College Essays: Practical Tips Culled from Painful Experience

You may have heard that the college admission process is so competitive that many people wonder if they would be accepted by their alma mater if they had to apply today.

Add me to that group.

It’s not enough to be smart anymore. Kids need something extra to stand out among all those other kids who have built houses, saved rainforests and discovered cures to various diseases. What is that extra? There's no easy answer.

But I think an important part of it is the essay. I believe the essays count — and that they can be a real factor that moves an application into the ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’ pile. The essays let students show they’re clever, witty, funny, serious, enthusiastic, whatever — basically, that they’re more than just the sum of their grades, test scores and activities. 

Why do I think so? Aside from all the articles citing admission officers saying so, just think about it. A college may get tens of thousands of applications from worthy students. What if, after they sort the applications based on grades, test scores, teacher recommendations, extracurricular activities, awards, honors, legacies and donations, they still have too many applicants? What's left? The essays.

And what if the selection process begins with the essays? Then the essays form a college's first impression of a student, capable of putting them on good footing with the admissions staff or sending their application into the reject pile, before all that other stuff even comes into play.

Bottom line: If a student is going to take the time, trouble and expense to apply to college (any college — I make no distinctions), then he or she should do their absolute best with the essays.

As a volunteer who has helped high school students understand what college essays are about, and as a parent who survived the admission process once and will have to go through it again this fall, here's what I've learned.

1. Read On Writing The College Application Essay: The Key to Acceptance at the College of your Choice by Harry Bauld. I read every book, article, website I could find about college admissions before our daughter went through the process. And this is the one that stood out. It's a quick read, at only 160 pages long. I recommend that kids read it and then pass it on to their parents. That will get everyone on the same page, so to speak, about the whole essay thing. If a parent (or even a family friend) is going to read and/or comment (not write! You wouldn't even think of that, right?) on their kid's essays, they should know what Bauld, a former admissions director at Brown University and Columbia University, has to say about successful and unsuccessful essays, too.

Especially useful is Bauld's commentary on nine essay topics that students should avoid, including:

• "The Trip," or how the student spent summer vacation in a foreign land helping those less fortunate

 • "Pet Death," or how Fluffball's demise caused a rethinking of life's priorities

• "Miss America," about how the student wants world peace.  

2. Start reading a lot of essays. Do a search on college essays and you'll find hundreds of websites with samples. After a while, your kid will get a feel for what they are about. College essays are different from the essays kids typically write in high school. Just like haiku is a special form of poetry and a novel is a particular form of fiction, the college essay is unique. There are do's (show don't tell, be honest, be genuine) and don'ts (avoid puns, clichés, BS and passive verbs). 

The best sites or books on the topic offer commentary by admissions officers on why they think an essay was successful or not. That's key because what you or I might think is a good essay may not pass muster with an admissions officer.

Also check out this story, in which admissions officers at several colleges were asked to write answers to their school's essay questions.

I'm always asked if I have a favorite college admission essay. I do, but it's one that breaks every rule and is basically a big fat lie. However, it's a great example of "show don't tell." The author, Hugh Gallagher, shows he's creative, clever, interesting, smart and fun without ever saying he's any of those things.

3. Start thinking about which schools to apply to in winter of junior year — and come up with a target list by summer. There are many reasons why students and their parents may consider certain schools, including tuition and academics. But I'm looking at this solely from a project management perspective. In addition to the Common App main essay, described below, some schools require several supplemental essays. If your kid picks three schools that each require three essays, well, that's a lot of essays. Understanding how many essays you may be signing up for and whether one essay can be tweaked and used at multiple schools requires some thought and project planning.  

4. Expect that writing a good essay will take time and lots of revision. More than 400 colleges use the Common App, a standardized online admission application. Last year, the folks at the Common App limited the word count on the main essay to 500 words. In case you don't know this, 500 words is not a lot. Can you write a great essay in 500 words or less? Sure. The Gettysburg Address is just 272 words and it's one of the best things ever written. So it can be done. But your kid may not have as easy a time as Lincoln did.

And consider the supplemental essays. Some are 250 words or less. The fewer words, the harder it is. 

5. Get your kid to start thinking about possible essay topics/approaches now and try to complete the main essay for the Common App this summer. The essay questions for the Common App haven't changed over the past several years. Take advantage of that fact and try to get your kid to complete the main (500-word) by the end of summer. That way they can start working on other essays.

Colleges have their applications online, so it's pretty easy to find last year's essays topics and see what they asked. Some colleges always ask the same question. The University of Pennsylvania was famous for this one, though they stopped using it in 2010 after asking it for 20 years: "You’ve just written a 300-page autobiography. Send us page 217." Still, something to think about.

A little bit of research on the essay topics served up by favored schools may save stress later. Your kid should look at some of these essay topics as writing exercises now, so they get a sense of just how tricky they may be to answer successfully. Many high school teachers make writing a college admission essay one of their class assignments. 

6. Mechanics matter. Proofread carefully. Then proofread again. Spelling mistakes, grammatical problems and punctuation errors won't make a good impression. Can they hurt your kid's chances of being accepted? Who wants to take that risk?

Senior year is a busy one. Some kids may enroll in more difficult classes, be super involved in activities, take the SAT and/or want to enjoy their last year in school by slacking off a bit. Getting a jump on the essays will save time and stress later — for kids and their parents. — CG

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Image courtesy of flickr user Sharon Drummond.