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Lesson One: Tackling the
Question
 Introduction
Think of the essay as the face of your application. An application without an
essay is a statistic-just another faceless person in a crowd. An
application with a poorly written essay does not give admissions officers
the chance to care about you. Use simple psychology: make them feel that
they know you, and it will be harder for them to reject you. Make them know
you AND LIKE YOU, and they might accept you despite your weakness in other
areas. Understanding the importance of the essay is a necessary first step
toward perfecting your application. If you are normally a procrastinator,
you should understand that your success depends entirely on the amount of
time and effort you put into the essay writing process. If all of this has
you sweating, you can relax now. Taking this process seriously is the first
step. This course will help you get through the other steps.
Admissions
essay questions tend to be very broad and difficult to tackle. Yet, it is
imperative that you actually answer the question in your essay. It should go
without saying, but if your essay does not address the question, then
everything you learn in the rest of this course is for naught.
While
looking at your application, you are probably asking yourself: "Why in the
world are these admissions people asking me this question?
What do they want me to write about?" While there is no one answer
to either of these questions, there is some reason behind the most popular
questions posed by applications.
Continue
on for Question-Specific Strategies on the most common application
questions and Sample Essays with comments by admissions officers.
Select One:
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EssayEdge
Extra: Who's Reading My Essay?
Contrary to
popular belief, all admissions officers are not old men with
bowties and English accents. In fact, the first people to read
your application are often people not much older than yourself. At
most colleges and universities, recent graduates of the college
serve as assistants, conducting the first read on all of the
essays. If they like your essay, they will pass it on to the
associate directors or only read what the assistants pass along.
Then, the associate directors choose which essays to pass along to
the director, who makes the final decision. So essentially, the
mysterious group that holds your future in its hands is composed
of a few recent grads of the college, a couple of associate
directors, and a director who must evaluate thousands of
applications in a month or two. The moral of the story: Don't
write your essay for an old British guy. Be yourself. Write in a
relaxed tone.
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From ESSAYS THAT WILL GET YOU INTO COLLEGE, by Amy Burnham,
Daniel Kaufman, and Chris Dowhan.
Copyright 1998 by Dan Kaufman.
Reprinted by arrangement with Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
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