This is part four of a six-part series titled “Getting Reading to Apply to College” for juniors who are preparing to apply to college in a few months. For this post I will be focusing on the college essay. The college essay is certainly the part of the application that should take the most time to complete. It should take at least a week to complete the Common Application personal statement. A day or two to complete the rough draft, a couple days to get two people to proofread it (that are not mom or dad), a day to revise it and then a couple more days to have someone look over it again. Below are the three different essays that seniors applying to college are asked to write for the majority of colleges. Let me also say that there are colleges that may not ask for any essays and there are colleges that may ask for an additional essay beyond these three, but if a senior has written each of these three essays, they should be able to meet the college application essay requirements at the majority of colleges they apply to. There are a few colleges that have really unique essay questions (University of Chicago) and there are some colleges that may ask for a program specific essay if you are looking to pursue a specific major. Before I talk about these three essays, I would like to promote my College Essay Academy course this summer. Each rising senior who takes this course will complete all three of these essays by the end of the course which will save them a lot of stress and time when applying to college in the fall. There are two separate weeks that the College Essay Academy course will be offered this summer. The first week will be from June 26th-30th and the second week will be from July 31st-August 4th. To register for the College Essay Academy course please go to www.dccs.org/summer and click on “register for camp”. If you have any questions or have trouble registering please do not hesitate to contact Nancy Homan, DC Summer Programs Admin Assistant, at nhoman@dccs.org.
Below are the three essays that a majority of colleges may require.
Common Application Personal Statement– The Common Application is now being completed by over 90% of seniors. The number of colleges that accept the Common Application is now over 1,000. I tell my students that I strongly recommend they complete this essay before they begin their senior year. The Common Application essays this coming school year (’23-’24) are the same as last year. This is an essay that every college a student applies to through Common Application should read carefully. There are a handful of colleges that may not require this essay but if you have a college that does, you should send the essay to every college you apply to through Common App anyway. This is always the toughest essay to write because it is subjective and a student really needs to brainstorm to come up with a topic to write about. Below are my top tips when writing this essay:
- Stay within the word limit– The Common Application puts the word limit on the personal statement essay at 650 words. You do not have to go right up to the word limit though. It is okay to end your essay when you get close to 550 words. A Yale admission counselor once said, “If you do not have anything else to say, stop writing and leave us hanging a bit”.
- Choose an appropriate topic– Choosing the topic to write about is probably the toughest part of this essay. Great essay topics involve when you have overcome adversity, solved a problem or something that is unique to you that may be different than a lot of other students. Another tip for a great topic is that it should be “uncommon” and “elastic”. What do I mean? Watch this video (2:50 mark).
- Start with an anecdote– An anecdote is “a short and amusing or interesting story about a real person”. This is a great way to start your essay and bring the reader right into the action and get their attention.
- Write about a moment in time– The Common Application personal statement is not an essay to tell your entire life story or list accomplishments or activities that are already on your application and resume. It is supposed to let the admissions counselor who is reading the essay get a perspective about you that they did not get from the application or your resume. So you should be writing about a moment in time, not what happened over months or years.
The “Why Us” Essay- This essay is letting colleges know why you would like to attend their school. Why would you want to attend their school over other schools you are applying to? For most colleges that have a “why us” essay, this essay is even more important than the Common App personal statement. A “why us” essay prompt could be worded a number of different ways, but what the college wants from you, is to let them know why you would be a good fit at their school and what contributions will you make to their campus culture and community. A few things to pay attention to when writing this essay are:
- Do your research– If you say that you want to go to their college because, “the campus is beautiful”, “they have good academics”, “I can major in Business” or “there are small class sizes”, to name a few, this may all be true, but you have said nothing that shows you have done any research beyond what is on the front page of their website. You need to be more specific to show that you spent the time getting an understanding about their school that makes them more distinct than other schools. Things that stand out more may be particular majors or programs that are offered (if you are interested), mention something specific that you saw or were made aware of one a tour or a club or activity that they have that you had to research to find.
- Be careful when you cut and paste– You may have to write this essay for a couple different colleges. Admission counselors say they are always surprised with how many students send them an essay with another colleges name in it or cut and paste something that is not correct. This can be easily avoided by just having someone proofread it.
- It doesn’t hurt to name drop– Whether it is a professor at the college you met or an alum of the school that recommended the school to you initially, it doesn’t hurt to mention individuals that impacted your decision to apply to that school. It may also be good to email a professor at the school and ask them a few questions and then include this interaction in your essay.
The Extra-Curricular Essay- Colleges ask for this essay so they get an idea of something you are really passionate about. Typically, it will ask you to pick one thing that you listed as an extracurricular activity in your application and explain why it’s important to you. The college admissions office would like to know how you are going to impact their campus and so this activity you talk about should be something you plan on continuing to stay involved in if you go to their school. Quick tip, everything you did in high school you should say you would like to do in college. First, you never know if you may like it even if it wasn’t your favorite thing to do in high school and second, no college is going to come back to you and penalize you for not doing it. A few things to pay attention to for this essay are:
- Do not list your resume in this essay. The admissions office already has your application and resume. They do not want you to repeat what is already on these two documents. They are typically looking for one activity you are most passionate about.
- Write about something you have done that has impacted others– Colleges look for students who will make a difference in others lives. So writing how you played on a sports team could be risky.
- Keep it positive– This is not an essay to get into philosophical perspectives or talk about adversity or a problem. You want to keep it positive and at the end of the essay they need to be as excited to bring you on to their campus to get involved in whatever you are talking about as much as you are to get involved.
The college essay is a very important part of the application for most colleges if they require one or more to be written, especially ones that are more competitive to get in. What’s most important is giving yourself plenty of time to write it and having at least two people (because one can catch something the other one didn’t) proofread the essay before you submit it. I am always willing an able to proofread a college essay.