Tips and Tricks for College Admission Essays

Hey guys and gals! Writing this one a day early because my sister is visiting me in Seattle and I won't have time tomorrow:)

Speaking of my sister, she happens to be an incoming senior in high school. Senior year of high school sparks a lot of emotions: the sadness of leaving your friends, the excitement of picking out twin XL sheets (by the way, it is cannon to pick out gray and pink as your “original” room color scheme), and above all, the fear of college applications. After all, to go live life on your own, whether a 30 min drive or five hour flight from home, you have to first get into college. While there are a range of workshops you can (and probably should) take to nail your application essays, you should start by reading this entry of Sincerely, Sharon. I got a few requests to share about college admissions, so I’m going to begin by discussing the two pivotal application essays: the common application, and the “why, us” essay (which I guess is now called a supplemental essay to be fancy). If you enjoy this advice, please like this post and reach out so I know if I should also cover other aspects of college admissions, like recommendation letters, the “accomplishment-listing” piece, college interviews, etc. You can always follow me on Instagram @Sincerelysharon__ and direct message me also with any questions or personal advice, and I’d also be happy to share samples from my traumatic senior year days.

The Supplemental Essay:

I kid you not, I did not know this was the name of this kind of essay until I got an ask to help with this one and had to ask what a supplemental essay even was. Looking back though, it does make sense that this is the official title, since supplementary literally means something that enhances or completes something else, which is precisely the function that this essay serves in the college admissions process.

However strong your common application, or even your college-specific essay, college admission boards are looking for more than just verification that you want to go to their school. If this is all they were looking for, then the easy route would be to play the old copy/paste game and use the same essay for all your supplemental materials. Don’t get me wrong, the format of these essays tends to be similar, if not exactly the same, so it would be a huge waste of time to start from scratch each time. However, copy/paste won’t always work because the main purpose of supplemental essays is to do three things, which differ from school to school and program to program. #1 is the same in every essay, but #2 and #3 is where you will need to be flexible based on the school and what they offer.

1.) Establish your credibility by sharing 1-2 experiences that paint a picture of your character [past]

2.) Pick one thing about their campus that you would like to be doing a year from now [future]

3.) Take 1 & 2 and make a venn diagram – except you only care about the similarities [present]

The typical way we reference this type of essay, the “why us” essay, is actually super deceiving, because you also need to establish “why you?” How are your interests tied to this particular program, but also what specifically, will you add to further develop the program by merely just existing? The best way to answer this question is to begin with your values and build up what you care about, then BE SPECIFIC to prove that the school ALSO cares about those things. For instance, I applied to most of my schools as an English major (who’s surprised?) and when I mapped out my experiences, I chose to focus on the writing program I did at Northwestern, knowing that it would prove not only that I loved to write, but also that I had plans to use my skills to contribute to campus extracurricular involvement. Whoever ended up reading that essay was forced to actually picture me on their campus, and this is key to admission success- you need to basically paint as vivid a picture as possible for how you are going to fit into that school, like the final piece of the puzzle you find under a couch and the satisfaction of clicking it into place.

But, Sharon – I am a person, not a piece of a puzzle. How do I come off as authentic and impressive when I am in the same spot as a million others AND I have at least six other schools to write the same thing about? Not only is this a fair question, it is one of the hardest things about college admissions. We all struggle to know exactly what to say about ourselves, and then throw in that we only have so much time and so many colleges. It’s all too tempting to throw in the towel, but I promise, doing it the authentic way (and ditching chat GPT) will pay off in the long run. Here are the Do’s and Don’t’s of the supplemental essay:

• DO start early- late July is a great time to start writing and brainstorming your common app, late August is a great time to start thinking supplemental

• DON’T start with the supplemental essay. It is much easier to tell a story about you (common app) then bring the colleges into it. Start your common app in July and your supplementals later

• DO brainstorm first – one column of values/traits/skills you love about yourself, one column of experiences that support those, one column of unique college programs that support those traits and values as well

• DON’T go to college websites before you do what’s on the left. To answer “why us” you need to know what you’re looking for, so don’t let the college decide that for you.

