Introduction to the College Essay: Admissions Advice Sarah O'Neill Coatesville Teacher Supreme Daily Editing

 By Sarah O’Neill Coatesville, Supreme Daily Editing

What is a Personal Statement?

A personal statement is an essay about an impactful experience or meaningful aspect of your life. Most American colleges require you to write and submit a personal statement as part of your application. Personal statements are usually about 650 words long (about a page, single-spaced.)

What is a Supplement?

In addition to your personal statement, most colleges will have extra essay questions for you to answer. These essays are called supplemental essays or writing supplements. Each college will have its own unique supplemental essays.

Here’s one example of a supplemental essay prompt:

Please share with us why you consider Duke a good match for you. Is there
something in particular about Duke’s academic or other offerings that attract you? (200 words)

Even though each college will have its own unique supplemental essays, many colleges ask questions about the same or similar topics. Once you’ve written a supplemental essay for one college, edit and reuse it for similar prompts from other colleges!

Frequently Asked Questions

Who’s Reading My Application?

Different schools have different processes for evaluating applications, but in general…
1) The regional admissions officer reads your entire application. If your
scores and extracurriculars are not very competitive, officers will read quickly through the rest of your application, scanning for any details that might make you a special case; if your scores and extracurriculars are competitive, officers will spend more time reading through your essays, recommendations and supplements.
2) If your application is competitive, it gets sent to a small committee. The
committee members read select parts of your application and vote on your admission. Here are some notes from a former Yale admissions officer:

The general process for evaluating an essay was that the application — test
scores if applicable, transcript, awards, extracurriculars, essays,
recommendation letters, and any supplementary materials — was read
front-to-back in that order. The essay comes after the testing, transcripts,
awards, and extracurricular sections, so at that point there is some idea of how competitive the student is — e.g., do they have a strong enough transcript or enough extracurricular involvement?

So in the case of students who are on the fence, the essays are read with the idea in mind of seeing if anything warrants pause. They’re also read generally to get a sense of the student’s voice, intellectual curiosity, maturity, context, interests/passions, and generally what they could bring to the campus. There are always the underlying questions in the admissions process of

1) what would the student bring to the campus and

2) what would the school be able to do for the student? So the essays are read with those questions in mind to get a comprehensive sense of who the student is.

What’s The Best Kind of Essay To Write?

The best essays are…
● clear and easy to read
● written in a semi-formal style
● unique, engaging, creative, and interesting

Clear and easy to read Admissions officers may read dozens of student applications in one day, so make sure your writing is easy to read and remember. The more clearly you get your story across, the more likely it is that your admissions officer will remember what you wrote. Use paragraph breaks when appropriate, and read your draft aloud to yourself to catch any overly long or confusing sentences.

Semi-formal
Your essay should be well-structured and grammatically correct, but the essay should sound like it’s “in your voice,” more like a story or a memoir than an academic paper. Use creative descriptions and dialogue to bring scenes to life.

Unique, engaging, creative, interesting
Your essay should be interesting (and yes, an essay can be interesting even if it’s about an everyday topic.) Don’t be afraid of unusual ideas, bold writing choices or creative risks.

Do I Have To Write The Supplemental Essays?
Yes. The truth is, these optional essays are almost never actually optional.
There are only a few exceptions:

Obviously, if a prompt is specifically for people applying for a certain major or for a specific program within the university, and you’re not applying for that major or program, don’t answer the prompt.

Second, Extenuating Circumstances essays are always optional. (An Extenuating Circumstances essay is a prompt asking you about anything really negative or unusual that affected your academics in high school: for example, a hurricane or an extended hospital stay.) The only other exception that comes up regularly is Duke’s prompt about sexual
orientation and gender identity.

Duke’s commitment to diversity and inclusion includes sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. If you’d like to share with us more about your identity in this context, feel free to do so here.

If your response to the above prompt is, “I don’t have anything to say about this,” (or “I don’t want to say anything about this,”) don’t worry about answering it.

How Much Do I Write?

For personal statements, try to reach 500–650 words. Not only do you want to demonstrate commitment to the school, but you want to maximize the amount of time your admissions officer spends looking at your application.
At the very minimum, your supplemental essays should reach two-thirds of the maximum word count. In general, students tend to write essays that meet the maximum word count of a prompt.

