This question is basically asking how your personal history, such as your childhood, family, groups you identify with etc. helped you become the person you are now. It offers a number of possible angles.
Your essay should ultimately have a very narrow focus. 650 words may seem like a lot, but you can fill it up very quickly. This means you either need to have a very specific topic from the beginning or find a specific aspect of a broader topic to focus on.
As I touched on above, the narrower your focus, the easier it will be to write a unique, engaging personal statement. The simplest way to restrict the scope of your essay is to recount an anecdote, i.e. a short personal story that illustrates your larger point.
"I strode in front of 400 frenzied eighth graders with my arm slung over my Fender Stratocaster guitar—it actually belonged to my mother—and launched into the first few chords of Nirvana's 'Lithium.'"
Think About How You See Yourself
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You can talk about the effects of either your family life (like your relationship with your parents or what your household was like growing up) or your cultural history (like your Jewish faith or your Venezuelan heritage). You can also choose between focusing on positive or negative effects of your family or culture. No matter what however, the readers definitely want to hear about your educational goals (i.e. what you hope to get out of college) and how they're related to your personal experience.
4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
That’s why it’s a good practice to keep a reliable collection system with you at all times as you’re preparing to write your essay. It could be your phone. It could be index cards. It could be a Moleskine notebook (if you really want to do it with panache). Just don’t store it in your own brain thinking that you’ll remember it later. Your mind may be a magnificently wonderful idea-making machine, but it’s a lousy filing cabinet. Store those ideas in one place outside your brain so that when inspiration hits you in the bathroom, in the car, on a hike—wherever—you’ll have a place to capture it and come back to it later when you need it.
This college essay tip is by Brad Schiller, MIT graduate and CEO of Prompt, which provides individualized feedback on thousands of students’ essays each year.
Instead, she describes an image of her family "huddled in front of the fireplace while drinking my brother’s hot cocoa and listening to the pitter patter of rain outside our window.” Three objects--fireplace, brother’s hot cocoa, sound of rain--and we get the whole picture of their relationship. We know all we need to know.
Your writing should provide a context within which the reader learns about who you are and what has brought you to this stage in your life. Try to tie your account into how this has made you develop as a person, friend, family member or leader (or any role in your life that is important to you). You may also want to make a connection to how this has inspired some part of your educational journey or your future aspirations.
WHAT’S your favorite piece of advice about writing a college essay?
Here is a picture of the spiral, in case you have trouble visualizing:
Here’s my favorite trick when I’ve got writer’s block: turn on the recording device on my phone, and just start talking. I actually use voice memos in my car when I have a really profound thought (or a to do list I need to record), so find your happy place and start recording. Maybe inspiration always seems to strike when you’re walking your dog, or on the bus to school. Make notes where and when you can so that you can capture those organic thoughts for later. This also means you should use words and phrases that you would actually use in everyday conversation. If you are someone who uses the word indubitably all the time, then by all means, go for it. But if not, then maybe you should steer clear. The most meaningful essays are those where I feel like the student is sitting next to me, just talking to me.
Put a little pizazz in your essays by using different fonts, adding color, including foreign characters or by embedding media—links, pictures or illustrations. And how does this happen? Look for opportunities to upload essays onto applications as PDFs. It’s not always possible, but when it is, you will not only have complete control over the ‘look’ of your essay but you will also potentially enrich the content of your work.
Just as a job application, your admissions essay should show how you could contribute to the chosen university. Getting in because you’re awesome is not enough. What are some ways in which you could bring something new to the college? How could you contribute to students’ learning? What are some projects you could design for them? How will you make the university well-known? Whatever you feel that you could bring to the table, add that to your contribution list and include it in your essay.
In the meantime, think about what you are the most excited about. Which of your experiences are worth sharing? Who is your role model and played an influential role in your life? What makes you stand out from the crowd?
Make sure that you pick a topic that you can be honest about. Lying in your college application is wrong. Make sure that you are transparent and try to avoid controversial topics. Brainstorm until you find a prompt that suits your best ideas and start from there.
A successful college essay can discuss many topics but choosing the one that makes the most sense to you is essential. Your college application is about you, so you should be the one choosing it, no matter what your parent or teacher tells you. However, you could discuss your options with an essay writing service professional. He or she could help you out with ideas if anything. Asking for a second opinion is not wrong.
Show why you’re a good fit
Your second task is choosing a topic that connects with yourself and your goals. First, you’ve got to choose the right prompt, and second, you’ve got to develop the right ideas for your prompt.
If you need help with your college application, you’ve come to the right place. This article will discuss how to plan your college essay application, choose the right topic for you, approach it, come up with an outline, and finally, how to write a successful college essay.
One of the most important moments in your life is the moment you decide to go to college. Getting in can be challenging, especially if you’ve got no idea how to prepare for this journey. Taking the SATs and applying to various universities can be draining. You might also need some help prepping for college essay.
The admissions officers are looking for honest content, so don’t try to deceive them. Make sure you don’t use words whose meaning you don’t know.
What does being unique mean exactly, though? Many students assume that they must choose an extremely rare or crazy experience to talk about in their essays —but that's not necessarily what I mean by "unique." Good college essay topics can be unusual and different, yes, but they can also be unique takes on more mundane or common activities and experiences.
Once you’ve got an essay topic picked out, follow these six steps for turning your topic into an unforgettable personal statement:
This is why we recommend reading and rereading the essay prompt
Even if the topic seems trivial, it’s OK to use it —just as long as you can effectively go into detail about why this experience or idea had such an impact on you.
#5: It Clearly Answers the Question
The very best college essay topics are those that hold deep meaning to their writers and have truly influenced them in some significant way.
By coming up with a real, honest topic, you’ll leave an unforgettable mark on admissions officers.
And with that, I wish you the best of luck on your college essays!
Q: Are there any situations where I may not want to write about my life struggles?
My favorite content-generating exercise for Narrative Structure is the Feelings and Needs Exercise. It takes about 20 minutes (but do feel free to take longer—more time brainstorming and outlining leads to better, faster writing). Here’s how it works:
A montage is, simply put, a series of moments or story events connected by a common thematic thread.
Could the mental health challenge be a brief explanation in the Additional Info section? To see if this might work for you, see how briefly you can describe your mental health challenge using factual bullet points. Devote one bullet point to the challenge, another bullet point to what you’ve done about it, and a final bullet point describing briefly what you’ve learned.
Narrative Structure
Important: I’m not saying you should pick a weird topic/thread just so it’ll help you stand out more on your essay. Be honest. But consider this: The more common your topic is . the more uncommon your connections need to be if you want to stand out.
A: For sure. Say you’re interested in becoming a doctor, but you’re applying to a medical program with a supplemental prompt asking why you want to become a doctor. If you want to avoid repetition, you might not explicitly mention becoming a doctor at the end of your personal statement (you don’t have to discuss your career at all in a personal statement
In Montage Structure, story events connect thematically.
Choose an order for your examples. Consider describing one example per paragraph.