by Steve Ahn, copyright 2015
As an admissions application essay reader and interviewer for an Ivy and a non-Ivy school, I’m dismayed at one of the most common mistakes applicants (and their parents) make: assuming the essays for an applicant who was admitted worked.
On face value, it seems logical. An applicant who was admitted must have written ideal essays, right? So you find a book with a title like “50 Successful XYZ University Essays” or “Top 100 Essays That Worked” and figure you’ll emulate the style, structure, and maybe even some of the subject matter – being careful of course not to plagiarize.
(Then again, some applicants have the audacity to indeed plagiarize naively thinking the essays are not run through TurnItIn as well as the school’s own computerized algorithm. Not that these computerized plagiarism checkers are even needed – after all, if you had read several hundred (and for some readers, several thousand) essays each season, you also would develop the uncanny ability to recognize certain anecdotes and even phraseologies.)
So why can’t you assume a particular essay worked?
Unless you’ve sat behind the closed doors of the admission committee evaluation meetings and discussed the essays after reading them, you wouldn’t know that often, the “admit” decision is arrived at despite a substandard essay. Conversely, some of the favorite essays amongst readers are not compelling enough to outweigh other areas of an application, resulting in a DNA (“do not admit”). This is a direct function of the holistic approach that selective colleges use when evaluating applicants. Notice the phrase “evaluating applicants”, not “evaluating applications.” And therein lies the not-so-secret secret.
Personify. The single most important aspect of an application is to become a living human being on paper. Engage us. We want to feel like we actually know you – at least as much as we can despite the limitations of the written word and data point. The best essays are ones that make us feel like we just met and go beyond what is already evident in other parts of the application. They are impactful and memorable. Instead of rhetoric, use details that we can see, feel, hear, smell, and taste. Tell anecdotes with emotion. Reveal yourself. No one will make a case for you in committee if you’re “smart, hard-working, and kind hearted.” But to this day, I can still remember details of essays that I read five or more years ago – about the school jock who struggled with his self-confidence because of a hidden stuttering condition. Or when a sister cut off the tip of her brother’s nose – that was an accident by the way.
Consider also that more than 80% of communication is non-verbal. Therein lies the real challenge of writing a truly engaging compelling essay. Often the topic itself is not even as important as what is revealed about the applicant through not only the content but the writing style. In this regard, possibly the most common mistake applicants make is to expound on something that is already evident throughout the application. If you’ve spent most of your life playing piano, you don’t need to write about what it means to you unless you truly feel you have something unique and profound to share about yourself, because we’ve read it all. I don’t mean to discourage you or marginalize the importance of an activity or event to anyone’s life, but in terms of sharing who you are to the admissions committee, you shouldn’t be surprised that you already have the benefit of presumption when we see evident characteristics in other areas of the application. If you’ve been a soccer player since grade school, then we already assume you are a great team contributor, have leadership qualities, are disciplined, hard working, motivated, spirited, friendly, are a good multi-tasker, can deal with disappointment & pain, and are even cross-cultural given the global sport that soccer is. If you are an amputee, your father was killed in a war, or you lost your dog, think about what would already be inferred and go beyond that. We’ve already given you the benefit of presumption.
Even if you find a book entitled “Essays that Really Impressed Admissions Committee Essay Readers”, then you’re still somewhat in the dark because the admit decision is never made by a single evaluator. Often there are disputes about what constitutes a compelling essay. Again, this is the holistic committee-based approach at work to evaluate you as a person.
And for those of you hiring lawyers, former English teachers, journalists, published authors, and even former deans of admissions to review your essays: save yourself some money and the false hope as well as the risk of the essay reader recognizing it and pretty much shutting down before getting past the first paragraph. (By they way, deans don’t pour over applications, read essays and discuss them in committee – surprise!...not.) Not only are grammar, punctuation, and MLA compliance not priorities, often the most engaging writing is accomplished contrary to formal writing standards. Ironic isn’t it? You spend twelve years in school learning to avoid writing fragments & run-ons, using colloquialisms, and starting a sentence with a conjunctive adverb only to find out now that relaxing most writing rules can sometimes work in your favor! That’s not to say slang, curse words, and R-rated content are all well and fine. But the more you can connect and open up as a person, the better. People normally don’t interact using perfect grammar and sentence structure. Least not me.
Just be yourself and let us get to know you more.
Steve Ahn is an admissions application reviewer and interviewer for Emory University and the University of Pennsylvania / Wharton and a college consultant. He also leads seminars on college planning, application content, essays, and interviewing. Read more about him at www.abacustd.com/SAteaching or contact him at steven.ahn@emory.edu.
