At some point over the course of your time at college, it is basically inevitable that you will have your most fiercely-held beliefs challenged. (Unless you go to a college where everyone thinks exactly like you — but who wants that?!) Colleges want to know: how will you respond? Will you start blood feuds with people who disagree with you? Or will you meet those moments with grace, welcoming conflict as an (occasionally painful) opportunity for growth?

To answer this question, a growing number of colleges are including what we’re calling the “differing opinions” essay on their supplements. The prompts sound something like this:

At Princeton, we value diverse perspectives and the ability to have respectful dialogue about difficult issues. Share a time when you had a conversation with a person or a group of people about a difficult topic. What insight did you gain, and how would you incorporate that knowledge into your thinking in the future? (50-250 words)

Vanderbilt University values learning through contrasting points of view. We understand that our differences, and our respect for alternative views and voices, are our greatest source of strength. Please reflect on conversations you’ve had with people who have expressed viewpoints different from your own. How did these conversations/experiences influence you? (250 words)

Brown’s culture fosters a community in which students challenge the ideas of others and have their ideas challenged in return, promoting a deeper and clearer understanding of the complex issues confronting society. This active engagement in dialogue is as present outside the classroom as it is in academic spaces. Tell us about a time you were challenged by a perspective that differed from your own. How did you respond? (200-250 words) 

There are slight variations in these prompts — for example, some specifically ask about a tough conversation, while others ask more broadly about experiences — but the gist is the same. They are all asking you to think about how you communicate with those who have different viewpoints from you. They all ask you to reflect on a moment in which your beliefs were challenged by someone else and discuss what you learned from that interaction. As you begin crafting your “differing opinions” essay, use the “dos” and “don’ts” below to guide you.

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DON’T

Limit yourself to conversations in which you were obviously in the right.

In fact, it can be especially powerful to write about a conversation or experience that caused you to seriously reconsider the beliefs you once considered irrefutable.

Make things too tidy.

It can be tempting to end your narrative with total agreement or resolution. Ex., “My mom once thought all gay people were just going through a phase, but I gave her a stern talking-to, and now she’s an enthusiastic ally!” Resist the urge to tie a neat bow on your essay! More often than not, disagreements about deeply-held beliefs don’t end so tidily, and acknowledging the ongoing messiness of the interaction can demonstrate a lot of maturity and nuance.

Get didactic.

The point of this essay is not to convince your reader to adopt your viewpoint. Don’t hold forth or lecture your reader about your beliefs — the essay should be less about the beliefs themselves and more about how challenges to those beliefs have influenced you

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DO

Cast a wide net.

If you’ve had formative arguments with your friends, family members, or classmates about hot-button issues like mental illness, race, or gender identity, then those conversations can obviously serve as the basis for an essay like this. But they aren’t your only options! Profound reflection can originate from less “serious” subject matter. We’ve seen successful essays written about clashes over food preferences, clothing choices, and group chat etiquette. As long as the takeaway goes deep, the idea could work.

Consider how encountering or acknowledging an opposing point of view has helped you grow.

Discuss how you grew in maturity, in compassion, or in some other way. Remember that this is, ultimately, an essay about you. Even if the prompt necessitates that you allocate space in your essay toward describing another person’s perspective, it’s always a good idea to continue bringing the essay back to your development.

Maintain compassion and respect.

Even if you’re describing an encounter with true bigotry, NEVER bash the person you’re writing about. You will always come off best if you maintain respect and kindness for people with whom you disagree, especially if that disagreement is heated. This might mean that there are certain topics that are simply off-limits for you because they’re too fresh; if you can’t write about that argument with  your dad without your rage pouring onto the paper, then maybe it’s just too soon. Try to pick a topic that you can write about clearly and reflectively.

Consider writing a dual purpose essay.

Sometimes, a “differing opinions” essay can also work as a community essay. Can you think of any conflicts that have arisen within your communities that have been critical in cultivating your personal growth or enriching your perspective? If so, you might be able to write an essay that can work for both community AND differing opinions prompts.

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Check out our full College Essay Hub for tons of resources and guidance on writing your college essays. Need more personalized guidance on brainstorming or crafting your supplemental essays? Contact our college admissions team.

 

The diversity of a student body—socioeconomic, cultural, racial, gender intellectual, etc.—can be one of the most rewarding aspects of a college experience. When one teenager who grew up on a goat farm in rural Vermont meets the child of diplomats from Singapore and a kid from San Diego who surfs competitively, those young people will change how one another sees the world. As such, more and more, colleges have begun including supplemental essay questions that ask students to describe how they value diversity and/or how they might contribute to the diversity of a college campus. Those questions might sound something like this:

At the University of Colorado Boulder, no two Buffs are alike. We value difference and support equity and inclusion of all students and their many intersecting identities. Pick one of your unique identities and describe its significance. (250 words)

On Colgate’s campus, students engage with individuals from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, races, ethnicities, religions, and perspectives during the course of their educational and social experiences. In 200-250 words, please share the benefits you see in engaging with a diverse body of students, faculty, and staff as part of your Colgate experience.

