대학 지원 에세이 쓰기 요령과 주의사항

 

 

대학 지원 에세이 쓰기 요령과 주의사항 (영문판)

자녀들이 읽을 수 있도록 대학 지원 에세이 쓰기 요령과 주의사항의 영문판을 첨부합니다.

에세이는 대학입학 지원서에서 입학 사정관들이 나를 수많은 지원자들 중의 하나가 아니라 하나의 독특한 인간으로 느끼도록 도와줍니다. 이 대학지원 에세이는 입학사정 과정의 시작부터 끝까지 합격여부를 판정하는 데에 큰 영향력을 행사하게 되는데, 학교 성적, SAT 점수, 특기 활동 등에 관해서 사정관들이 선별작업을 할 때에도 무사히 통과하도록 도움을 줍니다. 물론 에세이가 잘 못 작성됐을 경우에는 도움보다 오히려 해가 될 수도 있기 때문에 몇 가지 주의사항도 반드시 지켜야 합니다.

영문판이지만 재미있게 쓰여진 첨부 파일을 부모님들께서도 읽어 보시고 자녀분들에게 꼭 읽게 하시라고 권하고 싶습니다.

 

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HOW TO WRITE A COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY

Your college application essay:

A. will make you or break you!
B. is scrutinized by every member of the admissions committee and savagely analyzed by each of them!
C. doesn’t really matter that much!
D. is impossible to write!
E. can help YOU become a more irresistible applicant!

Know which is the correct answer?

It's not A. While an application essay does sometimes serve as a "tipper" - tipping a borderline applicant one way or the other? it probably won't "make you or break you." An extremely well-written essay will certainly help you out, but at the same time it won't make up for a terrible high school record. By the same token, unless you write an essay that the admissions committee absolutely can't stand (which is easily avoidable if you let your English teacher and a couple of other people proofread it), your essay probably won't be cause for a big black X on a basically great application.

B certainly isn't the answer, unless you're going to an extraordinarily small college (and even then, they won't be savage). The admissions committee members are going to be way too tired, rushed, and busy to ponder over every word in your essay, and they aren't going to be savage monsters. They’ll just be trying to get an idea of who you are as a real person underneath all that paperwork.

C is definitely not true. While some of the biggest universities may not ask for essays, if the college to which you are applying requires an essay, it's going to count for as much or almost as much as the rest of the criteria do. As we've already mentioned, it's the one of the only ways that the committee can really get to know you. (And you should always do your best on anything that's required of you by the college - you'll obviously make a bad impression if you blow off any part of the application as unimportant.)

If you thought D was the correct answer from your own personal experience, we are here to prove you wrong and help you out, because...

... we believe E is the correct answer! No matter how great your grades, test scores, and recommendation letters, no matter how numerous your awards and leadership positions, a well-written essay can help you out by separating you from all the other applicants who can boast similar qualifications. And if grades and scores don't happen to be your forte? Then the personal essay is your chance to show the admissions board
why you still deserve a place on their campus, despite a not-so-hot resume.
So let's get started.

What do colleges want to see, anyway?

Colleges want eager, hard-working students who have distinct strengths and the ability to work past weaknesses; they want students who are positive, passionate, and principled; they want students who will be an active part of society when they graduate. Most importantly, they want a student who happens to possess these qualities rather than one who unwillingly takes them on or fakes them for the sole purpose of gaining admission into a certain school.
But the essay isn't necessarily meant to list off these qualities, one-two-three. Rather, it's just an opportunity for you to reveal your personality to the admissions board - something that doesn't come across in transcripts and test scores. Then, when they see a little bit of who you are as a person, they can piece together all the information they have about you to see if you are someone who would be likely to have the qualities mentioned above.

 

Where do I start?

Start by looking at yourself as a person rather than a student desperately trying to look good for an admissions board. Nobody wants a laundry list of achievements and awards in an essay - save that for your resume.
Next, the important thing is to get something down on paper, anything that might blossom into a full-fledged topic. Pointers and ideas for brainstorming:

 Think smaller rather than larger. Unless you believe yourself to be more creative and insightful than the huge majority of applicants, stay away from topics like trips abroad, deaths, current events, life-altering epiphanies, and other similarly broad or commonly used topics. Anecdotes and smaller events are where essays are usually the most successful.
 Make a list of things that set you apart from everyone else, and see if you can kick-start your brain for a topic that way.
 Try coming up with a metaphor for yourself, staying away from trite objects. You might be able to come up with a fresh and interesting essay that will allow you to reveal a lot about yourself without boring the reader.
 If you're still stuck, look at your resume. You'll probably see certain strengths - maybe a sport, a musical instrument, or a certain subject you enjoy and excel in. Look along those lines for an idea.

What are some different things an admissions board would be happy to see in an application essay?

