English 12CPNarrative Essay

Writing the College Application Essay

Essential QuestionsHow do senior high school students craft essays that make them competitive candidates for college admission?What should I consider in beginning my college admissions essays?What techniques and grammatical conventions should I know to write the best essay?

Warm UpDay 1How ready are you to begin your college applications? Rate your preparation so far on a scale of 1-10. Describe what youve done so far.List what you think you should do next.

Common ApplicationCommon App

Check the list of member collegesare your potential schools there? (UD is!)Registration is free.One application (one essay!) for multiple colleges.Have to request transcripts, teacher recommendations, etc., online.

Common App Essay TopicsSome students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

Prompt 1: The Background StorySome students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Key words: Identity, background, story, incomplete.

Identity: This is the pivot of the prompt. Who are you? What are you? What makes you fundamentally you? Admissions officers want to know that you know who YOU are and why you are you are.

Background: Background can be cultural, ethnic, familial, medical, physical, economic, or just about any other set of circumstances that defines who you are as a person.

Prompt 1, continued.Story: A story is a narrative, an account of events in your life that may help to shape your identity. Background is a general concept, the circumstance that you cannot change. A story has a chronology: a beginning, middle, and end. Do you have a story that helps to explain the way you see yourself, that has helped to form you as a person? That story is at the core of this prompt.Incomplete: This word is also important. If your background or story does not really help to shape your identity, then perhaps your application is complete without this story. You should then be looking at other prompts for inspiration.

Clearly communicate your identity, and then you need to give the background or story that shapes that identity.

Prompt 2: FailureRecount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?

Key Words: Incident/time, affect, lessons

Incident or time: You are being asked for a specific event in time, and the story of that event is the catalyst for this prompt. Keep the story succinctthe affect and lessons learned are the really important part here.

Affect: This prompt can, and maybe should, evoke an emotional response. Consider: the impact of this failure? The affect on others perception of you? The affect on your perception of self?

Prompt 2, continuedLessons: Lessons can be hard to articulate. So begin with a list: how many things can you pinpoint that you learned from this mistake? Were they immediate or did it take time for the lessons to sink in? Do you need to illustrate more than one lesson?

This essay should still be positive and optimistic! The college is asking you to share your worst moments, and theyve probably seen far worse than your worse! (avoid mention of illegal/immoral activities!!) Show the admissions officers that your maturity, your humility, your ability to rise above, etc.

Prompt 3: A belief or ideaReflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?

Key words: belief/idea, a time, challenged, act, prompted

Belief or idea. Beliefs are abstract ideas, ethics, morals. This essay hinges on your ethical/moral values. A time. You need to tell a story here as well. Again, be succinct and focused.

Prompt 3, continuedChallenged. Its not enough to have morals/ethics. For this prompt, you have to relate a time when you were seriously challenged and did/changed/defended something in response.

Act. This is asking for a description of ACTION. What concrete steps did you take to defend your idea or belief? For some students, it may actually be that the student took no actionbut later regretted it. (is that really what you want to tell admissions??)

Prompted. What was the pivotal moment? Where in the story did you feel compelled to act?

Prompt 4: Place or EnvironmentDescribe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?

Key words: place/environment, describe, do/experience, content, meaningful

Place or environment. This prompt will work best if you can identify a very specific location. Metaphorical environments MIGHT work, but that would be a hard essay to write.

Describe. This essay isnt a traditional narrative, its an exercise in imagery. Take your reader to this place with you, make them clearly see it.

Prompt 4, continuedDo or experience. This prompt assumes that you have an on-going relationship with this place. Be sure to clearly illustrate its importance to you. What benefit do you derive? Why is that important to who you are?

Content. You have to define what it means for YOU to feel content. What examples can you provide? How can you make this prompt about YOU, not about the place?

Meaningful. Of course this place is meaningful, why else would you choose it? WHY is it meaningful? What does it give you? What changes or growth have you made because of this place?

Prompt 5: Transition to AdulthoodDiscuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

Key words: transition, accomplishment/event, culture/community/family

Transition. You have to pinpoint one event or accomplishment that precipitated your change into adulthood. This is the linchpin of your essay.

