Crafting a Standout College Essay

Webinar Transcription

2024-04-15 – Crafting a Standout College Essay

Lydia: Hello, everyone. Welcome to “Crafting a Standout College Essay.” My name is Lydia Hollon, and I’m going to be your moderator tonight. I’m also a senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor, and I’ve been with the company for about three years now. In addition to advising students, I’m also the proud co captain of our essay review team, as well as a proud graduate of NYU.

And in addition to my work with CollegeAdvisor, I’m also an education consultant, as well as a former teacher. So to orient everyone with the webinar timing for tonight, we’re going to start with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q& A. On the sidebar, you can download our slides and you can start submitting questions in the Q& A tab.

We’ll also be recording this session so that you can review the webinar again later. Now, let’s meet our presenter, Aya.

Aya: Hello everyone. I like to say good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on where you are in the world. I am Aya Waller-Bey and today I will be talking to you about crafting a standout college admissions essay.

So a little bit about me and my background. First and foremost, I love to start saying that I am a First generation college student. That means I’m the first person in my family to obtain a four year degree. Um, I went to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. where I studied sociology and shortly after became an admissions officer and coordinator of multicultural recruitment.

After my tenure in admissions, I went on to England to get my master’s in philosophy of education as a recipient of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. And currently I am receiving my PhD in sociology at the University of Michigan where I Study the college admissions essay. So I’ve been with CollegeAdvisor going on.

three or four application cycles now, and I’m so excited to answer your questions and get to know you all a little bit better.

Lydia: Great, thanks Aya. So before we jump into Aya’s presentation, we’re going to do a quick poll, which is what grade are you in? If you’re a parent, just feel free to choose that other option instead.

Um, and while you all are answering that question, uh, just feel I’m just gonna ask Aya to answer a quick question, which is, uh, what are you planning on having for dinner tonight? I know it’s a little late on the east coast.

Aya: Right, it’s eight o’clock here, uh, in Detroit where I live. I, so I’m vegan ish, so I, eat vegetarian socially, but I cook vegan.

So I follow a lot of like social media pages about vegan. So I made like these little like black bean vegan, like sweet potato, like bites, like in muffin tin. So I actually just ate right before this and they were delicious though. So thanks for asking. It

Lydia: sounds good. Yeah, even though I’m also on the East Coast, I have not had dinner yet, but I’m planning on having some salmon with mashed potatoes and asparagus, I think, when I’m done.

Thankfully, I have my mother in law here this week, so she is cooking. Okay, so looking at our responses, it seems like we’ve got 5 percent in ninth grade, 9 percent in 10th, 64 percent in 11th grade, which makes sense. 9 percent and 12 and then a few parents, but 14 percent who are responding other. All right, I will hand it off to you.

I had to get us started with the presentation.

Aya: Fantastic. So again, welcome everyone tonight. So just to start. A really, you know, natural question is what are the essays that students are writing for their college applications? And I like to say there, there’s one primary essay I think is the essay we hear the most about.

It’s the essay that dominates discourse. It’s the essay, you know, that we hear about in the news. And that’s the college personal statement. That’s the one essay that you write. That’s 650 words that is found on the comment app. And you write that one essay answering one of their six questions. questions, and you submit it to all the schools in your list.

So again, it’s the essay submitted to colleges that showcases your student voice, your writing skills, and reveal depth and add context to the application. You also have supplemental essays, less common, but these are additional essays that And by students to write about variety of topics, often using school specific prompts.

So you can apply to seven schools. However, only two of them might have supplemental essays. And again, these are additional essays that are school specific. And again, they’re only required by some schools and often used to highlight fit, you know, why Dartmouth or why University of Michigan just wanting.

The admissions officers want to get a better sense of, you know, what about this school attracts you. You also might see a diversity statement as well, where schools are asking how you contribute to the fabric of our campus or our college community. So those are supplemental essays. And then the third is a scholarship essay.

Now, for some schools, you might automatically be considered for a scholarship upon submission. But some schools, you might have to write an essay, an additional essay to be eligible for a merit based scholarship. That’s it. So that’s a less common essay, but a lot of students are not only relying on financial aid from the universities, but also seeking external external funding, external scholarships, external, external grants or fellowships.

So they’re also applying to institutions, organizations, and they often have to write a scholarship essay. So, again, less common, but these are primarily the 3 main essays you will encounter when you are writing for college. So if you get about the significance of the college essay, and I talked a little bit about this, you know, first and foremost, it’s really added that unique touch.

So it’s that one opportunity you get to speak directly to the admissions officers. So they’re hearing from your voice. It’s not your counselor. It’s not your parents. It’s not your English teacher. It’s you speaking directly to. The emissions officers. It also allows you to tell your story in your own words.

So they’ll have the quantitative information from your application, right? They’ll have your grades right over the, you know, 3. 5 years. They will also, in some cases, have your test scores if you choose to submit them. However, when telling your story, explaining circumstances, your background, you know, the, the college essay is a great opportunity to do that, right?

So, it’s adding, besides the numbers, it’s adding that qualitative information, it’s providing additional context about your passions, your circumstances, what you love, what your motivations are. So, it’s a really great resource. a great opportunity for you to add a little Uniqueness to application but also really an opportunity for you to communicate directly with the admissions officer Now what factors make for a great essay naturally?

Very popular question and students are always asking. How can students stand out? And again, um as someone who studies college admissions essays as someone who is in conversation with admissions officers College counselors from all over the country on a very regular basis. I will tell you that there aren’t many topics, if you will, That we’ve never seen, right?

So, at this point, we are seeing a lot of similar topics. Students are writing about their favorite sports. You know, they may have moved around because of parents job. Um, they may, you know, ran for class, but They may talk about, you know, a parent or a loved one being a physician, which inspires their desire to be a doctor.

