It’s time to apply for college. Or at least time to begin thinking about what comes next. Newsweek magazine’s America’s Best Colleges states that “by the year 2009, the number of graduating high school seniors should reach 3.3 million. Of that number, two-thirds will go on to a college degree.” Down East Magazine did a study of the Bates College admissions process in its November 2007 issue. Although each application is read by more than one individual and each one ranks students in a number of different categories, the actual discussion which determines who gets into Bates, lasts less than five minutes for each applicant. That is not unusual!

Many colleges now use an online common application. Not a lot of opportunity to show admissions counselors who you really are there! How do you separate yourself from the crowd, so that your less than five minutes has the outcome you want? One way is through the application essay. A lot of advice has been given about writing your application essay. I found quite a bit of this advice when I did a search on the college application essay using EBSCO, which is a database of printed articles that can be accessed through the library’s website.

Some of the best advice was about choosing your topic. You want the admissions committee to see you as a person, not as a group of statistics. “Go with smaller, seemingly unimportant moments in your life” was a suggestion which my daughter followed to her advantage. She wrote about throwing away her retainer (that thing you wear on your teeth after the braces come off) by accident while eating in a ski lodge with friends. Her essay focused on her struggle between public humiliation and personal responsibility. Personal responsibility won out, and she dug through the trash until she found her retainer. Other good suggestions from these articles : ”make sure to talk about how your topic affects you (this time it really is all about you), don’t make the essay any longer than the suggested length, and remember, the reader wants to know you; literary genius is not the issue here!

If you need more help getting started, NPL has some books to help:

The college application essay by Sarah McGinty
Rock hard apps: how to write a killer college application by Katherine Cohen
How to write a winning college application essay by Michael Mason
Essays that will get you into college by Amy Burnham

OK, ready, set, WRITE! Good luck!