![]() ![]() Plus, a character’s growth and change form the backbone of every great story. An ability to learn, to adapt, to change-to grow: this reveals the student who will get the most out of a college education.Īnd it’s especially important if you don’t happen to be perfect, if you didn’t do a jillion activities and score perfect grades from age three on. Every admissions officer I’ve talked to says this is the most winning trait, the one that doesn’t show up in transcripts. That’s the main secret to a winning essay. ![]() ![]() And that one, most important thing she’s looking for is… Focus instead on the one thing the admissions officer is looking for. ![]() In the case of essay prompts, I’d suggest ignoring them at first-just ignore them at least until you’ve written a draft or two. As every media consultant will tell you, you should give the answer you want, regardless of the question. I mean, what about the questions the Common Application lets you choose from? And what about the prompts individual colleges use? Because I can already hear your objection: What about the prompts? One that hits the bullseye with your audience.Īnd what is that one thing? Let me keep you in suspense for a minute longer. Focus on that one thing, and you’re on your way to a winning essay. A particular trait that she usually can’t see in a transcript or board scores, or even in alumni interviews. Meanwhile, she’s looking for something-something she rarely sees often enough. Or she’s seeing a wordy repetition, full of “life journeys” and “empathy” for strangers. She has to read thousands of these essays-thousands of grandmothers and trips abroad and young awesomeness. Before you can do any of those things, you have to know a bit about your audience. It’s about getting and holding their attention, gaining their trust, and convincing them. It’s a sales document, an act of persuasion. Well, so what? Why can’t you just write about whatever you want? Because the college essay is not just a literary exercise. It’s just that admissions officers tell me they’re sick of reading about grandmothers. My grandmother taught me values, and then she died.Īctually, that last one doesn’t count as bragging. My rich parents sent me abroad so I could learn how to use “empathy” in every other sentence.ģ. The day I discovered that foreigners are actual people. As captain of my soccer team, we were about to lose the championship when I discovered at the last minute that I had the ability to inspire my teammates!!!Ģ. Let’s start with the Don’tsįirst, don’t brag about how awesome you are.Īdmissions officers tell me they get way too many of these types of essays:ġ. Make the admissions officer fall in love. Make the admissions officer fall in love. And this is what you need to do in your college essay: assay yourself. By assaying himself, he would assay all of humanity.Īnd this is what you need to do in your college essay: assay yourself. In the middle of a terrible pandemic, he retreated to his chateau to examine himself-under the assumption that, as a human, he shared the most important traits with other humans. At the advaßnced age of 38, Montaigne decided to do this with himself. That’s where you melt down a metal or other substance to analyze it. He’s famous for having invented the essay as a literary form. The term essay comes from one of my heroes, Michel de Montaigne. First, let’s talk about what a personal essay is and what it does. ![]()
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