Tips to Write the Long Answer Section of your College Application - Your Essays!
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If you have chosen to read this article, you are probably bridled with excitement at this new chapter of your life, along with trepidation of whether you will be accepted into the university of your dreams. Applications to colleges are very carefully designed to get to know as much about the prospective student as an institution can. This is so that they can decide if the student will be able to cope with the rigor of the institution, and if the university’s environment is compatible with their goals and principles. While most of the application is mostly objective, one can truly open up and maintain a dialogue with the university through their essay section. It is in this section that the university gets to know the person behind the application. Here are a few tips to help you write an essay that honors the type of person you truly are.
What Is The Impression You Want To Make?
Before writing your essay, or even brainstorming what incident you want to talk about, you must think about what you want the admissions officer to know about you. Brainstorm a few events/activities in your life that accurately describe that and your top priorities. This will help shortlist the best discussion points and will also help guide you on what to address about your life.
Highlight Moments Of Growth
If you come across an essay prompt that leads to a popcorn of ideas, it is recommended to talk about moments of growth you have experienced in life. It is very revealing of the person you are when you discuss how you possibly dealt with difficulties you encountered.
Keep It Simple, Keep It YOU
Admission officers are not expecting you to solve world hunger, or administer a moving political commentary on society. Talk about yourself, and try to find what makes you different from all the other applications they are going to see. Don’t pressure yourself on trying to be elaborate. Talk about what is most important to you, because the way you frame it tells the admissions officer a lot about the person behind the application.
What Interests You
Do yourself a favor and write about something you love, someone who inspires you, or something that changed you. This way, you will be a lot more connected to the actual content of the essay, making it a much smoother process than if you were to write on something that you are indifferent towards.
Tell Them Something New
Don’t parrot from your resume and high school transcripts. They are looking for what you have to say about yourself that is not mentioned anywhere else in the application. For example, you want to talk about your extracurriculars, but the application already has a section for that. In such a case, you can talk about why you chose to participate in this activity, what you learned from it, and if you didn’t enjoy it, why so? If you are not planning on continuing with that commitment, why so?
You Don’t Always Need A Happy Ending
You don’t always need to write about something and tie it up in a neat bow of a happily ever after. Especially if you have not yet resolved the issue or are still working on a particular aspect of your life; trying to give it an ending won’t be very authentic, and the admissions officer may sense that too. If something is still a work in progress, talk about how you are continuing to work on it, talk about how you will know that you achieved what you are aiming to achieve, and if you are not sure about it, talk about that too! The goal is to sound genuine and honest. Universities are not looking for perfect people, they are looking for those who are willing to learn, to work with other people, and bring out the best in each other.
Troubleshooting
I know these are some of the basics, but they are important if you want to set yourself up for a successful and fulfilling essay writing experience:
Start as early as possible – You are not going to do yourself any favors if you start writing your essay the night/day of the deadline. Start off small, even if it is just assigning 15 minutes to brainstorm how you could answer the essay prompt provided by the college.
Proofread – An important reason why you must start early is that you give yourself time to proofread your essay. Trust the first draft is not going to be your final draft no matter how proud of it you are. You need to give it time and see if the content you have mentioned actually speaks to the true you. Is there something more you could be saying? Could you change the way you say that, so it drives home your point?
Read out loud – Speak out your essay. It should sound like it is coming from a human, not from an academic machine or a robot. By speaking it out loud you can understand if the essay emotes as much as you want it to, and even if the sentence structure makes sense!
You are not the only person in the world to have experienced a writer’s block, and it will not be the last time you do. One thing you can do to get out of the stump is to clear your head and write a piece on a random prompt. This does not need to relate to your essay at all—it just needs to get your creative juices flowing, and if during this activity you think of an idea you can explore in your essay, that’s just icing on the cake!
People are a work in progress no matter what stage of life they are in, which is why even if your academics may not be the crème de la crème of the lot, you can still stand out. What matters is whether you have expressed a genuine interest in what you want to pursue or provided homage to your values. The university will see potential in you as their student if you are properly conveying to them who you are. Breathe and enjoy writing your essay. Happy writing!