Pre-Writing: 1. Keep note of various inspiring experiences in your life. This is a great way of helping you with writer’s block. 2. Give yourself time to edit your drafts. It is important that you do not wait the night or even the week before your essay is due. This does not give you time to polish it and it leads to an excess amount of unnecessary and preventable stress. College admission readers do not simply read the story; they also pay attention to spelling and grammar. 3. Understand and answer the question. This seems like an obvious tip, but surprisingly many applicants struggle to follow it. Oftentimes, applicants are given a prompt such as “Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.” and spend too much time describing the story instead of reflecting. To show your true personality, it is essential that you explain rather than tell.
Writing: 4. Open with a BANG! This may seem intimidating at first, but it is important that you grab the reader’s attention at the start of your paper. One way you can achieve this is by initially posing a question, experience, or thought. By doing this, you can show the reader that you are reflecting on this story right from the beginning. 5. Focus on your course. Why should you be chosen for this major/school? Applicants usually speak in very broad terms about how they are hard-working students that volunteer and get good grades. Although this is great, it would be more intriguing to the readers if the “Why?” question is answered. For example, if you are interested in applying for a certain major, talk specifically about that field and connect it to your extracurriculars. This gives your story meaning and shows the readers that you follow and work hard toward your goals/passions. 6. Don’t waste words. Although this may seem tempting, it makes your essay seem half-finished and awkward. You should be concise when explaining your stories, but also sound professional and genuine. Do not use too many adjectives or over explain your story. College admission readers can tell if you are adding “fluff”. 7. Don’t brag too much about your achievements. Similar to an in-person interview, it is important to weave your achievements through your stories and showcase your great qualities more subtly. Don’t directly point out your strengths, but instead explain it through your experience (actions/feelings/thoughts).
Post-Writing: 8. Ask for Advice! After reading your drafts over and over, you may start to overthink or even overlook things in your essay. Having others read your draft (especially teachers) will allow you to catch grammar and spelling errors and also help you find out if a certain part of your personal statement needs to be clarified. 9. Trust yourself. You know yourself the best. Not all of the advice that you are given must be taken and followed. 10. Don’t be too clingy. After every draft, give yourself a few days before returning to it. Coming back to the essay with fresh eyes, helps you make more efficient changes.
What do I write about in my personal statement? By Anita
If you havent already, please read over Alfred’s post on how to approach a personal statement; I will just briefly add onto his thoughts!
Like Alfred said, this is a PERSONAL statement. Personal is in the title and that means they want to get to know you aside from the number on your transcript and what extracurricular activities you have done because those things do not define you. Thus, you should stray away from writing about anything that was already mentioned or listed in your application since they already know those things. I am not saying not to mention anything at all from your application, but you can build onto them instead of saying “I was president of this club.” You can recall a certain experience or event that spotlights the type of person or leader you are.
My Experience From personal experience, I had a common theme in all of my short essays that I didn't even notice until someone pointed it out. Apparently, I wrote about each of my family members per question. I did not notice this initially because all of my stories and purpose of the stories did not match at all, but having something like this can show your college that you’re family oriented; this is something that you cannot find in your application.
How Personal? In my opinion, it is okay to get deep and personal. I know many people that have written essays and won't even let many people read them. It is okay to be vulnerable. As long as it shows who you are or maybe how you have overcome/learned, that is a viable option. Be you!
Should I Write Everything to the Major I am Applying for? Oftentimes, colleges want well rounded applicants. Rather than a perfect GPA and many extracuriculars, you can mention hobbies of yours that may help you stand out. You DO NOT have to only write about how you are inquisitive and love science if you are applying to be a STEM major. Be outside the box and maybe also mention something creative about yourself that other STEM applicants may not have/do. I personally applied as a Biology major and wrote an essay about thifting, crafting, and selling my pieces. It doesn’t hurt to be creative!
Tips for writing a college essay by Fayez
● College Essays and Personal Statements ● In the essay, you’ll tell a personal story that gives the college or university an idea of who you are. ● The best essays are thoughtful and reflective, and convey what is meaningful to you through your unique perspective. ● You should share something that is not present in other parts of your application; something that the admissions committee won’t know unless they read your essay. ● Personal statements are written more informally, and usually mirror the way a person actually speaks. ● You can use first person (in fact, this is highly encouraged!)
