“Begin thinking…”

Each year, the Common Application makes small changes to its application, which is used by more than 400 colleges and universities.  Most years, the changes are small, but the changes for 2013-2014 are more dramatic, including new essay prompts.

As a counselor, the most important component of the essay is always the opportunity for the applicant to express himself or herself.  In the current (and past versions) of the Common Application, the questions were broad and flexible, including the option to write on the “topic of your choice”.  Despite its flexibility, I found that some of my students struggled to write under a completely open prompt; they had a hard time focusing their messages.

The prompts for 2013-2014 are equally broad.  The instructions encourage applicants to think about their message.  “What do you want readers to know about you?”  With a goal length of approximately 500 words, the application will allow up to 650 words, which provides some latitude for students to tell their stories completely.  Unlike previous common application versions, the new essay will not be an upload; it eliminates the opportunity for italics and underlining, and graphics or formatting.

The new Common Application will be live on August 1, 2013, almost 6 months from now.  I don’t encourage members of the class or 2014 to start writing today, but it doesn’t hurt to begin thinking about how these prompts have been reflected in your life experiences.  It’s helpful to jot down thoughts, experiences, or ideas that might become an essay 6 months from now.

The 2013-2014 Common Application essay prompts are:

• Some 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.

By Whitney Bruce, who has worked in college admissions since 1996. She has served as a Senior Assistant Director of Admissions (Washington U), Application Reader (University of Michigan), Assistant Director of College Counseling (private prep school in St. Louis), and an independent college counselor. She is happy to advise you as you apply to college.

Yale Admissions

This post about the Yale supplemental essay to the Common Application is part of a series of posts providing advice you can use when completing The Common Application for 2012-13.

A student wrote me an email a few weeks ago.  In it, he asked, “Do you think I should submit a version of the essay about economics that I wrote for Penn as the Yale essay?”

I’m in favor of streamlining the essays for your college applications. Often there are ways to reuse an essay or theme that you have crafted for another college with few additional edits.  This time however, I sent a single sentence reply.  “Is your interest in economics the most important thing you have to share with Yale?”

We didn’t need to discuss this further.  Of course he had plenty of other experiences to draw upon in crafting an essay.  And they are far more important to him than his budding interest in economics.

Yale’s request, to “reflect on something you would like us to know about you that we might not learn from the rest of your application or on something you would like to say more about,” is completely open-ended.  It also encourages applicants to think creatively and cohesively about their entire Yale application.  Don’t repeat themes or topics you have already written about in the Common Application. Do choose a topic that is important to you and that you would like Yale to know about.

Aspiring engineers applying to Yale will also need to write an additional essay outlining their interest and experiences related to engineering

My favorite part of the Yale application is the Short Takes section.  Five questions, each requires an answer of less than 25 words.  It’s a chance to be creative, concise, and human.  “What would you do with a free afternoon tomorrow,” and “What is the best piece of advice you have received in the past three years,” Yale wants to know.  With these, often the first answer that comes to mind is a version of the correct one, but I encourage you to be certain that you have shared your own personality in your answers.

As with all of your applications, this is the only chance you have to be understood, in your own words, by the admission committee.   Take your time, be judicious, draft carefully, and edit thoroughly.

By Whitney Bruce, who has worked in college admissions since 1996. She has served as a Senior Assistant Director of Admissions (Washington U), Application Reader (University of Michigan), Assistant Director of College Counseling (private prep school in St. Louis), and an independent college counselor. She is happy to advise you as you apply to college.

 Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

This post about the Columbia supplement to the Common Application is part of a series of posts written to help you complete the 2013 Common Application supplement for Ivy League schools.

When I visited Columbia University, it was clear to me that the undergraduate college takes distinct pride in two things: the 100-year-old Core Curriculum and the University’s relationship with the city in which it resides.  The Columbia University supplement reflects those emphases.  As a prospective student, I encourage you to think about how these two components of the Columbia education fit with your educational goals.

