College Admssion Essays: Composing Essays Starring You

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When you send an application to a school, everything in it reveals something about you, from the “date and place of birth” line to the list of your extracurricular activities and awards. The ultimate in self-revelation is the essay, no matter how abstract or obscure the topic. After all, the admissions committee is trudging through all that paper because they want to get to know you.

And Then I Took the Oath of Office: Relating a Personal Experience

Somewhere in that pile of blank applications — each a doorway to a school you love — may be a question resembling one of these:

• What experience had an impact on your goals, plans, or ideals?
• Describe a significant community service experience.
• Explain a situation in which you used creativity to solve a problem.
• Discuss a challenge you faced.
• What was your most significant success or failure?
• Tell us about an accomplishment you’re proud of that has never been publicly recognized.
• Write about an important experience in your life.

To answer these questions you need two elements: (1) a story and (2) the reason you told the story. Right about now you may be saying, “Story? I thought I was writing an essay.” True. You’re certainly not creating a short story or a scene from a novel, albeit one in which all the facts are accurate. An essay is an interpretative piece of writing with a personal point of view. A good response to an admission essay question often contains elements of a story, if — and only if — you include an evaluation of the events for the reader.

If you’re facing one of these questions, your first task is to scan your memory bank for possible topics.  After you’ve narrowed the field, start collecting details and ideas. Then it’s time to write, guided by the wisdom.

Now for some specific tips to help you navigate the personal-experience essay.

Choosing relevant material

You’re not writing a complete autobiography; you’re writing an essay. Don’t try to narrate the entire incident you’ve chosen as a topic. Just concentrate on the parts that are relevant to the point you want to make.

Suppose that you’re writing about the time you rescued a fellow skydiver whose chute failed to open. The main idea you wish to communicate is that you faced your fears before deciding to act. If this incident were an episode in the reality-TV series about your life or a chapter in your autobiography, it would probably include everything on this list:

• first moment you glimpsed the pamphlet advertising sky-diving lessons
• trip to the airport
• take-off
• pre-jump conversation with your buddy in the plane
• last moment in the doorway
• first step into thin air (Why is air always thin? Diet secrets?)
• initial fall
• understanding that your buddy was in trouble
• doubts about your ability to save him without risk to yourself
• decision to act
• maneuvering to his side
• attaching yourself to his belt
• successful descent
• search for a new, land-based hobby
• filing of a lawsuit against the parachute-maker, pilot, and sky-diving school

In an essay, especially one limited to a few pages, recounting all those events is a bad idea. You’d end up with no room for interpretation! Worse, the main point would get lost in the crowd. Instead, zero in on the important stuff — the realization that your buddy’s chute wouldn’t open and your battle to overcome your fear. You may mention very briefly some other aspects of the incident — certainly the successful outcome — but the focus should remain on the part of the event that makes your point: You can face the scary stuff in life and succeed.