Steps to a Great College Application Essay

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Steps to a Great College Application Essay

• According to Petersons and The College Board

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The Role of the Essay

• The Common Application
• Recommended form for more than 240 colleges and
  universities
• Personal Statement section
• This personal statement helps us become
  acquainted with you as an individual(p4
  Petersons)
• 5 choices

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The Role of the Essay

• How important is the essay?
• The closer you are to the borderline, the more
  significant a role the essay will play in the
  admission decision.
• Will someone even read my essay?
• It dependssize of school, type of school,
  deadline, applicant pool, GPA and SAT scores

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Role of the Essay

• Who will evaluate my essay?
• At least one admission officer
• Typically alumni, then perhaps another officer or
  perhaps the admission director or assistant
  director
• Some colleges have admission committees comprised
  of 5 to 7 people (admission officials, faculty
  members, and possibly students)

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Role of the Essay

• How do schools evaluate the essay?
• Methods vary
• Larger schools tend to use multiple-scoring
  system (content, style, mechanics)
• Other schools may take more of a holistic
  approach, relying on written comments by
  evaluators as well as conversation among
  committee members

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10 Steps to a Great Essay

• 1. Learn more about yourself
• Interview friends and family
• Best thing about me?
• Worst thing about me?
• Most unusual thing about me?
• How would you describe me to someone who does not
  know me?
• What was your initial impression of me and how
  has that changed?

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10 Steps continued

• 1. Learn more about yourself
• Record your dreams
• Write down your thoughts and feelings about
  issues that are most personal and immediate
• Self-esteem
• Identity
• Independence from parents
• Academic and extra-curricular success
• Acceptance by peers
• Loyalty, trust, honesty
• Physical appearance, attractiveness, sexuality,

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10 Steps continued

• 2. Do some serious brainstorming
• Record observations in a believe it or not
  notebook-try to see the unusual in the ordinary
  as Jerry Seinfeld has mastered.
• Become a keen observer of human behavior
• Introversion vs. extroversion
• Aggressiveness, assertiveness, and passivity
• Friendliness and unfriendliness
• Intelligences, talents, skills
• Competitiveness and cooperation
• Self-affirming and self-defeating behavior

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10 Steps continued

• 2. Do some serious brainstorming
• Read the editorial section of the newspaper
• Scan the magazine rack in the library
• Check out college related internet resources
• Surf the web for interesting articles and essays
• Read essays by the great essayists
• Revisit essays of your own

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10 Steps continued

• Great essayists
• Contemporary-Calvin Trillin, Anna Quindlen, Dave
  Berry
• Modern-John Updike, H.L. Mencken, Tom Wolfe,
  George Orwell
• Not-so-modern-Henry Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
  Jonathan Swift
• Writers who write about writing- William Zinsser,
  E.B. White

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10 Steps continued

• 3. Check out the colleges own resources for
  essay ideas
• Read college newspaper
• Read alumni publications
• Tour the campus with eyes wide open
• Investigate the history
• Talk to current students
• Read what the admissions application says about
  the essays
• Contact the admissions staff with unanswered
  questions about the essay
• Visit the schools website

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10 Steps continued

• 4. Avoid overused ideas Seek out overlooked
  ideas
• Essays about personal relationships and
  influences consider
• Your favorite teacher
• Your coach
• Distant relatives
• Your arch-rival at school
• A neighbor
• Penpals
• A member of a friends family
• DO NOT write about your dog or cat!

