How To Start a College Essay: 9 Effective Techniques
A personal essay for college applications is an opportunity for admission admissions panels to get more insight into who you are and what you have to offer. It's often the most personal component of the application, going beyond grades and standardized test scores. Essays usually have open-ended prompts, allowing you to flex your writing skills and make a personal statement.
Most college applications include a supplemental essay that offers the opportunity to understand each applicant on a more qualitative level. The essay section asks about each student’s life experiences and goals with the aim to learn more about them. Colleges include the application process because the admissions board knows that applicants are more than just a GPA, extracurriculars, and test scores. These essays give applicants the chance to showcase their thinking process, resilience, and communication skills. writes, “Colleges are looking for thoughtful, motivated students who will add something to the first-year class,” and the essays are the perfect opportunity to showcase that.
Learning how to write a successful essay for college is crucial. This essay's exact weight on your chances of acceptance varies from one school to the next. But it's an element of your application that all admissions teams consider. Your essay could be the thing that gets you off a waiting list or gives you a competitive edge over other applicants.
How to write a great college application essay | Top Universities
Starting your essay in a powerful way with a clear thesis statement can often help you along in the writing process. If your task is to tell a good story, a bold beginning can be a natural prelude to getting there, serving as a roadmap, engaging the reader from the start, and presenting the purpose of your writing.
For many, the essay section is the most exciting and most stressful part of the college admissions process. It offers students the opportunity to show off what makes them unique and creative. However, most students have little experience writing personal essays. They are unaware that writing a personal essay will take just as much time, if not more than any academic paper. It requires self-reflection, articulation, and a whole lot of editing. Instead of focusing on getting into the school of your dreams, try to craft a story that you could read back in five years with pride.
Because you'll want to tailor each application to each school, expect to write multiple personal essays. Advisers typically recommend starting these pieces during the summer before your senior year of high school. This will give you ample time to concentrate on writing a college essay before you're hit with schoolwork.
Before starting the writing process, it’s important to review and address why college admissions boards want college application essays in the first place. The supplemental essays provide the opportunity to let the admissions boards know about unique traits that they can’t read in the general application. Each essay is a chance for every applicant to speak directly to the admissions board and let them know their unique story.
How to Write a Personal Essay for Your College Application
For instance, if a student has few extracurriculars, they might use the essay to explain that they used that time to work a minimum wage job to finance a college fund. Maybe a student’s GPA dropped drastically during one semester because of a life-altering event, a student’s—the essay is an opportunity to discuss how that event may have dropped their grades but tremendously shifted their perspective of life.
How to Write the Best College Application Essay
At some point, depart from your story to give some commentary. This doesn't have to be much, but something that drives home the points you're trying to make. Kurt Vonnegut and John Steinbeck were both absolute bosses at this. Basically this is the part of the essay that actually answers the prompt or addresses what you are trying to say. Even here, don't be too sweeping or broad. Just tie the story you're telling to the point you're making. You can be creative here, as Steinbeck and Vonnegut often were. Analogies, similes, and metaphors are all good devices for keeping this part interesting. If it's a really short essay, like a 200 word supplement, you're probably done with it after you finish this. Note that if you tell a really great story, you don't need this at all. (Fun side note: Upton Sinclair probably had the worst case ever of this backfiring on him. In The Jungle, he tried to jump out of the story at the end with his main point, "So we should all be Communists," but what he got instead was "We must reform the meat packing industry." This backfiring probably won't happen to you, but it helps illustrate how this device is supposed to work. Another good example that worked is John Galt's speech in the trial at the end of Atlas Shrugged.). Take the attribute or character trait about yourself that you're showcasing in your story and go one step further by explaining why you did, said, or thought those things. Unpack what it means to you, how you've grown or changed in that area, or what/how you hope to build on those attributes further. If possible tie this in with the larger theme or arc of your overall application too.
How to Write a Powerful College Application Essay
So what’s the best approach to writing college essays? The list below outlines a tried and true approach for tackling the college application essay. (Don’t worry, each section will be explored more in-depth later in this article.)
How to Begin & End Any College Essay
The most daunting aspect of the college application essay process for many applicants is writing the first draft. They might have a million thoughts running through their head about what they want to write about, or fancy hooks they’re excited to try. Maybe, they’re overwhelmed at the idea of writing about themselves and can’t even start to think about . The personal essay is a writing assignment that many high schools never assign, so the opportunity to write a personal story comes with a lot of stress. It’s important to take a deep breath, step back, and plan how to tackle the assignment.