The process of discovery best advances when people from various backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives come together. How do you see yourself contributing to the diversity of Caltech’s community? (250-400 words)

NYU was founded on the belief that a student’s identity should not dictate the ability for them to access higher education. That sense of opportunity for all students, of all backgrounds, remains a part of who we are today and a critical part of what makes us a world class university. Our community embraces diversity, in all its forms, as a cornerstone of the NYU experience. We would like to better understand how your experiences would help us to shape and grow our diverse community. (250 words)

Rice is lauded for creating a collaborative atmosphere that enhances the quality of life for all members of our campus community. The Residential College System is heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural traditions each student brings. What personal perspectives would you contribute to life at Rice? (500 words)

In answering these kinds of essay prompts, we encourage you to think expansively about the word “diversity.” Simply ask yourself: what perspective or life experience do I have that others might not have?

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Tip 1: Try the community approach

Lots of students find success in writing the diversity essay by essentially writing a community essay with diversity flavor. Birds, meet stone! For example, if you write a community essay about making perogies with your Polish-American family or growing up playing in the kids’ room at your neighborhood’s Islamic Cultural Center, those are both also effective demonstrations of how you might contribute to the diversity of your campus community. And if you write a community essay about joining your local 4-H Club and having your worldview expanded by meeting people from all walks of life there, that could be an effective demonstration of why and how you value diversity.

If you’re interested in trying this approach, check out our brainstorming questions for community, diversity, and identity, as well as our guide on the community essay.

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Tip 2: Try the identity/perspective approach

If you can’t think of any communities to which you belong that would support an essay with a diversity takeaway, no sweat! There are plenty of other approaches to the diversity essay. One of the most common strategies for the diversity essay is to write about an identity or a perspective that is not yet covered in your application.

Put your phone on Do Not Disturb, set a timer for 5 minutes, and quickly list out all of the ways in which you identify. And again: think expansively! “Man,” “bisexual,” “white,” and “Christian” belong on the list, but so might “feminist,” “artist,” “Ping pong champ,” “ballroom dance lover,” or “peacemaker.” Don’t judge the identities for their usefulness while you’re writing — just write. (If you’re looking for a more structured approach to this exercise, you might try our Identity Wheel.)

When you’re done, look over your list. Is one of the identities that you jotted down particularly important to you? Does one of them feel particularly unique to you? Are there identities that you haven’t addressed so far in your application? Is there an identity that perhaps you’ve found challenging to reconcile or that has been a source of conflict or stress? Any identity that you’ve written down that suits one of these questions could make for a rich and fruitful diversity essay that shows admissions officers one aspect of the unique perspective that you would bring to campus.

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Tip 3: Touch on how diversity shapes your outlook

Remember: colleges ask this question because they genuinely value diversity, and they believe that education is incomparably enriched if students learn alongside those whose perspectives differ from their own. Colleges want to know that your values align with theirs—that you, too, believe in the worth of diversity. In order to effectively communicate that you value diversity, you’ll need to go one step further than simply describing how you’ve encountered diversity in your life so far—you’ll need to explain how your experiences with diverse groups have shaped your outlook.

For example, let’s say you want to write about a self-defense class for women that you took at the YMCA. It isn’t quite enough just to describe all of the different types of women who showed up and state your amazement at their wide range of backgrounds. You would also need to talk about what that class taught you about the value of diversity, or how it helped you become a more thoughtful listener, a more compassionate collaborator, or a stronger advocate for people on the margins of society.

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Check out our full College Essay Hub for tons of resources and guidance on writing your college essays. Need more personalized guidance on brainstorming or crafting your supplemental essays? Contact our college admissions team.

When college admissions officers admit a new group of freshmen, they aren’t just filling up classrooms — they’re also crafting (you guessed it) a campus community. College students don’t just sit quietly in class, retreat to their rooms to crank out homework, go to sleep, rinse, and repeat. They socialize! They join clubs! They organize student protests! They hold cultural events! They become RAs and audition for a cappella groups and get on-campus jobs! Colleges want to cultivate a thriving, vibrant, uplifting campus community that enriches students’ learning — and for that reason, they’re understandably curious about what kind of community member they’ll be getting when they invite you to campus as part of their incoming class.

The “community” supplemental essay prompt

Enter the “community” essay — an increasingly popular supplemental essay prompt that asks students to talk about a community to which they belong and how they have contributed to or benefited from that community. Community essays often sound something like this:

University of Michigan: Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it. (250 words)

Pomona College: Reflecting on a community that you are part of, what values or perspectives from that community would you bring to Pomona?  (250 words)

University of Rochester: Spiders are essential to the ecosystem. How are you essential to your community or will you be essential in your university community? (350-650 words)

Swarthmore: Swarthmore students’ worldviews are often forged by their prior experiences and exposure to ideas and values. Our students are often mentored, supported, and developed by their immediate context—in their neighborhoods, communities of faith, families, and classrooms. Reflect on what elements of your home, school, or community have shaped you or positively impacted you. How have you grown or changed because of the influence of your community? (250 words)

Yale: Reflect on a time when you have worked to enhance a community to which you feel connected. Why have these efforts been meaningful to you? You may define community however you like. (400 words)

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Step 1: Pick a community to write about

Breathe. You belong to LOTS of communities. And if none immediately come to mind, it’s only because you need to bust open your idea of what constitutes a “community”!

