The document discusses different types of college essay prompts and provides tips for writing effective essays in response. It covers "you" prompts that ask about contributions to campus life, "why us" prompts about interest in a specific school, and creative prompts about intellectual interests. The document advises focusing essays narrowly, using specific examples, and avoiding pretentiousness. It also lists some essay topics and styles to avoid, such as exaggerated metaphors, confessional essays, essays focused on death, and gimmicky styles.

1. The College Essay

2. How Important Is It?
A 2006 report found that while grades, admission tests, and class rank
remain the top factors in the college admission decision, a majority of
colleges and universities consider the essay to be a key factor in
determining which academically qualified students they would choose.
In other words, when all else is equal between competing applicants, a
compelling essay can make the difference. A powerful, well-written
essay can also tip the balance for a marginal applicant.
College admission officers look to the essay for evidence that a student
can write well and support her ideas with logical arguments. They also
want to know something about the personality of the student.

3. The “You” Prompt
Example: "UV values a diverse student body. What contributions might you
make to our campus community outside of academic achievement?"
Positive: This type offers you a chance to reveal something about yourself
other than grades and test scores.
Danger: The open-ended nature of these questions can lead to an essay that's
all over the place.
Some tips:
• Focus on just a few things and avoid the urge to "spill everything"
• develop one small SPECIFIC event, person, place, or feeling with a lot of
narrative and specifics
• Do not to simply write out your resume in paragraph form
• This is a "tell us a story" question. You should tell a story that only you can

4. The “Why Us” Prompt
Example: "How did you become interested in American University?"
Positive: This provides a focus for the essay; that is, why you chose this
particular school or path—and the answer to that will (hopefully) be clear.
Danger: Any factual errors in the essay will reveal that you really haven't
thought deeply about your choice.
Some tips:
• Make absolutely sure you know their subject well.
• Do not to go overboard with flattery. Sound sincere but not ingratiating.
• An upside to this type of question is that, while working on the essay,
you might realize that you are not a match for the college—and it's
better to know that sooner than later

5. The Creative Prompt
Example: "Sharing intellectual interests is an important aspect of
university life. Describe an experience or idea that you find intellectually
exciting, and explain why."
Positive: This gives you an opportunity to convey your personality/views.
Danger: You may take the "creative" aspect of the question as license to be
obscure, pretentious, or undisciplined in their writing.
Some tips:
• It is important that the writing be informed. For example, you should not
write about a fantasy meeting with a famous artist and get the titles of his
paintings wrong.
• Use common sense ("creative" doesn't mean eccentric or self-indulgent).
• Do not to write about high-minded topics or exotic locales simply to
impress the reader.

6. What Your Topic Says...
Your Preferences: Are you an arts person or a hard-facts science type?
Your Values: The person who drives a beat-up, rusty, 1971 Volkswagen is
making a statement about how she spends money and what she cares about. In
choosing, you indicate what matters to you and how you perceive yourself.
Your Thought Process: Are you whimsical, a person who chooses on impulse?
Or are you methodical and careful, a person who gathers background
information before choosing? Questions about you and about career and
college reflect these choosing patterns. Even a question about a national issue
can show your particular thinking style, level of intelligence, and insight.
Some of the best essays—the memorable and unusual ones—are about
everyday topics that are just more focused. Essays about your family, soccer
team, trip to France, parents' divorce, or your twin can be effective as long as
they're focused and specific: a single Christmas Eve church service, a meal of
boiled tongue in Grenoble, or dipping ice cream on a summer job.

7. Helpful Hints... The Do’s
Do be concise, specific, personal, and honest. Surprise the reader, go beyond
the obvious.
✓ Do use wit and imagination, but don't try to be funny if that's not your
personality. Many essays backfire when the writer stretched for humor but
what came out was plain silly.
✓ Do proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Careless
mistakes will drive the admissions board crazy.
✓ Be meticulous with format, mechanics, and style... Keep it to one page,
single spaced in length
✓ Keep your focus NARROW and PERSONAL; your essay must prove a single
point or thesis.
✓ Answer the essay topic EXACTLY as it is given.
✓ Be specific- develop your main idea with vivid and specific facts, events,
quotations, examples, etc
✓ Write in first or third person only- NO “YOU” (unless in dialogue)

8. Helpful Hints... The Don’ts
Don't be cynical, trite, pretentious, or maudlin.
Don’t tell them what you think they want to hear... bring something
new to the table!
Don’t use 50 words when 5 will do
Don’t re-write your Activity list/resume or repeat what is included
in other parts of the application by making the essay a second
resume. Go behind the details they already know. For example, you
can describe why membership in an activity was significant in your
growth.

