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Lesson One: Tackling the Question 
 Introduction
Think of the essay as the face of your application. An application
without an essay is a statistic—just another faceless person
in a crowd. An application with a poorly written essay does
not give admissions officers the chance to care about you.
Use simple psychology: make them feel that they know you,
and it will be harder for them to reject you. Make them know
you AND LIKE YOU, and they might accept you despite your weakness
in other areas. Understanding the importance of the essay
is a necessary first step toward perfecting your application.
If you are normally a procrastinator, you should understand
that your success depends entirely on the amount of time and
effort you put into the essay writing process. If all of this
has you sweating, you can relax now. Taking this process seriously
is the first step. This course will help you get through the
other steps.
Admissions
essay questions tend to be very broad and difficult to tackle.
Yet, it is imperative that you actually answer the question
in your essay. It should go without saying, but if your essay
does not address the question, then everything you learn in
the rest of this course is for naught.
While
looking at your application, you are probably asking yourself:
“Why in the world are these admissions people asking me this
question? What
do they want me to write about?” While there is no one answer
to either of these questions, there is some reason behind
the most popular questions posed by applications.
Continue
on for Question-Specific Strategies on the most common
application questions and Sample Essays with comments
by admissions officers.
Select One:
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EssayEdge
Extra: Who’s Reading My Essay?
Contrary
to popular belief, all admissions officers are not
old men with bowties and English accents. In fact,
the first people to read your application are often
people not much older than yourself. At most colleges
and universities, recent graduates of the college
serve as assistants, conducting the first read on
all of the essays. If they like your essay, they will
pass it on to the associate directors or only read
what the assistants pass along. Then, the associate
directors choose which essays to pass along to the
director, who makes the final decision. So essentially,
the mysterious group that holds your future in its
hands is composed of a few recent grads of the college,
a couple of associate directors, and a director who
must evaluate thousands of applications in a month
or two. The moral of the story: Don’t write your essay
for an old British guy. Be yourself. Write in a relaxed
tone.
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From ESSAYS THAT WILL GET YOU INTO COLLEGE, by Amy Burnham,
Daniel Kaufman, and Chris Dowhan.
Copyright 1998 by Dan Kaufman. Reprinted by arrangement
with Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
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