Crafting the College Essay: Your Voice, Your Story, Your Admission

1. Crafting the College Essay ACCI 2015 Shana Castillo (YES Prep North Central) Elizabeth Guice (St. Andrew’s Episcopal School)

2. The Role of the College Essay • It is the place for the YOUR voice to shine through. • It is something over which YOU have complete control. • It is the most personal element of the application. Therefore, make sure it’s a story that no one could tell in the way that you tell it. • It is an opportunity to make the admissions office want to admit you. • BUT don’t overestimate the role of the college essay. “A great essay can heal the wounded, but it can’t raise the dead.” In other words, an essay might make a difference but it can’t change an academic record, test scores, or other factors).

3. How is a College Essay Different from an Academic Essay? • Pick a story about you that illustrates what you want the admission committee to know about you. • Pick a moment in time that you want share; do not try to cover a lifetime of events. • Show, don’t tell. Activate the senses of the reader. • Less is more. You only have 650 words. • Trust the intelligence of the reader. Allow the reader to make connections.

4. ApplyTexas Essay Prompts • Topic A: Describe a setting in which you have collaborated or interacted with people whose experiences and/or beliefs differ from yours. Address your initial feelings, and how those feelings were or were not changed by this experience. • Topic B: Describe a circumstance, obstacle or conflict in your life, and the skills and resources you used to resolve it. Did it change you? If so, how? • Topic C:Considering your lifetime goals, discuss how your current and future academic and extra-curricular activities might help you achieve your goals. • Topic D: Personal interaction with objects, images and spaces can be so powerful as to change the way one thinks about particular issues or topics. For your intended area of study (architecture, art history, design, studio art, visual art studies/art education), describe an experience where instruction in that area or your personal interaction with an object, image or space effected this type of change in your thinking. What did you do to act upon your new thinking and what have you done to prepare yourself for further study in this area? • Topic S: There may be personal information that you want considered as part of your admissions application. Write an essay describing that information. You might include exceptional hardships, challenges, or opportunities that have shaped or impacted your abilities or academic credentials, personal responsibilities, exceptional achievements or talents, educational goals, or ways in which you might contribute to an institution committed to creating a diverse learning environment.

5. A Sample of ApplyTexas Essay Prompt Requirements • University of Texas at Austin: All applicants must submit an essay responding to Topic C, along with a second essay addressing topic A, B, D or S. • Nursing requires that the essay written in response to Topic C focus on your goal of becoming a nurse and/or a career in nursing. Topic S, used to detail special circumstances you want considered as part of your admissions application, may be submitted as a third essay at your discretion or if you are required to submit an essay in response to Topic D due to the major you selected. (Topic D is required for those applying to Architecture and to Fine Arts’ Department of Art and Art History.) • Texas A&M University: Topics A & B are required; topic C is recommended for students who do not meet the automatic admission standards. • Texas Tech University: For students who do not meet the automatic admission standards, it is strongly encouraged that they respond to essay Topics A, B, and/or C. • UTSA: For students who do not meet the automatic admission standards, Topic C is required (one page, single spaced). • TX State University: One essay is required of all applicants (choose from Topic A, B, C) • University of Houston: No essay required

6. A Sample of ApplyTexas Essay Prompt Requirements • St. Edward’s University:You may choose any one of the ApplyTexas options. • Texas Christian University: You may choose an essay topic from TCU's options, or one of the ApplyTexas options. The TCU application requires only one essay. • Southern Methodist University: Topic A required; topic B is optional. • Southwestern University: Topic A required; topics B, C, and D are optional. • Austin College: One Admission Essay (250-650 words; topic of your choice) • Trinity University: Students applying through the ApplyTexas Application or the Trinity University Application should apply using the following essay topic: Describe a setting in which you have collaborated or interacted with people whose experiences and/or beliefs differ from yours.  Address your initial feelings, and how those feeling were or were not changed by this experience. (Topic A) • University of the Incarnate Word: No essay required • (these were the guidelines as of 7/2015… • BE SURE TO CHECK THEM AGAIN BEFORE YOU WRITE!)