The Columbia supplement consists of several lists and three short answer questions.   For the quick questions about your interests, which ask you to list books, concerts, media that you have enjoyed over the past year, provide straightforward responses.  As an academically engaged student, there should be plenty of media and arts that have captured your attention.  Share both the mundane and the more interesting.  If you have a strong interest in a subject area, chances are your reading interests at least peripherally relate.  The Core Curriculum at Columbia includes humanities courses that focus on music and art in addition to literature, and the question about performances or exhibits dovetails with this component of the curriculum. These courses also take advantage of the rich opportunities available to students in New York City.

The integration of a strong campus center (the vast majority of students live on campus for four years) with the accessibility of the city and its commitment to a core curriculum, make Columbia a college with its own mission.  There are many facets to Columbia that make it distinctive, and therefore, your short answers about both your interest in Columbia and your intended college studies should be specific and well connected to your interests and its strengths.  If you feel that you need more information about Columbia and its programs, check the website for more information about their fall evening programs in cities around the United States.

Columbia is a member of the Common Application, and does offer an early decision program for students who are confident that Columbia is their first choice.

By Whitney Bruce, who has worked in college admissions since 1996. She has served as a Senior Assistant Director of Admissions (Washington U), Application Reader (University of Michigan), Assistant Director of College Counseling (private prep school in St. Louis), and an independent college counselor. She is happy to advise you as you apply to college.

 Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

This post about the Brown supplement to the Common Application is part of a series of posts written to help you complete the 2013 Common Application supplement for Ivy League schools. 

Today, when I visited the Brown website, the academic page banner proclaimed, “Brown gives students the freedom to direct their education.”  If that tenet wasn’t clear before, it should be now.  The independence that Brown seeks from its students is evident in the most lengthy of Ivy league supplements.  If you are seeking a Brown education, however, the included questions should be both thought provoking and interesting. Flexibility is a hallmark of the Brown experience. Unfettered by a core curriculum or even the distribution requirements of many other colleges, students at Brown pursue their own education.  The courses a student chooses are based upon his or her own ideas of education and of challenge, interest, and intellectual development.

With these tenets of the Brown education in mind, consider the writing component of the Brown Supplement to the Common Application. Whether you draw inspiration from the biblical statement of “to whom much has been given, much is expected, “ or from Spiderman (“with great power comes great responsibility,”) the application makes it clear that a Brown student should embrace the application as he would the curriculum: with purpose, creative thought, and determination.

The first writing section asks applicants to consider their academic interests within the context of the Brown curriculum, identifying potential areas of study and elaborating on the roots of their interests.  Many other colleges ask a similar version of this question, which can be challenging for the student who is truly “undecided”.  Use this short answer to share some insight into your academic curiosity and in the follow-up question, consider why the flexibility to explore and potentially combine disciplines is important to you.

The second writing section asks about your background and influential experiences.  Brown (in a question similar to one from the University of Michigan,) looks to see how you define yourself relative to others – by asking you to write about a community with which you identify.  It’s easy to identify yourself by geography, ethnicity, or politics – groups for which we already have a label.  If you choose one of these more common groups, try to avoid relying on cliché and general conclusions. As always, keep it personal.  Feeling creative?  There are a number of other ways to define yourself.  Are you the only male in a women’s studies class, the only artist in BC Calculus, or the class clown on the debate team?  Think not only about your role, but why this community is important enough to you that you wrote about it at all.

Several of the writing prompts in this section ask you to consider how you define yourself and how you react to change.  As you brainstorm, consider the following questions:

How do you think about yourself relative to others? If you are a visual thinker, a Venn diagram could be useful here.  Diagram the many circles to which you belong.  Do you define yourself by where you have lived, or by how often that has changed?  Do you remain the same in all situations or share common ground with a chameleon, adapting to your environment?  Do you seek to take risks?  What kind?  Are you afraid of failure?  How have you reacted to a difficult or unexpected situation?  It is easy to identify yourself by your hometown, or your ethnicity and more challenging to look at your identity through a variety of lenses.  When I was thinking about these questions, the correlation between risk and changed perspective was evident.  How do those two elements interrelate for you?  Many strong essays rely on a central conflict, and these elements offer a strong starting point for this construction.  Whether you choose to address these questions in the most traditional manner or a more creative way, the admission committee will learn more about you if you set a scene and tell a story.

