myUface Blog

A great way to understand what kind of essay you want to write for your university application is to listen to an actual admissions officer discuss how he or she reads application essays. Really, 95% of the advice you read on the internet about how to write application essays is going to be written by people who aren’t actually responsible for reading or evaluating those essays.  We want to encourage you to think more about how your essay will be read than about how it should be written.

So, here’s the assignment:  read, in its entirety, the following webpage, written by an admissions officer.

This kind of information is absolutely priceless.  Here you have someone who has actually read thousands upon thousands of essays describing, in detail, HOW he or she reads and evaluates those essays.  And what does the admissions officer say?  Well, there are at least three important points:

First, technical excellence is NOT the most important aspect of an essay:

Ninety percent of the applications I read contain what I call McEssays – usually five-paragraph essays that consist primarily of abstractions and unsupported generalization. They are technically correct in that they are organized and have the correct sentence structure and spelling, but they are boring.

This is something to keep in mind when you come across a website offering to “edit” your essay for a certain fee.  Sure, those websites can make sure you are using correct grammar and punctuation, but they can’t make your essay any more original or interesting.  And THAT is something that is very important.  It is more important for your essay to demonstrate something unique than it is for your essay to be well-written.  Strange, perhaps, but true.

Second, DO NOT think too much about what a university wants to hear:

Far too many students begin the search of what to write about by asking: What does my college want to hear? The thinking goes something like this: If I can figure out what they are looking for, and if I can make myself look like that, then I’ll improve my chances.

Far too many students begin the essay process by asking, “What will make me sound good?  What will make a university want to accept me?”  The proper question is, “What will accurately portray me as an individual?  What will communicate what is unique about me as a student?”

Third, avoid the temptation to use big words:

students try to impress us with big words. In trying to make a topic sound intellectual, students resort to the thesaurus and, as a result, end up sounding pretentious or at least insecure about using the voice they would use to describe an event to a friend. The student assumes that these “impressive” words intensify the experience for a reader rather than diminish it.

This is not an English test, people.  It is a test of your ability to communicate something meaningful about yourself as a person.  Think about the times in your life when you’ve had a really important, meaningful, emotional discussion with someone.  Did you use a thesaurus in that discussion?  NO!  You used simple, everyday language, because that is the easiest and most effective way to communicate.

What else can you learn from this webpage?  Does it provide you with a new and useful perspective on writing your essay?

Posts in this Series

1. Tell Us About Yourself: Final Advice for Essay Writing - 08 Oct
2. Should You Pay To Have Your Essay Edited? - 01 Oct
3. The Greatest Editing Trick For College Application Essays - 29 Sep
4. How To Edit Your Essay - 28 Sep
5. The "What They Want to Hear" Mistake - 17 Sep
6. Know Your Reader, Part Four - 16 Sep
7. Know Your Reader, Part Three - 15 Sep
8. Know Your Reader, Part Two - 14 Sep
9. Know Your Reader, Part One - 13 Sep
10. Listen to an Admissions Officer Discuss Essays (This post)
11. How to Write an Essay for University Applications - 09 Sep