 ORIGINALITY

Meet Harry Q. Reader, who is on the college admissions board at the school of your choice. Anywhere from hundreds to thousands of students will apply to your school. For a couple of months, all Harry does is eat, sleep, and breathe application essays. By the time he is through for the year, he will have read hundreds and hundreds of them!
The last thing you want to do is bore Harry and give him something that about forty or fifty other kids have already said. You should aim to leave an impression, something that marks you as a special applicant and sets you apart from the masses. You can achieve originality through topic or style, but the important thing is for you to achieve it.
You’re president of your school’s National Honor Society? Well, that’s great—but a hundred other students applying to your college of choice might be presidents of their National Honor Societies. You went to Italy one summer and had an incredible experience that changed your life? Sounds like a great topic—apart from the fact that the applicant right before you wrote about one of those experiences, too (except hers was in France).
If possible, steer yourself towards essay topics that not too many other people are likely to write about. Personalize. Focus in on something interesting in your life that you could expand upon to reveal your personality. Remember, yours may be the 23rd essay Harry is going through that day – give him a treat!
(A caveat: Don’t get too quirky. Topics that are gimmicky, downright bizarre, or overly personal won’t do anything but annoy or discomfort the reader. And that will interfere with your ultimate goal: to get the reader to like you so much that he wants you to attend his college!)

 PASSION and AGGRESSION
Let’s join Harry Q. Reader again. Right now, he is reading through Applicant X’s application. X, who is a member of her school’s mediocre tennis team, has a decent SAT score and average grades; she’s secretary of Beta Club and vice-president of Key Club, and is involved in other community service activities. She seems to be a good applicant, but Harry’s worried about her grades and can’t decide whether or not to deny her. He picks up her application essay, which is about her
passion for helping others and the difficulties and rewards involved in forming a close (albeit time-consuming) friendship with a homeless man at the soup kitchen where she volunteers. Verdict? Harry decides to keep her.
What if she’d written about the time she went camping in Maine with her family and learned the importance of preserving nature’s beauty? It’s not likely that Harry would have been very impressed. But X wrote about something she loves – helping others – and her resume backed her up. The fact that she pursued something she was interested in is indicative of an aggressive personality.
Now, by aggressive, we certainly don’t mean that X likes to pick fights. We’re talking about that get-up-off-your-butt-and-do-something quality that colleges love to see. They like to see it because that kind of passion and aggression tells them a lot: you’re independent, you’re interested in things for their own sake (not the admission board’s), you’re willing to put in effort and work hard—which are all key components in being a successful college student.
So if there’s something you’re crazy about, or really good at, write about it! Your love for your topic will come across in the writing. Of course, there are exceptions. Harry really won’t care about your obsession with Star Wars and how you have every single action figure from all of the three original movies, and how you plan on collecting figures from all the prequels. That isn’t the kind of passion we’re talking about. Write about a passion that will tell admissions officers something about you that they’ll be interested to know.
And make sure you still pay attention to the tips we’ve already given you: stay small in topic (observe how X talked about her friendship with one man) and stay original. That means that for the most part, you should avoid the "How I Scored the Winning Touchdown in Overtime" and "The Time I Played a Flute Solo for the Mayor/Governor/President" essays, even if football or the flute is your passion. Just try a different angle on the same subject!

 GOOD WRITING SKILLS
This may seem obvious, but it’s important. The essay is a way for the admissions committee to see what kind of writing and communication skills you have. Make sure you answer the question they are asking, and make sure you have a point to your essay; the main subject should be you and who you are. Cliched questions like "Who is your role model and why?" and "If you could have dinner with any three people, living or dead,
who would they be?" are chances for you to show creativity and a good ability to communicate that creativity. They’re also meant to reveal something about you and how you think, not stuff about your mom or Abraham Lincoln. It’s unlikely that either of them is applying to your school.
Misspellings, incorrect grammar, and awkward writing are big no-no’s, because they announce to the admissions committee that (a) you aren’t as good at the English language as you should be or (b) you haven’t taken the time and effort to proofread your essay. We hardly know which is worse! Like we said, every part of the college application should be completed with utmost care and be as close to perfection as you can get it; you want to make as good an impression as possible. And nothing says "incompetent" like a misspelled word or an apostrophe in the wrong place. Have your essay proofread by as many people as possible—and at least one English teacher!

 

What are some common mistakes I should avoid?

 LAUNDRY LIST
We mentioned this already, but we'll mention it again: the essay is not simply an extended resume in prose form. Personality, not necessarily accomplishment, is what you should be concentrating on communicating in your essay.

 A NEGATIVE ATTITUDE
This is a surprising one, but it happens frequently. Applicants will sometimes write about a teacher they hated, throwing in at the end that they managed to get an A in the class anyway through "hard work and determination" (breaking the Originality Rule of Essay Writing in the process). Whininess, complaints, cynicism, or a negative attitude will get you precisely nowhere (even if you think you're being funny at the same time). While you don't have to be Little Miss Sunshine in your essay, try to be positive and avoid being negative at all costs.

 MISTAKEN FOCUS or NOT ANSWERING THE QUESTION
If you write one good essay and adjust it to fit all your application questions, you're likely to strike out on at least one of them. Don't be lazy - this is your college application we're talking about! And by mistaken focus we mean that you might start out writing about your special friendship with a favorite coach or musical director, but end up writing an essay that has too much coach and not enough you. Remember, your goal is to reveal a positive picture of you and your personality. (As
long as you can remember that, it's fine to include others in your essay.)