Childhood to adulthood. This prompt assumes that you are already a young adult, no longer a child. How can you show your maturity? You cant be wishy-washy here.

Prompt 5, continuedAccomplishment or event. An accomplishment is something you have worked to achieve, whereas an event is something that just happened to you. What was the catalyst for your transition to adulthood?

Culture, community, or family. In whose eyes are you no longer a child? How has that changed the expectations placed upon you?

You need to tell a story, with a beginning, middle, and an end!

BAD College Essay TopicsYour drug use.Your sex lifeYour incarceration.Your inflated sense of self worth/heroism.One track diatribes about politics, social issues, or religion.The woe is me essay.A travel journal.A comedy routine.Excuses about why you dont look so great on paper.A listing of your accomplishments.

Types of EssaysA narrative essay tells a story. Anecdotes from your personal life often make great college application essays.Other essays will ask you to prove something. In an argumentative essay, you must make a claim and then prove that claim using facts, figures, or anecdotal information.

Advice from Admissions Staff at UNCShow us, dont tell us. For example, rather than just telling us I am an adventurous person, why not show us your adventurous spirit by recounting your latest adventure with colorful details and descriptive language? Showing is always more persuasive and interesting than telling.Focus. Dont try to tell your entire life story (its impossible), but instead think about how you can communicate one little slice of life. Can you tell a story that will illustrate one aspect of your personality? Can you zoom in on an idea that you find compelling? Can you incorporate details that will be memorable to your reader?Remember it doesn't have to be all about you. Some of the best essays are about people or ideas outside the writer's own life--these essays can still tell us a lot about the person who did the writing.

Be Concise. Dont use 10 words when five will do the trick. Abandon the thesaurus. I read essays where it is very obvious that the student wrote their essay, then replaced half the words with smarter words they found in the thesaurus. Let us hear your voicespeak to us as you would normally speak, and dont use words that you dont normally use.

Dont feel tied to the essay prompts. Use them as jumping off places, and feel free to let your creativity and instinct take you where it may. We work hard to come up with essay prompts that will inspire students to craft an interesting essay. But if your muse leads you elsewhere, go for it.

Instead of trying to figure out what we want to hear, ask yourself how you can portray your unique voice and personality. This is your opportunity to show us who you are, and make us want to get to know you better.

Advice from an admissions deanWrite about yourself. A great history paper on the Civil War might be very well written, but it doesnt tell me anything about the writer. Regardless of the topic, make sure you shine through your essay.Use your own voice. I can tell the difference between the voice of a 40-year-old and a high school senior.Focus on one aspect of yourself. If you try to cover too many topics in your essay, youll end up with a resume of activities and attributes that doesnt tell me as much about you as an in-depth look at one project or passion.Be genuine. Dont try to impress me, because Ive heard it all. Just tell me what is important to you.Consider a mundane topic. Sometimes its the simple things in life that make the best essays. Some of my favorites have included essays that reflect on the daily subway ride to school, or what the family goldfish observed from the fishbowl perched on the family kitchen table. It doesnt have to be a life-changing event to be interesting and informative.

Dont rely on how to books. Use them to get your creative juices flowing, but dont adhere too rigidly to their formulas, and definitely dont use their example topics. While there are always exceptions, the what my room says about me essay is way overdone.Share your opinions, but avoid anything too risky or controversial. Your essay will be read by a diverse group of individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, so try to appeal to the broadest audience possible.Tell a good story. Show me why you are compassionate; dont tell me you are. Show me that you have overcome great difficulty; dont start your essay with I have overcome great difficulties.Dont repeat what is already in your application. If you go to a performing arts school and all of your extracurricular activities and awards relate to dance, dont write about how much you love dancing. Tell me something I couldnt know just from reading the other parts of your application.Finally, dont forget about the supplements. The supplement questions are very important you should plan to spend as much time on them as you do on your essay. A well-written essay wont help if your supplement answers are sloppy and uninformative.

