The Essay Question On A College Application

The essay you write for your college application is your opportunity to present yourself as a person. It is your opportunity to tell something unique about yourself that you think is indicative of your potential.

The content of the essay should be a personal and subjective description of two or three experiences that have been most influential in your life. You should describe your feelings and your personal reactions while you were having the experience, and discuss the insights and new views you learned from the experience. Selecting a couple of events or relationships that you regard as very important to you and discussing them as you would with a friend will be a more powerful and unique introduction of you than a brief summary of many experiences. Avoid global, idealistic statements. Your goal is to introduce yourself as an individual, to arouse the reader's interest in you, and make them want to meet you.

Remember that the admissions committee members who are reviewing your application may be reading thirty or more essays at one time. They may skim and only read completely if a particular phrase or statement catches their attention. Your style should be clear, brief, and vivid. Avoid long and complicated sentences. The lead sentences of your paragraphs should be designed to attract the interest of the readers and draw them into reading every word.

Writing application essays is very difficult. It is usually helpful to pretend that you are writing to a friend because you will be more personal and direct. In fact having a friend read your first draft may help you recognize if you are being too impersonal, stilted, or philosophical. You would never say to a friend, "I want to be a doctor because I want to help my fellow man in an important and meaningful way." Nine out of ten applicants make a statement like that in their essay, and reading them gets very boring for the admissions committee.

Beware of eliminating the spontaneity and disclosure of personal feelings as you rewrite your essay. Sometimes students write about a personal experience, but after many rewrites, their final "perfected" essay becomes an objective formal description completely lacking the warmth and personal insight that was present in the first draft.