Tip 1:  Start with Purpose (not with the Essay Questions)

The Common App (and many schools that don’t use it) ask you to choose from a handful of general essay questions crafted to help you show admission officers who you are. 

 

Whether you’re writing it for the Common App or for an individual school, let’s call the essay you write for this question your Primary Personal Statement. 

 

I recommend you make your Primary Personal Statement the first admission essay you write. Here’s why:

 

• The questions are intentionally broad. Each one is an opportunity to help admission officers see the defining details of your verbal sketch -- features as essential to a portrait as eyes, mouth, and expression.

• If you use the Common App, all the schools where you apply via the Common App will read this essay. It’s a smart investment of your time and effort.

• If you apply to some schools via the Common App and to other schools that don’t take it, you may be able to adapt and submit your Common App essay (your Primary Personal Statement) to those schools.

• If you apply to schools that also ask you to write supplemental essays, you can add to the portrait you’ve started in your Primary Personal Statement. This will help you make sound decisions about what to focus on in your additional essays -- equivalents, say, of posture, gesture, and texture.

 

Choosing the Question for Your Primary Personal Statement 

 

When you review the questions for your Primary Personal Statement, think of them as the frame that’ll hold the portrait you’ve outlined in your verbal sketch. 

 

If you’re given multiple essay questions to choose from, here’s how I recommend picking the one you answer: 

 

• Paste your verbal sketch at the top of a new document.

• Below that, paste the questions you’re choosing from.

• Review each question, asking yourself: how can I structure an essay that responds to this prompt and shows admission officers one or two essential elements of my sketch? 

• After each essay question, jot down notes to help you remember the structure of any potential essay that will show something essential about you to your readers. Include the one or two elements of your sketch that you imagine in each potential essay.

• Review what you’ve written beneath each essay question.

• Choose the prompt for the essay that shows your readers the most inspiring version of your portrait.

 

As you consider the match between the questions and the elements of your sketch, keep in mind: you don’t need to write at length about each element that the essay might cover. Sometimes you can share one of your elements in a sentence, a phrase, or even a single word. 

 

Resist the temptation to include more than two elements. When applicants include too many, they often sacrifice the focus that’s essential to an essay of this length. Your Primary Personal Statement is the place to go deep, not wide.

 

And remember: schools that ask for supplemental essays will give you the opportunity to include the elements that don’t make it into your Primary Personal Statement.

 

 

The Role of Academics in Your Primary Personal Statement

 

Each school you apply to will know your grades and test scores, and many schools will also ask about your academic interests in their supplemental essay questions. 

 

With that in mind, I generally recommend that, when you’re considering which elements of your sketch to share in your Primary Personal Statement, you choose items that are a defining part of your life outside of academics, such as family, race, gender, heritage, culture, home life, community, values, a challenge, an essential personality trait, talent, etc. 

 

But there are many exceptions to this. For example, when an academic interest is inextricable from another element of your verbal sketch, the intersection of the two items is often an excellent topic. Say your interest in your heritage encouraged you to learn a language, and now poetry in that language gives you rich, new insights that inform your understanding of something important to you. When it’s closely related with another element of your sketch, an academic element can make a Primary Personal Statement shine.

 

As you consider whether to include academic content in your Primary Personal Statement, ask yourself (1) if that academic content will show admission officers something they won’t see in your transcripts and test scores and (2) whether that’s more valuable than sharing other elements of your verbal sketch. 

 

Remember: your Primary Personal Statement is a precious opportunity to help admission officers see you.

 

Choosing the Questions for Your Supplemental Essays

 

After you’ve developed a final (or nearly final) draft of your first essay (Tips 7-10 discuss a path to your final draft), review the supplemental essay questions you may need to answer for each school you’re applying to. 

 

Now that you’ve written your Primary Personal Statement, consider the supplemental essays to be opportunities to share the remaining elements of your verbal sketch. (Of course, these essays can also remind your readers of the elements in your Primary Personal Statement.)

 

Think collectively about all of the essays you’ll submit to each school and choose questions that, together, show your readers the most inspiring, multi-faceted version of you.