Among other things, communities can be joined by…

• LOCATION
  • West Coasters
  • NYC’s Koreatown
  • Rural Iowa
  • Everyone in my cabin at summer camp
• ACTIVITY
  • Swim team
  • ACLU volunteers
  • Cast of a school musical
• INTEREST
  • Puzzle-lovers
  • Math club
  • Powerlifters
• IDENTITY OR CIRCUMSTANCE
  • Army brats who live together on a military base
  • Family
  • Iranian-American
  • Queer-identifying
  • Children of pastors

Take 15 minutes to write down a list of ALL the communities you belong to that you can think of. While you’re writing, don’t worry about judging which ones will be useful for an essay. Just write down every community that comes to mind — even if some of them feel like a stretch.

When you’re done, survey your list of communities. Do one, two, or three communities jump out as options that could enable you to write about yourself and your community engagement? Carry your top choices of community into Step 2.

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Step 2: Generate content

For each of your top communities, answer any of the following questions that apply:

• Is there a memorable story I can tell about my engagement with this community?
• What concrete impacts have I had on this community?
• What problems have I solved (or attempted to solve) in this community?
• What have I learned from this community?
• How has this community supported me or enriched my life up to this point?
• How have I applied the lessons or values I gleaned from this community more broadly?

Different questions will be relevant for different community prompts. For example, if you’re working on answering Yale’s prompt, you’ll want to focus on a community on which you’ve had a concrete impact. But if you’re trying to crack Swarthmore’s community essay, you can prioritize communities that have impacted YOU. Keep in mind though — even for a prompt like Yale’s, which focuses on tangible impact, it’s important that your community essay doesn’t read like a rattled-off list of achievements in your community. Your goal here is to show that you are a generous, thoughtful, grateful, and active community member who uplifts the people around you — not to detail a list of the competitions that Math club has won under your leadership.

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BONUS: Connect your past community life to your future on-campus community life

Some community essay prompts ask you — or give you the option — to talk about how you plan on engaging with community on a particular college campus. If you’re tackling one of those prompts (like Pomona’s), then you guessed it: it’s research time!

Often, for these kinds of community prompts, it will serve you to first write about a community that you’ve engaged with in the past and then write about how you plan to continue engaging with that same kind of community at college. For example, if you wrote about throwing a Lunar New Year party with international students at your high school, you might write about how excited you are to join the International Students Alliance at your new college or contribute to the cross-cultural student magazine. Or, if you wrote about playing in your high school band, you might write about how you can’t wait to audition for your new college’s chamber orchestra or accompany the improv team for their improvised musicals. The point is to give your admissions officer an idea of what on-campus communities you might be interested in joining if you were to attend their particular school.

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Check out our full College Essay Hub for tons of resources and guidance on writing your college essays. Need more personalized guidance on brainstorming or crafting your supplemental essays? Contact our college admissions team.

 

As your college dreams start coming into clearer focus, you’ll probably start hearing the dreaded question: “So what are you going to study in college?” (It’s like, can you ask me about something less stressful, please?! Like my rare Tamagotchi collection?!) Though we’re not exactly thrilled about the trend of teenagers being asked to specialize earlier and earlier in their academic careers, it IS important that you have some idea of what your intellectual passions are when you start your senior year — because colleges will ask about them on the almighty “why major” essay.

The “why major” supplemental essay prompt

The “why major” essay has long been a mainstay of college supplements; many, many colleges include some version of this prompt each year. Here are just a few examples of “why major” prompts that have cropped up in the past:

UT Austin: Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major? (250-300 words)

Emory University: What academic areas are you interested in exploring in college? (200 words)

Carnegie Mellon: Most students choose their intended major or area of study based on a passion or inspiration that’s developed over time – what passion or inspiration led you to choose this area of study? (300 words) 

Howard University: Presume there was only one spot left in your first choice major program. Given you have thoroughly researched said program, why should we offer the spot to you over another student? Please feel free to discuss your reasons for pursuing your first choice major, your unique talents & skills, and/or how said program aligns with your long-term goals. (250 words) 

MIT: Tell us more about why this field of study at MIT appeals to you. (100 words

Columbia University: Please tell us what from your current and past experiences (either academic or personal) attracts you specifically to the areas of study that you noted in the application. (200 words)  

 

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The role of a “why major” essay

Colleges include “why major” essays in their supplements for three primary reasons.

