The college application process usually involves an online application, where you enter information about yourself and the classes you've taken, along with activities you participate in outside of school and an essay telling a little more about yourself. Some applications also require letters of recommendation, test scores (SAT or ACT), and sometimes an interview.
Before you sit down to complete the application, think about the picture you want to present to the admission committee. What is important for them to know about you? What is unique about you, and what will you contribute to the college community? Students often overlook some of their best qualities and attributes, because it seems normal - it's just your life, right? When completing the application, be sure to take some time and think about your activities outside of school and make a list of everything you have done. It's easy to forget some things, especially activities from freshman year. Keep in mind that what might be just regular old daily life for you could, in fact, be something a college admissions committee would be very interested in.
When it comes time to write the essay, read the prompt carefully and make sure you address the prompt. However, also remember that the underlying question in every application essay prompt is "Who are you and what would make you a good addition to our campus community?" What that means is, if the prompt asks you to tell about an influential person in your life, they don't actually want to know about your grandma (or your pastor, or your favorite teacher, or your mom or dad, or whoever that person is). What they want to know is how has this person influenced you and helped you become the person you are - and what kind of person are you anyway? If they ask about an event, it's not the event that's important; again, it's how it has affected you and how you've learned and grown from that event. So whatever the question is asking, address the prompt, but also make sure the reader learns more about who you are, what's important to you, and how you interact in the world. They should know a lot more about you after reading your essay. And I really do mean about YOU, not the soccer camp you attended in junior high.
Before starting this exercise, do the following (in order, one step at a time):
- make a list of at least 10 adjectives that describe you
- go back over the list, and change any adjectives with a negative connotation to more positive adjectives. For example, instead of "stubborn", try "determined" or "committed to my values", or "persistent".
- next, group any similar adjectives together. For example: outgoing, adventurous, risk-taker, active might be collected together in a group.
- then, choose one of these groupings of adjectives, and brainstorm ideas of examples you can give to show how you personify these traits. Using the example above, you might think of a time when you and some friends went backpacking, and you were the group leader. When you are writing your essay and trying to make sure you get these qualities across to the reader, you don't just want to say "I'm very adventurous", you want to give them examples of when you've done adventurous things.
- finally, look over the list of essay questions and complete two essays following the directions on the list.
Now, complete two of the essays, using the prompts on this list, taking into account everything discussed in this post. Again, using the adventurous example, if the prompt asks you to talk about an influential person in your life, and the idea you want to get across is that you're adventurous, you might talk about how your grandpa used to take you camping and backpacking (or traveling, or whatever) when you were young and how that helped you develop a love for the outdoors and a commitment to protecting the environment. Of course, you wouldn't write it like that, but you would give examples and details that get this idea across.
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