You would be surprised, but on average, your essay is reviewed for around 5 minutes. Therefore, it is essential that you hook the reader in straight from the beginning, and keep them engaged all the way to the end. Below are a few characteristics of a strong essay:
● You’ll want to start with a strong hook ● Avoid starting off with descriptions. Rather, an effective technique is to start directly with the action. This could either be a dialogue, your thoughts, or a surprising/unusual idea. Remember, admissions committees read thousands of essays: you need to start yours in a way you don’t think anybody else will to capture their attention.
● Discuss what makes you unique ●Everyone can claim they are “hard workers” and “passionate” and “dedicated” etc… That is why you need to write about something that is specific to you and something which the admissions officers probably haven’t heard before.
● Make sure to show, and not just tell ● When describing your qualities or character, make sure to provide specific examples that support your point. For example, which of the following 2 sentences are stronger? ● Example 1: “I am an excellent team leader.” ● Example 2: “The two years I spent as the football team captain have shaped me into an effective team player, leader, and communicator, both on and off the field. I led the team to victory in the regional championship, and was voted as best team player by my teammates for two consecutive years.” ● Both of these examples convey the point that you are a great team leader. However, example 2 does so with evidence and is much stronger.
● Do not be afraid to show vulnerability ● If you’re talking about a time you failed, it can be a great opportunity to show the admissions committee how you have developed and what you have learned from the experience.
Overall, while it can be a good thing to talk about your accomplishments, be careful where you draw the line between being proud and being arrogant.
More strategies for Essay Writing by Ashley
With so many different essays to write, it can get pretty stressful deciding what to write, how to write it, and what to prioritize. Most applications open on August 1st, and a lot of essay prompts have been released already. Summer is a good time to get a head start on everything so you can be less stressed when school starts again. Here’s some tips that’ll help you navigate some of the nuances of college application writing.
1. Cal States and Community Colleges do not require essays! It’s as simple as it sounds: you only need to fill out your basic information like demographics and activities for these applications. The Cal State applications are due around the same time as all your other college apps and the Community College one is due much later around spring. 2. If you plan to apply to a UC, write your UC essays first. There are eight UC essay prompts, and you choose four of them to respond to. The UC admissions team is looking for more straight forward responses rather than a story, so just cover the main points in the 350 word maximum. Unlike the personal statement for the Common App, which requires a more “show not tell” approach, the UC responses want you to get straight to the point without any fluff. These “essays” are called “personal insight” questions, which tells you that what the admissions committee really wants from these responses is to get to know your personality, background, interests, and achievements. All of the essays are weighted equally, so don’t stress over choosing the “right” prompts. Just choose whatever you feel best about writing and showcase yourself. Additionally, there are two reasons you should write these responses first. First, the UC application is only open for submission for a month. You can start working on the app as early as August 1st, but its final due date of November 30th is about a month earlier than most regular decision Common App deadlines, so make sure you leave yourself enough time to get everything ready. Finally, because many of the UC prompts have overlapping themes (i.e. community service, leadership, etc.) with Common App supplemental essays, you can save yourself a lot of work by making some minimal revisions (i.e. adjusting the word count) to your already polished UC essays.
3. Prioritize your essays by their due date. This may sound obvious and straightforward, but it is best to be organized about these things to avoid becoming overly stressed about deadlines. There are three major “blocks” of due dates: UC applications, early action and early decision applications, and regular decisions. As we already know, the UC application is due by November 30th and regular decision applications are due around late December/ early January. For EA/ED, the due date will usually be sometime between November 1st and November 15th, depending on which school it is. Some schools like USC also have an earlier deadline for the application if you want to be considered for a merit scholarship. These are all factors that should be researched on beforehand and carefully considered when applying. Thus, knowing how to prioritize the order of writing/finishing your essays is extremely important.
4. Get friends and teachers to do peer review/ help with revisions. Finally, the best way to polish your essays is to write drafts and edit them. Have some of your trusted peers read your essays to get feedback on things like flow, clarity, and organization. English teachers are also a great resource, and from my experience, they are usually more than happy to help you look over your essays and provide constructive criticism. Alternatively, if you would like more focused, professional help, there are many college essay editions or college admissions counselors available for hire. Hopefully, these four tips will help you on your application journey. We have been through this process as well, so know that all of your hard work now will definitely pay off next spring when admissions letters come. Remember to take some breaks in between and know that mental health is important too, so don’t worry too much! Work hard and good luck!