They might talk about traveling to the continent of Africa or traveling to South America to do community service work. So we are encountering, you know, essays about similar topics all the time. So I often tell students, you know, prioritizing. You don’t have to prioritize. Trying to stand out. You really just want to be thoughtful.

You want to make sure you’re presenting information that’s clear. You want to provide examples. You want to be able to focus on the near present, right? You want to be able to tell admissions officers about your triumphs and your challenges and your leadership opportunities and experiences outside of the classroom.

And you want to demonstrate Great. Good use of grammar, right? So it’s often not what you it’s not often the topic of the essay But it’s more so how you talk about the subject matter. What is your point of view? What is your perspective? You know, that is what makes you different right if you’re writing from your lens, okay So the topics in themselves become, you know, quite similar in a lot of ways But we really want to hear from your perspective your point of view.

What is a day in a life? You Like a day in the life of you, right? So also thinking about this, you really want to make sure your essays. First and foremost are answering the question, right? This is critical, especially in those supplements or supplemental essays. You want to make sure you’re answering the question.

Okay. So the fluff and the creativity, sure. You might want to add a little pizazz, but if you don’t answer the question, you know, you’re not effectively responding. You also want to describe details, right? You want to be detailed. You want to talk about personal growth. You want to talk about, you know, how you matured, how.

how it led to open mindedness, how your character evolved. Okay. So it’s not enough just to talk about a situation, right? Just describe something that happened to you. We need to walk away with the, so what, why should we care? Why should admissions officers care about this particular story? What do you want the admissions officers to walk away from knowing about you?

Right? How would you then like to For them to, you know, based on what you share, how, what type of story, what type of narrative, what type of picture are you painting? Okay, um, you also want to make sure that it’s reflective. Your essay is reflective of your voice. Again, it should be polished. It should be free of major grammatical errors and typos.

And again, if there’s one typo or one comma splice, no one is, you know, uh, reject, you know, deny. No, that’s not happening. But we want to make sure they’re polished, right? You are, you know, submitting because you want to be considered, right? Um, but you should make sure that it is your essay and not a parent’s or teacher’s or professor’s essay.

It should read like a high school student. You want to use specific concrete examples. Again, you want to convey your point. You really want to, you know, show us what’s happening, um, because we’re not there. And I think sometimes when we write, we take for granted what the audience knows about us, right? So you really want to paint pictures for the reader.

So what are some common mistakes to avoid in college admissions essays? So there’s quite a few of some of these you’re probably like, duh, like I know that. Um, but in thinking about the essays, it’s really important that you avoid writing essays that focus on other people. Now you might say, well, Aya, this, this essay prompt asked me to talk about what motivated me for pursuing medicine.

And my mom is a doctor and I really look up to her and I admire her. Perfectly fine. Right? So you can talk about, you know, your, your mother, or a parent motivating you to pursue medicine, but the entire essay should not be about their journey to medicine. You know, you know, my mom was a first generation college student and then she went on to college and she had to work her way through college and she had to pay and accept.

The whole essay should not be about the journey of your mom because, you know, we walk away as admissions officers saying, wow, this student’s mom sounds fantastic. I wish we could admit them. Right. And so we want to make sure we are. You know, reading an essay that tells us your story. Um, this is a more controversial take that I feel like I’m also evolving on.

And again, I get more point of views the more I kind of have conversations with my colleagues about this. But in thinking about writing essays about overly common or controversial topics, such as sports and politics. Now, there are so many caveats here, right? You know, I work with students who say, I have done hockey.

As long as I can remember hockey is critical to who I am to my leadership have learned about the world I’ve traveled across the country playing in in in Canada. I you know, i’ve learned about teamwork compassion Hard work, etc. I want to write about hockey. So my answer for that student is write about hockey, right?

It is clearly significant. It’s clearly important to you It’s clearly a story you want to tell now the whole essay shouldn’t just be about like when I go on the ice and it’s Hard, you know, you really want to State like make sure it is indicative of personal growth that you’re telling a particular type of story That anybody just can’t write right?

So say there’s you know, 20, 000 hockey players. How are you writing this story? So it’s a story that only you can tell about your own lived experience Okay, so that’s the caveat for the sports and then the politics piece, right? We are living in very contentious times however, students might pursue certain institutions because of the political nature, right?

So I think of my alma mater, Georgetown, which is located in the heart of Washington, D.C., where so many students, so many of my classmates applied because they wanted to be the president. There’s a lot of students who want to be president there. They want to be an ambassador. They want to be senators. They want to go to Congress.

They want to be lawyers. They want to be political activists. You name it, right? So they’re going to talk about politics, perhaps one of their essays. That’s fine, and that’s appropriate, but you do need to realize that there are humans behind most You know, screens where you’re applying to college, right?

So it’s not as simple as, you know, saying things that is considered a pejorative about a particular party or people fit different identities. You do want to be mindful that there are real humans for real lived experiences that you could offend, you can insult, etc. So just keep it in mind. Being respectful, but I think that is the a natural response.

Anytime you write something for a diverse audience, you should make sure you’re being respectful. You also want to avoid, again, we have students who use a thesaurus to, you know, for every word and you’re like, it’s not necessarily right. So you want to write essays that, you know, that reflect you. And again, that are not over edited by parents and teachers.

We see that all the time. Essay. gets edited so much we lose the student in the essay. So don’t lose your voice. And you also want to avoid just mentioning experiences without describing them. And we often kind of refer to that as like the show don’t tell thing, uh, where students just say, you know, uh, I like, you know, being a swimmer, swimming is great.

