Essay Examples

Essay Examples Regardless of which prompt you choose, colleges are trying to get a sense of how thoughtfully and critically you can reflect on your life and the world around you. So without further ado, let’s take a look at anything and everything you need to know about the Common App essay in order to help you get into the school of your dreams. This is a college essay that worked for Harvard University. How well do you understand the college admissions process? What you write in your application essay or personal statement should not contradict any other part of your applicationâ€"nor should it repeat it. This isn't the place to list your awards or discuss your grades or test scores. On the first day of class, our teacher set a box on the table and poured water into the top, and nothing came out. Then, he poured more water in, and everything slowly came out. We were told to figure out what had happened with no phones or textbooks, just our brains. We worked together to discover in the box was a siphon, similar to what is used to pump gas. I had taken the handful of art classes my school offered and really enjoyed and excelled at themâ€"though I had never considered them more than just fun electives to fill my scheduled, as required. If you have a personal story that you’re not entirely comfortable sharing, avoid it, even if it would make a great essay topic in theory. And then one day I heard my school would be adding an advanced multimedia art class after school for those students who wanted to study art more seriously. I had already taken the handful of art classes my school offered and really enjoyed themâ€"though I had never considered them more than just fun electives to fill my schedule, as required. And, because of hockey, I certainly had never had afternoons open. And then one day I heard my school would be adding an advanced multimedia art class for those students who wanted to continue studying art beyond what was already offered. We spent the next weeks building solar ovens, studying the dynamic of paper planes, diving into the content of the speed of light and space vacuums, among other things. We did this with no textbooks, flashcards, or information to memorize. This is a college essay that worked for Duke University. This is because if you’re not comfortable writing on the subject matter, you’ll end up being too vague, which won’t do your story or overall application justice. So choose a subject matter you’re familiar with and comfortable discussing in specifics. This is because some students prefer to hook their reader with a bit of mystery and let their story unfold organically without a thesis sentence “spoiling” what is to come. Hopefully these examples have given you ideas of how you can take your Common App essay from good to great. If you have more questions about how to write a Common App essay, keep reading our FAQs below. This doesn’t mean you can’t have a thesis sentence, it just means you don’t need one. It just depends on how you want to build your personal narrative, and what serves you best. My teacher mentioned an interesting one about basketball, and the entire essay was a metaphor for the writers view on life. Research on education shows that the strongest predictor of a student’s success is how detailed and specific their picture is of the future. This is the most important work we do, as individuals and communities. Explain your commitments, and you will be the kind of student colleges find immensely attractive. These questions should inform your entire college application process.