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10 Steps continued

• 4. Avoid overused seek overlooked
• Essays about issues
• Avoid the environment, world peace, prejudice and
  discrimination, drugs, crime
• Consider individual rights (right to die, AIDS,
  abortion, gun control, free speech), consumerism
  and materialism, fairness, justice, and equality,
  free trade among nations, internet issues
  (privacy, alienation, education, commerce)

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10 Steps continued

• 4. Avoid overusedseek overlooked
• Essays about your experiences, activities, or
  significant events
• Avoid the college admissions process especially
  the SAT and essay writing
• Avoid your big trip to somewhere far away
  especially if you focus on cultural awareness,
  yucky food, acceptance of others, theres no
  place like home.
• Avoid wilderness and survival experiences
• Avoid winning or losing the big game
• Avoid how all your hard work paid off
• Avoid summer camp
• Avoid a part-time job
• Avoid your most unforgettable experience

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10 Steps continued

• 4. Avoid overused seek overlooked
• Seek other personal experiences
• A seemingly ordinary trip that turned into an
  unexpected adventure or self-defining event
• A song, poem, novel, or other serious literary
  work that made a genuine and deep impact
• The time you received an unexpected gift from an
  unexpected source, or the time you spontaneously
  gave of yourself to someone or something
• A white lie , an off-the-cuff insulting remark or
  a discourtesy that helped you to grow and mature
  in your understanding of yourself and others

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10 Steps continued

• 4. Avoid overusedseek overlooked
• Seek other personal experiences cont.
• A contribution or accomplishment of yours not
  motivated by a potential external reward
• An informal social situation that holds special
  meaning to you, not holidays, weddings, or proms
• A time when a teacher or other authority figure
  enabled you to approach him like an equal and
  friend

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10 Steps continued

• 4. Avoid overused Seek overlooked
• Essays about your own personal qualities
• Avoid lists of your favorite things or
  least-favorite things
• Avoid your determination and tenacity and how it
  allows you to always accomplish your goal
• Avoid how diverse you are in your interests and
  endeavors

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10 Steps continued

• 4 Avoid overused seek overlooked
• Seek those little habits of yours that sometimes
  annoy others
• Seek that time you really put your foot in your
  mouth
• Seek a personal possession to which you have
  grown irrationally attached
• Seek particular study habits that you would like
  to change
• Seek your unusual awkwardness in certain social
  situations

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10 Steps continued

• 5. Observe these dos and donts for theme and
  content
• Do write an essay that only you could
  write-originality
• Do convey a positive message overall
• Do strive for depth, not breadth
• Do think personal and anecdotal
• Do reject your first idea or angle
• Do be interesting, but be yourself
• Do write about what you know and have observed or
  experienced firsthand
• Do write about something you feel strongly about
• Do write about others as well as yourself

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10 Steps continued

• 5. Dos and donts
• Dont let others decide what you write
• Dont tell the reader the way it is Dont try
  to prove anything
• Dont try to write a scholarly purely
  informational essay on some researched topic
• Dont try to guess what the admissions committee
  wants you to write
• Dont write about things that are found elsewhere
  in the application
• Dont appear overly idealistic recognize the
  merits of all sides

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10 Steps continued

• 5. Dos and donts
• Dont explain blemishes or deficiencies on your
  application
• Dont write anything that might embarrass the
  reader
• Dont write an essay that reads like a newspaper
  editorial
• Dont mention popular t.v. shows, movies,
  musicians, or actors
• No references to Dr. Seuss

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10 Steps continued

• 6. Write, write, and write some more
• Try stream of consciousness speed drills
• Keep all of your drafts
• Start with the four common app ?s
• express your ideas openly on the internet
• Know when you are finished

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10 Steps continued

• 4 common application questions plus
• Evaluate a significance experience, achievement,
  risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have
  faced and its impact on you
• Discuss some issue of personal, local, national,
  or international concern and its importance to
  you
• Indicate a person who has had a significant
  influence on you, and describe that influence
• Describe a character in fiction, an historical
  figure, or a creative work that has had an
  influence on you, and explain that influence
• Topic of your choice

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10 Steps continued

• 7. Impress with style not gimmicks
• Equally concerned with format, structure, syntax,
  tone, and word choice as subject matter
• Structure and format
• Shorter is preferable-concise
• Use paragraph breaks appropriately
• Do not use a 5 paragraph essay format
• Avoid poetry
• Do not draw on essay
• Essays as essays not contracts, court documents,
  or lab experiments

