How to Write for Common App Prompt #1- A Potential Golden Ticket
by Lillie W.
If you’re a rising high school senior, at this point in your life your experience with job interviews is probably limited. But you’ll find out soon enough, once you hit the job market, that there’s no more paralyzing moment at the start of an interview than a company executive’s unexpectedly trumpeting “So, tell me about yourself!” across a big desk.
Most of us suffer instant brain freeze at this question, in job interviews and elsewhere. But if you’re someone who senses a specific and honest answer yearning to burst out, you could be just the kind of student who will mesmerize a college admissions committee with a well-sculpted response to Common App prompt #1.
The prompt asks for “a background, identity, interest, or talent” that is so important to you that the committee must hear about it to fully appreciate your application – that is, for them to sufficiently understand the special dimension or set of traits you will bring to their campus. Select and highlight the traits that make you truly intriguing and you could be holding the proverbial golden ticket.
There are, of course, caveats.
First, you must not generalize. An essay built around “I’m a geek,” “I’m an artist” or “I’m a crusader” will bomb unless you flesh it out with as many lively particulars of your crusade, artistry or geekdom as you can marshal. The details of your inspiration and subsequent journey will be crucial components as well.
Second, some categories are best avoided, although this principle can be carefully bent in certain circumstances (and you’ll want to talk to your essay mentor about these).
The rules that many of us grew up with about suitable dinner conversation in the presence of guests is a tolerable guideline: don’t push religion or (partisan) politics, or air anything that might be considered family laundry (subjects too intimately personal, such as a romance, addiction, or psychiatric episode, even if you’ve recovered). As indispensable as authenticity is, you should know that readers in admissions offices also have “TMI” reactions to material that is overly revealing.
Third, take your clue from the final three words of the prompt: “share your story.” Make your essay a narrative, with your commentary judiciously added. Narratives fulfill the “show, don’t tell” prescription of good writing.
Stories are what fascinate us. Undoubtedly you have many. Your essay mentor can help you fashion the best of them into an irresistible composition.