Common applications questions (pick one, minimum 250 words)

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.

Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.

A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.

Topic of your choice.

Pointers for writing a good essay:

Remember that the essay is just one part of the overall application. Consider what other parts the admissions evaluator already has: your transcript, scores, activities list, recommendations, etc. The role of a good essay is to amplify and enhance the rest of the application. It must not be redundant. It must be fresh, revealing, and interesting. Above all, interesting. If you try to guess what some unknown reader wants, and write to please him, the essay will probably turn out flat and unconvincing. The best approach is to write something that you are happy with, to please yourself. With this in mind, here are some suggestions to help you through the process:

First, critically evaluate yourself as a person.

What matters to you, what do you like and dislike, what are your ambitions?

What qualities make you a good son or daughter, a good friend, a good student, a good teammate, a good citizen of the world?

How are you different from your friends or other people in your community?

What are the quirks of your personality?

What do you care about more than anything else in the world?

What makes you happy?

What circumstances or experiences have made an impact on your life, or shaped your personality or outlook on the world?

Second, consider the essay questions.

We'll use the five Common Application questions as a basis. The application is essentially asking you to reveal yourself – your personality, your qualities, your passions, your goals – through the vehicle of the essay question. Remember, it is truly "all about you” – the questions are just there to prod you into revealing yourself.

Look at each question and consider which one(s) might work best to help you explain who you are to the admissions evaluator.

1. Has there been a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma that has made a real impact on you, really thrown you for a loop, changed the way you think about yourself or the world? This does not have to be earth-shattering – it can be as simple as making a peanut butter sandwich with your little brother, or finally hitting that high note in the song you've been practicing – as long the point of the essay is the way in which this incident made an impact on you.
2. Are you involved in or affected by some personal, local, national or international concern that, in discussing, reveals some part of your personality, or an interesting aspect of your life? Did you work as a campaigner in the national election, write letters to the Army troops overseas, or simply help local elderly citizens change to energy efficient light bulbs and fix their drafty windows? Again, the topic can be large or small, with you at the center. The danger to avoid is in writing an editorial type of piece where you give your opinion on some issue of the day: global warming, Afghanistan, abortion, without having a personal or meaningful connection to subject. Even if the reader happens to share your opinion, it is not likely to be very revealing about you or ultimately interesting to read.
3. Is there a person who has had a significant influence on you? In describing that influence, you need to be particularly original. Admissions evaluators read hundreds of essays on the way in which your mom or dad helped you become the person you are today. Lately the President has also been a common subject of student essays. Any person, even these, is a satisfactory topic, but it is often hard to come up with an original approach to someone in the public eye or someone very close to you. Writing about your first grade teacher or Chief Justice Roberts just because they might be more obscure choices doesn't accomplish your goal unless you can connect them to yourself. This is not a book report. The point, as before, is to have your choice of topic reflect back, almost as a mirror, on something unusual in yourself. If you use this essay question, you must use concrete and original examples to illustrate your point, and the influence you describe needs to result in traits much more specific than "a better person,” "more in tune politically,” or "a harder worker.” Otherwise, you'll have the admissions evaluator snoring at his desk!
4. Has a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (art, music, science, etc.) had an influence on you? If you decide that this question can help you best portray something significant about you, remember that the essay is not about Harry Potter, Abraham Lincoln or the Mona Lisa – it's about explaining how their attributes have changed or influenced your behavior or personality.
5. This last question is about diversity. Is there something in your life – academic interests, personal perspectives, or life experiences – that makes you unique, that will be a desirable quality for a college or university to add to its community? This can also be about "an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you” – but that means not only describing an incident, but revealing what you value about that encounter. You don't have to fit into a conventional "diverse” category to choose this question. Aside from ethnicity and race, you can actually add to diversity in lots of ways: politics, religion, family structure. "Life experiences” covers a lot of possibilities. This is a question that can be fun to write about if you think openly about what you could say.

Third, brainstorm.

Decide which topics will help you tell a story that will give the admissions committee a good idea of who you are - a specific quality you want to reveal, an experience that relates to your ambitions, a special accomplishment. Come up with several ideas.

Start with one topic, and write a rough paragraph with that topic in mind. Don't worry about the order or structure at first – forget the topic sentence for a minute and just get your points down.

Is this topic going to work? Try writing a short rough draft on another topic. Write on a few different topics if you need to in order to find one that you're comfortable writing a whole essay on. If you feel good about the topic, the essay is more likely to flow and represent you most honestly.

Fourth, write a complete rough draft.

Organize your ideas, identify your theme, think of concrete examples and specific stories you can tell to highlight your point.

Now you need a beginning and an end, with the essay following a logical sequence in between. However, this is not a history paper – you want the reader to keep reading, not be snoozing by the second paragraph. Be specific and get to the point – vague and general first sentences are not a good idea! Don't be so clever that the reader groans – but have specific, colorful, descriptive examples, good stories, have some fun with it! Keep the reader involved by making her feel she is getting to know the real you through your writing. She's just read 100 essays – and you stand out because you are honest, genuine, likeable, someone she'd actually like to meet.

Fifth, check the mechanics and the language.

Remember, "spell check” isn't always reliable! Do you want to say "there” or "their,” "its” or "it's?” Spell check has no idea. And even though this is not an English essay, picture that admissions evaluator with a red pen in his hand.

Check spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure.

Check that you've used the most appropriate words. Readers are not impressed if it looks as though you got your words from a thesaurus. Profanity never works to your advantage. Cut out unneeded words. Remember again how many essays your readers may be reading. You only have a claim on their attention for a little while. For the main essay, around 500 words, about one typed, single-spaced page is enough. Strunk and White's Elements of Style, the best-known style guide, has some wonderful (and brief!) advice on how to cut out extra words. You can use strong and descriptive adjectives and adverbs, but you must be succinct as well. Avoid clichés.

Is the essay active, drawing the reader through to the end effectively? Avoid passive voice unless it is absolutely needed. Did you learn something about yourself from writing it? In other words, are you a more insightful and reflective person now than when you began? When you get to the end, do you exclaim, "Yes! That's really good!” – or do you mutter, "Okay, that's done…” If the essay doesn't "sing,” why not? Go back through the pointers and figure out what you can do better. If it does, congratulations, you're done!