And it’s like, Okay, paint a picture for us, say more. So, also in thinking about additional common mistakes, name a university or college in the personal statement. So again, in that common, uh, app in the personal statement, you will be able to write one statement and submit it to all the schools that you indicate on the common app in the portal, right?

So you don’t need to name, I really want to go to Georgetown. Granted, Georgetown’s not even on the Common App, so let me use a different institution. So you don’t have to say, I really want to go to Dartmouth in your personal statement, because you’re sending that to, you know, 10 other schools, right? So do not name a college in your personal statement.

Again, as I mentioned, overly using thesaurus. Um, I tend to be very wordy. I’m an academic. Our sentences are quite long. But it’s very difficult for the lay person to read, so you want to avoid complex sentences that could be written in multiple smaller sentences. Essentially, I have students who write paragraphs and, um, excuse me, I have students who write, um, one paragraph and it’s one sentence.

You know, so we need to break that up so it’s easier for the reader. Um, you also want to try to use active voice whenever possible. That’s really owning the action, right? That’s, that’s really taking ownership, okay? It also helps you be just less wordy. Um, students saying, you know, you know, uh, You know, I, I, I went to the store or I biked to the store is very different in, you know, the wondering who, who, who did the cycling in that sentence.

So you really want to make sure that you’re taking ownership of your writing and that you’re trying to, you know, cut out some of that passive voice. You also, This is, again, increasingly becoming part of our conversation and discourse. Uh, I say avoid using AI and artificial tools, such as chatGPT, to write your essays.

It shouldn’t say parentheses entirely, right? So it, there’s ways for chat2BT or other, uh, tools to be used for brainstorming. They can be used for outlining. However, What I’ve learned as someone who’s encountered a lot of chatGPT essays not only in in college advising But also in other areas of my life The prose is very similar like you can start to see the patterns, right?

Um, so just know that it feels inauthentic And you really want to use this time to To tell your story in your own words. You do not need an artificial tool to write a college person statement And you’re going to be writing a lot of essays in college in most disciplines at least So you really want to get comfortable of writing about your background your story Um and telling people who you are so, you know, do not kind of take a do not get lost with the the artificial tools Um, really write that personal statement yourself.

Lydia: All right. Thanks. Aya. We’re gonna take a quick break Break just to plug, um, the virtual college and career summit, which is going to be on May 4th from 9 a. m. to 3 p. m. Eastern time. This is a great opportunity for you to hear from other college. It mentions representatives, industry leaders and fellow students and parents who are really active in this.

Experts on the kinds of topics that we’re talking about tonight. So feel free to scan this QR code, uh, to get register for that event. It’ll be virtual and there’ll be a lot of opportunities to listen to different presentations and just learn more about the college application process and all the opportunities that are available to you at these different institutions.

I’ll hand it back to you, Aya.

Aya: Great. Awesome. Okay. So, in continuing our conversation, you know, next, thinking about how can students write creatively about themselves while still being clear and concise? Again, a very popular question. It’s all about balance and there’s no, it’s not 50 50, it’s not necessarily 70 30, but just making sure that at the end of the day, You are specific.

You’re using concrete examples. Okay? Like, that’s very important. And sometimes students get so meta and flowery that we lose the, the, the substance, frankly. So you definitely want to make sure you’re communicating, um, clearly, um, to your readers. Um, and thinking of, as far as creativity, you know, students sometimes will include cultural elements.

language or expressions or just how you vividly tell pictures. You know, maybe you grew up in a home where, um, your grandmother had this like really quirky, uh, love for the color green. Green is my favorite color, by the way. Um, so everything in our house was green. She had green couches. She only had limes, never lemons, you know, she just had green, right?

So you can talk about, you know, What that meant for you, and like, what does the color green symbolize? I just made that story up. That could be a really interesting essay, right? But nevertheless, but again, here you just see, again, incorporating things about your story, your identity. I think we overthink the essay so much.

We’re like, we have to stand out. We have to stand out. We have to stand out. No, you just need to be authentic. You just need to tell your story. Okay. So, you know, worry less about standing out, standing out and just speaking directly, um, from your passions, from your heart. Okay. You also, and being clear and concise, you do want to make sure you define You know, uh, less well known terms or expressions.

I know sometimes students who speak multiple languages might have included a little Chinese or Spanish or Arabic in their essay. Um, and sometimes, you know, the reader, I mean, most of the readers won’t necessarily know what that stuff means. So make sure that that’s, you know, translated if you do that, or, um, if there’s like a cultural, uh, you know, colloquialism or something that you might engage, make sure you are kind of translating that or explaining what that means to the reader.

That’s a great way to just make sure people are not missing your point or misrepresenting what you’re saying. So in thinking about, uh, editing your essays effectively, uh, there’s so many different strategies you can use. Uh, a good tip is, I Still use Microsoft Word. I know a lot of folks, uh, really kind of use the Google suite.

I still use, I use Google Docs too, but I find Microsoft Word, especially if I’m writing a very long document, to be quite effective. So I used to read a loud feature. Um, there’s a letter A, you know, at the top and you can click that and it’ll read it to you. I find that really helpful, especially when I’m exhausted and tired.

I’m writing a manuscript right now and it’s 10, 000 words. And I’m like, oh, I can’t keep like reading it. My eyes are gonna get frost, right? Um, but you can use that Microsoft read aloud feature. I could read it back to you You can catch things that your eyes might not pick up Because remember when you spend a lot of time with the text, right if you’re writing an essay or you’re editing it You’re editing it Repeatedly you begin your brain begins to trick you right because it knows what you mean to say So you’re going to read it that way.

Uh, so the the Microsoft word read aloud feature is really great You Also proofread, and that could be you doing that after 24 hours, right, of completing it. That can be a teacher, counselor, someone you can, you trust reviewing it. Uh, but proofreading is critical and I love to use this example, right? So a student can write, I enjoy torturing animals.

