For the Rising Seniors
In one of my posts, I talked about the benefits of picking your college essay topic and starting the writing over the summer before your senior year. Picking a topic for the essay is, obviously, the basis of your essay’s success. That doesn’t mean there is only one right answer, but it does mean deciding what to write about deserves time and attention. Where do you start? How can you be sure you’re giving the reader the right information?
The Basics
Here are some important things to know, before we jump in. The Common Application has historically required a Personal Statement (your main essay) with at most 650 words. This word limit, and the editing process, make it incredibly important to always know the updated word count on your essay draft. As you can see on their website, there are a variety of prompts to choose from, but the last prompt has always been picking an essay of your choosing. What does this mean? It means you can essentially write anything you want! So, we are back to wondering where to start.
It is important to keep in mind that any college accepting the common application will see the same essay, so you should not mention a specific school in this essay. A good place to start is to have a sense of what your goals are. Primarily, you want to tell the reader enough about yourself to show them why you’re a perfect fit for a great college experience and why any school would be lucky to have you. In order to do that, you need to make the reader care about you and your story or experience. Lastly, though often forgotten, this is a great opportunity to show you can write a stellar essay. That means, don’t write one giant paragraph!
There are some other things to keep in mind, as well, as you embark on this exciting journey (not sarcastic) to show the world who you are. While your essay should be well written, you should not be using a thesaurus for every word. The essay should show who you are, not what you’d sound like if you were a robot. Along the same vein, your essay should find a balance between exciting and realistic. If you never saved penguins in Antarctica, don’t feel bad and don’t pretend that you have! Small experiences, even everyday occurrences, can make a great essay and can still show so much about you.
The time has come, folks. How can you pick a topic that achieves these goals? The first step is to pick three attributes or personality traits you want the reader to leave knowing about you. Write them down. Try to be specific. Maybe you think you’re “kind”, but is it because you’re “generous”? Is it because you’re “patient”? Next, for each of these traits, write a few words explaining how it could relate to college, your future, or your goals. We want to do some of the work for the admissions committee, so keeping in mind the end goal of this essay (acceptance into a school) is helpful.
Lastly, for each of the same three words, think of one specific story or instance that shows this characteristic. For example, if you’re generous, is there a concrete example of when you’ve volunteered your time? Write one or two sentences (for each trait) describing a story you could tell. Bonus points for stories that display more than one of your listed attributes! Once you’ve done this, you have three potential essays. You can tell a story from the last step, emphasize the traits from the first step, and incorporate the middle step about college and your goals throughout or as a conclusion.
For example, you could tell the story of a very specific time you volunteered your time, emphasizing both your generosity and your leadership, and you could end with a discussion of how this experience prepares you to be a strong member of the college community. Wasn’t that easy? Keep in mind, when it actually comes to writing the essay, you don’t want to just tell a story and leave it at that. You want to incorporate as much about you as a person and student as possible, in an organic way. Let the reader learn about you, be impressed by you, and let you into their school. Don’t make the reader work hard to realize how the story relates to you. This is your big opportunity to show them your best, so knock it out of the park!