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10 Steps continued

• 7. Impress with style not gimmicks
• Find an appropriate and genuine style and tone
• Strive to write in a casual, conversational tone
• Dont try too hard to be funny, no puns
• Be forceful and opinionated but not insulting or
  offensive
• Avoid whining, complaining, or appearing bitter,
  sarcastic, or angry
• Avoid coming across as overly humble

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10 Steps continued

• 7. Impress with style not gimmicks
• Hook
• Strive to engage the reader immediately
• Do not write Hello, my name is
• Dont ask for permission to tell about yourself
• Stay away from the term paper style introduction
  reiterating the topic or question or itemizing
  the points you will make in subsequent paragraphs
• Begin as a comedian would

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10 Steps continued

• 7. Impress with style not gimmicks
• Begin with an enigmatic statement that makes the
  reader wonder to what or whom you are referring
• Begin with an obscure quotation
• Begin with a thoughtful question
• Begin with a trivial observation that anyone can
  relate to but no one would think to use in a hook
• Begin with a paradox
• Begin with a gross generalization
• Begin with someone elses opinion or theory
• Begin with a confession
• Begin with an overly obvious statement

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10 Steps continued

• 7. Impress with style not gimmicks
• Essay endings (not summary or conclusion!)
• Do provide closure-bookends or come full circle
• Do answer any posed question or end any created
  suspense
• Do use short, forceful sentences
• Dont address the admissions committee
• Dont use words like finally or in conclusion
• Dont repeat or sum up in any way
• Dont end your essay with a quotation

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10 Steps continued..

• 7. Impress with style not gimmicks
• Include a title for your essay only if it helps
  to communicate your message or if you have an
  irresistible idea, otherwise DO NOT title your
  essay
• Use effective word choice
• Avoid certain wordsresponsibility, goal,
  interact, develop, role, integrity, leadership,
  excellence, interpersonal
• Avoid slang and currently popular buzz phrases
• Avoid superfluous wordsobviously, somewhat, I
  think or I believe, first, second, etc., however,
  thus, in conclusion
• Avoid technical, scientific, and obscure
  SAT-style words

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10 Steps continued

• 7. Impress with style not gimmicks
• Dos for stylistic devices
• Do use analogies
• Do incorporate dialogue
• Do mix up sentence length
• Do use logical paragraph breaks
• Do use the active voice

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10 Steps continued

• 7 Impress with style not gimmicks
• Donts for stylistic devices
• Dont tell the reader explicitly I am a unique
  and interesting person
• Dont parody a well-known writer or literary work
• Dont use alliteration
• Dont start too many sentences with the word I
• Dont use a lot of
• Dont necessarily write entirely in complete
  sentences

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10 Steps continued

• 8. Avoid careless errors and grammatical
  blunders
• Actually read through for spelling/word usage
  errors
• Get the school name right!
• Have someone read it for grammatical errors

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10 Steps continued

• 9. Obtain useful feedback and fine-tune your
  essay
• Ask someone to read it and respond to the
  question, If you didnt know me, what would you
  say about the person who wrote the essay?
• Set the draft aside for several days, then reread
• Post pieces of drafts on relevant internet
  newsgroups and bulletin boards for feedback-dont
  let on that it is for an application
• Dont ask for too may perspectives on your essay
• If described as cute, humorous, or clever
  revise so it is not!

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10 Steps continued

• 10. Package and present your essay appropriately
• If permitted present essay on a separate sheet of
  paper
• Number each page and include a header with your
  name and social security number
• Assemble your essays properly
• Comply with page restrictions
• Dont worry too much about word counts
• Type every essay using readable fonts and ample
  margins
• Think twice before submitting supplementary
  materials
• Do not submit essays on video or audiotape

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