I have volunteered torturing animals at a local shelter since eighth grade, and the experience has solidified my desire to become a veterinarian. Now. Naturally, a student, or at least I hope, is not writing about their love for torturing animals. They meant training, right? So, I enjoy training animals. I have trained, you know, animals at a local shelter.

However, torturing is spelled correctly, right? So you, it won’t come up as something to spell, but again, your brain is translating it as training because you’ve spent time writing that essay, so you know what you’re meant to say. So, again, you really want to make sure you proofread. So, um, another very popular question, um, what are essays that have stood out to me?

Um, there are a lot of essays, and I’ve read some really great ones this application cycle, and I want to say this, this, the important part of this question is essays that stood out to me, because essays that may stand out to me may not stand out to Lydia or, or another advisor, because we all enter the admissions process as both students and admissions officers with different lived experiences.

So certain aspects, stories, you know, portrayals of the lived experience might resonate differently. Okay, so that’s just something to just realize. We’re all different and different humans, right? So, but I really love essays that reflect student ambition and growth, uh, essays that really highlight tenacity, and ones that really paint a colorful photo of the human experience.

I often think about essays that, um, my students who have jobs write. I think those are often interesting, you know, students who talk about, you know, Working the drive through at Starbucks or Jimmy John’s and the types of people they encounter and what they learn from their colleagues or what they learn from the customers and the skills that they learned or the life experiences or how they’ve matured in those roles.

Uh, I’ve had, uh, there’s a student who talked about. Her family, which, uh, consisted of a lot of migrant workers and the type of work that they did on tomato farms and just like what that represented. Um, again, colorful photos of the human experience or ones that I like. Um, I’ll enjoy day in the life of. Uh, narratives.

I think I may have used that example. I think we take that for granted. I hear a lot of students, particularly those who might come from more resources or places or communities they considered more homogenous. They say, I don’t have anything that makes me distinct. Everybody looks like me in my community.

We all live in the same cul-de-sac. We’ve been going to the same school since elementary school, but I often have to remind them. And I hope to remind you that you still are a different person, right? Your routine might look different, you know, your favorite. You know, you might have a favorite hair scrunchie that you wear on your wrist every day, you have since middle school, and there’s a reason for that.

Or there’s a particular food that your family eats on holidays that you love, and there’s a reason behind that. So, we all have different things that, in our backgrounds, that make us special, and I really want us to kind of think about that. Um, when we are telling our stories, we all have a beautiful story to tell.

So I’m thinking about some of our final tips as we kind of near the Q& A portion. Um, again, show, don’t tell. I think I used that language earlier. So instead of saying, I learned a lot, you know, volunteering at the Cleveland Animal Shelter. You can try while feeding the sick puppies with the other shelter volunteers.

I learned the importance of teamwork and compassion. Okay, so, um, there we talked about what you were doing at the Cleveland Animal Shelter and we talked about like, like what you learned and also, you know, how you learned it. So think about lessons learned. That’s important. Share lessons learned. Detail how the experiences you write about have informed your future and the type of student you’ll be at in college.

You know, this type of student you will, you hope to be, the type of person you hope to be, right? Uh, how has, you know, being cut from, you know, theater, the play, has, how has that transformed or informed your thinking? Or what did you learn from that experience? You want to proofread, as I said earlier, and you want to make sure you are telling your story, and not someone else’s.

Again, there are essays that ask, especially there’s some supplements, you know, if you can have coffee with one, you know, person dead or alive, who would that be? So of course you’re going to say, I would like to have, you know, coffee with, you know, Rosa Parks. Um, so you have to talk about why Rosa Parks, right?

So you might, there might be qualities or characteristics from her background, her activism that resonates with you. But then you’re talking about yourself, you know, why does that resonate with you? What do you learn? Like, what do you hope to take away from that particular person? Um, so you, again, at the end of the day, you want to make sure the personal Statement and essays are telling your story and speaking to your personal narrative,

Lydia: right?

Thank you. Aya So that is the end of the presentation part of our webinar, but we are gonna keep going I hope that you found that part Helpful and remember that you can download the slides that we’re using from the link in the handouts tab now we’re gonna jump into the live Q& A where I’m gonna read questions that you all submit and We’ll discuss them together and as a heads up You If your Q& A tab isn’t letting you submit questions, just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page.

And also, as a reminder, any questions that you submit tonight, please just keep in mind that we’re not able to provide really detailed advising. answers or anything like that. So if you share your stats or really detailed questions, we aren’t going to be able to answer them, but we will be sharing a QR code link later in the presentation in just a moment so that you can schedule a consultation if you have specific questions like that.

But anything broad about essay writing in general, we’re free to answer that tonight. So, uh, the first question that I have for you, Aya, is should students be wary of writing about current events or things like COVID 19 that kind of happen to everyone? Is that something that’s just too common or usually not personal enough that it’s not worth writing about?

Aya: So I think there’s a difference between writing about current events and writing about COVID. So for the former, if you’re applying to say a school of foreign service or some schools, I feel like even University of Michigan had a supplement like this a few years ago, they might ask you to write about a current event.

Uh, they may ask you to talk about what’s happening. What’s in the news that you feel, you know, motivated or, um, you know, they might say specifically, you know, recently, there’s been this conversations about X. How would you respond to this? You know, if you needed to design a class, if you wanted to design a class around a subject or topic, that’s current.

How would you design that class? So you might very well be asked to write about a current event. So of course, that’s appropriate. Um, and I think current events generally, um, I worked with a student this year who talked about, uh, you know, the war of Russia and Ukraine, right? It was, it was personal to her.

