer the question.
11) Revise, revise, revise. (I’d be happy to help you with that!)
12) Spell check/Proofread. (I can help with this too!)
13) Submit essays early. Servers tend to get overloaded on the due date.
14) Relax. It will all work out. There are so many great schools where you can learn a lot, meet cool people, and have an awesome experience.
DON’T
1) Rehash your transcript, list all your activities and accomplishments, or brag.
2) Write about someone else (your grandfather, your favorite athlete).
3) Write about someone else’s immigrant experience. (Your own could work, but be aware that lots of people do this.)
4) TELL your reader that you’re great, smart, talented (even though it’s true) without SHOWING/proving this with examples.
5) Copy what the school’s catalog says.
6) Focus on something that happened when you were very young. Schools want to know who you are NOW, not how old you were when you first said, “Dada.”
7) Make grandiose claims or vague promises. A version of “An education from your school will help me make the world a better place” is the most popular, and overused, concluding sentence. In second place: “I know I can make your school a better place.” Even worse: “An education from your school will help me make a lot of money.” Don’t. Do. It.
8) Write about playing on a losing team, a winning team, not making the team, trying out for the team again, or coming back from a sports injury. It’s been done so many times it’s impossible to write something original.
9) Recycle an essay from another school without making sure it answers this school’s question and doesn’t talk about the other (wrong) school.
10) Share your opinion on a controversial topic.
11) Try to write like Jane Austen or Charles Dickens.
12) Go over the word count.
13) Forget to run Spell Check/proofread.
14) Miss the deadline.
DO: Contact me at abby@gowriteworkshop.com for help brainstorming, writing, revising, and final proofreading.
COMING SOON: In an upcoming blog I will discuss how schools will make decisions without standardized tests (now optional at most colleges due to Covid-19), and how this makes the essay more important than ever.