College Series 2: College Essays
I'm sorry, I'm supposed to write about what now? I thought, rapidly blinking my eyes hoping to see a less broad topic and a much smaller word count on the screen. I opened a blank Word document. First step, great. I rubbed my hands together, shook my head, and placed my hands on the keyboard. Okay, let's write an essay. Ready, go!
Yeah, my document stayed blank for about two hours.
College essays can be really stressful, but here are some things that will hopefully ease your mind and help you to have successful essays. Most of what I'm about to say refers to your personal essay, but hopefully some of these tips will help you with other essays/supplements as well.
More than how high you were able to score on the SAT, colleges want to know who you are, how you can fit into their school, and what you can bring to their school or school community. Your essays should not only answer those three things in some way, but they should also sound like you wrote them. You don't need to stress too much about using the thesaurus to replace every word or writing with an extreme amount of eloquence. It should be YOUR best writing, and it should have a sense of your voice. Along with your essay sounding like you, it should be as if you are telling a story about yourself. Really follow the saying of "showing, not telling", and show who you are rather than telling the colleges a bunch of characteristics about yourself. Every english teacher at my high school told me to start with a moment. A moment when you realized this, or a moment that changed this in your life, or a moment you really cherish. It can be as simple as the time you went to the beach to the first time or as complex as the moment where you first fell in love, but pick a moment you know you can expand on. Then for the rest of your essay, explain why that moment was significant and how it effects you today. For example, for my personal essay, my moment was the time my mom had asked me to read her text messages for her while she was driving, but they were in Korean so I couldn't help her. The rest of my essay was how I tried to learn to read Hangul (Korean) through discovering a K-pop group and watching their show on Netflix, as well as why it took me 16 years to accept myself as a Korean-American and how that has shaped me into the person I am today.
A big mistake a lot of students make is not asking your teachers for help. Your teachers are some of your best resources when it comes to improving your essays. I had three teachers, two relatives, and a friend's mom look at my personal essay on Common App before I submitted it. They definitely gave me a lot of helpful suggestions, but if their suggestions made the essay no longer sound like my voice, I didn't apply them. After all, I was the applicant, not them.
Try to keep your essays concise, to the point, and clear. It should be easy to follow along. Otherwise your story might get confusing or clouded. Don't be afraid to include some imagery to help the reader feel what you feel. Word count can also be something stressful for some people. The best thing that worked for me was to not worry about the word count until the end. Just write however you think your essay should go, and then you can work on adding or deleting words later.
Another tip is to read your essays out loud. Does it sound like something you would say? Is it unique? Do you draw yourself in? Is the grammar okay? Go through these checkpoints and revise as needed. Ultimately, your essay is an argument of you, so keep it interesting.
Every essay you write, personal or not, should still be about you or show a quality that you obtain. These essays are your story, so you can't really go wrong with what you write about. Just make sure they showcase what an awesome person you are. Draft out a couple different ideas, and just go for it! You can always go back, edit, write a different essay, or whatever, so just write something and see what happens. Many people before you have survived the stress of writing essays, so I believe that you will also be able to write awesome essays.
Feel free to leave any comments or questions below and I'll make sure to answer them!
More than how high you were able to score on the SAT, colleges want to know who you are, how you can fit into their school, and what you can bring to their school or school community. Your essays should not only answer those three things in some way, but they should also sound like you wrote them. You don't need to stress too much about using the thesaurus to replace every word or writing with an extreme amount of eloquence. It should be YOUR best writing, and it should have a sense of your voice. Along with your essay sounding like you, it should be as if you are telling a story about yourself. Really follow the saying of "showing, not telling", and show who you are rather than telling the colleges a bunch of characteristics about yourself. Every english teacher at my high school told me to start with a moment. A moment when you realized this, or a moment that changed this in your life, or a moment you really cherish. It can be as simple as the time you went to the beach to the first time or as complex as the moment where you first fell in love, but pick a moment you know you can expand on. Then for the rest of your essay, explain why that moment was significant and how it effects you today. For example, for my personal essay, my moment was the time my mom had asked me to read her text messages for her while she was driving, but they were in Korean so I couldn't help her. The rest of my essay was how I tried to learn to read Hangul (Korean) through discovering a K-pop group and watching their show on Netflix, as well as why it took me 16 years to accept myself as a Korean-American and how that has shaped me into the person I am today.
A big mistake a lot of students make is not asking your teachers for help. Your teachers are some of your best resources when it comes to improving your essays. I had three teachers, two relatives, and a friend's mom look at my personal essay on Common App before I submitted it. They definitely gave me a lot of helpful suggestions, but if their suggestions made the essay no longer sound like my voice, I didn't apply them. After all, I was the applicant, not them.
Try to keep your essays concise, to the point, and clear. It should be easy to follow along. Otherwise your story might get confusing or clouded. Don't be afraid to include some imagery to help the reader feel what you feel. Word count can also be something stressful for some people. The best thing that worked for me was to not worry about the word count until the end. Just write however you think your essay should go, and then you can work on adding or deleting words later.
Another tip is to read your essays out loud. Does it sound like something you would say? Is it unique? Do you draw yourself in? Is the grammar okay? Go through these checkpoints and revise as needed. Ultimately, your essay is an argument of you, so keep it interesting.
Every essay you write, personal or not, should still be about you or show a quality that you obtain. These essays are your story, so you can't really go wrong with what you write about. Just make sure they showcase what an awesome person you are. Draft out a couple different ideas, and just go for it! You can always go back, edit, write a different essay, or whatever, so just write something and see what happens. Many people before you have survived the stress of writing essays, so I believe that you will also be able to write awesome essays.
Feel free to leave any comments or questions below and I'll make sure to answer them!
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