Remember, your homework for this week was to write one essay draft on Monday night, one essay draft on Tuesday night, and a "final" essay draft Thursday night (to hand in to me on Friday). If you didn't do any of these assignments, you can still turn them in for partial homework credit until the last day of class.
The Common Application 2012 Essay Prompt
(It stays almost exactly the same every year)
Please
write an essay of 250 – 500 words on a topic of your choice or on one of the
options listed below, and attach it to your application before submission.
Please indicate your topic by checking the appropriate box. This personal essay
helps us become acquainted with you as a person and student, apart from
courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will also
demonstrate your ability to organize your thoughts and express yourself. NOTE:
Your Common Application essay should be the same for all colleges. Do not
customize it in any way for individual colleges. Colleges that want customized
essay responses will ask for them on a supplement form.
1 Evaluate a significant
experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced
and its impact on you.
2 Discuss some issue of
personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
3 Indicate a person who has
had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
4 Describe a character in
fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science,
etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
5 A range of academic
interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the
educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that
illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community or an
encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
6 Topic of your choice.
The Three Types of Essays
(You might find any of these on a specific school's supplement to the common app. For the common app essay--see above--anything you write for either #1 The "You Essay" or #3 "The Creative Prompt" will work)
1) The "You" Question: basically "tell us about yourself"
Includes "write a personal statement, describe a significant interest, challenge, experience, etc, questions about how you have grown and developed," etc
Pros: an open and direct opportunity to speak for yourself, should reveal your personality
Cons: fight the temptation to say everything, this is a broad question; you must get narrow and specific in your selection of an experience, watch your tone (don't want to sound like an arrogant bragger or an impersonal scholar)
2) The "Why us?" Question: asks you to explain your choice of school or career aspirations
Includes, "why did you choose to apply to X college, how will X college relate to your future goals, how would you add to the community at X college, please describe one of your future goals."
Pros: gives you a focus (X college) and no trouble finding something to write about
Cons: Need to research the school itself (ie, don't talk about how New York has an awesome night life instead of talking about the academics at NYU), again, need to watch your tone (don't come accross as a flatterer)
3) The Creative Question: asks you to discuss a person, issue, book, influence outside yourself
Includes, "if you could meet a famous person who would it be and why, describe someone who had a significant influence on yourself, write about a literary work that has influenced you and why, a quotation to comment on, describe the most humorous moment of your life," etc.
Pros: it might actually be fun, it is already focused (you have to talk about this specific person, influence, etc)
Cons: You must be informed and knowledgeable about what you write about, don't forget to write about yourself/show something about yourself!
Some tips (from me)
- be genuine, find something that truly matters to you
- be original, think about what really does set you apart
- be specific, provide many details and vivid moments
- tell a story, with an "arc" and development
- PROOFREAD
- ask friends, parents, teachers to read and tell you if it sounds like you
- stay true to your own tone and voice but don't be sloppy in mechanics/grammar
- vary sentence length
- use paragraph breaks
- SHOW, don't list a ton of great stuff about yourself
- go for depth over breadth (choose one or two things you want to emphasize)
- play by the rules for topic, format, and length
