Yes! Oh wait, I mean Ohhhh Noooo!!! It’s time to write those college applications! College applications, especially the dreaded college essay are frightening for many, many students. Emphasis on the word many. I was there. And yes I was very scared. Colleges will be looking at your college essay to evaluate YOU - to figure out if you’re the right person for their school. It’s an incredibly daunting task to pour your life story into an essay, much less into 250 words. So what can you do? How can you write the best essay out there that will hopefully lead to the much sought after letter of acceptance?

The first step to writing a successful college application essay is to read the prompt. Yes, I know totally obvious, but you would be surprised by the number of applicants out there that write about something that the prompt IS NOT asking for. So lets say your prompt asks you to write about why you want to attend their university. Simple enough…right?

Well how should you tackle this prompt? Number 1: DO NOT write about all of the wonderful things the school has to offer and how you love how good they are at something.

Admission officers already know why their school is great. They know all about the great academics, the fine athletics department, and the excellent faculty. They don’t need you to tell them.

What they want to hear is what makes you special. Why should they accept you. Pretty much every college application prompt boils down to that. Answer the question, “Why Should We Accept You?” in a really convincing way and you can look forward to getting accepted. Fail to convince them, and well… you know the story.

So how can you tell them the story of your life without sounding like the essay version of your resume? Let’s think about how stories in general are written: there’s a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Craft your essay in the same way. You have a page to tell the university about your life and you have to do it well, do it convincingly, and not put them to sleep. Oh and not to mention, you have to beat out the competition (which can be thousands of other students).

Some of the greatest stories of all time, think Romeo and Juliet, A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, etc… begin with a hook. Something to bring the reader in. So what’s your hook? Well you can begin your essay with a great quote that you love, an anecdote, maybe even a statistic. Bring your reader in and make them WANT to read your essay.

The hook should set the entire mood of the essay and relate to whatever it is you’re going to say throughout. If you begin with a quote, then remember to end your essay with that quote. A well written essay will always come full circle. How you begin your essay is how you should end it.

So how can someone use these principles to write a really good college application essay? Well let’s use a fictional example. Gertrude (totally fictional person that I made up) wants to get into AB College. She has good, but not great grades; good, but not great SAT scores; and a good, but not great list of extracurricular activities. Her prompt asks her to write why she wants to attend their college.

Step 1: Hook/ Beginning
Gertrude decides to use an anecdote to open her essay. She wants to attend AB College to major in communications. She loves to speak, make presentations, and can convey her ideas effectively. She decides to portray this by starting her essay with the story of how she learned her first words. She begins with a cute story of how as a baby she would talk endlessly to both her parents delight and misfortune. She keeps it humorous and to the point by ending the story in three sentences then moves on.

Step 2: Middle
From the hook she talks about how communication has been an important part of her life. She talks about how great her communication skills are and how she uses them effectively in school, in her volunteer work, and in her day-to-day life. Throughout this discussion she smoothly and succinctly mentions her achievements.

Step 3: End
Gertrude seamlessly refers back to her original story and reminds the admission officers how her love for communication has been innate and essentially sums up why she would make a great student at AB college.

You’d think that the easiest thing for anyone to write about would be themselves… but when you feel pressured to do so, you can often over-think the obvious. You know yourself better than anything or anyone. Tell your story. Be proud of your accomplishments. Share your life with the admission officers. Think long and hard (but not too long) about the story you want to tell. Write a rough draft and let others read it. Remember to edit edit edit! Soon enough, your essay will evolve into a real masterpiece - and you will be the artist of that masterpiece!

good luck
- anne