common app essay tips

common app essay tips

Mastering the Common App Essay: Strategies for Crafting a Compelling Personal Statement

1. Introduction to the Common App Essay

The pornography of this single space of a college application has spawned card-carrying experts who dole out sage advice to any student willing to listen. Many of the experts claim to know what colleges are “really looking for,” ready to pounce on the unsuspecting teenager. Be warned. Follow the prescriptions, they suggest, and first-year success shall be yours, as long as you heed the guidance of these experts who are, after all, career professionals equipped with insider knowledge that comes from spending years in an admissions office in “consistent, though not constant” direct contact with what students should write in their Common App essays. Heed the advice, and you shall never be forced to sacrifice a Saturday night again in the name of community service. You will have created an essay that will set you apart from every other student who is likewise fighting for that coveted spot in the next freshman class. Of course, you will get in. After all, the experts know exactly what college admissions officers are looking for, and now you do, too. It’s more than passing strange that two dozen colleges profess interest in you as an individual but simultaneously use the same personal statement.

Every year, millions of high school students prepare for the challenging venture of applying to colleges. They take standardized tests, search for the right colleges, organize their extracurricular activities, tour campuses, and consult college counselors. Few aspects of the college application process are dreaded more than the infamous Common Application essay, the personal statement or the “writing supplement,” as it is known by the colleges that include it in their application. Like an unwelcome squatter, the Common App essay has taken up residence in the life of every undergraduate and those involved in the arduous journey saving a spot in the coveted freshman class of 2021.

2. Understanding the Prompt and Requirements

Ultimately, you have two goals where you want your college essay to take you – closer to the people who will be evaluating you and farther away from the rest of the pile. Start working on your college essay during the summer before your senior year. In addition to the prompts, there are other requirements that go along with this assignment. First, your essay should be typed. You should limit your essay to less than 500 words. The application will not accept a response shorter than 250 words. For some reason, having parameters for such an important essay makes students even more nervous about writing it, but this is a good thing. When you aren’t restricted by word count, you never really know how long to make it. So you end up writing a book, which means that the girl or guy reading it has to spend the majority of his or her time on your essay. That’s not good. Remember, college students will let go of anything that isn’t bolted down. After all, that iPhone bill has to be paid somehow.

The fact that the Common Application has five essay prompts to choose from is evidence that the folks there think that “uncommonness” is a good thing. Getting questions that challenge you is always a good thing. Writing about it is another way that “uncommon” can be spelled. This is precisely what you want to make your essay – an uncommon one.

3. Brainstorming and Selecting a Topic

College essays are intended to provide the readers of your application package with better insight into both the uniqueness and commonality of you. That’s a tall order for a 650-word personal statement, which essentially serves as your brief autobiography. This is the place where the admissions officers look for you to provide them with crucial details of your biography, such as grades, mechanical standardized test results, recommendations, extracurricular activities, and the like, that do not provide. It’s your chance to lead the admissions people toward a more representative picture of who you are as a unique individual and as a complement to the other demographic information they collect both inside and through the self-reporting portions of the application. Since your objective is to set yourself apart from the thousands of other applicants, it is critical to think long and hard about your choice of a topic. What makes you different from the other college-bound high school students seeking a slot in the freshman class? What is your most unique characteristic? What will the admissions people remember most about you among all the many essays they read in each admission cycle? What is important to you? What is meaningful to you? What or who has influenced you? What have you done in your young life that is consistent with the type of person you are and that you will bring to the college setting? What do you look like, sound like, feel like, taste like, and smell like, all very, very important depictions that should pervade uniquely your essay? What do you aspire to be?

4. Structuring Your Essay for Impact

In a similar vein, the Common App essay topic is fairly clear. There is a central topic, a thesis, and an implied list of supporting details, which often follow a chronological structure. The prompt asks the applicant to relate a significant personal experience, which immediately places the work firmly in the world of narrative. If you understand a little about other “outlines” related to narrative before diving into this one, you can plan your narrative strategically for the best impact and polish it for maximum effect.

The Common App essay builds in a great deal of structure. To begin with, the maximum and minimum word count for the essay are clearly stated. This may seem like a boring detail, but the word count for essays is often described as being “open,” “flexible,” or “up to the applicant.” This can be hard on an essay writer, who may wonder whether the essay is puny or bloated, but it is also challenging for the reader. It’s a lot easier to read and mark up an essay when you know roughly how long it should be. This is not to say, “longer is better” or “shorter is better,” only that word limits and guidance make things easier.

5. Polishing and Editing for a Stellar Final Draft

What if your feedback entails several frustrating close calls? The goal of the personal statement is to persuade the admissions department that you belong at the college. If you feel as if lots of your statements are about to do that, no matter how heavy-handed the editing, then several other readers are probably about to do that as well because as the writer, you’re probably injecting a strong sense of you into the essay, helping the reader see vivid examples of dilemmas and choices through your eyes.

Now it’s time to put the finishing touches on your polished gem, the personal statement. With the high stakes of the college admissions essay, it’s best to submit the essay to several people for feedback. Choose a group of friends, teachers, guidance counselors, and family members who understand writing. But understand that too much feedback can be deadly. What starts out as helpful runs the risk of making the essay impersonal, and, almost worse, making the admission counselor weary from reading the same thing over and over. Your essay should sound like you, not a paraphrase of a sentence someone else likes better.