Introduction to College Essays
Which of the below is true about the college essay?
A) The college essay is the only thing that will determine my college acceptance.
B) The college essay is just like writing a regular essay.
C) The college essay is very difficult to write.
D) None of the above.
Which choice did you pick? If you picked the last choice, D, that would be correct!
Welcome to our mini-series about the college essay! Whether you are a junior looking ahead to your college application period or simply a curious reader, this post will give an overview on what college essays are all about.
After getting the appropriate mindset and understanding of what the college essay is, only then can you move to the next step of figuring out how to write the college essay.
Facts about the College Essay
The first question: What is the college essay?
The answer: As part of their college applications, students are required to write essays in response to at least one or more essay prompts, with essays as long as 500-650 words or as short as 100-200 words.
Other facts to keep in mind about the essay:
- From 2015 onwards, about 2.9 million students in the U.S. enroll in colleges as first-time students after completing high school (from National Center for Education Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=98 )
- The essays are important to your application, but are only partially important. Other factors like your academic performance, class rigor, extracurriculars, recommendations and so on also make up a big part of your application. (College Board: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-in/applying-101/quick-guide-the-anatomy-of-the-college-application)
- Writing essays will not be a fast process. Authors like Ernest Hemingway reportedly tried to write about 500 words a day, while P.G. Wodehouse could write at least 2,000 words a day (The Writer: https://www.writermag.com/writing-inspiration/the-writing-life/many-words-one-write-per-day/)
What does all of this mean? If there are millions of other students applying for college, you will want your essay to tell your own distinct story in a well-written way. At the same time, you also do not want to stress too much about just one part of your application and end up writing 50 drafts for one essay. Finally, if it takes a famous writer a whole day to write a few hundred words, you will need time and good planning to write strong college essays.
How is the College Essay Different from a School Essay?
Let’s talk about the content of a college essay. How is writing a college essay different from the other essays you write for school, and why are these differences important?
To bring it all together, what do the colleges want to know about from your essay? They want to know more about you.
Who are you? What are your talents? Your flaws? Your dreams? Your habits? The good news is that since you are the person to know the most about yourself, you are the expert writer for these college essays.
Possible Topics for A College Essay
Now that you know more about the essay and the differences between a college application essay and a school essay, what else do you need to know?
You want to know what you should write about in your essay?
Just as a movie trailer tells viewers a little bit about a movie, your essay(s) should function in the same way. Essentially, your essay can be a short story about an important time in your life or a meaningful experience you had.
For instance, you can write about a big event, like a time you won an award for cleaning up a river to save an endangered fish species. Or you can write about smaller experiences, like the summer you spent time working at a Medieval Renaissance fair. Or the time you made a comic book and published it online.
The most important things to remember about your story:
- Is it about you?
- Does it show your values (the things that are important to you)?
Want to know more about the different essay prompts and how to begin your college essay writing? Watch out for our next posts for this College Essay miniseries about the UC essays and Common App essays!
