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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.
Writing for the Admissions Officers
Why is it important to know that someone who reads tons of these essays will evaluate yours? Why is it also important to know that, at least at the most competitive colleges, an intelligent admissions officer (often an alumnus of the school) is likely to be reviewing your application? It’s important because you need to realize that your final audience for the college admissions essay is not the same as the teachers and parents who tend to provide the most admissions-writing advice.
1. Admissions officers can smell insincerity from a mile away.
Because they read so many essays, these people are great at determining who’s truly passionate about something and who’s making it up. Writing about wanting to save the planet may sound great to your English teacher, who doesn’t read these essays very often, but the admissions officer sees this all the time and it sounds phony. Unless you can back up what you say with real-life experiences, steer away from essay topics intended to make you sound benevolent or wise.
2. Admissions officers don’t know you.
It’s easy to forget that those helping you with your essays generally know you well. If you take a sarcastic tone in an essay, they’re likely to be familiar with it. If you say something that could be construed as offensive, they know that deep down you’re a good person. If you make a writing mistake, they remember that you’re a great writer anyway.
Admissions officers, on the other hand, have never met you. This is probably the only thing they’ve ever read of yours, and they’re only going to spend five to ten minutes at the most with your application. What they see is what you get. Be sure that the essay you write gets your message across on its own, without the need for any background or understanding of who you are.
3. Admissions officers have seen it all.
You probably can’t come up with anything completely original. That essay where you pretend to be the family dog observing your life? The one that’s a little weird but so clever? They’ve read that essay, so you get few or no points for originality.
More commonly, that essay about Outward Bound or visiting Africa is not going to be special solely because you had those experiences. You may not realize it, but a number of applicants to top colleges have done those things. So while they may have been transformative experiences for you, they don’t mean much on their own to the admissions officers. Rather than rely on how special you are because of those experiences, explain why they were so meaningful to you (if you discuss them) and have a point.
4. Admissions officers have high standards
If you’re one of the brighter kids at your school, you’re probably one of the best writers there. English teachers are impressed by your papers. You don’t make grammatical mistakes, and you understand how an essay should be put together. When your parents and teachers read an admissions essay on which you’ve spent a lot of time, they’re bound to be impressed. And they’ll tell you so.
Once that essay makes its way to Dartmouth or Northwestern, however, the landscape changes. Almost by definition, the schools where your essays really count are the ones where your competition is, on average, about as gifted as you are. Relatively speaking, you aren’t a great writer anymore. In fact, even if your essay is well-received by friends and family, it’s possible that it’s actually worse than many of the essays of other top students from all over the country applying to the same school.
At the very least, you need to realize that your essay is most likely not going to blow anyone away. Don’t become too comfortable in the praise of your readers, teachers, parents, and counselors. This isn’t high school—college admissions is a competitive, national game and the judges (admissions officers) are playing by a new and tougher set of rules. Your essay should be the best thing you’ve ever written.
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