College Essay
Summary: The college essay is one of the most stressful tasks at the beginning of your increasingly stressful senior year. Colleges often choose essay topics that are difficult, requiring a philosophy of life, or a major insight. Pressure from parents, counselors, teachers, and friends can make the process even more daunting. The essay is an opportunity to add a significant piece to the application, something more than can be seen through your GPA or SAT scores.
Purpose: The college essay has two purposes: to show something unique about yourself and to prove you can write.
Writer’s role: Although it may seem obvious, you will be writing as yourself. Avoid writing in a voice that is not your own.
Audience: The college admissions’ committee, a group of sincere folks who once wrote college essays and probably hated the task as much as you! They see the essay as a chance to learn something about you that your transcript/resume cannot tell them. The conventional wisdom is that an admission committee never accepts or rejects a candidate based solely on an essay, but the essay can be the deciding factor for a candidate on the edge.
Form: Does the college require a specific form? If there is room to be creative, break the five-paragraph mold!
Topics: If you know where you’ll be applying and can get an application, use one of the essays on the application to complete this assignment. If you are not sure where you’ll be applying, select one of the sample college essay topics below:
Summary: The college essay is one of the most stressful tasks at the beginning of your increasingly stressful senior year. Colleges often choose essay topics that are difficult, requiring a philosophy of life, or a major insight. Pressure from parents, counselors, teachers, and friends can make the process even more daunting. The essay is an opportunity to add a significant piece to the application, something more than can be seen through your GPA or SAT scores.
Purpose: The college essay has two purposes: to show something unique about yourself and to prove you can write.
Writer’s role: Although it may seem obvious, you will be writing as yourself. Avoid writing in a voice that is not your own.
Audience: The college admissions’ committee, a group of sincere folks who once wrote college essays and probably hated the task as much as you! They see the essay as a chance to learn something about you that your transcript/resume cannot tell them. The conventional wisdom is that an admission committee never accepts or rejects a candidate based solely on an essay, but the essay can be the deciding factor for a candidate on the edge.
Form: Does the college require a specific form? If there is room to be creative, break the five-paragraph mold!
Topics: If you know where you’ll be applying and can get an application, use one of the essays on the application to complete this assignment. If you are not sure where you’ll be applying, select one of the sample college essay topics below:
- Examine any book or work of art that has affected your understanding of the world.
- Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you and describe that influence.
- Capture your personality in a time capsule to be opened in a 100 years. What are the contents and why are they significant?
- If someone were to look through your bedroom, what do you hope your possessions would convey about you?
- Choose a person from history whom you would have liked to have met. What might have been the subject of your conversation?
- Describe a challenge you have faced. What have you gained from the experience?
- Evaluate a significant experience that has special meaning to you.
- Some inventions have made obvious impacts on the world –the computer—but many others have gone unsung. Discuss a not-so-obvious invention that has had far-reaching consequences in your life.
- Describe an important ritual your family has. What does it express? It could be a particular holiday, meal, activity, or anything else which feels unique and which embodies your family’s identity. You may want to assume your reader is about to be a guest in your home. What would he or she need to know to feel comfortable?
- Describe an ethical dilemma you have faced and how you chose to deal with it.
- Write an essay on a topic of your choice.
- Please
refer to your detailed notes on the several examples you read in class for a
reminder of the “dos and don’ts” of college essay writing as you defined them.
Source: adapted from High School Writing Projects by John Collins and Gary Chadwell