[Help!] I Don't Know How to Write My College Essays (´･ω･`)
Never fear, high school seniors! I know it might seem daunting but writing college essays actually isn’t that bad once you have a little direction. Here are some tips to help:
🔹If you have absolutely no idea where to begin or what schools to apply to, going to BigFuture (https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/) is a good idea! They have a very helpful search tool to find schools that fit your interests.
🔹Do the supplemental essays. I know, who wants to write more essays than you need to but they can actually be pretty short and they can only help you. Besides, some colleges require that you write them anyways so you might as well.
🔹Assemble your list of colleges now. Right now. And if you’ve already done that, check through your list. Try not to have too many or too little. Three is the minimum and ten is more or less a maximum. You should have at least one safe school, one possible school, and one reach school, because you never know. 😁
🔹Common Application (commonapp.org) is your friend. You’ll probably be able to find most of your colleges on it, but not every college is available, like the UCs and the CSUs if you live in California, for example. The UCs have their own website (admissions.universityofcalifornia.edu) but I don’t know that much about the CSUs :(
🔹Submit your essays in at least a week before the deadline. High traffic on due dates can cause websites to crash and your application might not go through and that would be beyond terrible 😖
🔹Get your essays proofread by a trusted (English) teacher. Family members tend to try to censor your essays. - 3-
🔹Pace yourself when writing essays. There will be quite a few essays to write depending on how many colleges you applied to and how many supplements they have, so you need to budget your time properly. My teacher suggested about two essays a week if you have a whole bunch :’D
🔹Write your essays on a word processor first (most websites recommend that you do this but it’s good to remind you anyways). It’s a good preliminary grammar check and it helps count how many words you have too.
🔹You should probably do a little research on the colleges you want to attend. Looking at their official websites is definitely a good idea. Colleges love it when you know stuff about them. It shows that you are interested and actually do want to go to their school. Colleges are more likely to admit someone who is actively interested in their school because space is at a premium and they'd prefer not to waste a slot on someone who might not attend even though the college has accepted them.
Okay, now we’re at the important part! The one thing that you need to remember the most is:
🔹The colleges mainly want to get to know you and what kind of person you are, and these essays are a form of interview, except you have the advantage of being able to plan out what you want to say. So yeah it’s fine to have a more conversational tone and to be funny, but it’s still a formal interview. I can’t tell you how many times I almost used emojis in my essays LOL- another reason to get proofread. 😅
🔹It is so easy to get caught up in how much your friends/family/mentors inspire you that you start telling their story instead of yours. Be careful! It’s definitely okay to talk about them, but be sure to connect it to yourself. How did they affect/inspire you? What did you learn from them? Et cetera.
🔹The basic formula of your essays should be: Problem -> Resolution -> Reflection with most of the emphasis placed on the reflection. Colleges love that growth of character stuff. But yeah the reflection is the most telling part in regards to your character, you know, what you learned from solving that problem and how you matured or got wiser and stuff. Especially in regards to UC essays where words need to be budgeted, you need to focus on what’s important, and what’s important is YOU.
🔹I can remember feeling a little bitter that I didn’t have some extraordinary story to write about because I thought colleges ate that crap up but actually you don’t need to get into a bear accident and lose all your limbs yet manage to win the tiddlywinks world championships in order to impress colleges. I mean, yeah if you do have an incredible story you better write about it! But the whole point is the reason why those essays appear to be a hit with colleges is because those events usually have a huge impact on the formation of character of the writer. And the events that affect you the most aren’t always grand and explosive. There are some beautiful lessons to be learned in the little moments of course. Thinking about it now, I think subtler essays like that probably impress colleges more. 😗 It’s mostly about the quality of the writing and your character anyways.
🔹It’s okay to talk about your deeply personal problems, like depression or addictions etc. but only if you are/have been treated and are making progress. Don’t make yourself look like a liability, even if it’s something small like never sleeping ever (one essay we went over as a class talked about the writer’s poor sleeping habits and how it bothered her family and the essay readers’ commentary showed concern over her future roommate) If you do write about it, focus on your recovery. Don’t spend too much dwelling on negatives.
🔹If it’s in your transcript (grades and classes taken), you don’t need to write about it. Another essay we went over was literally a list of courses and the grades the writer got in them and it was such a turn off even for us students- imagine how the essay readers would feel. 😑
🔹However, if you got a bad grade it might be a good idea to talk about it, especially if it wasn’t due to negligence and was instead caused by unfortunate circumstance. Bonus points if you were able to show improvement and initiative in asking for help.
In the end, this is a sort of compatibility test between you and the colleges. Yes, sort of like online dating. 😙 They want to get to know you and see if you’re the right kind of person for the kind of college that they are. So show them! You have a story to tell- we all do! You are a compilation of experiences that have formed you into the person you are today; you just have to choose the ones that are the most important to you, the ones that showcase the person you are the best. And even if you flub the essays somehow (which you won’t because you are a very smart, charismatic individual 😊) they are only one part of your application! The colleges put consideration into your application as a whole, so your essay won’t sink you. And honestly if you don’t get into a college it probably wasn’t right for you anyways. Like I said, these essays are a form of compatibility test. Their loss for passing up on someone as great as you. 😤 I would wish you luck but you don’t need it! If you continue to work hard on your applications and your schoolwork you’re sure to get into a great college! ☺️
Here is a small packet that covers some stuff I didn’t talk about or forgot about 😅
