What Makes A Great College Essay?

What Makes A Great College Essay? When writing about an experience like this, it can be really easy to get wrapped up in all the cool things that happened. But you can’t forget to talk about what matters. You need to talk about what you learned, about how this experience changed you, and how it helped form who you are today. Even if they do, they certainly don’t have the same knowledge and perspective that you have. To close this gap, you need to be as specific as possible. I believe the main cause of the problem is that there’s a disconnect between what we know in our heads and what we put down on paper. As I mentioned before, it’s best to start with brainstorming. Once you’ve followed the process I described and have a list of, say, topics, I recommend doing a bit of free writing for each. Put down anything you can think of that might work as an essay. The more ideas, the better, as you often find your best ideas only after getting the obvious ones out of the way. If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. The two “unique” essay prompts are already fairly well defined, so Rachel doesn’t need further brainstorming on them at this stage. Rachel will write 150 words for Michigan about her love of basketball and her growing leadership experience (she’s now team co-captain), focusing on engendering a sense of mission and camaraderie. No; probably every teenager in the world will write about that this season. The sorrow of being far away when her grandmother died? She feels sad even thinking about it, making her reluctant to write; and even stateside kids have lost faraway grandparents. Remember, you’re not Sergeant Joe Friday writing up a police report. And you’re certainly not telling your story just for the heck of it. You’re trying to show who you are and what you’re about. Furthermore, they likely know nothing about the subject of your essay. icons new College Packing List Show up to your next semester ready for anything. Listen icons new The College Info Geek Podcast Learn how to be a more effective student, even while you're doing your laundry. “Favorite work of literature” essay (UVA, ; George Mason, up to 750). Main essay for the Common App of up to 650 words. To her surprise, it takes Rachel more than a week to obtain all the data and organize these lists, and now she wishes she had started working on this during the last week of school. Now, it’s certainlypossiblethat you happen to be that guy, and I definitely encourage you to highlight any uncommon experience you’ve had on your essay. For instance, if you’ve climbed Mt. Everest or visited space or helped cure a rare disease, then yeah, you should probably mention that at some point. I’m not sure how else to put this, but there are some things best left unshared in your college app. From there, get out a piece of paper and start brainstorming ideas for each. To do this, you need to get away from simply summarizing events. For instance, let’s say you spent a summer during your high school years doing a homestay in another country while learning a new language.