• They want to get a sense of your intellectual passions. After all, college is—first and foremost—school! In order for a college to make an informed decision about whether you’re a great fit for their academic environment, they need to understand your primary academic interests.
• They want to get an idea of what your possible major might be. Colleges generally won’t hold you to the major you list on your application, but by giving them a general understanding of the major you’re considering now, you’re helping them assemble an incoming class that consists of a diverse array of majors. Nobody wants a class of 100% poli-sci stans.
• In some cases, the “why major” essay gives colleges a sense of whether you’re realistically prepared for the work associated with a given major. An underdeveloped, shallow, or unconvincing “why major” essay might make you seem like a flight risk—they might worry that you’ll be taken aback by the rigor of the major and drop out.

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Ingredients of a successful “why major” essay

What are your academic interests, and why?

Simple enough! Clearly state the area—or intersection—that constitutes the focus of your primary academic interest: ex., applied math, Latin-American literature, mechanical engineering, gender & sexuality studies + public health.

What’s your academic origin story?

Think about all of the moments in your life that have culminated in this one — the one in which you are preparing to apply for this particular major. Maybe your passion for Chinese poetry was kindled when you were 4 years old, and your Chinese grandmother read to you in Mandarin each night. Or maybe your interest in business and reproductive health was piqued just six months ago, when your aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. Or maybe you got curious about psychology in 9th grade, when you saw a community theater production of Next to Normal.

How have you developed and explored those academic interests?

Detail the ways in which you pursued your primary academic interest after it was originally sparked. How have you sought to deepen your engagement with your academic passions? Did you attend summer programs that helped you clarify your interests? Did you start an initiative through a student club that allowed you to explore the topic in a practical way? Did you check out books from the library that drew you further down the academic rabbit hole? Did you get an after-school job that exposed you to your interest’s application in the professional world? The key here is to demonstrate an authentic, sustained engagement to your stated academic interest!

BONUS: How will you continue developing your interest at this particular school?

Some schools roll their “why major” and “why us” essays into one—like the example from Howard above, as well as the examples below:

Please explain your interest in your first-choice major/undecided status and your second-choice major (should you opt to list one) and why you would choose Bucknell University to pursue your interest(s). (250 words)

Why do you want to study your chosen major specifically at Georgia Tech? (300 words)

Notice how these essays don’t simply ask about how you’ve engaged with your interests in the past—they also ask about your specific plans to develop that interest in the future, on their specific campus! For these essays, you’ll need to execute an additional step—after you’ve laid out how your academic interests have taken shape up to this point, you’ll need to make a case as to why this particular college is the perfect place to support you as you continue pursuing those interests. Sure, you love the classics, but why apply to this specific classics department? (Hint: “Because Northwestern is a great school” won’t cut it. You gotta do your research so you can talk about specific resources, opportunities, and/or programs on campus that will facilitate you achieving your specific academic goals.)

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Writing the “why major” essay when you’re applying undecided

Even if you’re applying to college undecided, you might still have to write a “why major” essay! And your writing process won’t be all that different from those applying with a stated major. Though you might not be able to confidently state your single area of interest, you can certainly write about the few areas of academic study that you’re considering—even better if you can gather those areas under a single thematic umbrella. For example, if you’re applying “undecided” because you’re struggling to pick between English and Machine Learning, you might write your “why major” essay about how you’re interested in both the history and the future of storytelling

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Check out our full College Essay Hub for tons of resources and guidance on writing your college essays. Need more personalized guidance on brainstorming or crafting your supplemental essays? Contact our college admissions team.

If you’re in the process of writing your college essays, you’ve probably heard one platitude over and over again: a good college essay should help you stand out. We understand that it’s intimidating to think about seeming unique amidst thousands of other applicants — until you remember that you actually ARE completely unique, even amidst thousands of other applicants. You don’t need to worry about puffing yourself up to seem special — when writing your essay, you can simply tap into the natural uniqueness that already exists within you.

All that being said — there are a handful of cliched college essay topics that admissions officers read over and over and over again. If you’re considering one of the following overdone essay topics, know that you may struggle to distinguish yourself from the many other students who have also chosen the same topic, and you may have trouble writing about that topic in a way that feels refreshing or “new” to an admissions officer who has been reading similar essays for many years.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that these topics are forbidden! All we ask is that, if you’re feeling especially jazzed about one of these topics, spend some time endeavoring to find an unusual or unexpected angle on that (possibly predictable) idea.

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1. The sports essay

You’ve come up with the perfect essay topic: that basketball game that changed your life. Your team had been struggling all season, but you came together and clinched the championship! Or: you were a top runner on the cross country team, until an injury benched you, and you had to adapt. Or: you were consistently the slowest swimmer on the team, but you learned that you still love swimming even if you’re not the next Michael Phelps.

It seems like a natural topic to choose! Sports and sports injuries can evoke a lot of emotion — disappointment, jubilation, and pain, to name a few. Recovering from a sports injury, leading your athletic team to victory, or coping with a crippling defeat can demonstrate determination, perseverance, grit, bravery, and many other admirable qualities.