One option for the longer essay is to discuss your reasons for attending college.  For many students who are applying to Brown, they have always known that they would go to college.  It’s just the next step in the path after high school for them.  The straight line to college was drawn in preschool, if not before.  If this is your current answer, make another choice for the optional essay.  Then spend some time thinking about your reasons for attending college.  You will be a better college student, at Brown or any other college, for understanding this about yourself.

By Whitney Bruce, who has worked in college admissions since 1996. She has served as a Senior Assistant Director of Admissions (Washington U), Application Reader (University of Michigan), Assistant Director of College Counseling (private prep school in St. Louis), and an independent college counselor. She is happy to advise you as you apply to college.

 Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

This post about the Common Application is part of a series of posts written to help you fill out the 2013 Common Application supplement for Ivy League schools. Our tips are in blue.

If you are a rising high school senior, there is a good chance that the Common Application website is bookmarked on your web browser, or printed, sitting on your desk.  An ominous reminder of the promise that you made to yourself:  I will write my college essays this summer. 

With more than 400 colleges and universities, including many of the nation’s most selective post-secondary institutions, accepting the Common Application, there’s also a good chance that you’ll be addressing one of its broad ranging essay questions. This year, the recommended length is 250-500 words. While the online format will not cut you off at 500 words, it is easy to lose focus on your essay. Here are a few tips for each of the essay choices.

1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

You don’t need to have had a life changing experience to write an outstanding essay in response to this prompt.  In fact, I wouldn’t wish most of the life changing experiences that students use as essay topics on you just so that you have good essay fodder.  Think small and reflect on what you’ve learned.

2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.

An effective essay often makes it clear to the reader why this issue is important to the applicant. You’ve missed an opportunity to convey your passion to the admissions committee if you simply write an essay about current newspaper headlines. Look instead to your volunteer experiences or social action clubs in which you’ve been involved and draw upon those encounters.

3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

Many grandparents have had a significant influence on applicants.  Not to belittle writing about a grandparent, or a parent, or a sibling who battles cancer, as there are some powerful stories to be told, but often the reviewer is left knowing much more about the person and less about the applicant.  Thoughtful reflection and word choice will help you to shed light about both parties in an effective response to this prompt.

4.Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.

This one seems so easy – simply draw upon a section of your junior year English journal or tap that essay you wrote for art history.    Don’t do it.  If you are a musician, or an avid reader, or a budding scientist, you have a plethora of material from which to draw.  Think not only about the work you choose, but perhaps the learning process that you came through in discovering the work. 

5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an
experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.

This question isn’t all that different from the first essay, only with a focus on diversity.  In writing about this prompt, think carefully about the diversity experience you had and your role in it. 

6. Topic of your choice.

Again, resist the urge to revisit an English paper.  This is your opportunity to tell the admission committee something.  Use it.  And don’t forget to include a prompt for the question – it serves as a guide for the conclusion you’d like the reader to draw from the essay.

Are you unsure where to start?  If one of the essay choices doesn’t leap off the page, don’t get bogged down. Go ahead, write a paragraph or two about an experience. After you have moved beyond the blank page on your computer screen, it will become clear which essay choice you should address.  You can fine-tune your answer with multiple drafts.

With all of these topics, it is easy to write a basic essay that doesn’t provide more information about the applicant to the admission committee.  Think carefully of the information that you would like the admission committee to carry away from reading your essay. Ensure that your essay stands out by writing in an authentic voice and allowing your story to shed light on your academic interests, extracurricular passions or defining experiences.

By Whitney Bruce, who has worked in college admissions since 1996. She has served as a Senior Assistant Director of Admissions (Washington U), Application Reader (University of Michigan), Assistant Director of College Counseling (private prep school in St. Louis), and an independent college counselor. She is happy to advise you as you apply to college.

 Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best