So you’ve toured the cam­puses, taken the SATs, and filled out a moun­tain of paper­work. And yet…the dreaded per­sonal statement/statement of purpose/epic essay remains. What­ever its name, the col­lege admis­sions essay is cru­cial for an appli­ca­tion to just about any school. Many times you can use (or at least tweak) the same one for sev­eral appli­ca­tions that have fairly basic prompts, while other schools might pose a more spe­cific ques­tion. What­ever the case, a few basic rules of thumb may help smooth the writ­ing process…
1) Be your­self
It’s a cliché for a rea­son. Now is not the time to insert ran­dom poly­syl­labic words you just looked up or adopt the voice of your favorite author. The admis­sions essay is your chance to break away from the stan­dard­ized test scores and tedious forms—be your­self, but take the oppor­tu­nity to be your best self. Just strike a bal­ance between striv­ing for a well-written, dis­tinct essay and sound­ing like a dif­fer­ent per­son entirely. Admis­sions offi­cers can tell the dif­fer­ence between a gen­uine voice and a con­trived one.
2) Get as much feed­back as pos­si­ble
Writ­ing per­sonal state­ments is pos­si­bly one of the most awk­ward processes ever. I felt like I either sounded pompous or pathetic, nei­ther of which is par­tic­u­larly good for an admis­sions essay. So it’s under­stand­able that many stu­dents avoid let­ting any­one else read their drafts, but this is a big mis­take. Out­side input can dra­mat­i­cally improve your essay, from the gram­mar and mechan­ics to the actual con­tent. Ask par­ents, older sib­lings, friends, and teach­ers to take a look and offer their feed­back. If your high school has an aca­d­e­mic sup­port cen­ter, also try ask­ing some­one who works there to read the essay(s). Shar­ing this kind of, well, per­sonal writ­ing can be hard, but it’s worth it in the end.
3) Show, don’t tell
Another cliché, I know. Sorry. But it’s also true for good reason—admissions coun­selors do not want to read platitude-ridden state­ments about being a good leader or a team player. They want to know about the improve­ments you made to the school news­pa­per as its editor-in-chief or the umpteen hours spent rehears­ing with the cast and crew for the spring musi­cal. Think of it this way: admis­sions staffs read essay after essay after essay. Break up the monot­ony and make yours interesting!