Unfortunately, many other students have the same idea. Sports — and especially sports injuries — are hugely popular topics for college essays. Students often feel compelled to discuss a single moment or event that changed their lives in these essays, and because so many high schoolers participate in athletics, quite a few have had similar experiences that fit this bill. On top of that, these essays often follow the same well-trod themes related to overcoming adversity.

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2. The community service essay

Here’s an essay excerpt that’s sure to make an admissions officer reach for the triple shot latte to stay awake:

“I spent [a summer vacation/a weekend/three hours] volunteering with the poor in [Honduras/ Haiti/ Louisiana] and realized that [I am privileged/I enjoy helping others/people there are happy with so little].”

It is awesome that you volunteered at an elderly care facility or went to Costa Rica and helped build a school for underprivileged kids—and colleges love seeing evidence of real compassion—but when an admissions officer picks up your community service essay, it could be the one hundredth community service essay they’ve read that day. Additionally, some ideas (like the Costa Rica school one) risk making you seem uncritically privileged — as if Mommy and Daddy financed your trip specifically to build your college resume.

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3. The summer camp essay

There is a reason this essay topic has become a cliché – for many students, summer programs represent the first exposure to life outside of their bubble. Similarly, camp can legitimately help kids grow and mature, develop a sense of community, and foster leadership skills – duh, that’s part of why parents send their kids to summer camp! The problem is that, because these kinds of experiences tend to be so broadly shared by so many high schoolers, and because these narratives tend to follow such common themes (I found my people! I went from camper to counselor! I learned how to be a leader! I found a home away from home!), writing an essay along these lines can make it extremely difficult for an admissions officer to get a sense of who you are in specificity.

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4. The hardship essay

Many students (and parents) tend to be under the impression that it’s important to write about “overcoming obstacles” or about the worst, most traumatic thing that has ever happened to them — and maybe that’s why so many of these essays are submitted each year! Not only are these kinds of essays overdone, they are also tricky for a couple of other reasons. If you’re interested in writing about an experience that you consider a hardship, ask yourself two questions:

First, how might that hardship be considered in the greater applicant pool? For example, if you failed a Bio quiz and needed to dedicate extra hours to catching up for the next few months, that might have been legitimately devastating to you at the time. However, there will likely be students in the applicant pool who have dealt with chronic illness, domestic violence, homelessness, etc. Ask yourself how you might feel if your hardship essay was read back-to-back with an essay about homelessness or some other hardship of similar severity.

Second, are you really ready to write about the experience? Some of our students have experienced significant hardships and/or trauma, coming in the form of abuse, rejection due to sexual orientation or gender identity, disordered eating, self-harm, etc. If you’re interested in focusing your essay on one of these topics, try to assess whether you will be able to write clearly and self-reflectively about it — the last thing we want would be for you to get penalized for your vulnerability by writing about trauma in a way that makes an admissions officer doubt that you are emotionally ready for college. As a rule of thumb, you may want to write about scars, but you should never write about open wounds.

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Now you know a bit more about some of the pitfalls and risks that come with certain college essay topics. It’s time to sit down and start drafting! Check out our full College Essay Hub for tons of resources and guidance on writing your college essay. Need more personalized guidance on brainstorming or crafting your personal statement? Contact our college admissions team.

If you have the germ of an idea for a personal statement — a story, an experience, an image — but you’re struggling to turn that idea into a crafted essay, then this is the exercise for you.

Part of the reason writing a personal statement can feel like such a daunting task is because, when it comes to a personal statement, there are truly no hard-and-fast rules. The content? Up to you. The structure? Wide open. While that freedom leaves lots of room for your unique creative voice, it can also feel overwhelming when you’re just getting started.

We’ve seen lots of amazing personal statements utilize an incredibly broad range of structures — and by no means should you take the following guidance as an irrefutable limitation. That being said, many successful personal statements follow an “INTO-THROUGH-BEYOND” framework. Below, we’ve laid out this simple three-part framework, in order to help you turn your germ of an idea into a developed, supremely crafted essay.

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INTO

Personal statements often begin with an INTO, which, simply put, offers a way for your reader to get INTO the essay. Your INTO might be an image, a moment in time, the introduction of an overall metaphor, etc. It might be a sentence, a paragraph, or a series of paragraphs. All that matters is that your INTO piques your reader’s interest and draws them into the essay.

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THROUGH

Your THROUGH provides immediate and overall context for your INTO. For example, if your INTO is the image of a cupped hand holding a heap of whole nutmeg, your THROUGH might explain that this hand belongs to your grandmother, and she’s holding out spices so that you can make Masala Chai together. Your THROUGH might go on to provide the overall context that you struggle to make perfect Masala Chai despite your grandmother’s patient guidance, which makes you insecure about your authenticity as an Indian-American.

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BEYOND

Your BEYOND lays out the significance of your INTO and your THROUGH. It connects your INTO and your THROUGH to who you are now or who you want to be. The BEYOND can be powerful, funny, sad, dry, or clever — but avoid sappiness, if you can.

