Steps to a Great
College
Application
Essay
According to Peterson’s
and The College Board
The Role of the Essay
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The Common Application
– Recommended form for more than 240
colleges and universities
– Personal Statement section
– This personal statement helps us
become acquainted with you as an
individual…(p4 Peterson’s)
– 5 choices
The Role of the Essay
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How important is the essay?
– The closer you are to the borderline,
the more significant a role the essay will
play in the admission decision.
– Will someone even read my essay?
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It depends…size of school, type of school,
deadline, applicant pool, GPA and SAT
scores
Role of the Essay
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Who will evaluate my essay?
– At least one admission officer
Typically alumni, then perhaps another
officer or perhaps the admission director or
assistant director
 Some colleges have admission committees
comprised of 5 to 7 people (admission
officials, faculty members, and possibly
students)
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Role of the Essay
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How do schools evaluate the essay?
– Methods vary
– Larger schools tend to use multiplescoring system (content, style,
mechanics)
– Other schools may take more of a
holistic approach, relying on written
comments by evaluators as well as
conversation among committee
members
10 Steps to a Great Essay
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1. Learn more about yourself
– Interview friends and family
Best thing about me?
 Worst thing about me?
 Most unusual thing about me?
 How would you describe me to someone
who does not know me?
 What was your initial impression of me and
how has that changed?
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10 Steps continued…
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1. Learn more about yourself
– Record your dreams
– Write down your thoughts and feelings about
issues that are most personal and immediate
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Self-esteem
Identity
Independence from parents
Academic and extra-curricular success
Acceptance by peers
Loyalty, trust, honesty
Physical appearance, attractiveness, sexuality,
10 Steps continued…
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2. Do some serious brainstorming
– Record observations in a “believe it or not”
notebook-try to see the unusual in the ordinary
as Jerry Seinfeld has mastered.
– Become a keen observer of human behavior
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Introversion vs. extroversion
Aggressiveness, assertiveness, and passivity
Friendliness and unfriendliness
Intelligences, talents, skills
Competitiveness and cooperation
Self-affirming and self-defeating behavior
10 Steps continued…
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2. Do some serious brainstorming
– Read the editorial section of the
newspaper
– Scan the magazine rack in the library
– Check out college related internet
resources
– Surf the web for interesting articles and
essays
– Read essays by the great essayists
– Revisit essays of your own
10 Steps continued…
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Great essayists
– Contemporary-Calvin Trillin, Anna
Quindlen, Dave Berry
– Modern-John Updike, H.L. Mencken,
Tom Wolfe, George Orwell
– Not-so-modern-Henry Thoreau, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, Jonathan Swift
– Writers who write about writing- William
Zinsser, E.B. White
10 Steps continued…
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3. Check out the college’s own resources
for essay ideas
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Read college newspaper
Read alumni publications
Tour the campus with eyes wide open
Investigate the history
Talk to current students
Read what the admissions application says
about the essays
– Contact the admissions staff with unanswered
questions about the essay
– Visit the school’s website
10 Steps continued…
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4. Avoid overused ideas: Seek out
overlooked ideas
– Essays about personal relationships and
influences consider…
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Your favorite teacher
Your coach
Distant relatives
Your arch-rival at school
A neighbor
Penpals
A member of a friend’s family
DO NOT write about your dog or cat!
10 Steps continued…
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4. Avoid overused: seek overlooked
– Essays about issues
Avoid the environment, world peace,
prejudice and discrimination, drugs, crime
 Consider individual rights (right to die,
AIDS, abortion, gun control, free speech),
consumerism and materialism, fairness,
justice, and equality, free trade among
nations, internet issues (privacy, alienation,
education, commerce)
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10 Steps continued…
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4. Avoid overused:seek overlooked
– Essays about your experiences, activities, or
significant events
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Avoid the college admissions process especially the
SAT and essay writing
Avoid your big trip to somewhere far away especially
if you focus on cultural awareness, yucky food,
acceptance of others, there’s no place like home.
Avoid wilderness and survival experiences
Avoid winning or losing the big game
Avoid how all your hard work paid off
Avoid summer camp
Avoid a part-time job
Avoid your most unforgettable experience
10 Steps continued…
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4. Avoid overused: seek overlooked
– Seek other personal experiences
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A seemingly ordinary trip that turned into an
unexpected adventure or self-defining event
A song, poem, novel, or other serious literary work
that made a genuine and deep impact
The time you received an unexpected gift from an
unexpected source, or the time you spontaneously
gave of yourself to someone or something
A white lie , an off-the-cuff insulting remark or a
discourtesy that helped you to grow and mature in
your understanding of yourself and others
10 Steps continued…
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4. Avoid overused:seek overlooked
– Seek other personal experiences cont.
