What Do Colleges Expect in Application Essays?

By Angelina N.

One of the major constituents of a college application is the essay. Although it only accounts for a small segment of the total application, it is the only medium through which college committees can connect with an applicant on a personal level. Universities also substantially consider academic achievement and community contributions; however, essays provide insight into the personality of the student and allow for them to determine whether he or she will be beneficial to the school’s objectives. Therefore, it is extremely important to ensure that these brief pieces of writing leave a positive impression on their audiences. 

All colleges require for applicants to respond to a simple question in detail about their personal lives. This may range from an extracurricular activity that impacted the student’s development in a significant way to a difficulty that he or she faced and was able to overcome. There are often word limits that restrict the extent to which a student may describe a situation as well. Different colleges have different requirements, but all have a general objective: to get to know the student better as an individual. How exactly can this be accomplished? Other than using sophisticated vocabulary terms and varying sentence structure, below are a few tips that may aid a student in constructing an effective college essay. 

Brainstorm and Organize 

Prior to commencing the writing process, it is crucial to know what you want to express through your writing and how your essay will reveal important personal characteristics. You should take a short period of time to analyze the prompt question and determine the purpose of the question. If the prompt is about one of your interests, the college may want to learn about your hobbies and, through your descriptions of them, derive some personality traits that you may possess. For example, if you choose to write about a musical instrument that you have a passion for and spend much time with, the college committee will be able to deduce that you have an artistic side, as well as persistence and patience-- two character traits essential to playing an instrument well. You should always keep in mind the specific points that you want to communicate through your essay and ensure that all components of your writing are conducive to expressing those points. 

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Use a Short Story 

After focusing your writing, it is important to decide how you want to convey your personality to the audience. Although this can be achieved through a multitude of methods, a universal rule holds through all college essays: show, not tell. It is much more effective to give real-life examples in which you exemplified certain personality characteristics rather than to explicitly state them in your writing. A great way to attain this quality in your essay is to use a brief anecdote about yourself that is extremely valuable to you. For example, developing on the instrument scenario introduced in the previous tip, you could write a short story about the first time you tried the instrument, your first performance, or some other turning point that still resonates within you. By doing this you are able to express yourself much more credibly and are able to support your claims without ever having to directly state those claims in your writing. This actually leaves a much deeper impression on the audience of your essay because they are able to vicariously live through one of your experiences instead of being presented with bland assertions about a person that they do not know anything about. 

Be Genuine 

Finally, it is crucial to remember that the essay is about you. Therefore, the ideas in the paper should come from you. Your audience can distinguish between genuinely-felt writing bursting with originality and feeling as opposed to stereotypical generalizations about the topic that you chose. It is crucial that you avoid falling into the trap of writing about what you think others want to read; the best way to capture the attention of the college committee is to actually write something that you would want to read. There is a significant difference between honest writing and writing whose purpose is to go by conventionally accepted standards and opinions. Continuing on the instrument example, here are two possible excerpts from an essay on this topic: Notice how the first excerpt incorporates stereotypical ideas about instruments, such as how they can produce “beautiful music” and have the ability to teach people the value of important character traits like persistence. However, through the second excerpt the reader is able to obtain an idea about a unique reason as to why the writer has a passion for piano playing. The writer of the essay wrote about interesting concepts, such as how playing the piano is like mastering control over an inanimate object. 

The piano is an instrument that has always inspired tremendous fascination and awe in me because of the beautiful music that it can produce. My passion for it originates from the way that it has not only developed my musical capabilities in remarkable ways but has also taught me persistence and to not give up even when faced with seemingly unconquerable tasks. 

The nearly supernatural ability of the piano to translate my innermost thoughts and vivid images into a flowing piece of music with innumerable nuances and subtle inflections has never failed to fascinate me every time I play. Through it, I have been able to experience what it is like to have an inanimate, yet extremely difficult to handle, object under my control. Piano, to me, is about forming an unbroken connection between the mind and the hands, the goal of which is not to achieve perfection, but to become progressively closer to truly expressing the figments of one’s own imagination and creativity to others. 

As you tackle the daunting task of writing a college essay, remember to brainstorm and organize, use a short story, and be genuine.