As promised, I’m back with a fresh batch of tips, pointers, and genuine words of wisdom, this time helping you to slay the most dreaded monster of all: college application essays. However, due to my stubbornness to not leave a single word of advice out, somehow this post had become detailed, one of a kind, and yes, a bit long. So I've divided it into two parts: this one deals with explaining what college essays are and more importantly, their prompts. Part two will focus solely on how to write them (without screaming in frustration and tearing out hair).
Ranging from the latest prompts, writing style, and most importantly, figuring out what to write, these two posts contain everything you need to know about vanquishing the dreaded essay and even contain details about my own experience while writing them.
I’ll start with the basics – what are college essays and what makes them different from say those essays your teachers made you write for your English Language paper?
The college essay section is an opportunity for you to differentiate yourself from the thousands of other candidates that are applying – by answering a specific set of prompts (or a single prompt), the examiner wants to know the real you, the person behind the certificates and the long list of extra-curricular activities.
This is exactly why the essay portion is so important when applying, especially for those candidates who are strong, but aren’t exact Olympiad medal level – if they can express their voice in a unique and truly memorable way, their application just stands out that much more; and believe me you need every opportunity you get to make your application shine from the rest.
Now that you realize the importance of these short pieces of writing (the word limits range from anything between 100 to 650 words), it’s time we discussed their prompts: in short, what is a college essay prompt?
Prompts are short questions, designed to help you write about a specific aspect of your life. There's a common saying that college essays are actually 'slices' of your life - important events that have shaped you, changed you, helped you mature and grow into the person you are now. I've divided prompts into five general categories:
- Common App essays: One of these prompts are required by many universities using the Common Application. The word limit is 650 words and below I've given an image of 2017-18's latest essay prompts, with important keywords highlighted in yellow.
I'm going to discuss how to write these later on, but for now just notice how opened-ended the prompts are this year. You've been given a huge opportunity to shine in whichever way you see fit. Also, note the yellow portions (keywords) I highlighted as important; I just saved you a ton of work because you're going to need these later on B)- 'Why X University?' essays: This is among the most common questions you'll get. To be honest, before I show you how to write this you should be able to come up with at least one reason yourself about why you're applying to X.
- How do you hope to use your college education?' essays: This one's common too, but it will need more though on your part. If you're an undecided major, then you should focus more on what you're hoping to learn from college. Else if you chose, for example, engineering, the admissions officer would like to know why. What do you see yourself doing with this knowledge in the future?
- Describe one of your extra-curricular activities: From among your list of extra-curricular activities, you may be told to choose one and describe it within 150 words.
- Short answer questions: These may range from 'Name your favorite quote from a book/movie' to anything among the lines of 'What's your favorite childhood memento?' Short answer questions are usually numerous and varied when they appear. Don't stress too much about answering them - as long as your answer isn't something inappropriate you'll do fine.
Apart from these prompts, you may come across, for example, a question asking you to describe how a person you admire has impacted your life in a significant way, and like that there are many others as well. Once you've developed your writing style and nailed a common question or two, the rest will become much easier.
Here ends, the first part of my article on how to nail college essays - till now, you've learned what they are and what their questions look like. Next, be prepared to decipher the most guarded secret of all: a guide on how to write them. Also, near the end of this month, I’m hoping to release another article based entirely on breaking down essay samples. Keep checking in for updates!
Suha
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