Five Steps to Kickstart Your Application Essay
By ALYSSA PARSONS
This step-by-step guide is the college essay help you need to get started on your winning application essay.
The whole process of writing an application essay can be overwhelming. How do you express yourself to the admissions committees? What should you write about? The essay can make or break your application. With such high stakes, the whole thing can be a big, dark cloud looming over your head. It can be tempting to just keep procrastinating.
Good news: it’s not so bad if you break it down into easy, digestible steps. It can even be fun reflecting on the person you’ve become. Since getting started is the hardest part, I’ve broken down the five steps to starting your essay.
The most important part is understanding the point of the essay. It’s not a test, it’s not a resume, and it’s not to prove you’re smart — colleges will already be able to see that in your application.
Admissions officers want to see that you’re a person of character who can reflect on and make sense of your experiences — who you are and how you think. They’re looking for someone they want on their campus.
So, with this information, we can break it down and reverse engineer our way into a great essay. It’s pretty simple. And, you’re just writing about yourself, which is a topic you know pretty well.
Great College Essay = Engaging Content + Revealing Insight
You want to talk about your experiences (the content), and use that as a window into your character — your values, your qualities, who you are deep down (insight). It’s great if you can tie this to what you want to study or have as a career (if you know already — it is certainly not required).
‘Experiences’ can mean a big challenge you’ve overcome, something life-changing you’ve done, or something that ignites your passion. These don’t have to be huge, epic experiences, just something that really matters to you. Great essays have been written about breakfast cereal and SpongeBob SquarePants.
At this point, there are two options: you may have a story or passion that jumps out at you that you feel like must write about. But if you are like most people, you don’t, and you will start with the ‘character’ part and work backwards. Just follow the steps below.
- Brainstorm your values
Think, what do you want the essay to show about you? What values do you want to express? What is important to you? Make a list of a few things, qualities, beliefs, and values that define who you really are — your character. If you need a jumping-off point, try Googling ‘deep questions’ and ask them to yourself.
- Connect values to experiences
Now, think about how you can show those values in your essay. How did you develop those values? Note develop, not what did you do to show that value, but how did you learn and cultivate it? Colleges are interested in seeing that you want to grow, and framing your content as ‘developing’ makes for a more interesting essay, while providing the backbone for a narrative structure.
Now, try setting a 30-minute timer to free-write and see where it takes you. Talk to a parent or friend about how they see you — they may have some ideas. Maybe a particular event or challenge stands out, or maybe a habit, interest, or responsibility shaped you over time.
- Decide on your structure
Choose whether you want to focus on one experience or several. Your essay can either be narrative (tell a story cause-and-effect, chronologically) or montage (jump around in time to illustrate your values). If you want to focus on one event, you’ll use narrative structure. If you want to discuss several experiences/ values, you will use montage structure and connect every value to your future career, what you want to study, or goals for college. For both formats, you should start out by showing — describe images or situations — and save explaining your values and how they connect until later in the essay.
- Develop Insight
Once you know what you’re writing about (aka the content), you can be sure that you show insight by asking So what? to every point. As you outline and write, continuously ask So what? again and again and see where that takes you. Showing why each point matters will make your essay deep and insightful. You may make a note of your ideas now, or you may figure out more insights as you write.
- Write
Now that you have content and insight, all you have to do is write. Here are a couple of tips:
- Avoid the dreaded blank page by making an outline before you get started. Then be sure that you can see how each paragraph connects to the value you are trying to express.
- Don’t write about an obvious or easy experience — admissions officers read a lot about not making the team, losing the big game, service trips, and dealing with death. If you do, make sure you address it in an unexpected way.
- Don’t just say something changed your outlook — tell how.
- A vague essay is boring. Adding specific details give your essay personality.
Don’t leave writing your essay until the last minute — the key to great writing is rewriting. Revise and reread. Reread and revise again and again until you’re confident in your work.
If you’re reading this, you’ve already taken the first step to get started, so keep that ball rolling.
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