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Example of INTO-THROUGH-BEYOND Structure

Check out this essay taken from the book “50 Successful Harvard Application Essays.” In this essay…

• The INTO is the student’s description of the specific emotional experience of never seeing her name on any customized name-specific merchandise.
• The THROUGH covers the next five paragraphs and situates that disappointment in a larger story about the student’s identity, her family, and her struggle to come to terms with her unusual name.
• The BEYOND takes the form of a moment that contrasts with the opening moment — someone pronouncing her name perfectly — which connects to the student’s newly formed sense of pride around her name.

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Begin mapping out a compelling INTO-THROUGH-BEYOND structure for your personal statement ideas. You can write in bullet points or full sentences, but write as much as you can. The point here is for you to get an idea of the structure and flow of your eventual essay. How might you grab your reader at the beginning, allowing them a window into something truly vivid and specific? How might you contextualize that opening so that the essay can become about you more broadly? How might you close out your essay in a pithy and powerful way?

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Need more personalized guidance on brainstorming or crafting your personal statement? Contact our college admissions team.

 

This exercise is simple, but powerful.

The best personal statements demonstrate openness and vulnerability — a willingness on behalf of the student to let their guard down and be known. In this exercise, you’ll practice your ability to cultivate authentic closeness with your reader — and generate a few personal statement ideas along the way.

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Step 1.

Find a quiet place where you can work, undisturbed, for about 15 minutes. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb and turn it face-down. Open a fresh Google Doc or pull out a notebook and a pen. (If you’re working on Google Docs, make sure your laptop has notifications silenced too.)

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Step 2.

Set a timer for 15 minutes. Your goal is to write continuously for the entire 15 minutes — don’t edit yourself. Don’t sit and wait for the perfect line to come to you. Simply write, unfiltered.

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Step 3.

Write the words, “If you really knew me…” and then finish the sentence. When that sentence is completed, write, “if you really knew me…” again, and finish that sentence in a new way. Continue writing the phrase and completing it until the 15 minutes are up. Your answers can be as long or as short as feels natural to you.

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Step 4.

When the 15 minutes are up, look over what you’ve written. Hopefully, you’ve generated some thoughts and ideas that go beyond surface-level accomplishments or interests to get at more meaningful aspects of your character, personality, or values. Use the richest revelations as starting points for your personal statement.

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Need more personalized guidance on brainstorming or crafting your personal statement? Contact our college admissions team.

This personal statement brainstorming exercise is designed to help you generate ideas for your personal statement and practice deep self-reflection by leading you on an archaeological dig of sorts — but instead of digging up the remains of an ancient civilization, you’ll be whipping out your fossil brush and dusting off personal artifacts excavated from the core of you who are.

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Step 1.

Find a quiet place where you can work, undisturbed, for about 15 minutes. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb and turn it face-down. Open a fresh Google Doc or pull out a notebook and a pen. (If you’re working on Google Docs, make sure your laptop has notifications silenced too.)

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Step 2.

Imagine a closed box.

When you open it, you discover that the box is bursting with personal artifacts. Your personal artifacts. In other words, each object represents a fundamental part of you — your experiences, your character, your personality, etc.

For example — let’s say that you grew up working on a dairy farm. Daily crack-of-dawn farm chores taught you the value of hard work, and daily contact with sweet, liquid-eyed cows taught you the virtue of gentleness. You might discover in the box: a pair of muddy farm boots, unlaced, in honey-colored leather.

Or — let’s say you have a temper. Let’s say you have a powerful sense of justice, and your anger flares when things aren’t fair. You might discover in the box: a canister of lighter fluid.

One more example — let’s say your dad swears he once saw a UFO, and as a result, you spent most of your teenage years on UFO-sighting message boards, developing an interest in the otherworldly and bizarre. You might discover in the box: a grainy photo of a UFO above a neighborhood.

Make a list of the personal artifacts that you discover as you visualize your artifact box, aiming for a total of 10-15. You don’t need to write a paragraph of explanation for each one — just attempt to list each artifact with some visual detail. So, instead of writing “coffee spoon,” write “weighty silver coffee spoon with a well-worn handle and lightly tarnished edges.”

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Step 3.

Go through your list. Are there facets of yourself and your experience that feel unrepresented? If so, take a few minutes and add more artifacts until your list is complete.

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Step 4.

Within each of these personal artifacts lies the seed of an idea for a personal statement.

For example, one student wrote down “a pistachio nut, cracked open in a smile” during her personal artifact brainstorming. Thinking about the pistachio and its symbolism in her culture of origin eventually helped this student launch her personal statement:

“You are such a pistachio!” Mama pinched my nose a little, catching her breath from laughing at my grimace. A few creases emerged beneath her dark circles.

 My lips stretched across my face, dimples bursting. I gazed into her tired eyes: “Mama, don’t I look like one?”

