How to Write a Great College Essay

Summer is a time when most students in our community attend camp, vacation with family, have summer jobs, or just simply relax and connect with friends. For those students entering their senior year in high school, however, summer is also the time to begin the process of writing college essays. While colleges and universities do not usually post their applications for admission to the 2016 academic year until mid-August, the Common Application (used by a majority of colleges and universities) is already online and ready for completion (see www.commonapp.org). And the essay portion of the Common Application has become a critical piece of the process as more and more schools are taking a holistic approach to admissions. This means that some students who may not have scored as well as they would have liked on the SAT or ACT, may still be able to grab the attention of admissions and gain acceptance by submitting a spectacular essay. Another reason why the college essay has become an important part of the application is because a well written essay can make a student stand out among many applicants with similar standardized test scores, grades, and activities.

So what makes a great college essay? There are many factors but the first step is to find a topic that allows the student to reveal a part of themselves that is not otherwise included on the application. For example, if the student is a Varsity athlete, they should not write about making the winning touchdown or goal, or making the winning save or throw. The student's athletic activities and accomplishments are already included on the application, and if the student is really an outstanding athlete, he or she is probably already being recruited to play their sport in college. So unless a student has done something unusual in the sports arena, such as being the only female ice hockey player on an otherwise all-male team, or playing the sport at a high level with a disability, they should choose another topic.
Perhaps the student has challenged themselves in other ways through a special program or experience, or has a special talent that they have pursued outside of school. The point is that the essay should not retell everything that is already listed on the application. The five Common Application prompts are written broadly to allow the student to write about almost any subject that reveals their character and personality. That being said, the Common Application prompts do seem to emphasize leadership and problem-solving skills, as displayed in one's school, community, or summer program. The concern with showing leadership qualities is evident in that two of the five prompts ask the student to write about an idea that they have challenged or a problem that they have solved or would like to solve. There is no doubt that colleges are looking for students that will become the next generation of problem-solvers and leaders.

Once a student has decided on a topic that is unique, the second step in writing the college essay is to catch the reader's attention from the start with an interesting "hook." Most students have already learned to begin their creative writing pieces with a statement that hooks the reader, and the same is especially true when writing the college essay. The reason for this is simple. College admissions officers are faced with the daunting task of reading hundreds if not thousands of essays from applicants each year so it is imperative that the essay catch the reader's attention and draw them in from the very first line. For example, my son, in his college application to Princeton University, was asked to write about the value of culture in his life. While many students would have interpreted the word "culture" as referring to art, music, and literature, my son was interested in learning about different cultures through the study of languages, and he found cultural discovery and enrichment through challenging himself to learn how to say "I want to eat a hamburger" in as many languages as he could master. So he began his essay with the question: "What does a hamburger have to do with learning about culture?" This opening line not only hooked the reader to find out the answer to the question, and to read on, but also identified him to the admissions staff as the "hamburger kid." His hook made his essay stand out and made him memorable. Obviously, he went on to write about the importance of cultural discovery through the study of languages, but it was the opening phrase that caught their attention.

Following the creation of an interesting hook, the third step in writing a great college essay is to introduce and recount an incident or experience, and then to develop and discuss that event in the following paragraphs in order to more broadly define what the student has learned from it that has made them a better person in terms of their ability to make a positive contribution to the college campus, in particular, and to the global community, in general. Colleges are looking for applicants who will make positive contributions to the campus community and who will ultimately make constructive contributions to society. The essay is a crucial tool in expressing the character traits and passions that a student has developed from a special experience or event, or from a belief or policy they have challenged, or from a problem they have solved or would like to solve. It is a way for the college admissions staff to take a closer look at the type of person who is submitting the application. This is something admissions officers cannot do simply by looking at standardized test scores, grades, and extracurricular activities.

The final step in crafting a great college essay is to write a concluding paragraph that takes the reader full circle back to the beginning. If possible, the ending should somehow make a connection to the first lines of the essay. While this may sound like an overwhelming task to undertake, students must remember that the maximum word limit for the Common Application essay is 650 words which is a little over six paragraphs. College essays are not long so usually the biggest problem for the student is not in writing a first draft but rather in trying to delete words once the essay is written in order to meet the word limit.

In addition to getting the structure of the essay correct, here are few additional tips to writing a great college essay. A student must give themselves plenty of time to write and to rewrite. A college essay cannot be completed in one evening. And there should be enough time allowed so that a student can finish their first draft, put it down for a week, and then pick it up to read again with fresh eyes. The opportunity to revisit the first draft will give the student the opportunity to see if the essay truly expresses what they want to say. Of course, it is always helpful to have others whose opinion you value read the essay to get their thoughts as well. The student may be attempting to express an idea that does not come across in the way they intended, and a new set of eyes may be able to pick that up.
There is certainly much more that can be written about crafting the college essay—as well as college planning— than is contained in this article, but hopefully some students and their parents will benefit from the suggestions contained here, and maybe even feel a little more motivated to start the process during the summer months before the very busy high school senior school year begins.
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Nina Cannon is a college essay tutor in Scarsdale, New York, a freelance copy editor and proofreader for publishing companies, marketing firms, and not-for-profit corporations, and a former corporate attorney in New York City. Ms. Cannon is the mother of three children who attended the Scarsdale Schools and MIT, Princeton and Bucknell. For further information on Nina Cannon, the college essay writing process, the completion of college applications, and college planning, please see www.cannoncollegeessays.com.