So she chose to write about it in a way that was thoughtful and compelling. And kind of prioritize her own story, but she invoked some of that because it really was relevant to her her lived experiences So I don’t I don’t have a uh, you know, there’s no absolutism here in a sense of absolutely No, it really I know people hate this response.

It really depends Now when it comes to COVID, COVID is an interesting one. At one point, the Common App had a COVID question where students were able to write an optional COVID essay that kind of talked about how COVID affected them. And you really saw this during the height of the pandemic, like the first two and a half, three years.

Now it’s 2024. Um, has COVID still, does COVID still affect us today? Absolutely. Are people still, you know, You know, um, dealing with the fallout of COVID, absolutely. Um, so I don’t come down like a hundred percent. No. But I would, it’s hard to say, um, yes, write this particular essay if I don’t know more of the framing of it.

Um, and I will encourage you to think about, are there other stories that might be worth telling? Like, are there other parts, like, do you need to write this essay about COVID, right? Is it, is that, is it that critical? To who you are, who you’re becoming, your lived experience, your passions, your motivations.

It might very well motivate it. It could have been your motivation to pursue medicine. It could have for sure. Um, but just thinking about are there other ways to communicate that without writing about something that was, at one point, so commonplace. So, that’s what I, I just feel like I would urge Whoever’s kind of thinking about that to kind of think deeply about are there other types of stories they can tell that can signal that same kind of passion or Or kind of signal their motivation and their why without speaking directly about COVID

Lydia: Right.

I would definitely agree with that. I, uh, when it comes to COVID 19, I think that because for the first few years of the pandemic, it was an essay that everyone was writing about, to some extent, sometimes for some admissions officers may go Kind of bring up similar feelings. It’s like reading an essay about sports where it’s just like, this is the same kind of thing again Um, so I would say if it’s something that really had a major effect on you Like, you know a loss of a parent or something like that Um that you would normally talk about even if it weren’t a result of the pandemic I think that that’s still something worth mentioning if it affected you in a deep way like that Um, but I think if it’s an essay, that’s just something General like Oh, I wasn’t in person for school for a certain amount of years and, you know, it was difficult for me to do virtual learning, that kind of stuff, I think it might be better to explore something that’s a little bit more unique.

So, um, our next question is, do you have any tips on how to get started with an essay or how to brainstorm?

Aya: Yeah, um, there are a lot of different tips. I mean, I think first and foremost, I encourage anyone who will be applying to college to go literally look up the Common App essay. Questions they are remaining the same from last year.

I think there are six with the seventh optional one, which is like choose your own adventure. Essentially, I always get creative. There’s five with the six optional one or six with the seven optional. But nevertheless, the prompts are remaining the same and you can go look them up. Excuse me. Um, I think that’s a great place to start.

So you can add them all to a Google, um, Excuse me a Google document and from there you can start say, okay, how can I address this question? What are some things that will come to mind and bullet point don’t really just get the thoughts in your head on the page I think that’s a great way to Forgive me.

Um, but also there are so many resources online like you can Google how tips to or ways to brainstorm an essay. One of the ways is thinking about vignettes. So vignettes are literally prompts where you talk about, you tell a brief story. So for an example, I use the, uh, I often use the one, uh, Describe your day to me or what is your favorite food and why it’s like these little narratives that actually bring out a lot of our personality, our culture, our identity, right?

So using those to brainstorm, I also have mentioned earlier, chatGPT. Now, You heard me say, I don’t think you should use it to write an essay. I stand strongly about that on that particular, um, kind of premise. However, it could be a brainstorming, um, strategy as well. So, you know, you can prompt it to say, I’m thinking about writing an essay about my favorite food.

You know, what are some creative ways to like, think about food? There’s ways you can use it to help to get your, like, your juices flowing, if you will, that I think, um, could be an effective technique. Again, I think we tend to overthink it. Um, it does not have to be that hard as far as, um, kind of responding to the prompts.

You want to prioritize answering the question, but you also want to look within. Again, what are your likes? What are your whys? What are your motivations? Why do you want to go to college? What do you want to be post grad? Why do you want to be that? Who’s influencing these decisions? What, you know, what makes you happy when you wake up in the morning?

All. All these types of questions are just great ways to start to kind of, again, get what’s in your head onto the page. And again, it can be as simple as, again, opening a Google folder, having each prompt be on Google document, and just see, or on one document, and just like, jot down immediately. And then when you realize like one question really gets those juices flowing more than the rest, pick that one and lean into it.

So, um, again, there’s so many free guides online where you can say, you know, there’s like brainstorming guide, again, really kind of thinking about the senses and then the stories you tell. You know, what do you smell? What do you see? What do you feel? Those things can really help you.

Lydia: Yeah, I, I would definitely agree, um, with you, I, especially about the, um, vignettes, like the smaller prompts. I know with a lot of the students that I’ve worked with, sometimes those common app prompts can be a bit intimidating to start with, because even though they seem like they’re somewhat specific, they actually are.

are fairly broad. And so trying to think about, you know, what is the thing that you love to talk about the most? Or what is something that was pivotal, pivotal in your life, like the biggest lesson that you learned or the biggest obstacle you overcame? That can be really difficult to try and pinpoint one specific answer to that question.

So sometimes having a prompt that is a lot more targeted. And then figuring out, okay, based on my responses to all these little smaller questions, what is the most interesting thing or the thing that I like talking about the most can be a better way to start. I think it’s a lot easier for most students, in my opinion, to try and think about what do they just like talking about or what are they?

interested in writing about and then figuring out which prompt kind of aligns best with that than trying to just pick a prompt and then forcing yourself to think of something to say in response to it.

So another question that we’ve got from the chat is, are there any tips that you have for speaking about specific experiences to draw the color in them? So mainly, uh, I’m assuming when they say draw the color from them, like to show their personality or who they are, are there certain ways that they can do that better?