I Can’t Find The Supplemental Essay Prompts!

Supplement prompts aren’t always in the Writing section of the Common App: they might be in other sections of the application or even hidden until you select certain options (for example, a major-specific supplement may only pop up if you pick a certain major.) Schools will also usually post supplemental prompts on their websites, so googling “[name of school] supplements” can also help.

Prompts also come out at different times for different schools: most schools will release their prompts for that year in July and August, but some might wait longer. Make sure you’re not answering an outdated prompt, especially as many schools will change their prompts from year to year!

I Don’t Know My Major Yet!

Unless you’re applying to a very specialized school (for example, a college of engineering) you don’t have to know your major yet. However, it is usually a good idea to pick a major on your application (instead of applying to a school as an undecided major.) It gives admissions officers a better idea of who you are and what you’re interested in learning. If you’re undecided, or your experiences and extracurriculars don’t connect to your intended major, think about what your extracurriculars might indicate about your interests. If you have six years of Latin classes on your transcript for example, a Classics major might be for you.
If you truly want to apply as an undecided student, use your essays to indicate that you should have some idea of what kinds of classes you might want to take at that school. “I’m currently deciding between sociology, criminal justice, and applied mathematics majors, and I’m currently considering an additional minor in biology” is much more useful to admissions officers than “I’m undecided.”

Finally, note that none of this is binding. Choosing an intended major on your application does not mean that you have to sign up for that major once you’re admitted to the school. You can write about wanting to be a chemistry major in your application, then change your mind three days into your freshman year and start taking sociology classes. Generally, students are only required to choose a major halfway through their sophomore year of college.

Can I Reuse The Same Supplemental Essay For Different Schools?

Yes. In fact, I strongly encourage it. Just make sure that your reused essay is edited to fit the other school’s prompt and word count.

Can I Write About the Same Topic Twice?

Maybe. You shouldn’t be repeating yourself in different essays for the same
school — college essay word counts are short enough already! If you write about the same topic twice, make sure to write about different aspects of that topic. If your interest in robotics is an incredibly important part of your life, don’t write two essays about how you first discovered your interest in robotics. Write one essay about how you first discovered your interest in robotics, and one essay about how you discovered your passion for leadership at a BattleBots competition. Also — remember that the people reading your application will be able to see your transcript and extracurriculars as well. There’s no need to repeat information that you’ve
already included in the Activities section of your application.

Glossary of College Terms

Bachelor’s Degree: A four-year college degree, usually the first degree people get. This degree will be either a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) (Generally a bachelor of science is a little more specialized, and it’s related to a specific scientific field.)

Bachelor’s/Master’s Program: Also known as a five year master’s program, this is a program many schools offer that allow you to get a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in five combined years of study.

Club Sports: More competitive than intramural sports but less competitive than varsity sports, club sports teams require tryouts and are student-run. Clubs may travel for games or compete against other schools.

Coalition for College Access: Application system for schools that do not use the Common App, or if you are applying to more than the 20 schools permitted by the Common App (https://www.coalitionforcollegeaccess.org/curriculum)

Common App: Common Application, the application system that most schools use
(www.commonapp.org)

Common App Essay: Your Common Application personal statement essay, which most schools will see (650 words)

Concentration: See “major”. Some schools, like Brown University, use the term “concentration” exclusively instead of “major,” so make sure to write your essays using the term the school uses!
Course Catalog: The list of courses that a school offers. Generally these can be found on a school’s website. When you enroll in college, you will select your courses each term from the course catalog.
Course Codes: Each college course will have a unique code attached to it (for example, ANTH 101). The letters are an abbreviation of the department the course is taught in, and the numbers usually (but not always!) denote the course’s difficulty — lower numbers are easier/intro courses, higher numbers are more advanced courses. HIST 400 would be a history course, probably at the intermediate level.
Degree Requirements: These are credits you will need to complete in your college studies to earn your degree. For example, an average Bachelor of Arts degree is 40 courses/120 credits.

For more terms, feel free to reach out to saraoneil3232@yahoo.com