The school year is well underway at this point even for those who didn’t start until Labor Day. (And for those who started in early August, I assume finals are approaching.) If you haven’t yet, it’s time to get serious about your application work.
Have you finalized your school lists? Collected your required supplemental essays? Committed to your deadlines and written them down? Scheduled any required tests? Met with your guidance counselor, if that’s required? If you don’t have a system for ensuring it all gets done, I invite you to join my free Subscriber Hub for one possible organizing option. While you’re there, you can read up on the Common App prompts to prepare to brainstorm!
Your essay is an important piece of the total application package. Being well-spoken and well-written always makes a good impression. It’s the place where you let the admissions committee see you as a real person and get them to like you. It’s the place where you show your personality, as well as your capacity for reflection and growth. College is a time for growth and change, and the admissions people want to see that you’re the kind of student who will do just that.
But of course, you have to start with a quality application—the right baseline of grades and test scores, recommendations, and involvement.
It’s like this: Imagine you see a stranger walking down the street in a particularly fabulous pair of sunglasses. They’re large, they’re bright–they’re the only thing you consciously notice as you walk by, and probably the only thing you remember a moment later. Nothing else about what the stranger was wearing makes any impression.
That does not, by extension, mean the stranger could have been naked. If they had been naked, you would have noticed that before the sunglasses … and you would certainly remember that fact at least as much.
So too, if your application is “naked,” no amount of *fabulous* in your essay will make readers forget that. But if your application is acceptable but a bit plain—or if it’s already as good as it can possibly be in every other way—the essay is a great place to shine and be memorable.
Have you asked for letters of recommendation yet? Make sure to choose the teachers you ask carefully. Did you love their class? Did you do well in it? Find out if they have a form they need you to fill out to give them the information they need to write you a good letter. If they don’t, write them a note reminding them when they had you and what you earned in their class, as well as what you loved most about their class and perhaps a favorite project from it. (This isn’t just about making them like you more by complimenting them—they’re going to quote right from your note in their letter: “Sarah was an eager biology student and especially loved our study of marine life.”)
Photo by Noah Black on Unsplash