• DO be specific. I can’t tell you how many supplementals I’ve read that pick schools for “diversity”. Being so overused, admissions counselors want you to dig deep and consider what actually makes them diverse or fun. For example, Madison is “fun” because of the giant snowball fight that takes place annually at the top of Beacon Hill, or UIUC is a great school because they have the opportunity to do computer science alongside an elective to really encourage the humanities.

• DON’T overdo it. Like I mentioned above, two experiences and two college opportunities are MORE than enough to paint a good picture, but one strong of each is even better

• DO be genuine. Why do you actually want to go to that school?!? Don’t overthink it, or wonder how to stand out. It is perfectly acceptable to like a school because of its size, location, or background, as long as you do a good job of explaining why that is comfortable for YOU.

• DON’T use rankings. No school will ever pick you if your justification is that you are smart and would be a good fit for the “smartest school in the U.S.”. Not to burst your bubble, but those rankers are put together by sponsors of the schools and don’t actually matter AT ALL.

• DO pick an experience or personality trait that means a lot to you so that you can describe how you will bring that to campus if admitted.

• DON'T rely on cringey or vague cliches, like using a school motto or color, or saying that you’re “nice” or “curious”. HOW? WHY? WHEN?

• DO cite your sources. Beyond just the website, other great sources are: -Other people (sends a message that you are already friends/family with people that are alumni or part of the family). It goes without saying to never name-drop, though -Extracurricular/student organizations list -Study abroad opportunities list -Major/Minor Programs -Social Media! More for research but you can always dig deeper to find reputable sources

• DON’T take ten minutes to browse the website and be done with it. Take a day, go to Starbucks and/or the library, and just call it exploration day. Open a notebook (remember those?) and go college by college, seeing how deep into the site you can go. Tab by tab, discover not just what they say, but what they mean. Sure the college is “diverse” and “rooted in student involvement” but how many of the students are in a student group? How many study a language? What kinds of study abroad/summer internship/research-based opportunities do they offer? This is where you get the details.

• DO wrap up by tying back to YOU, specifically how YOU will be better YOU after four years at that university. College is all about learning, so use this opportunity to remind your audience that you know that the opportunities at X campus will teach you to be a more patient, understanding, inquisitive student but also person which will also help you go into X career.

• DON’T end with the focus on THEM. The middle of your essay is about what they offer, but it is important that you leave the college admission board with a better idea of who you are and how your journey touches their school!

At the end of the day, these universities are making an investment in you, so it’s most important for them to know that you will go find a job and add to their career placement rate. By showcasing that you want in because you already feel like part of the family, you will be completing and enhancing their perception of you. Which is exactly what that word, “supplemental” means.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The common application essay:

Ah, the one that is on everyone’s mind, especially right now, since I already mentioned that July is the time you should begin brainstorming your common app essay topic. Likely the most intimidating part of the process, and the reason writing workshops are so encouraged (subtle plug that I am also offering my own writing workshop if you would like to plan out your essays with me), is choosing a topic to write about. So let’s start there.

There a series of questions you SHOULD ask yourself when deciding what to write about, and none are quite as dramatic as “Who am I and what have I learned about myself in 17 years?” I find that much of the fear comes from the fact that there are few 17 year olds out there who CAN answer that question at this point. I’ll give you some comfort for free and add that at almost 22, I also do not know the answer to that question… and I sort of doubt my grandparents can give you a coherent answer either. So take that fear out of your head, and let’s ask the real questions:

- What is your favorite (or one of your favorite) things about living the life the way you do?

- What is your least favorite (or one of your least favorite) things about the life you live?

- When I say to think of a comforting moment, what jumps out at you immediately?

- What moment or realization really threw you for a loop recently?

- What is something you find yourself surrounded by a surprising amount?

- What is your favorite food, color, character, and word? [just trust me on this one]

- What would you say is the weirdest thing about you?

- If you were to do the ultimate fun fact or mega game of “2 truths and a lie” which one would be the most shocking?

- What is something no one would know by looking at you OR reading your resume/life timeline?

- What emotion do you feel most defines your life?

- If your life thus far were a roller coaster, what would you describe as the part at the peak of the ride, right before you go plunging down and the camera takes that awful picture of you?