 Pistachio. A small green body that burst out of a creamy white shell, cracking it into two even halves that formed a crooked grin.  When I was growing up, “pistachio” was my nickname — literally meaning “the happy fruit” in my mother tongue, or the one who brings joy to all.

 I liked being the pistachio. With my mom’s busy nine-to-nine and my dad’s occasional twice-a-year visits, being the “pistachio” was easy. I pulled up my best grades for them to sign, my stack of honors and accolades to show, and smiled ear to ear. Mama would pull together a tired smile, and Daddy his camera: “Smile, my little pistachio.”

Some of the personal artifacts on your list are probably more suited for a personal statement than others — and that’s perfect! Go down your list of artifacts and flag the ones that feel most rich or fruitful to you. Use those artifacts as a focal point to begin drafting drafts of your personal statement.

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Need more personalized guidance on brainstorming or crafting your personal statement? Contact our college admissions team.

Note: This exercise was adapted from the Essence Objects Exercise.

 

It’s true that Open AI’s ChatGPT can joyfully spit out humanlike text in a range of styles. In the past, it has written everything from a semi-passable essay on the color blue as it’s discussed in Great Gatsby to advice on how to steal cars in Grand Theft Auto. The internet’s response to these works was immediate and panicked: the college essay is doomed.

Frankly, we think that’s nonsense.

Simply put, an AI does not know your experiences, your values, your character, or your personality — so while it can write an essay that approximates generic humanity, it cannot write one that approximates you, with any of the personal specificity that makes a great college essay sing.

An essay written by an AI is never going to make an admissions officer feel like they’ve gotten to know the person behind the page, and for that reason, an AI cannot write an essay for you that’s truly competitive.

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ChatGPT writes an essay for Private Prep

Let us show you what we mean. We asked ChatGPT to generate a series of college essays — none of which were even remotely competitive. We’ve included one of the essays that ChatGPT wrote below, in response to this prompt from UNC:

If you could change one thing to better your community, what would it be? Please explain. (250 words)

Private Prep:

Hi ChatGPT! Please write me a college application essay for UNC, in response to this prompt: “If you could change one thing to better your community, what would it be? Please explain.” The essay should be 250 words or less.

ChatGPT:

If I could change one thing to better my community, I would focus on improving access to quality education. I believe that education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and inequality that plagues many of the communities in my city.

Growing up, I saw firsthand the devastating effects of a lack of access to education. Many of my friends and neighbors struggled to afford the cost of private schools or to secure spots in overcrowded public schools. As a result, they were unable to receive a high-quality education and were forced to settle for low-paying jobs or to rely on public assistance.

I believe that by investing in education, we can give individuals the tools and opportunities they need to succeed in life. By providing free or low-cost education to all members of the community, we can ensure that everyone has an equal chance to learn, grow, and thrive.

Improving access to education would also have a positive impact on the local economy. By creating a highly educated and skilled workforce, we can attract new businesses and industries to the area, which will create jobs and stimulate economic growth.

Overall, improving access to education would benefit individuals, the community, and the economy. It is a crucial step in building a brighter and more equitable future for all.

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ChatGPT vs. Private Prep editors

“If I could change one thing to better my community…”

• • ChatGPT starts out with a big college essay no-no — wasting valuable words by rewriting the prompt. Not the most dynamic of openings!

“the cycle of poverty and inequality that plagues many of the communities in my city”

• • Our first example of something a student would have to proof — we didn’t provide ChatGPT any information about the student. If they don’t live in a city, this may come across as a bit odd! Even if they do, this opening isn’t taking the opportunity to define the student’s community, which helps establish important perspective.

“Growing up, I saw firsthand the devastating effects of a lack of access to education. Many of my friends and neighbors struggled to afford the cost of private schools or to secure spots in overcrowded public schools. As a result, they were unable to receive a high-quality education and were forced to settle for low-paying jobs or to rely on public assistance.”

• • Even if we assume these things are true about the student (which, again, it might not be!), here we start to see a lot of generalities. This feels impersonal and lacks specificity; absent details to help this come to life, and absent reflection that connects this to a student, it falls flat.
  • ChatGPT is coming off fairly classist here. Is having a low-paying job or being enrolled in a welfare program really “devastating”? ChatGPT seems to be implying that its worst nightmare is a mild case of poverty  — not a terribly flattering implication, and not one that speaks well of their character.

“I believe that by investing in education, we can give individuals the tools and opportunities they need to succeed in life. By providing free or low-cost education to all members of the community, we can ensure that everyone has an equal chance to learn, grow, and thrive. Improving access to education would also have a positive impact on the local economy. By creating a highly educated and skilled workforce, we can attract new businesses and industries to the area, which will create jobs and stimulate economic growth.”