7. Common Application Essay Prompts 1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.2. The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success.Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea.  What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?4. Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family. (parts in red are new this year; also new this year, the essay is no longer a requirement of the Common Application; 250-650 words)

8. Where to Begin? • Choosing a Topic - The Mindset • Write about something you know • Narrow your focus • No gimmicks…PLEASE! • Provide new information • Think about your audience • Be authentic

9. Where to Begin? • Choosing a Topic - Some First Steps • Ask for help (from parents, counselors, teachers, friends, mentors, coaches). What can they tell you about yourself that might be hard for you to see? • Think about your life before high school. Did you discover something important as a 10 year-old? Is it a reflection of who you are today? Did it in some way help you get to where you are today? • Think about the people you admire & respect. Are these people you aspire to be like? Why? In what ways are you working to be that person? (Caution: admissions officers want to learn about YOU and not just your role model!)

10. Where to Begin? • Start the Writing Process: Inspiration • Read Sample Admissions Essays • http://apply.jhu.edu/apply/essays.html • http://www.law.uchicago.edu/alumni/magazine/spring11/intheirownwords • http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/today-essay/ • http://www.hamilton.edu/magazine/summer08/more-essays-that-worked • http://www.conncoll.edu/admission/apply/essays-that-worked/

11. Where to Begin? • Start the Writing Process: Warming Up • Pick one the these options and write for 10 minutes about: • One of the prompts (Common App, ApplyTX, or another application) • Three different ideas on one of the prompts • At least one idea about all of the prompts • The result: you will have an opening paragraph, or multiple possible directions in which to go. There isn’t just one way to write an essay. There can be many viable options. Sometimes you have to eliminate the “obvious” response to get to the story you really want to tell!

12. During the Writing Process • Things to Remember While Writing • Answer the question • “Own” the essay…make it yours…that will make it interesting • Be yourself (in the words of Judy Garland, “Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.”)  • Create a scene. Make the reader hear the sounds, smell the smells, see the images that you see/remember. Use vivid language. Be specific. • Don’t overuse a thesaurus. It will be obvious. • Make sure the story relates to you. If it doesn’t reveal you, it’s not the right story for this assignment.

13. During the Writing Process • Things to Remember While Writing • Don’t “save the best for last”…the importance of the beginning. • That being said, the conclusion is your last chance to leave an impression. Make it a good one! • Write as if you are talking to the reader, like this is a conversation on paper. • College admissions officers presume this is your “best” writing; make sure that it is. Show that you know how to vary your sentence structure. Work on clarity and thought development.

14. Finishing Up the Writing Process • Finalizing your Work • Walk away from whatever you’ve written for a little while and then come back to it with a fresh set of critical (and forgiving) eyes • Edit, edit, edit • Have someone else (or a few trusted souls) offer feedback • Note: don’t have so many people look at your essay that you lose your words, your story, your voice…YOU. Also, colleges know the difference between a way that 17 & 18 year olds generally write and the way that parents and teachers generally write. • You should look at it one last time before you submit it

15. Things to Avoid • DON’T… • Write about a topic that is not interesting to you • Use generalities. Be specific. • Include a lot of cliches (for example: “I went there to change their lives, but they changed mine instead.”) • Make excuses for low grades (or anything else) with an explanation like “the classes are too easy” (boredom), or “because classes/school are so hard” (would have had higher grades at easier school). Colleges prefer to see accountability, not finger-pointing. • Tell the reader things they already know from your application • Procrastinate • Plagiarize

16. Things to Do • DO… • Think about what makes you unique and special? • Be honest. Be yourself. Be brave. • Draw upon your experiences. Write about a singular moment that made a difference for you. Help your reader experience it with you. Make it real. • Focus. Write a strong introductory sentence and paragraph. Support your thesis. • Evaluate. Is your essay grammatically correct? Is it interesting? Is it creative? • Edit & proofread. • Write it yourself. • Remember: there are no bad essay topics, but there are bad essays!

17. Reflecting on the Personal Essay “The personal essay demands that we jump in with both feet, yelling for all we’re worth… …It requires self-awareness without self-importance, moral rigor without priggishness, and the courage to hang it all on the line. It’s a hard thing to do. ~ Tobias Wolff