Day 3.1: FAQ & Structure (College Essay Fundamentals)

FAQs

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Q: How do I begin to write my essay?

A: If you’re reading this, you’ve already begun. In this guide you’ll find some ideas on how to brainstorm and structure your essay.

Q: How long should my essay be?

A: It depends. Your main Common App essay can be up to 650 words, while the essays for the University of California (UC) schools are around 350 words each, and your supplemental essays will vary.

Q: How many essays will I need to write?

A: Around 15 is average. You'll likely write a main personal statement for your Common App, perhaps some separate essays if you're applying to public schools (the UCs require four, for example), plus you'll write supplements for most selective schools, which number anywhere from 6-20, depending on the number of schools you apply to.

Q: What should my essay be about?

A: In a word, you.

Q: What are college admissions officers looking for?

A: They're looking for the answers to these three questions:

Who is this person?

Will this person contribute something of value to our campus?

Can this person write?

Q: How do college admissions officers evaluate my essay?

A: Each school has its own criteria and different readers will prefer different elements. Michael Gulotta (Associate Director of Admissions at American University) for example, has told me he most looks to the essay to assess a student's writing ability. But Rick Diaz (Regional Director of Undergrad Admissions at SMU) is less interested in writing ability and more interested in a student's story.

Q: So which is more important: your story or your writing skill?

A: Both are important. A good story, well told. That's your goal.

Q: When should I start writing my essay?

A: Today. Right now.

Q: How do I structure my essay?

A: You’ll learn about two options in this workshop:

Narrative Structure⁠

and

Montage Structure⁠

Q: How much do essays matter?

A: It depends on the college, but generally between 10%-30%. Essays tend to matter more for small schools, or schools who look at applications holistically.

Q: If my grades are bad, can I get into Harvard with a great essay?

A: Nope. Schools look at your GPA, course rigor and test scores more than anything. When you're being compared to other students with similar GPA/SAT scores, that's when the essays can make or break your chances. Harvard is great, but there are a lot of other awesome schools too. For a list of Colleges That Change Lives, Google "Colleges That Change Lives." (Really.)

Q: Can a bad college essay negatively affect my application?

A: Yes.

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Two College Essay Structures

Narrative Structure

Montage Structure

Two Structures

I think there are two basic structural approaches every student can use to write their college essays: Montage Structure and Narrative Structure. We’ll explore them in detail in a bit, but to figure out which approach you might want to take...

First, ask yourself two questions:

1. Have you faced significant challenges?

2. Do you want to write about them?

To clarify: You can write a great essay whether you've been through challenges or not.

The question is: How?

The answer: Find the right structure.

If you answered yes to both, Narrative Structure may work well for you.

If no to either, Montage Structure offers a great approach.

Narrative Structure

You can think of Narrative Structure as classic Hollywood movie structure, focusing on a challenge that fundamentally changed your life.

Montage Structure

Montage presents a series of experiences that are thematically linked, allowing you to present multiple sides of yourself that wouldn’t all fit into a single narrative arc.

I’d like to stress that neither structure is inherently better than the other. I’ve seen incredible essays using both structures. I say this because I don’t want you to feel like you need to write about challenges to write an outstanding college essay. You don’t.

And please note that ”significance” is obviously on a spectrum. We’ll talk about this in greater detail soon, but keep in mind that the more significant the challenge, the easier it will be to write about it well.

With that in mind, what follows are some strategies that have helped some of my students craft compelling essay.

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