HomeworkDraft your first college essay, choosing a topic from the Common App prompts for 2013-14.Aim for 350-650 words.First draft is due Monday. This is a draftnot a polished essay.

Supplemental Essay TopicsMost colleges/universities require a supplement to the Common App, and many require a second (or third, or fourth) essay.

These topics range from the basic, Write about your summer vacation, to the absurd.

University of Chicago Supplemental Essay Questions"A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies." Oscar Wilde.Othello and Iago. Dorothy and the Wicked Witch. Autobots and Decepticons. History and art are full of heroes and their enemies. Tell us about the relationship between you and your arch-nemesis (either real or imagined).Heisenberg claims that you cannot know both the position and momentum of an electron with total certainty. Choose two other concepts that cannot be known simultaneously and discuss the implications. (Do not consider yourself limited to the field of physics).3. Susan Sontag, AB'51, wrote that "[s]ilence remains, inescapably, a form of speech." Write about an issue or a situation when you remained silent, and explain how silence may speak in ways that you did or did not intend. The Aesthetics of Silence, 1967.

U of Chicago, cont.4. ...I [was] eager to escape backward again, to be off to invent a past for the present." The Rose Rabbi by Daniel SternPresent: present1. Something that is offered, presented, or given as a gift. Lets stick with this definition. Unusual presents, accidental presents, metaphorical presents, re-gifted presents, etc. pick any present you have ever received and invent a past for it.5.In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, pose a question of your own. If your prompt is original and thoughtful, then you should have little trouble writing a great essay. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun.6.So where is Waldo, really?

University of Delaware Supplemental EssayHonors ProgramA University of Delaware education is more than the sum of its parts. Over one-third of Delaware students double major or pursue a major with multiple minors. All students participate in discovery learning from study abroad to undergraduate research to service-learning. Honors students are especially inclined to be interdisciplinary, creative, or entrepreneurial. Tell us about your unique combination of interests and how you hope to apply them to your Honors experience at UD.

University of Virginia Supplemental EssaysAnswer one of the following questions in a half page orroughly 250 words: What is your favorite word and why? Describe the world you come from and how that world shaped who you are. Discuss something you secretly like but pretend not to, or vice versa.We might say that we were looking for global schemas, symmetries, universal and unchanging laws and what we have discovered is the mutable, the ephemeral, the complex. Support or challenge Nobel Prize winner Ilya Prigogines assertion.

University of North Carolina Supplemental EssaysChoose one of the prompts below and respondin approximately 500 words.Whats your latest discovery? What do you hope to learn next?Tell us about a time when you failed. How did you react? What if anything did you learn?Tell us about a time when you struggled to convince someone of something you believed to be right. How did the process go? What was the end result?

University of Pennsylvania Supplemental EssayBen Franklin once said, All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move. Which are you? (Please answer in 300-500 words.)

Virginia Tech Supplemental EssaysRespond to up to three of the personal statements below. Please limit your statement(s) to no more than 250 words in length (each). Discuss a piece of writing, music, film or other creative work that has influenced the person you are today. Confucius once said, Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Discuss one of your most significant failures and how you rose above it.Malcolm Forbes stated that, Educations purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. Discuss what this quotation means to you. If there is something you think would be beneficial for the Admissions Committee to know as we review your academic history, please take this opportunity to explain. Our motto is Ut Prosim. Comment. The best day of my life (so far) was...Please tell a story that allows us to experience your best day. What are the top five reasons you want to be a Hokie?

*Over the course of the next two weeks, you will draft three college application essays. One of these will be polished and turned in for a grade. *Give students about 5-8 minutes to complete the warm up. Spend a few minutes talking with volunteers about their readiness. *Nearly 500 colleges and universities, including the University of Delaware, use the Common Application. Most colleges also require a supplemental application that is specific to the school and sometimes major to which you are applying. (Click to Common App Website, show where to register and list of Common App members)*Essays are limited to 650 words.*These essays can, and often should, be written from the first person point of view (I, me, mine, we, ours). *Preview supplemental essay topics in next slides.*The University of Chicago is known for its wacky essay questions, as illustrated by this years choices.*