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So you’ve sent in your ED/EA applications in already, or even if you didn’t go for early applications, you’re practically done with your essays. All set to go, right?
Wrong. College applications season is the bane of so many high school seniors’ lives for so many reasons: selecting the colleges for your school list, dealing with the sea of paperwork, and, of course, drafting personal statement essays for practically every school you apply to. The real reason why personal statements take so long is because they should be going through revision after revision until you can’t possibly improve them, and even then, you should be showing them to other people (such as fellow students and English/language arts/literature teachers) for fresh eyes and new perspectives.
Here are a few do’s and don’ts for personal statements – look over your current drafts and check whether you’re committing any of the below!
DO: Answer the Question/Prompt
Seriously. Too many people don’t address what the prompt asks them to, whether altogether or partially where they discuss one part but not another. It seems intuitive, but it’s one of the most important parts of your personal statement essay.
A good way to approach this potential pitfall is to break down the prompt word by word. For instance, if the prompt is: “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,” you’ll first want to define the setting, collaboration/interaction, and the people’s different experiences or beliefs. Once that’s shaped, you need to illustrate the change from initial to post-collaboration or interaction feelings, because of these people. Not a single piece can be missing from a good essay!
DON’T: Go Over the Word Limit
You have a word count limit for a reason, and admissions officers are usually so swamped with thousands of applications from all over the country that they won’t have time to read essays well over the limit. If they ask for 500 words, give them 500 or less, not close to 700.
This was one of the hardest parts of the college application process for me – I’m naturally a wordy person, and the word count limit forced me to cut down and rephrase sentences more concisely and effectively. I disliked the limit at first, until I realized that it was cleaning up my writing style and demonstrating to colleges the quality of my work.
DO: Choose the Subject Well
The specific event you choose to write your essay about, and the way you frame it will make or break the personal statement you write. Keep in mind that the main point of your essay supplements are to supplement your application, whether it’s to provide more insight into a specific accomplishment on your resume, highlight the connection between the extra-curricular activities you were in during your high school career, or maybe even showcase a window into your family life that the rest of your application won’t cover at all.
When selecting the focus of your essay, you want to be revealing another side or dimension of yourself that the college admissions officer wouldn’t know otherwise. Avoid talking about experiences in the classes of or in relation to the teachers writing your letters of recommendation, for instance, or else the redundant information won’t help you get admitted.
DON’T: Forget to Address the Impact
The event is important, but the impact of that event on who you are today is equally if not more important! As you brainstorm and write, consider what about that event not only answers the prompt, but also shows a new depth to the person you are.
Impact is the easiest part to forget because once you go through all the trouble of painting the images of the event for the reader to see, you might not think to explain why the colors you chose were significant. I needed to work on this a lot as well, to show not only how it was important but how the events I chose affected me today, in who I am and how I act. (If you can’t show these types of impacts with the event you selected, you may need to change the focus or framing of your event, or pick an entirely new event.)
DO: Take Risks, and DON’T: Be Afraid to Get Creative!
A unique, creative essay will jump out at the admissions committee officer, who undoubtedly will be reading countless essays that may fall into the same patterns. If you have a strong voice or the event you’re talking about is different (for example, if the essay is about your greatest accomplishment, you might not want to talk about the award you won at some big, fancy conference, like hundreds of other students). Again, this is your one chance to really show who you are, and taking a risk with your application essay will distinguish you from the crowd.
Essays are daunting and difficult, and every high senior applying to college is going through the struggle right now. Just remember to incorporate these “Do’s and Don’ts” into your brainstorming, outlining, and writing processes, and you’ll be just fine!
What do you need help with in your personal statement essay writing? Tell us in a comment below.
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