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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:
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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