The best time to write your college essay is during the summer when you have enough time to chill and be reflective. Not in the fall when school starts, along with all your extracurricular activities! Here are four more tips to crush your college essay.
It’s YOU time
High school students may have a hard time being self-centered when it comes to writing their college essays. Often, your instinct is to write about an experience, another person, a favorite activity – rather than your personality, passions or quirks. It’s no surprise because your writing experience up has mostly consisted of essays on books you’ve read. Now’s the time to look inward. Fight the urge to focus on your athletic prowess, the grandparent you admire or why summer camp is awesome. You may use people, community service or experiences as launching pads to discuss yourself, yet better areas of focus are: What kind of teammate are you?; Is Nana the reason you always have a harmonica in your pocket?; Did your service trip spark a deep interest in a social issue that now drives your academic study?
Go broad or go deep
Those are the two options when exploring a topic in your college essay. Let me give an example: in writing about your budding interest in art history, you could write that you’ve always loved visiting museums, and about how your art history course in high school solidified the interest. Then you could speak to your favorite artists. That’s going broad. Or, you could evangelize about Banksy and write about his graffiti-like street art and how it makes you feel. You could elaborate by telling your audience why you admire his talent for telling an entire story anonymously. You could write about your own storytelling and exactly how Banksy inspired it. That’s going deep. By focusing on details, you set yourself apart; many people love museums and could list artists that they like. Not many have taken the time to geek out about Banksy on paper.
Show, don’t tell
If your friends, family members and teachers would describe you as outgoing and uninhibited, why would you submit an essay written in a formal, subdued tone? The same goes for you, introverts: if you’re a quiet person, write a quieter essay. Thoughtful, introspective and unassuming tones make for great college essays, too. Telling someone that your friends would describe you as silly and outgoing is, unfortunately, not enough. Admissions officers need proof – in the form of a written tone that matches your spoken one. Your job is to arm the person reading your college essay with examples of who you are so they can craft an image in their head of the student who will arrive on campus.
Show your essay to two people
Ideally, the strongest writer you know and your coach. No more. The worst thing that can happen to an essay is losing your authenticity. Of course, editing is important (*spell check, people), but when many different people give you feedback, you may lose your voice in all the changes. You’re hidden behind perfect grammar and phrases thrown in because “it’s what admissions officers want to hear.” Things you write for admissions officers are boring. And forced. And misguided. Sometimes you need to disregard the conventions of English essay writing to make sure your unique tone and style are prominent. A person who knows you really well can tell if your essay is genuinely YOU.
Use these four tips to write a stellar essay for your college application. You may also have more fun and feel more satisfied with your essay because it will represent your true self. And that’s quite an accomplishment among all the pressure of the college application process. Go you!
