The Significance of the Letter "S" in College Essays: Finding Passion and Purpose
The college application process can be daunting, with the Common Application often looming large for many students. The Common App, accepted by hundreds of colleges and universities, requires a 650-word essay in response to one of seven prompts. While the prompts vary, they all essentially ask: "Who are you, and what do you value?" The essay serves as a primary way for colleges to understand an applicant's personality, potential contributions to the campus community, and writing ability.
Structuring a Compelling Common App Essay
Crafting a great Common App essay involves several key steps:
- Brainstorming: This crucial step helps identify meaningful experiences, values, and insights to share.
- Structuring: Organize the essay logically, ensuring a clear flow of ideas and a compelling narrative.
- Drafting and Revising: Write a first draft, then revise and refine it iteratively to achieve clarity, conciseness, and impact.
The word limit for the Common App essay is 650 words, and while it's not mandatory to use all the space, it's generally advisable to utilize most of it to provide a comprehensive portrayal of yourself.
Common App Essay Examples and Analysis
Several successful Common App essays demonstrate different approaches to tackling the prompts and showcasing unique aspects of the applicant's personality and experiences. Let's examine a few examples:
Finding Home in Unexpected Places
One essay, titled "My Home," uses precise details to efficiently tell a story. The writer describes visiting Bojangle's with their family, dancing, and working in a lab. Instead of simply stating they "worked in a lab," the writer vividly describes "spraying a thin platinum film over pieces of copper" and "monitoring the sulfuric acid bath." These details immerse the reader in the writer's experiences, providing a deeper understanding of what they've learned. The essay uses the theme of "home" as a guiding thread, connecting different experiences and illustrating how the writer has found and created homes and communities enriched by tradition, artists, researchers, and intellectuals. The conclusion looks forward, explaining how the lessons learned will inform future actions.
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Embracing Freedom and Independence
Another powerful essay, "Easter," begins with a striking detail: the writer's father locking them and their mother in the house. This hook immediately grabs the reader's attention and sets the stage for an exploration of freedom and independence. The essay recounts the writer's experience studying abroad in Egypt, defying societal expectations for women, and traveling to London and Paris. Simultaneously, the writer's mother moves out and rents her own place, symbolizing their shared journey towards independence. The essay concludes by returning to the opening anecdote, celebrating the writer and her mother's "rebirth and renewal" outdoors. The focus remains on the writer's actions and learnings, even when discussing the mother's role.
From Angelina Ballerina to the Written Word
In "I, Too, Can Dance," Sarika describes her journey from wanting to dance like Angelina Ballerina to discovering fulfillment in writing. The essay opens with a detailed account of Sarika's early fascination with dance, sparked by the animated performances she saw on television. However, her attempts to mimic these routines are hampered by her physical constraints in a wheelchair, which complicates and frustrates her young goals. Despite these difficulties, Sarika's story is full of tenacity and originality. Her experiences with other artistic mediums, such as painting and piano, follow a similar pattern of initial enthusiasm followed by an awareness of her physical limitations. However, these endeavors are presented as stepping stones, each one strengthening her drive and guiding her in the direction of a field in which she may genuinely succeed. When Sarika discovers writing, her story takes a dramatic turn. This realization is not just a solace but also a victorious discovery of her voice. Writing takes on the role of her dance floor, where words enable her to move gracefully, telling tales and articulating concepts with the same grace and fluidity that performers display on stage. Sarika describes her writing process using dance-related imagery, such as her pencil "pirouettes" and her narratives "leaping off the page," effectively drawing comparisons between dance and writing. Sarika's profound reflection and her mature realization that artistic expression can take numerous forms are what make her essay so moving.
Finding Confidence and Community at MITES
Francisco's essay, "Three Days Before I Got on a Plane," describes his time in the Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES) program at M.I.T., which serves as the backdrop for his introspective voyage. The story starts with a seemingly minor decision-giving up milk for health reasons-but it soon turns into a metaphor for the life-changing events that transpire. The essay skillfully makes use of this internal transformation to set up a summer that would fundamentally alter Francisco's perception of himself and his interactions with others. He is first nervous about the MITES program because he anticipates a very competitive setting that would make him feel even more alone. The physical and psychological difficulties he encounters early in the program-such as minor stomach ulcers and a strong sense of alienation-reinforce this worry. But at the program's weekly "Family Meetings," which are meant to encourage candid conversation and support among members, the story takes a dramatic turn. Here is when Francisco undergoes a significant transformation. One meeting's theme, "what's something important about your identity that makes you unique?" expands into increasingly detailed, intimate revelations, turning the gathering into an environment of empathy and vulnerability. Francisco is extremely touched by the candor with which his peers have shared their personal issues, and this prompts him to reconsider how he approaches the program and his peers in general. Francisco's essay does a fantastic job of illustrating how community and candid conversation can have a significant impact on personal development.
The Power of Passion
In Billy's essay, the author discusses their hatred for the letter "S" due to its association with the loss of a parent. The essay tracks the letter “s” from having parents, to a parent, to a passion signifying the kind of student she was going to be. It’s heartwarming, but also has a resolution which is key for talking about hard topics. Writing about death can be challenging without sounding cliche, but she managed to not only pull it off but also tug at your heartstrings by adding humor and poetic license. A heartbreaking quote: “I hate the letter S. Of the 164,777 words with S, I only grapple with one. To condemn an entire letter because of its use .0006 percent of the time sounds statistically absurd, but that one case changed 100 percent of my life. I used to have two parents, but now I have one, and the S in parents isn’t going anywhere.”
Additional Essay Topics and Strategies
Beyond these examples, successful college essays have explored a wide range of topics and strategies:
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- Redefining Masculinity: One student wrote about growing up with two moms and challenging societal expectations of manhood.
- Overcoming Adversity: Colleges seek students who demonstrate strength and resilience in the face of challenges.
- Finding Humor: Incorporating humor can showcase personality and make an essay more memorable.
- Showing Curiosity: Describing a seemingly ordinary experience, like a trip to Costco, can reveal curiosity and advanced understanding.
- Reclaiming Identity: Sharing experiences with microaggressions and reclaiming a mixed identity can demonstrate self-awareness and strength.
- Highlighting Character: Using a pivotal moment, like attending a concert, to reflect on one's worldview can reveal character and values.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Experimenting with narrative structure and breaking the fourth wall can create a unique and engaging essay.
- Exploring the Significance of a Name: A name can symbolize culture, responsibility, and personal identity.
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