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Brody's Guide to the College Admissions Essay
Brody's Guide to the College Admissions Essay is available at bookstores and at online retailers such as Amazon.com. The book was written by a college counselor and writer who has appeared on national television to discuss admissions-related issues, and a dean of law school admissions at a major university. It has been used in high schools and in after-school programs.
For those students who would benefit from professional help with their college admissions essays, we recommend EssayEdge.com, which has been praised by the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Lessons to take away from this essay:
If you’re going to write passionately about something “ordinary,” you need to make the essay work.
When you write an admissions essay about an amazing accomplishment or truly unique experience, your subject matter can sometimes stand on its own. That’s not to say that you don’t need to write a good essay. But just as Arnold Schwartzenegger can get away with a few less-than-stellar sequences in an action film (or stump speech), an essay about feeding starving children in Africa will always score at least a few points.
However, we’ve read some terrible essays about playing instruments, running, cooking, playing chess, knitting, and many other pastimes. That’s because it’s very difficult to make an essay about a common leisure activity interesting. It’s also tricky to make it “about you,” as opposed to something that could have been written by anyone.
It turns out that almost everyone who writes about running describes the meditative nature of jogging alone on a quiet trail. Those who love sailing write about being on the open water and knowing all about the boats, knots, and sails. Applicants who love to read talk about curling up with old friends such as Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice. For admissions officers who read thousands of essays each year, it’s hard to provide something of this nature that will make you sound interesting and provide any meaningful information about who you are. Sure, running is an integral part of your life. But that doesn’t mean it necessarily deserves a prominent place in your college application. Remember, your job here is to impress and create a personal bond with the reader.
This essay is about playing the piano—something that literally millions of Americans do. But the importance of the piano to this applicant truly comes across in this special essay. Not only do we get the impression that this is an expert piano player, but we are also introduced to a young child who once yearned to play the grown-up instrument, and has now made it a stabilizing influence in her stressful and exciting life. What makes this essay work? Certainly the emotive language helps, and the inclusion of details lends credibility to the author’s story. In the end, though, it just works; this essay adds to the application of which it is a part. By the time we are visualizing the author gratefully banging out Chopin upon the grand piano after a hard day, we know her better than we would have otherwise, and we probably like her more as well.
2. It’s the message that matters.
This extremely well-written essay has a few awkward spots. Nonetheless, it’s often beautiful, and the images painted by the author are memorable: the young girl looking up at the forbidden grand piano, and finally attacking it like a starving man on a loaf of bread; the overworked student relaxing with her instrument after a hard day; the reflective college applicant realizing the importance of the piano in helping her deal with the “staccatos” of her life.
The substance of and impression left by your essay matters more than verb conjugation or literary allusions. Admissions officers admit real people, and they want to connect with those people. The essay is not simply a writing test, and should not be treated as such.
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