College Application Essays

1. College Application Essays Cap & Gown Core Session 3

2. Why do colleges, internships, and volunteer groups want me to write an essay? • Because they want to know about you • Because they want to know how effective you are at communicating • Because they sometimes have to decide between people who seem very similar and want to know how you are different

3. Why is it good that they want you to do this? • It gives you a chance to show that you are more than your grades or your work history or activities

4. Types of essay questions • Personal Statement: Tell us something about yourself that we can’t learn from your grades or test scores OR Tell us about your goals • Why us?: Tell us why this school or program is a good fit for you? • Creative: Tell us about a writer, artist, or historical figure who has influenced you OR Tell us about your sense of what is beautiful

5. Choose a type • Personal statement: most common, most flexible • Why us?: if you have identified a specific school you want to apply to that is a special interest school (Art Institute, Cornish, Embry-Riddle) • Creative: if this topic sounds interesting, choose it

6. Personal Statement • Brainstorming • Make a list of all the things, people, and experiences that have made you what you are • Think about “what you are” • Think about what you have been in the past • Think about what you want to be in the future • Which of these things is the most interesting to you and which are you most able to talk about?

7. Why Us? • Identify the specific things about this school that attract you to it. • What does it offer that other places don’t? • What are your goals at this school? • How do your skills, values, goals fit with this school? • Which of these questions are you most clear on the answer to?

8. Creative • Do you have an artist, writer, or historical figure who has influenced you? • Do you have a sense of what you see as beautiful that tells people about you?

9. Length • 250 words MAX!!