Admissions essay writing part 2

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Admissions Essay Writing Part 2
Polishedpaper.com
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• In my last post on Admissions Essay Writing, I
  explained that winning essays require not only
  perfect grammar but also honesty, individuality,
  and imagination. I discussed honesty last time.
  Here I will discuss individuality.

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• Admissions essay readers will sit down with a
  seemingly never-ending stack of essays. As they
  read, the essays will blur together until they
  can remember only a handful individually. You
  want yours to be among this select few. How can
  you make that happen? Quite simply, know what the
  essay readers want to see and find a way to
  answer one of the essay questions by highlighting
  that aspect of your application. In general, they
  want to see four major qualities.

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• Leadership Did you CHANGE something? Obviously
  the larger the number of leadership positions you
  have held and the higher those positions were the
  better. But essay readers dont simply want to
  identify popular students with the charm to win
  elections or gain club appointments. They want to
  identify effective advocates. They are not
  looking for someone who held a position in name
  only, but one who actually effected change on an
  issue he or she cared deeply about. Here, as
  elsewhere, quality trumps quantity.

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• Initiative Did you CREATE something new? Essay
  readers are looking for students who took the
  initiative to do something few if any others did.
  Did you notice a gap in extracurricular
  activities and start a club? Did you observe a
  gap in your schools curriculum and lobby the
  school to add a class or participate in a
  Saturday or Summer class on your own, perhaps in
  art (e.g., graphic design or portfolio creation)
  or science (e.g., geology or astronomy)? Did you
  take a science fair project a step further,
  creating a Web site or an amateur film for a
  student film festival to increase public
  awareness (e.g., regarding public health)?

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• Well-roundedness Did you TRY different types of
  activities? You dont have to be someone who has
  participated in a million extracurricular
  activities to make an impressive candidate. In
  fact, students who have been in EVERYTHING may
  appear unfocused. Ideally, you should have
  something meaningful to say about everything that
  goes on your resume or in your application essay.

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• What did you do, learn, or create? So how can you
  be well-rounded without being unfocused? Quite
  simply, cover as many different sectors of
  extracurricular activities as possible art,
  drama, or music, sports, public service, student
  government, and an extension of academics (e.g.,
  French Club).
• Passion Do you LOVE something? Essay readers do
  not expect you to have your major already
  selected, but they will expect that youve done
  enough exploring to have some idea of what you
  might want to do, and, to some degree, they
  expect to see that reflected in your application.
  

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• They expect to see your going out of your way to
  deepen your understanding, skill, or experience
  with SOMETHING, be it art, writing, music, drama,
  athletics, or science. Did you take an AP class
  in a subject about which you are passionate?
  Participate in a pre-college program during the
  summer? Play a sport, serve as assistant coach to
  younger players, and/or participate in national
  competitions? Enter science fairs, take science
  courses in the community, tutor younger students
  in science, and/or apply for a summer research
  program?

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• Once you have identified one or two aspects of
  your academic career involving leadership,
  initiative, well-roundedness, or passion, select
  the essay prompt (background, failure, instance
  where you challenged a belief or idea, place you
  are content, or accomplishment marking your
  transition to young adult) that best fits.
• For example, suppose for a science fair project,
  you checked the pH levels in a lake in your
  community, discovering that theyre either too
  high or too low, causing fish to die.

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• You decide youre going to bring this issue to
  the community by creating a Web site with
  background information, the details of your
  experiments (including your findings), and the
  consequences to the environment. Unfortunately,
  only a handful of people visit your site.
• So you decide to attend a community board meeting
  to bring the issue to the attention of community
  leaders, or you create a shocking YouTube video
  with an attention-grabbing title, thereby
  increasing the communitys awareness.

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• This example is perfect for the essay prompt on
  failure. You can highlight the fact that you took
  the initiative to extend your science fair
  project into something benefiting the community
  and demonstrate that you learn from your
  mistakes. One approach failed, so you tried
  another. 

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