Okay. So at this point in time, if you are reading this I am guessing you are a first semester senior who still has to try hard in school, and in addition juggle college applications and standardized testing. Don’t we all LOVE college applications, especially those dreadful college essays which can either be 250 words or 700 words. But if you will, give me five minutes to convince you with five reasons of how college essays can sometimes be fun.
Reason 1: You are more than a robot.
By now, you are probably sick of having to write literary analysis. College essays no matter how constricting the prompt is, for example “Describe some tasks that you have accomplished over the past two years that have no connection to academic studies,” gives you a chance to be creative. You can think of how to phrase each sentence and decide the words that will best show who you are.
Reason 2:“How Many ‘Big Words’ can I use?”
It's almost a trick question to ask how many seniors have used “big words” intentionally in their college essays to make them sound smarter. The response will be that every single senior at some point has pulled out the thesaurus when writing their essays. As important as it is to sound educated, colleges want you to be yourself and thus it becomes a game as to see how many big words you can use and still retain your voice.
Reason 3: Be yourself!
For once you can use “I” and “Me” and “We”. For once it is okay to be yourself in your writing. You can share the personal experiences you have had and write an essay that says: this is ME.
Reason 4: Reflection
It's fun to see the transformation you have gone through in your high school years from the little freshman boy or freshman girl to the now,hopefully, matured young man or young woman. College essays force you to reflect on this development so that you don’t miss the opportunity to realize the amazing change you have gone through.
Reason 5: Graduation in each word
If all the other reasons really haven’t caught your fancy, this one should. Just think about it this way, college essays are one of those things that make you realize you are finally a senior and that in a few months you would be off to college. When you see college essays in this light, there will start to be a bounce in your step when you finally decide to write them.
So see, college essays are not so bad after all. Right?
If you want any advice on managing your time for college essays, or you are just at a lost for what to do with the whole process email me!
I totally agree with you Dorothy! I (oddly) had a lot of fun while writing my college essays. It gave me a chance to write about things I normally wouldn't have thought about, and I was able to do so in a style that was my own. Plus, there weren't any rubrics that I had to follow.
ReplyDeleteI would also say that it's important for ideas to naturally "flow" to a writer. It's not going to be fun writing about a topic that you forcefully thought up, and this attitude will translate into your writing.
This is really motivational! You did a great job, and I'll definitely have to look back at this come college essay time. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYou actually incorporated some humor into this- I have an awesome influence on you. I like most of the reasons you include in here; they're not the like the stupid college prep websites. The last one is my favorite though :)
ReplyDeleteThis is all so true! College essays are an opportunity to show who you are, and everyone should take advantage of it. I was one that hated a couple of the prompts I had to write, but as I was writing it I realized how much fun it could be to write about something other than analysis. The last reason you wrote is also especially true. It all just starts to feel so real while writing these.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that you used all these reasons as motivation during our long tutoring session involving the college essays. These reasons helped you and your college essays because you had did indeed have "fun."
ReplyDelete-Jei-Ming