• • More generalities! Some of which don’t make much sense! And none of which have a clear connection to the student!
  • ChatGPT is stating a series of empty platitudes here with no grounding specifics. Of course education can be a tool to improve oneself and one’s community — most kids can articulate that widely accepted principle by the time they’re 10 years old. But the expectations for a young adult applying to a selective college are much higher. For instance, ChatGPT has offered no evidence to demonstrate the specific ways in which they have lived out this general belief in the power of education — no anecdotes from community service experiences, no personal stories about the impact that education has made in their own life, no concrete plans for their work at future education nonprofits, etc.

“Overall, improving access to education would benefit individuals, the community, and the economy. It is a crucial step in building a brighter and more equitable future for all.”

• • ChatGPT follows a lot of traditional writing conventions, which includes restating the thesis in the conclusion. In the college essay, that can often feel like a waste of precious word count.
  • By the end of this essay, what have we really learned about this student? We’ve basically learned one thing: that they value education. Not to sound harsh here, but this takeaway is a snooze-fest. Every single applicant values education — that’s why they’re applying to college! ChatGPT has given its reader absolutely nothing memorable to hold onto about the author. This is an important demonstration of one of ChatGPT’s downfalls: because it’s drawing from aggregate data, it writes “aggregate” essays — essays that are full of generalizations, scant on specifics, and so mind-numbingly “safe” that they’re boring.

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The future of AI-generated college essays

In one of many recent think-pieces and op-eds on ChatGPT (see: the panic we referenced above), New York Times contributor Peter Coy writes of his attempts with ChatGPT, “Other people have gotten amazing results because they’re smarter and more purposeful about how they use it.”

This, we think, gets at the heart of why the fear about artificial intelligence and the college essay is overblown. Right now, the technology cannot replicate the level of specificity, voice, and sophistication that we look for in a college essay. Might the technology evolve such that it can truly replicate a 17-year-old’s narrative voice in all its glory? Perhaps. But it will still take a savvy, self-reflective teenager on the other side who understands what to put into the system to begin with, as well as a strong writer and reader to review what ChatGPT generates and edit it.

While, someday, a tool like ChatGPT might change a student’s writing process, it will never be able to reflect for them; that process of self-reflection that is so critical to the college essay process—and a key part of what makes it so valuable —isn’t going anywhere.

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Need specific guidance on your college essays, so they don’t sound like a bot wrote them? Our college admissions team is here to help.

So, you just submitted your college applications. You double and triple-checked each essay, and you were positive that everything was perfecto. But then, you reviewed your submitted materials and — gasp — you noticed a mistake!

Don’t panic. One mistake is not going to jeopardize your admission. Before you head into a tailspin, here is some concrete guidance to help you assess the situation and (if appropriate!) take steps to correct the error.

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1. Minor snafu or major oversight?

Take a breath and remember that college admissions officers, who have to read your whole file in a very short time, are not going to nit-pick over a minor error! They realize that applicants are 17-year-olds; a typo is not going to spell doom for your application. Yes, you can send the admissions office an email to correct an error, but first consider: is it necessary? If you wrote “too” instead of “to,” probably not. If you looked at your PDF preview and realized half your essay got cut off, then you’ll want to correct it.

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2. Patching up a minor snafu

If your mistake is fairly trivial, you have two choices: you can leave your application as is (trusting that admissions won’t judge little mishaps harshly!) or you can send in corrections.

For example, if you made a copy-paste error in one of your college essays, it should be a relatively simple fix. Send admissions an email, including your name and application ID; explain that you found an error on your application (because you were just too darn excited to apply!); and indicate the corrections you would like to make. Attach the corrected essay, ask that the new essay be reviewed in lieu of the original essay submitted, and — most importantly — sincerely apologize for the hassle! Some colleges may also ask you to upload an updated version in the portal.

Another common error is realizing you made an error in the SRAR (self-reported academic record), if a school uses it. Reach out to the admissions office and they can reactivate it for you so that you can correct the error. If you enroll at a school that uses SRAR, they will compare your final transcript to the one you self-reported to confirm that you were honest, so it’s essential to be proactive if you notice an error.

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3. Navigating a more significant oversight

Some errors do need correcting! For example, maybe you are applying test optional to some schools and not others, and forgot to indicate that you wanted your scores considered for a certain school — reach out to the admissions office right away, and check your applicant portal to see if there’s a way to change your status (sometimes you can do this directly). Or maybe you filled out the Common App current courses section in August, forgot to change it when you dropped a class in October, and realized you just told colleges you’re taking AP Calc when you’re not. Your first stop should be to talk to your school counselor, who can advise you on whether and how to communicate that to colleges, and may be willing to call the admissions office on your behalf to explain the mix-up. That kind of advocacy can go a long way.

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4. Take charge as the applicant

In situations like these, it’s important that you — the applicant — be the one to spearhead the corrective efforts. You can certainly rely on parents and friends for guidance, but it should ultimately be you (not Mom!) who sends the email to admissions or picks up the phone to clarify something with  your dream college.

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Most importantly, breathe. Different schools may handle the situation differently, but most schools want to work with applicants to ensure they have the best possible chance of admission! If you need more specific guidance, our college admissions team is here to help.