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Something I picked off a message board last year and it definitely helped me:

Here are a few suggestions:
1. Answer the question. If you are asked to write page 300 of your biography (an actual question) don't submit an essay about something you did in high school. High school is well before page 300 of anyone's biography!!!

2. Don't use the essay to rehash your activities, state your grades or scores or to apologize for them. Someone recently posted an essay describing a faculty member he admired. The essay said something like "I admire him because he is the one who inspired me to run for class president, to organize an Amnesty International chapter at my school, to study hard for my SATs and score a 1580..."


3. There's no "bad" essay topic, but if you aren't a good writer, try not to write on one of the common topics--the summer camp you attended and how much it means to you; the championship game and/or the lessons sports has taught you; growing up in two cultures; how working in a soup kitchen taught you to appreciate what you have; my trip to Europe and what I learned from seeing other cultures; the death of a parent or close friend. You CAN write excellent essays about any of these topics, but since the admissions officer is probably going to have read at least 100 others on the same topic, it's harder to stand out in his memory if you are NOT a good writer. One of the best college admissions essays I've ever read--it was published in Harvard Magazine--was about a father's death. It CAN be done. It's just that if you're not a great writer, it can really backfire. Death's a tough topic. If your best friend or a parent died, it certainly affected you greatly, but don't use it as a topic unless you're a truly gifted writer, just because in all likelihood you're not going to do a good job.

4. Avoid the "Save the world" essay, particularly if you're weak in community service. If you've done a lot of serious community service, feel free. But saying that you want to go to Harvard to get into a good law school, and go work for the ACLU isn't going to help if you've never been an activist. Serving Thanksgiving dinner in a soup kitchen isn't going to make you a homelessness expert so don't write an essay saying it did.


5. Avoid writing the essay you think they want to read. UVA used to ask you to write an essay about a historical figure you admire. Some ridiculously high percentage of answers were about Thomas Jefferson, the founder of UVA

6. Try to write an essay only you can write. Stanford advises you to write it "as if it's a fifth date, not a first." Try this experiment. Get together a group of friends. Have someone read your essays out loud, leaving out identifying data. (Don't do this, of course, if you're writing about something you don't want your friends to know.) If your friends can't figure out who wrote which essay, they need to be rewritten. The essay is to let the reader get to know YOU. If people who know you can't figure out you wrote the essay, it probably doesn't do that.


7. If possible, write a "slice of life essay." A friend's daughter was an All-American athlete. While riding her bike, her mind wandered. She crashed into something, fell off and was hurt. She was on crutches for a while. She wrote her essay about having to explain to people how she got hurt. Everyone ASSUMED she'd been injured in some big game and she'd have to say, "I wasn't paying attention, lost my balance, and fell off my bike." She felt absurd and she wrote an essay about that. It was an essay that was probably "different." Not every all-American athlete is going to write an essay about falling off her bike and getting hurt. One of my daughter's friends who is Mr. Supersmart wrote his essay about his step dancing class. He took it for phys ed, thinking it would be easy and he'd meet some girls (he was the only guy in the class) and darn near didn't graduate on time as a result. He came periously close to an F. The message of the essay was "Yeah, I'm a nerd, but I'm a nerd who can laugh at himself."

7. Don't come across as impossibly arrogant. Wesleyan's application asked which historical figure you would choose to have dinner with. A student wrote that the question was which historical figure should be lucky enough to have dinner with him, since he was going to become one of the most famous people in history. Despite high grades, scores and amazing academic awards, he wasn't admitted to Wesleyan. If my memory is correct, it was also Wesleyan that got an answer saying Neville Chamberlain. The student went on to explain that if he had had dinner with Neville Chamberlain, World War II never would have occurred. REJECT!!!
8. In my own view, you should vary the essay depending on where you are in the applicant pool. This is controversial advice, and many people will disagree vigorously. I think that if you are a strong candidate, you should NOT write an essay that's risky. But if the school's a long shot, go for it. A favorite essay of mine is in the book "Getting In" by Bill Paul about Princeton applicants. One is a kid with great grades and scores, who is a bit of a nerd. His only EC is marching band for which he's a section leader. His essay was about a physics experiment he did with a friend, while driving a car drunk. He made a mistake in the calculations and there was an accident. Now, this is not something one should normally write in an essay for a college, to put it mildly! But in this case, the image he was trying to overcome was nerd incarnate. The essay was well written and absolutely hilarious. It overcame the image problem.

9. Avoid the "chip on my shoulder essay." Don't say, "I don't know why I'm writing this because the only people who get into a college like this are people who went to good high schools. I went to this stupid crappy high school with NO APs, so you won't let me in and it's so unfair!!!" Or "I can't write well, so I'm sure this will be a boring essay. Don't you know the really good ones you get were probably written by some AP English teacher?!"Don't write an essay explaining why legacy preferences in Ivy League admissions should be abolished if you're not a legacy. Believe it or not, people actually do things like this.


10. Finally, the only real bias I think most admissions officers have is that they don't want kids who want to go to college simply to get a credential and achieve material success. So, I suspect that writing an essay about how you made $20,000 investing in the market or writing on page 300 of your biography that you made more money than anyone else at your investment banking firm might not be a good idea. It's also probably unwise to write an essay about how you are going to impose your views on others or prevent others from expressing views. So, I wouldn't write that you plan to become a psychiatrist so that you can "cure" people of homosexuality or that you are going to be run for office so that you can abolish divorce or something like that. But quite seriously, all viewpoints are welcome. Colleges really do want ideological diverstiy.
Good luck!


Interview Questions:

How do you like your h.s.?
Why did you apply to [Yale]?
What other colleges are you applying to?
Did you apply Early anywhere?
Tell me about your family.
Tell me about your hobbies/what you like to do in your spare time?
What are your SATs? GPA/rank?
What courses are you taking?
What courses do you like?/favorite h.s. class?
What profession would you like to enter?
What would you like to study in college?
What's your favorite book?/What have you read recently?
Why do you think you'd be a good fit for [Yale]?
Describe yourself in 3 words. How do you think your friends would describe you?
Have you visited the college campus?/What did you think?
Is [Yale] your first choice?
What's your ethnicity?/ What kind of name is that?
Have you traveled much?
Where did your parents/siblings attend college/grad school?
What are you hoping to get out of college?

By Muzicgal04 (Muzicgal04) on Friday, December 26, 2003 - 01:32 pm: Edit

that was really very interesting. Thanks for posting it

By Mastakush2k (Mastakush2k) on Friday, December 26, 2003 - 01:36 pm: Edit

no problem, i hope it helps

By Chen (Chen) on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 08:59 pm: Edit

This should be bumped.

By Mastakush2k (Mastakush2k) on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 09:11 pm: Edit

I agree

By Papalemming (Papalemming) on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 10:52 pm: Edit

Ahh... after reading that... so OWNED.

By Mastakush2k (Mastakush2k) on Friday, January 02, 2004 - 01:33 pm: Edit

bump