The College Essay

The College Essay Now, set a timer for seven minutes and don’t stop typing until the alarm goes off. Once you have your first draft, you can move on to the revision process. The problem with these topics is not that they are depressing, but that such powerful topics can be challenging to write about. Absolutely no pet stories -- admission officers hate them. Your school may ask you “why us” but may not ask specifically about your goals. Use one or two sentences to tell them about your goals for college. Because if you don’t, how are you going to show that you are a good fit on campus? People with dreams need help making their dreams come true. In other words, Antigonehumanized the esoteric and function-driven debates I’d studied last year. Finishing the play, I was ashamed that I’d harbored such skepticism at the outset of my reading. My experience with Antigone reminds me why I get excited each time I use calculus in physics or art in cooking, and I look forward to a lifetime of making these connections. In some cases though, the school may emphasize the supplemental essay as a top priority. By better defining your growth areas, you can focus more precisely on what the school has to offer you. The same thing applies to every discipline you wish to develop â€" precise thinking and precise language will set you apart. Your goal and your past experience dictate what you need from the school. I know, I know â€" you’re thinking, nah, that sounds too hard, or too expensive â€" I don’t want to Google-stalk a professor, or haunt an internet forum, or network on LinkedIn to meet alums from a school â€" I’m busy! And you might fool your parents, or even a peer reviewer or two. That’s the case at St. John’s College, which has campuses in Maryland and New Mexico, says Benjamin Baum, vice president of enrollment for the St. John’s system. “The essay is a space for us to see that come to life. But you won’t fool the experts, who have to read literally THOUSANDS of these things. They know their own programs, and if you think you can generalize your way around campus â€" sorry, no. Every early draft of a why school essay shares the same pernicious flaw â€" blanket statements made without evidence or context . Watch the following bland comment transform into a great point â€" through action. Richardson says that the appeal of an essay on an atypical topic such as origami showed that the writer was willing to take risks. Schools do not want to hear about your church or school trip to another country or region to help the disadvantaged. You may be able to write about a trip like this only if you focus on a specific experience within the broader trip. Do not write about drug use, drinking and driving, arrests or jail time. Also leave your sexual activities out of the frame. How to create a college application list that doesn't suck. But be as specific as you can when it comes to your needs. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, you want to master leadership in college. What aspect of leadership are you looking to develop? The committee isn’t looking for any one thing in particular because part of what is so telling is what the student felt was important to share about themselves in that space,” Kim says. “It’s more about the voice than anything else,” Inzer says, noting an essay that is too clinical can mute a student’s personality. Experts say the essay should give the school a sample of his or her personality. Antigone has become my favorite book because it wraps political and legal theory around complex characters and a compelling narrative. Prior to reading Antigone , I assumed that if I hadn’t read every book that pertained to the architecture of US government, I had at least heard of them. Antigone proved this assumption wrong because Antigone itself was a case study in the actual consequences of ideas discussed by political philosophers.