Accepted! 50 successful college admission essays - Gen Tanabe, Tanabe Kelly 2008

Why you should care about the essay
The ingredients of the essay

In this chapter you will learn:

● Essay questions you are likely to face

● If college essay questions are really trick questions

● Extra precautions for applying online

Why you should care about the essay

The ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu once wrote, “To know your enemy

is to defeat your enemy.” Good advice. And while the essay is not your enemy—although at times you may feel that it is—the principle is still the same: Understand what you’re up against. So before we jump into the strategies used to write a successful essay, let’s be sure that you understand exactly what the essay is and why you should care about it.

If you’ve looked at a college application, you’ve probably seen the section titled “Personal Statement.” This is just a fancy way of saying essay.

Most colleges require one “Personal Statement” of about 500 to 1,000 words, and many also ask for one to three additional shorter essays.

Colleges value essays because they allow them to gain insight into who you are beyond the facts and fi gures of the application form. For you, this is the opportunity to present your most important strengths, especially those that may not be refl ected elsewhere in your application. And it can and does happen that students on the academic borderline cross into the college promised land because of the power of their essays!

By understanding the components of the essay and how to approach each of them, you will have the background information needed to tackle them. There is something to be learned from a 2,000-year-old general after all.