A contribution or accomplishment of yours
not motivated by a potential external
reward
 An informal social situation that holds
special meaning to you, not holidays,
weddings, or proms
 A time when a teacher or other authority
figure enabled you to approach him like an
equal and friend
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10 Steps continued…
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4. Avoid overused: Seek overlooked
– Essays about your own personal
qualities
Avoid lists of your favorite things or leastfavorite things
 Avoid your determination and tenacity and
how it allows you to always accomplish
your goal
 Avoid how diverse you are in your interests
and endeavors
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10 Steps continued…
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4 Avoid overused: seek overlooked
– Seek those little habits of yours that
sometimes annoy others
– Seek that time you really put your foot in your
mouth
– Seek a personal possession to which you
have grown irrationally attached
– Seek particular study habits that you would
like to change
– Seek your unusual awkwardness in certain
social situations
10 Steps continued…
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5. Observe these do’s and don’ts for
theme and content
– Do write an essay that only you could writeoriginality
– Do convey a positive message overall
– Do strive for depth, not breadth
– Do think personal and anecdotal
– Do reject your first idea or angle
– Do be interesting, but be yourself
– Do write about what you know and have
observed or experienced firsthand
– Do write about something you feel strongly
about
– Do write about others as well as yourself
10 Steps continued…
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5. Do’s and don’ts
– Don’t let others decide what you write
– Don’t tell the reader “the way it is” Don’t try to
prove anything
– Don’t try to write a scholarly purely
informational essay on some researched topic
– Don’t try to guess what the admissions
committee wants you to write
– Don’t write about things that are found
elsewhere in the application
– Don’t appear overly idealistic; recognize the
merits of all sides
10 Steps continued…
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5. Do’s and don’ts
– Don’t explain blemishes or deficiencies
on your application
– Don’t write anything that might
embarrass the reader
– Don’t write an essay that reads like a
newspaper editorial
– Don’t mention popular t.v. shows,
movies, musicians, or actors
– No references to Dr. Seuss
10 Steps continued…
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6. Write, write, and write some more
– Try stream of consciousness speed
drills
– Keep all of your drafts
– Start with the four common app ?’s
– express your ideas openly on the
internet
– Know when you are finished
10 Steps continued
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4 common application questions plus
– Evaluate a significance experience,
achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical
dilemma you have faced and its impact on you
– Discuss some issue of personal, local,
national, or international concern and its
importance to you
– Indicate a person who has had a significant
influence on you, and describe that influence
– Describe a character in fiction, an historical
figure, or a creative work that has had an
influence on you, and explain that influence
– Topic of your choice
10 Steps continued…
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7. Impress with style not gimmicks
– Equally concerned with format, structure,
syntax, tone, and word choice as subject
matter
– Structure and format
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Shorter is preferable-concise
Use paragraph breaks appropriately
Do not use a 5 paragraph essay format
Avoid poetry
Do not draw on essay
Essays as essays not contracts, court documents,
or lab experiments
10 Steps continued…
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7. Impress with style not gimmicks
– Find an appropriate and genuine style and
tone
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Strive to write in a casual, conversational tone
Don’t try too hard to be funny, no puns
Be forceful and opinionated but not insulting or
offensive
Avoid whining, complaining, or appearing bitter,
sarcastic, or angry
Avoid coming across as overly humble
10 Steps continued…
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7. Impress with style not gimmicks
– Hook
Strive to engage the reader immediately
 Do not write “Hello, my name is…”
 Don’t ask for permission to tell about
yourself
 Stay away from the term paper style
introduction reiterating the topic or question
or itemizing the points you will make in
subsequent paragraphs
 Begin as a comedian would…
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10 Steps continued…
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7. Impress with style not gimmicks
– Begin with an enigmatic statement that makes
the reader wonder to what or whom you are
referring
– Begin with an obscure quotation
– Begin with a thoughtful question
– Begin with a trivial observation that anyone
can relate to but no one would think to use in a
hook
– Begin with a paradox
– Begin with a gross generalization
– Begin with someone else’s opinion or theory
– Begin with a confession
– Begin with an overly obvious statement
10 Steps continued…
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7. Impress with style not gimmicks
– Essay endings (not summary or conclusion!)
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Do provide closure-”bookends” or come full circle
Do answer any posed question or end any created
suspense
Do use short, forceful sentences
Don’t address the admissions committee
Don’t use words like “finally” or “in conclusion”
Don’t repeat or sum up in any way
Don’t end your essay with a quotation
10 Steps continued..
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7. Impress with style not gimmicks
– Include a title for your essay only if it helps to
communicate your message or if you have an
irresistible idea, otherwise DO NOT title your
essay
– Use effective word choice
– Avoid certain words:responsibility, goal,
interact, develop, role, integrity, leadership,
excellence, interpersonal
– Avoid slang and currently popular buzz
phrases
– Avoid superfluous words:obviously,
somewhat, I think or I believe, first, second,
etc., however, thus, in conclusion
– Avoid technical, scientific, and obscure “SAT-
10 Steps continued…
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7. Impress with style not gimmicks
– Do’s for stylistic devices
Do use analogies
 Do incorporate dialogue
 Do mix up sentence length
 Do use logical paragraph breaks
 Do use the active voice
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10 Steps continued…
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7 Impress with style not gimmicks
– Don’ts for stylistic devices
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Don’t tell the reader explicitly “I am a unique and
interesting person”
Don’t parody a well-known writer or literary work
Don’t use alliteration
Don’t start too many sentences with the word “I”
Don’t use “a lot of”
Don’t necessarily write entirely in complete
sentences
10 Steps continued…
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8. Avoid careless errors and
grammatical blunders
– Actually read through for spelling/word
usage errors
– Get the school name right!
– Have someone read it for grammatical
errors
10 Steps continued…
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9. Obtain useful feedback and fine-tune
your essay
– Ask someone to read it and respond to the
question, “If you didn’t know me, what would
you say about the person who wrote the
essay?”
– Set the draft aside for several days, then
reread
– Post pieces of drafts on relevant internet
newsgroups and bulletin boards for feedbackdon’t let on that it is for an application
– Don’t ask for too may perspectives on your
essay
– If described as “cute, humorous, or clever”
revise so it is not!
10 Steps continued…
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10. Package and present your essay
appropriately
– If permitted present essay on a separate sheet
of paper
– Number each page and include a header with
your name and social security number
– Assemble your essays properly
– Comply with page restrictions
– Don’t worry too much about word counts
– Type every essay using readable fonts and
ample margins
– Think twice before submitting supplementary
materials
– Do not submit essays on video or audiotape