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Writing the College Essay
Writing the personal essay can be a time consuming and sometimes overly stressful experience. In fact, the essay writing can be a very satisfactory learning experience for each student. Each student must commit to the exercise – to write honestly about her/himself. The questions are formatted in a way that demands perspective. This is difficult at best for the student who is in the “thick of it”! Talk to your family, your friends, your teachers or your college counselor about possible interesting topics. Start early so you can have plenty of time to rewrite. Below, find some additional hints from Mr. Bill Hiss of Bates College.
Essay’s importance for colleges:
a) To judge depth of students’ understanding of intellectual or social issues, quality and freshness of mind, “lighting up” of issues referred to skeletally elsewhere in the application.
b) To show writing style, technical correctness, fluency (sentence subordination, paragraph construction/unity, vocabulary, metaphorical versus concrete language)
Subject: Anything of real interest to the student; should light up another part of the application
a) Autobiographical: Be careful of the obvious…”How my trip to France taught me independence.” However, if truly reflective, travel, significant personal struggle or a family experience can be a very impressive subject.
b) Social/Political: Ought to be tied to previous student interests. An essay on ‘devotion to environmentalism’ carries more weight when it reflects your actions.
c) Intellectual interests: Response to works of a particular author, research in certain areas, places where the student has outgrown and reached beyond her/his curriculum.
Length: More than 2/3 of a page, and less than 4 pages to ensure being read carefully.
Format: Read your directions carefully!
a) Neat, readable, typed or word processed; hand written (if your handwriting is legible!). Brown University requires that your essay be hand written by you.
b) Physically prepared by student her/himself (not dad’s or mom’s secretary, even as typed – it raises doubts about editorial overlays)
For weak writers:
a) Take real care; start early; rewrite frequently. Seek proofreading help from your English teacher or college counselor.
b) Send one extra writing sample from class work, with teachers’ comments.
How weighted by college: Often as confirmer of decision, if other credentials are clear. Essay can be a powerful “tipper” in close cases, especially with very strong or very poor essays. Warning! Faculty admission committee readers pay careful attention to essays. As eventual consumers, they are vociferous complainers about admitting students with dull or error riddled essays.