The college essay is practically the only aspect of the college application that allows applicants to distinguish themselves significantly from their peers. But what about one’s high school transcript and test scores, you might ask? The most competitive schools reject more perfect scoring applicants than they admit. But what about one’s extracurriculars, those all-important activities that demonstrate the type of excellence you’ll hopefully be able to bring with you to your top-choice school? There are far too many accomplished cellists, debaters, budding engineers, mathematicians, you name it, to admit into one freshmen class. And while it is surely the aim of schools to populate their incoming freshman class as one would an ideal small city — ie “we want the best citizens from all various domains” (remember: well-rounded freshman class, not well-rounded individuals) — it is not enough to merely seek out these individuals based solely on their field of excellence. When forced to choose between two otherwise identical applicants, the college needs more information. American universities, especially top ones, want to be sure that the students they’re admitting are the types of people that will bring value to their campus. Other than the alumni interview, there is only one way to convey this value to the admissions committee, and, you guessed it, it’s through the college essay.
I cannot recount how many times I’ve been told by admissions officers that a certain stellar college essay was the part of the application that ultimately set that applicant apart from his or her direct competition. But here’s a little-known statistic: 90% of college essays neither make nor break a student’s application. Let me put that differently: fewer than one in ten applicants uses the college essay for what it’s designed to do: give the college a persuasive reason why it should choose you over your, oftentimes equally qualified, peers. Why is this the case? Here are the three most common reasons students write mediocre essays:
- “The college essay doesn’t really matter compared to my top-notch grades, scores, and extracurriculars”
As mentioned above, the most competitive colleges in the United States take these essays very seriously and in many cases use them as a “tie-breaker.” Top colleges are admitting individuals not merely students who check off the right boxes. It could be argued that the college essay becomes more important, the more stellar one’s grades, scores, and extracurriculars are.
- “I know the type of essay the college admissions committee is and isn’t looking for”
Students applying to college have dangerous preconceptions about what admissions committees supposedly want to hear. These preconceptions are dangerous, of course, because they lead the students to choose ill-advised, predictable topics and to write uninspiring, boring essays. What colleges are looking for in the essay is not a secret. Well, it is for now..
- “I told my story and it’s all there”
If one of the primary goals of the college essay is to “get yourself on the page” as effectively as possible, the means by which this is achieved becomes all-important. There are numerous ways to tell your story, but some of them are better than others. One helpful way of thinking about it is that it is largely the difference between the “what” and the “how.” It is assumed that the “what” will be both inherently interesting and worth telling. Winning essays are all about the “how.” Winning essays use the “how” to tie the story inextricably and memorably to its writer, not merely to any other individual with a similar experience (and believe me, there are countless others). Winning essays get their writers into their top schools.