9. Bad College Essays...
CRINGE-INDUCING METAPHOR: College applicants abuse metaphor like a piñata... they
describe the fine qualities of random nothings: roller coasters, beanbag chairs, Chunky
Monkey ice cream, the McRib sandwich and their grandmother’s knitting basket. Then, in a
stunning conclusion, the essay reveals that all along -– all along! -– the object has been a
parallelism to the applicant’s own character and disposition. Fascinating? Not so much.
REFORMED CONVICT ESSAY: This is a favorite for students with marginal grades and
a sudden interest in college, based on their parents’ promise of a new car upon
acceptance. Having been raised to value honesty, but never actually having practiced
much, these students wrongly assume that a full-blown confession will neutralize a high
school transcript full of C’s. But unless the parents can afford that new car AND Sucker
University’s full tuition price, a repentant college essay based on lessons learned from
“sexting” probably won’t make it into the yes pile.
MOTHER THERESA ESSAY: Only slightly more annoying than the Reformed Convict
Essay is the exaggerated, volunteer contribution essay. Sure, some student volunteers
really do amazing things in their communities. But the vast majority spend half a
Saturday playing with the cute dogs at the local shelter, then use the experience to
impress colleges.

10. Bad College Essays...
DEAD DOG ESSAY: It doesn’t always have to be a dog. Sometimes it’s a
goldfish, a hamster, Great Uncle Albert. This is the essay that pits life
against death, in an effort to exemplify growth, or courage or triumph of
spirit. I know this advice seems unfair but dead dog essays rarely deliver
the kind of William Wallace, face-paint-speech punch that their authors
intend.
FREE VERSE ESSAY: Despite thinking themselves wise to the pitfall of
gimmicks, the perpetrators of the Free Verse Essay lapse into the most
gimmicky mistake possible. They ignore the rules. They are, after all,
tomorrow’s artists, lawyers and revolutionaries. Instead of three pages,
they write three words. Instead of an essay, they write a poem. They write
entirely in acronyms, as a commentary on society’s frayed, digital
discourse. They use crayons, as a commentary on wax. Their reasons are
their own. And so too is their unplanned denial of admission.

11. Bad College Essays...
JERSEY SHORE ESSAY: This is the one where students are asked to discuss a
person they admire. And about 5,000 wise alecks think they’re being ironic by
citing Mike the Situation, or the Kardashian sisters or some other walking punch
line. They might expect that admissions committees, like their 11th grade English
teachers, will swoon over their thoughtful use of topic sentences and supporting
arguments, while ignoring the fact that Mike the Situation is a schmuck. But this is
not a good tactic.
WIZARD OF OZ ESSAY: This is the essay that state schools receive from good
students who are all tuckered out after writing serious essays for the colleges they
actually want to attend. Luckily, since these students have spent two years touring
bigger, fancier schools in faraway places, they can fall back on some patch of
truth, as they chronicle the adventure of their college selection process. In the end,
they’ll say they realize, everything they need is waiting in their own backyard. It’s
as sweetly phony as a Sarah Palin wink. But what the hell? It’s called “safety
school” for a reason

12. Some Creative Prompts
U of Chicago: Find X
Tufts U: The human narrative is replete with memorable characters like America's Paul Revere, ancient
Greece's Perseus or the Fox Spirits of East Asia. Imagine one of humanity's storied figures is alive and
working in the world today. Why does Joan of Arc have a desk job? Would Shiva be a general or a
diplomat? Is Chewbacca trapped in a zoo? In short, connect your chosen figure to the contemporary
world and imagine the life he/she/it might lead.
Brandeis U: If you could choose to be raised by robots, dinosaurs, or aliens, who would you pick? Why?
Kenyon College: Along the edge of ancient maps it used to say, "Here there be monsters." What does it
say at the edge of your map, and why does it say that?
Brown U: French novelist Anatole France wrote: "An education isn't how much you have committed to
memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and
what you don't." What don't you know?
California Institute of Technology: Caltech students have long been known for their quirky sense of
humor and creative pranks and for finding unusual ways to have fun. What is something that you find fun
or humorous?