How to Write a Great College Application Essay (Part 2 of 3)
This piece is the second in a three-part series.
Read Tips 1 and 2 here.
Read Tips 6 and 7 here.
3. Brainstorm All the Options
When I work with students as a college essay coach, I encourage them to brainstorm all seven Common App prompts. Even if they’ve had their heart set to answer just one prompt since forever! (These prompts can change from year to year; read this year’s prompts here. If you’re applying to universities not on the Common App, follow this advice for their questions, too.) You just never know when an idea you hadn’t planned on will pop up and become your gem.
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No experience is too small if it can reveal your personal brand. (Read more about personal brands in Part 1 of this series here; LINK COMING SOON.) One student with whom I worked as a college essay coach several years ago wanted to showcase his tenacity to Princeton (where he was accepted). So he wrote an essay about his efforts to rise above his position as the “fifth defenseman” on his ice hockey team. This year, another student is using her first-day-of-school outfit as a metaphor for her evolving personality.
While you’re brainstorming, include life experiences, sensations (especially visual description), emotions, and dialogue if you can. These elements will help make your essay come to life later.
4. Answer A – One – Question
If you’ve already written an essay that you love and want to submit to colleges, beware of submitting a creative “think-piece” that says little about you. One student with whom I worked as a college essay coach two years ago shared a beautiful meditation about the people she encountered while volunteering overseas. Unfortunately, because she wrote it before we started working together, this piece said more about those people than it did about the student. It was unusable as a college application essay. She scrapped that piece, wrote another, and is now in her freshman year at Bryn Mawr.
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Writing without the (or a) question in mind may result in an unfocused essay and hours of preventable revision. Even if you’re answering the open-ended Common App prompt number 7 (or Coalition App prompt number 5), devise your own question. Ideally, invent this original prompt before you start to write. At the very latest, re-read your first draft and craft a prompt for yourself then. Last month, I read one student’s draft about the stickers on her water bottle. Together, we decided that her “number 7 prompt” should be, “What’s your most prized possession and why? What does it say about you?” She left that session feeling much more confident about her essay because she had a clear direction to follow. As her college essay coach, I can’t wait to read the next draft!
5. Write Drafts for TWO Questions
In Step 3, I recommended brainstorming all the Common App prompts. At the end of that process, choose the two ideas that best reflect the personal brand that you identified in Step 2. Most often, students with whom I work privately as a college essay coach pick two separate prompts. Occasionally, however, they write two distinct drafts for the same question. Either choice is fine. But just as you want to brainstorm ideas for prompts you might not have considered previously, you also want to write more than one first draft. A better idea might be hiding in your head!
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While your final Common App essay can’t be longer than 650 words, aim to write 1000 words per each first draft. It’s easier to cut words out than to add words later. As I mentioned in Step 3, include vivid descriptions of life experiences, sensations, emotions, and dialogue if you can. Recall your English teacher’s advice – “Show, don’t tell” – and think back to the successful essays that you read in Step 1.
If you had a major life event (e.g., parent death or sickness; immigrating from another country) that occurred prior to ninth grade, feel free to spend your entire essay on that event. I advise the students with whom I work as a college essay coach, however, to write 75-80% of their essay about the past three years. College admissions officers want to know who you are now: the spelling bee you won in third grade will likely not show them that.
STAY TUNED for Steps 6 and 7, and the conclusion to this three-part series!