Aya: Well, I guess the feedback for that would be, Just details, you know, again, it’s this show don’t tell aspect where and I think the reliance of the census is a really great way to do that. So you talk about. I don’t know, maybe you give an example of being in a high school gym class and being like the last person picked on.

And you kind of talk about how that made you feel. Um, but in that moment as you’re telling the story, you’re not saying like, I hate it being picked last, it made me feel, you know, unloved or unwelcomed or not supported. You’re also talking about what you see. You’re describing what you had on, you’re describing the smells of the gym, you know, how did it, you know, again, all of your senses, what you see, what you smell, what you hear, uh, what you taste, you know, maybe you can, you know, the sweat dripping on your, your face that, you know, you really want to just give us more details so we feel like we’re there with you.

So I think that’s a really great way. Think of the senses, you know, what you see, smell, hear, taste, feel, use the senses to help you kind of bring the reader into your, your story.

Lydia: Yeah, I think that that’s a great suggestion, like the, the, the senses, the five senses, because sometimes it can be difficult to try and really illustrate what a certain experience was like or a certain moment, but to describe all of those senses or a few of those senses and make sure that you’re hitting them, I think can be really helpful for students that may struggle with elaborating a bit more.

Um, in that same vein of like students who may just be a person of few words or a student who struggles with, um, you know, writing in general, maybe it’s not something that they’re particularly strong at, but they want to have a strong essay. What are some tips that you have for them to just have a strong essay, even if it’s not their wheelhouse?

Aya: So how to write a strong college admissions essay. My first kind of step would be to read more. I think people become, um, more comfortable with their writing, um, when they read. Um, that, that sounds like a, like I, I’m a teacher or maybe it’s the academic in me looking at might appreciate that as well as a former teacher, um, that I, I think reading is one of the best ways to improve our writing and our confidence.

Um, and there are also samples and examples of essays online, um, where I think some students say, Oh my God, that essay was so good. It’s intimidating. I see it as well. If they can do it, I can do it too. So I think it also lets you know, I mean, think about thousands of students, tens of thousands of students are writing essays and they are no more special or smarter than you and you can write the essay too.

So that’s one thing just as far as like, with the story we tell ourself about our abilities. Secondly, uh, writing a strong essay, it’s practice. So you want to start early. So if you feel like the essay is going to be a area where you might need a little bit more support and you want to apply early action, which that’s a November 1st deadline, you should start, start that essay earlier than later.

Right. If you could start it in August or over the summer, do a draft. And have a parent or someone look at that. That’s a great way, you know, um, the essays are iterative Your first won’t be your last or shouldn’t be and it’s usually not in most cases, but you want to start early That’s a great way to address it.

Um, look at uh samples ask teachers in your high school They probably have worked with students this especially for our 11th graders Talk to your teachers your english teachers your AP literature, you know composition teachers ask them the librarians in your school Do you have any samples of essays?

Do you have any guidance or support you can give me? Those are great ways to, uh, find some support as well. So remember, you were not the first person, the last person who struggled with the essay or felt like you couldn’t write one or, you know, had insecurities about it. So just know that there are people in your community who are willing to help you.

So start with what you know, with who you know, your teachers, your educators, start early. Uh, and then also look at their guides online and also CollegeAdvisor. That’s something we do. And the support that we offer our students as well, especially for our students who are like, I’m STEM. I don’t like writing.

And we really try to start early with those students so they can have the additional support that they want.

Lydia: I think everything that you said completely accurate. CollegeAdvisor has plenty of resources to support students regardless of how talented they may feel they are in writing. So, um, if you’re, if that’s something that you don’t feel that confident on their resources available, but also I think the point that you made, I about reading really being the key to be a strong writer.

I mean, I was an English teacher, but so I’m partial, but, um, I can’t agree with that more. I think that humans, to some extent, are kind of like chat GPT in the sense that the more examples that you feed yourself about a certain thing, the easier it’ll be for you to generate a strong output. So if you have never sat down and read a really strong personal statement, It’s not surprising that it’ll be really difficult for you to generate one because you don’t really have an idea of how Those things are structured and I think if you haven’t had practice like telling your own story Or just communicating with people about who you are as a person It’s hard to do that for the first time and for a lot of high school students This is the first time that they’ve had to think about their life Collectively, and who they are now, and how their past has influenced who they are presently.

So, reading examples of strong personal statements can be really helpful, but I think even beyond that, like, there are plenty of authors who are not applying to college who also write personal essays, so like, reading those as well, uh, and just seeing, Getting examples of people talking about themselves, like the New York Times, too.

There are plenty of examples of people just writing about their life experiences and how it impacted them. The more examples that you feed yourself, the easier it will be. And it might also inspire you in terms of finding a topic that is comfortable for you to share. Um, We’re gonna take a quick break from the q and a, just to remind you all that, like we were talking about earlier, CollegeAdvisor is here to support you.

We have a team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts who are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process and one-on-one advising sessions. We’ve already helped over 6,000 clients in their college journeys and in our 2021 to 2023 data, we found that CollegeAdvisor students.

We’re 2 to 4 times more likely to get into colleges like Stanford, Vanderbilt and Harvard, so increase your odds and take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session with an admission specialist on our team. Using the QR code on the screen.

During this meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile along with some initial recommendations. In the end, you’ll also learn more about the premium packages that we offer, that pair you with an expert who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays, and much more.

Now we’re gonna jump back into the q and a.

So another question that we’ve got is are there best practices for addressing difficult topics like a parent divorce, a parent being laid off from their job, moving constantly, that highlights them in a way that is beneficial to applications and doesn’t just sound like a sob story?

Aya: That’s a great question.