As an admissions application essay reader and interviewer for an Ivy and a non-Ivy school, I’m dismayed at one of the most common mistakes applicants (and their parents) make: assuming the essays for an applicant who was admitted worked.
On face value, it seems logical. An applicant who was admitted must have written ideal essays, right? So you find a book with a title like “50 Successful XYZ University Essays” or “Top 100 Essays That Worked” and figure you’ll emulate the style, structure, and maybe even some of the subject matter – being careful of course not to plagiarize.
(Then again, some applicants have the audacity to indeed plagiarize naively thinking the essays are not run through TurnItIn as well as the school’s own computerized algorithm. Not that these computerized plagiarism checkers are even needed – after all, if you had read several hundred (and for some readers, several thousand) essays each season, you also would develop the uncanny ability to recognize certain anecdotes and even phraseologies.)
So why can’t you assume a particular essay worked?
Unless you’ve sat behind the closed doors of the admission committee evaluation meetings and discussed the essays after reading them, you wouldn’t know that often, the “admit” decision is arrived at despite a substandard essay. Conversely, some of the favorite essays amongst readers are not compelling enough to outweigh other areas of an application, resulting in a DNA (“do not admit”). This is a direct function of the holistic approach that selective colleges use when evaluating applicants. Notice the phrase “evaluating applicants”, not “evaluating applications.” And therein lies the not-so-secret secret.
Personify. The single most important aspect of an application is to become a living human being on paper. Engage us. We want to feel like we actually know you – at least as much as we can despite the limitations of the written word and data point. The best essays are ones that make us feel like we just met and go beyond what is already evident in other parts of the application. They are impactful and memorable. Instead of rhetoric, use details that we can see, feel, hear, smell, and taste. Tell anecdotes with emotion. Reveal yourself. No one will make a case for you in committee if you’re “smart, hard-working, and kind hearted.” But to this day, I can still remember details of essays that I read five or more years ago – about the school jock who struggled with his self-confidence because of a hidden stuttering condition. Or when a sister cut off the tip of her brother’s nose – that was an accident by the way.
Consider also that more than 80% of communication is non-verbal. Therein lies the real challenge of writing a truly engaging compelling essay. Often the topic itself is not even as important as what is revealed about the applicant through not only the content but the writing style. In this regard, possibly the most common mistake applicants make is to expound on something that is already evident throughout the application. If you’ve spent most of your life playing piano, you don’t need to write about what it means to you unless you truly feel you have something unique and profound to share about yourself, because we’ve read it all. I don’t mean to discourage you or marginalize the importance of an activity or event to anyone’s life, but in terms of sharing who you are to the admissions committee, you shouldn’t be surprised that you already have the benefit of presumption when we see evident characteristics in other areas of the application. If you’ve been a soccer player since grade school, then we already assume you are a great team contributor, have leadership qualities, are disciplined, hard working, motivated, spirited, friendly, are a good multi-tasker, can deal with disappointment & pain, and are even cross-cultural given the global sport that soccer is. If you are an amputee, your father was killed in a war, or you lost your dog, think about what would already be inferred and go beyond that. We’ve already given you the benefit of presumption.
Even if you find a book entitled “Essays that Really Impressed Admissions Committee Essay Readers”, then you’re still somewhat in the dark because the admit decision is never made by a single evaluator. Often there are disputes about what constitutes a compelling essay. Again, this is the holistic committee-based approach at work to evaluate you as a person.
And for those of you hiring lawyers, former English teachers, journalists, published authors, and even former deans of admissions to review your essays: save yourself some money and the false hope as well as the risk of the essay reader recognizing it and pretty much shutting down before getting past the first paragraph. (By they way, deans don’t pour over applications, read essays and discuss them in committee – surprise!...not.) Not only are grammar, punctuation, and MLA compliance not priorities, often the most engaging writing is accomplished contrary to formal writing standards. Ironic isn’t it? You spend twelve years in school learning to avoid writing fragments & run-ons, using colloquialisms, and starting a sentence with a conjunctive adverb only to find out now that relaxing most writing rules can sometimes work in your favor! That’s not to say slang, curse words, and R-rated content are all well and fine. But the more you can connect and open up as a person, the better. People normally don’t interact using perfect grammar and sentence structure. Least not me.
Just be yourself and let us get to know you more.
Steve Ahn is an admissions application reviewer and interviewer for Emory University and the University of Pennsylvania / Wharton and a college consultant. He also leads seminars on college planning, application content, essays, and interviewing. Read more about him at www.abacustd.com/SAteaching or contact him at steven.ahn@emory.edu.
