I recently attended a high school program where a group of admission officers and college counselors helped students understand the admission process. The two things that seemed to be on the students' minds were building (in come cases, whittling down) college lists and getting preliminary ideas for answering writing prompts. Here are some of the things I shared with the students...
1. Go small.
A lot of students try to "go big" in their applications. I had a student tell me they wanted to write about two of their activities and how their interest in them is rooted in the same personal quality. The idea was interesting, but it would take pages to do it justice. Cover one idea, not many.
2. Answer the prompt.
This might seem like a silly tip, but I've seen advice claiming that our prompts are asking things they aren't. These aren't trick questions. They're simple and broad so they work for lots of people.
3. Pay attention to length, to an extent.
The word counts given in the instructions are to give you an idea of how much we are expecting to read. You are not expected to submit the exact number of words stated. We aren't counting the words. We just don't want you to write a term paper when we're asking for a short paragraph.
4. Use your writing style.
I often get asked if we want formal or informal responses. The answer is: yes. With 50,000 applications, there will be variety in the style of the responses. Write in the way that is authentic to you.
I hope that helps as you write your responses to our prompts!
