College admissions officers can tell a lot by reviewing an applicant’s transcript, but many of the intangibles that determine a student’s fit and future contributions to the campus are not as obvious.
And that is where the college essay comes in.
Limited to 650 words, the essay included with the Common Application, used by over 900 colleges and universities across the country, as well as any long form application essay from an individual college, is the best, and sometimes only, way for students to demonstrate who they are behind the numbers.
This 5 part series provides an overview of the college essay writing process to share with your high school senior or junior. Here are the topics and schedule, and I’ll come back to link each subsequent article after publication. He/she/they and him/her/them are used interchangeably throughout the articles.
College Essay Prep Posts
Part 1: What Admissions Officers are Looking for in a College Essay
Part 2: 10 Rules for a Great College Essay
Part 3: Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story
Part 2: 10 Rules for a Great College Essay
There are no hard and fast rules or secret formula.
Example: Never write about the 3 D’s- death, divorce, disease*. I’d certainly be very careful if you want to go down one of those paths, but if you have an unusual twist or extremely compelling story, then you should write that story. Otherwise, respect the guidance you read and that knowledgeable teachers may tell you, but recognize that there are no “must do” or “must not do” topics, formats, or methods.
*If you decide to write about how COVID impacted your life, your story must truly be compelling and unique, which will be difficult with respect to a pandemic every person in the world alive in 2020 was impacted by.
Colleges will ask who you are in many ways...
...including the essay, but the end result is that they want someone who will be a solid citizen, add a unique spirit, and contribute positively to the campus culture. Make sure your essay conveys those qualities.
Colleges are not looking for a checklisted childhood...
...but instead, meaningful contributions in a small number of areas. Your essay should not be a repeat/regurgitation of your transcript or other activities or information found in the application.
Colleges expect good writers, even if you are going into a STEM field.
Future posts in this series will address reviewing and editing in more detail, but needless to say, your writing should be error free in grammar and spelling, answer the question/s, be complete within the allotted word limit, and tell a coherent and compelling story.
Develop/find YOUR voice.
One of the most difficult rules, particularly at age 16-17, but it IS in there (your voice, that is). More information and exercises about this topic are in Part 3 of this essay writing series, available through the link above. This is also the reason I am hesitant to recommend students review essays touted as “successful”, or “winning”, because that was someone else’s story told in that person’s voice. The temptation to copy is just too great, and I don’t mean blatant plagiarism, which is always wrong, but by trying to copy someone else’s voice your essay will fall flat and be less effective than finding your own story and telling it in your voice.
Accept that there is a huge amount of gray area in almost all college applications, particularly in evaluating the essay.
A student could have a seemingly perfect application package yet come up short due to reasons unknown. Start early, follow the process, and be at peace knowing you did your best.
Write something only YOU could write.
What do you want the college to know about you? The prompts are broad, but colleges are looking for narrow, specific responses to get to know YOU.
Give yourself enough time.
Be prepared to write at least 3 drafts. Think about it, have you ever read anything you enjoyed that was a first draft? More information about the editing and review processes is found in Part 5 of this essay series.
Writing an essay is about crafting a story.
One with a beginning, middle, and end, but not necessarily in that order, plus conflict and resolution, but not necessarily neat and tidy. And the story usually incorporates a hero’s journey, where our hero (that’s you) goes on adventure, runs into trouble, learns a lesson, applies the lesson and achieves victory, returning home a different/better version of himself or herself. More on finding and telling your story in Part 3 of this series.
See Rule #1: There are no hard and fast rules.
In the next part of this essay series, look for inspiration and exercises to work on Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story, arguably the most difficult part of the college essay for most teens.
For another perspective about “the rules”, check out this 2019 article from College Confidential: https://www.collegeconfidential.com/articles/which-college-essay-topics-are-taboo/.
And, of course, take it all with a grain of salt! (Remember Rule #1)