Write down your answer to each and every single one of these questions. DO NOT read the common app prompts. Read these prompts instead. And answer them, the same way you would answer if you were playing truth or dare with a best friend, except with only truths and the best friend is you (so you have to be fully honest).

Take a look at your list. It is pretty long, right? No way any of us are tacking our lists on a college application. So instead, circle which answer surprised you the most. It should also be the answer to the prompt that resonates the most with who you are as a person. So if you aren’t emotional, #10 is probably not for you. But if you just moved to a new state, then #4 might be one that particularly resonates.

Here’s the catch. You may think you are now ready to write an elongated version of your answer to the above prompts, but that’s actually NOT how this is going to work. Instead, you need to ask yourself-

Could I find someone else who could write the exact same thing?

THAT is the question that is going to play in your mind the entire time you are brainstorming. For my UChicago essay, I wanted to write a letter to my piano, sharing how much playing the piano has impacted me growing up. But then I had to ask myself, could someone else have the exact same story….and I had to answer yes.

So I had to go deeper, ultimately writing instead to the Middle C on my piano about my mission to create perspective and purpose for myself through community. Is it theoretically possible another dweeb out there also wrote their essay to their piano’s middle C? Theoretically, anything’s possible. But I feel confident enough that no one wrote it quite the same way, with the same goal in mind and the same experiences. That’s what you want. If someone else could have had the same story, go deeper. If envy is the emotion you’ve felt the most, what image does jealousy usually conjure in your mind? What color is it? If the envy could talk, what would it say? Go DEEP. There are endless anecdotes and tangents that come off mere words and we do not ever give ourselves the credit to dive under the surface.

Once you’ve created a topic that passes the test (aka its something uniquely you that has genuinely interwoven itself into your life), you are ready to write. Without getting too specific (feel free to reach out for this), you should abide by the following format when writing a common college application essay.

-------------------------

1.) Use a personal anecdote, or what I call a “personal polaroid”

Just like a polaroid is a prettier snapshot in time you can look back at, the same can be said of the anecdote you begin your common app essay with. Be sure to consider when the motif or theme you decided to write about began to manifest itself in your life, and start there.

2.) Show, don’t tell

IMAGERY, IMAGERY, IMAGERY! Parallelism, antithesis, metaphor, and other figurative language – whether you liked those in school or you were on Sparknotes for the larger chunk of it- are critical to storytelling. To really paint a picture, you can’t make bucket statements- you have to transport the reader.

3.) Build your organizational structure and intensity as you go

The most important thing on this lit, it is so critical to start off with the real world, and just build from there. Decide before you begin how your particular topic develops- chronologically or perhaps, thematically? This decision is critical to how you layer your stories and how you make a statement.

4.) Reach a breakthrough moment

After doing #3 a sufficient amount, every good common app essay should make it to what I’m calling the “breakthrough point”, or the climax of the story. When did it hit you that you really did learn something new? And more importantly, follow this up with the application of what you’ve done with that realization, achievement, or discovery since.

5.) Let your ending speak for itself and return to your anecdote

The first thing to do is consider, “why did this topic come up while I was brainstorming?” Whether you believe it or not, you already trusted yourself enough to decide on a topic- that was the whole point of brainstorming earlier. Continue the follow through and ask yourself what about this screams YOU? What DID you learn? What are you now ready to admit that you weren’t five years ago?

When you do wrap up the essay, do it by hinting at the above. Life isn’t a Girl Meets World episode (thank god) and it comes off very fake and disingenuous to write as if you are looking back at a movie. Your life is ongoing, so write in what you’ve learned almost as if it felt odd and strange for you to accept – because that is, in all likelihood, how it felt in the moment.

--------

When reflecting on college admissions, I like to say that the biggest misconception is that we think the point is to share with the reader what we’re good at, to somehow force feed them our accomplishments but keep them hidden. While sharing your personality is a key element of the common application (and supplemental materials), these essays are actually about two words: critical thinking.How do you think? What do you value? Are you a big picture kind of person, or do you like to tie up the loose ends with the fine details? These essays are mirrors into your soul, so that the college admissions counselor – who in all likelihood has read another 50 of these essays in the past day – resonates with you the very way that you, without even knowing it, resonate with yourself. Go write from the heart, and I promise you cannot go wrong<3