I mean, again, I think when it comes to choosing a topic such as, um, one that might. Discuss, uh, particularly familial adversity, as opposed to like a personal one, as in like, you broke a leg, uh, that’s a different story than like a parent’s divorce or, um, bankruptcy in the family or something. You always want to ask yourself, why are you telling this story and what you hope to convey from this story.

What are you trying to leave the admissions officers with? So are you telling a story about your parents divorce to talk about how you navigated a very tumultuous time in your household, how it impacted, impacted you in the classroom, how it impacted social relationships, and also how it impacted interpersonal relationships or relationships with your family?

Is that, if that’s what you’re trying to tell, are there other examples of narratives that you could tell that could communicate that with those? Those particular aims as well. Um, you also want to think about when it comes to talking about the no, you’ll challenges again. Divorce is one we see quite a bit in admissions.

Um, those types of familiar challenges. Is it important for you to tell those particular stories? Are you telling your parents story? Are you telling your own story? So also making sure that the essay is about you. Um, and then when it comes to a parent being laid off or something like that, sometimes those, um, those moments are.

Especially laid off because that actually might have financial implications, you know, that may not be appropriate in the common app, but that might be something the counselor can talk about. That is something you could communicate to financial aid. That might be an additional, um, you know, common app allows you to have like an additional, um, kind of if there’s something you need to explain significant.

Um, that might have impacted you, uh, and this is beyond, like, the COVID essay that no longer is, no longer exists, I believe. I think then, you know, you might want to talk about, like, a pyramid laid off and how that might impact your financial aid and etc. But, I mean, the best practices is, You know, making sure that when you are choosing to tell a story, um, that might be really personal, that you are honoring not only your family, but yourself and thinking about, um, I always tell people this that a lot of students and parents don’t realize like what happens when they press submit and universities, there’s not only sometimes one admissions officer that might repair readers.

There might be committees. Do you want your essays to be read by more than one person? Do you want your essays to be read about a committee? Do you want that essay to be. Share even perhaps with another student there who might be on the committee. So is there something you want others to know? Because your essay is not a diary.

Okay? So I just want you to remember that as college personal statements are not Diaries and you just want to make sure that you’re sharing things about your personal life that you will be okay with being Kind of told and shared and communicated amongst like groups of people because admissions officers are not very, they’re not always singular.

So, uh, so that’s what I, you know, just making sure that what you’re trying to communicate that talking through it through the lens of, you know, familial, you know, Challenges is like the most appropriate um way to communicate that Because sometimes there’s other stories we can tell other narratives we can tell that can communicate the same level of values principles growth, etc

Lydia: I think that’s a great response.

And I think what you said about the additional question on the common app. I think it’s a good point um, I like to think of it as your common app your personal statement that is If you’re going to talk about an adversity for that personal statement, the end takeaway should be something positive about you.

Not an explainer of here’s why I didn’t get good grades, or here’s why I didn’t participate in extracurriculars. It shouldn’t be just an explainer. Of why you may not be the person that they may want for their university. That’s a good, that’s something for your counselor to explain, or if you feel like you need to explain it yourself in the additional question, the common app needs to be, you know, highlighting the positives and not focusing as much on the negatives, um, that may take away from your application.

Otherwise. Speaking of negatives, another question is if a student previously had possibly really ignorant beliefs or something like that, or just wasn’t a good person for whatever reason, maybe they were a bully or something like that, and they’ve been able to learn from that and become a better person or become more open minded.

Is that a kind of topic that they should avoid talking about because it does cast their former self in a negative light or is that a good thing to do because it shows that they’re willing to learn and reflect and acknowledge their faults?

Aya: Do not write about being a reformed bully. I would not encourage that at all.

I would not write about being a former plagiarist. Maybe you got in trouble. And you know, you plagiarized two essays and you’re ninth grade and you got in trouble, and now you don’t do it anymore. Do not write about that because it’s still, once you say something like that, you can’t take it back. And they cannot, they, us admissions officers, cannot unsee it, and it will taint their perception.

Um, and it becomes a matter of integrity. Growth happens. They don’t need to know about every moment of growth you’ve ever had. I would not write it. There are some things that I just wouldn’t say it’s appropriate. And being a former bully or maybe used to, you know, created a fake Instagram profile and used to bully people or use hate speech.

Don’t write about those things. Please. It will not be advantageous for your application.

Lydia: Got it. Um, Another thing is, let’s say that a student just doesn’t end up being able to have an essay that really has that wow factor. Does, how big of an impact does that have on a student’s application? Is it the end of the world?

Or are students still able to get into competitive colleges even if they don’t have the best personal statement?

Aya: I feel like a lot of talented, amazing students, uh, write very average essays and get into competitive amazing institutions. So, um, the essays are there to help you. Um, but the most important part of the application are your grades.

So, um, the essays are again, they’re supposed to help, but, you know, I kind of think, I don’t know. There was any instance where the essay was like, Oh, it came down like the essay is like, it’s going to save a student who’s great and, um, and if they submit the test scores are not competitive. So, um, you want to put your best foot forward.

But when I interview admissions officers for my research and I say, where does the essay fit? You know, still a 1 through 5. They all said it was like three, and in some cases two, you know, they, they, it’s supposed to help you, so I would not fret about that, um, you want to make sure your grades are strong, you want to make sure if you’re submitting test scores that they are competitive, um, and you want to, again, write the best essay you can, um, but in most cases, it is not, um, In the majority of the cases, it is not.

Lydia: That makes sense. Um, so another question that we’ve got is, um, when you’re speaking about personal experiences, is there a time frame that you should stay in? Like, if something really pivotal in your life happened when you were in elementary school, is that too far back? Or should you just focus on things that happen in high school?

