By An Li and Lynn Horowitz
When you apply to college, you will definitely be writing at least one essay, so we’ve thought about some pointers that can help you write a strong application essay. It is important to remember that while the essay you write is integral to your application, in holistic admissions, it is not the only thing that matters. However, writing a strong essay can set you apart from other applicants by telling a compelling story well. There are three main components to keep in mind when writing your essay: technique, topic and tone.
This overview has to do with your main essay, like the Common Application essay or Coalition Application essay, meaning that almost every school you apply to would see it. However, you can use these tips on any essay that is required as part of your application to specific schools.
Key Questions:
Who are you, where do you come from, and what do you value?
What defines or distinguishes you?
What makes you different?
What is Topic?
Choosing a topic can sometimes feel like the most challenging part of writing your entire college application. After all, the general essay will go to every school you’re applying to! There are so many different parts of ourselves and parts of our personal narrative that we are eager to share, and choosing just one or a few connected parts can itself feel like a tricky task. It’s important to keep in mind one central question when choosing your topic: Can you find the “you”?
- Don’t need to impress.
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- It’s no secret that all across the world, people not only experience similar things or go through the same events, so it might not be worthwhile to try to look into your past, looking for the most unique thing that you think you’ve done. For example, many people might try to write about how they adapted to remote learning in the face of COVID-19, and while that story might be important, you need to be able to tell more about yourself than just the circumstances. When trying to find the “you,” rather than thinking about any event you have experienced or a moment in time, instead try to look for a moment in which you feel as though you responded in a way that has since shaped how you see the world and your community, or even has colored the way others treat you.
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- Essential not special.
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- Another way to look at choosing a topic is asking the question “is this topic essential to who I am?” rather than “does this topic make me special?” When trying to differentiate yourself from others, you don’t need to necessarily look at differences that nobody else can share, because oftentimes, it might be very hard to talk about those differences in a way that reflects what kind of a person you are. When choosing your topic, the things that are essential to you are probably the things that hold the most weight in your life––even if they at first seem mundane. The college application essay can allow you to pull back the layers on that mundane thing.
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- Being genuine.
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- Above all, no matter what topic you choose to write about, it is important to remember that the best topic might be the one you are able to write the most genuinely and from the heart about, rather than something that you feel you don’t fully understand. If, for example, you are choosing between writing about two different service opportunities you participated in, you might choose to write about the service that has connected you to your community that you’ve been a part of for several years, rather than try to write about your work at a larger non-profit organization you only worked at for a few weeks, even if you think that the latter seems more prestigious––the reader will connect to your story if you can talk about something you know deeply and intimately about.
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- Threading your life together or choosing one moment.
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- Another difficulty you might encounter is trying to thread your entire life story together. Often, this can be very difficult to write a strong college essay about because you won’t be able to go deeply enough into each moment in time, and thus, the reader won’t be able to know more about who you are. Without good writing techniques, the larger narrative falls apart. It can be helpful, instead, to choose what might seem like a micro-level story in your life that you can talk deeply about and then make a statement about who you are.
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- Writing about sensitive topics.
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- One of the hardest parts of choosing a topic is deciding how much information you want to include. Above all, the choice of what to write is up to you, but you can’t forget that ultimately, the reader will be the one deciding whether or not to admit you, and you want to provide an essay that speaks to who you are, but at the same time does not make the reader feel uncomfortable. However, it is impossible to know where that line falls. What might make one reader uncomfortable wouldn’t make another feel the same way. No matter what, try to think about writing this essay for a stranger, and consider what you would feel comfortable telling that stranger about different things you have experienced, rather than writing the essay for your friend who already knows so much about you. Sensitive topics can be fundamental to who we are, so we shouldn’t be scared to tell others about ourselves, but at the same time, we have to be careful about how we tell our own stories.