Aya: That, it depends. That’s a really great question, and I know I use the example about maybe two or three times to focus on the near present. Um, I think, say, you had an injury in elementary school and it has affected you to this day. Of course, you know, positioning or framing the story and said, this happened then, This is how it affects me today.

It’s really useful, right? Um, you know, a story has a beginning, middle, end. So I think that’s appropriate. It really depends. I mean, if you just write about being, you know, bullied in elementary school, and you’re, you know, you’re writing an essay as 16 or 17 year old, and this happened when you were 7 years old, That may not be the most appropriate.

Not that I would not find that to be an appropriate kind of topic at this stage, right? So there are things that happen to us when we are younger, for sure, that are pivotal, that are transformational, um, and we want to write about those things sometimes. But you do want to make sure that even, even if you reference the past, that you’re focusing on how that affects you now.

What’s happening today? How has that informed who you are and informs your future? You just don’t want to live in the past. Um, so that’s, that would be my advice for that.

Lydia: So I know throughout this presentation, we’ve been talking about the importance of, you know, just showcasing who you are, your experiences, showing, not telling.

I know that there are a lot of students who also want to talk about their achievements or what they’ve accomplished in their personal statement. Is that something that they should avoid because it may be able to be reflected in other parts of their application? Or is it a good thing for them to also touch on those things?

Aya: Again, it really depends on what question you’re responding to. So, um, if you want to, so let me, so it, first it depends on what question you’re responding to. Secondly, there are other areas in the application such as the honors and awards section and also the extracurricular activity list where you get 10, where you might Uh, have more room to talk about, uh, particular achievements and more explicitly.

So that might be more appropriate. However, um, if you if you talk about, you know, why you are interested in, you know, studying, I don’t environmental science and you say, you know, when I attended this environmental science camp at, you know, University of Michigan, you know, I realized I was in love with the environment and scientists because, you know, I was awarded the like, uh, most likely to be an environmental sciences degree and that really transformed how I thought about like what my future could be like.

So, of course, that right there is a little humble brag, but it also shows like, okay, this was transformational for me. So again, there are places where you can do it appropriately. Your, uh, personal statement and most of your supplements. They are not, um, resumes. They are not, you should not just be listing achievement.

That’s actually stylistically, not the, the pros you should engage in. Um, so there are opportunities for you to explicitly talk about awards and honors and other parts of the application. Does that mean there’s no space or room or opportunity to talk about it in your common app again It really depends on how it’s framed and in the context, but your common app is not a resume So you do not want to just list off.

I did this I did this I did this I did this I did this Um, it’s just not stylistically. It’s not what we will enjoy reading But you do want to talk about your accomplishments and your leadership and the things you achieved in your, on your, uh, in your Common App profile and just in your application more broadly because admissions officers won’t know things unless you tell them.

So if it’s something you think we need to know, you definitely want to make sure it’s present somewhere on the application, even if the essay is not the best or most appropriate place.

Lydia: Got it. So, um, another question that we’ve got is, is it more important to show personality traits like being outgoing or being like a person who has a really good sense of humor?

Or is it more important to highlight virtues like I am a leader or I am a really honest person? Is there, one that’s more important than the other or are they equally important?

Aya: They’re equally important and you really just want to be honest and authentic because not everybody is outspoken or funny. Um, and I think a lot of people think they’re funnier than they actually are and sometimes humor does not translate well in written form to people who don’t know you, right?

So, um, I would say just be authentic, you know, um, and Maybe the essay you’re writing is not about like your leadership skills, like some essays might engage that and invite you to do that. That may not be the question you’re responding to either. So you definitely want to talk about, um, you just want to talk about who you are.

And I would, again, I challenge people to not focus on like writing like what they think they want to do. What they think we want to read. You really want to be authentic. That’s the most important part.

Lydia: Makes sense. So our last question for the night is, Should you talk about former academic struggles or shortcomings when applying to competitive universities, assuming that you did eventually overcome it?

Aya: That’s a great question. Um, I, I err, I’m, I’m cautious about that. So it also depends on what it is. Um, I think I would say overwhelmingly in the common app essay, the person statement, it’s not the best place to talk about that. And also it depends. Like, are you saying I got all A’s and then I got an A minus or are you saying I had all C’s and now I have all A’s?

It really also depends. Regardless, common app essay is not the most appropriate place to talk about that. Your account, your counselor will be really well positioned to talk about that. Uh, and then that other additional, um, Space could be appropriate, but it depends on what it is because sometimes we shine light and on things that we don’t necessarily need to shine light on, you know, it may not be something you need to emphasize.

So it’s really hard to say emphatically yes or no, because I don’t have the details, but I would say, though, I don’t think the personal statement is the best way Place to talk about academic struggles, and I’m thinking more. So, like, I had, you know, I was struggling in math with a D and then I got a B minus.

Like, I don’t think that’s an appropriate essay. Appropriate topic to write about in your common app personal statement.

Lydia: Yeah, I agree. I would say if it’s a focus on grades, like I used to have a bad grade in this, or I used to just have bad grades in general, and now I don’t, I would avoid doing something like that.

However, if, when you say academic struggle, if you’re talking about maybe a learning disability of some sort, that maybe you learned how to navigate that, and now it’s something that, you know, You’re able to feel more confident in class and the focus isn’t so much on grades. I think that that could be a compelling like, oh, well, I have dyslexia or I have ADHD or something like that.

I think that that might be a little bit more compelling. All right, so that concludes our session for tonight. Thank you so much Aya. I know I learned a lot. I hope that everyone at home did too. Thank you to the audience for coming out tonight. Okay, so um, that’s the end of our webinar. We had a really great time telling you all about crafting a standout college essay and this is our April webinar series.

I hope that we can see you again sometime later this month. I hope everyone has a good night.