Complete guide to college application essays - The Princeton Review 2020
Finishing your application
How to Make Sure Your Essay Isn’t the Only Thing that Stands Out
Up to this point, you’ve put a lot of hard work into your personal statement. But none of that will matter if you don’t actually submit your essay.
In this chapter, we’ll look at how to:
· choose which application(s) to fill out
· gather all of the information needed
· accurately fill out the fields
In your normal day-to-day life, you probably interact with people in a variety of ways. You might talk to them face to face, reach them through email or a group chat. The point is, there are multiple ways to get in touch with any one person. The same is true for the colleges that you’re applying to. Some may share systems, so if you send your materials to one, you have also sent it to another. Other schools may require you reach out to them in a more specific or direct fashion. As you finalize your list of schools, make sure you know how to most efficiently reach them.
ACTIVITY
Ready to Research
The first step to take is to do a little preliminary research. Make a list of your top seven schools and visit their websites to find out which application(s) each one accepts.
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Look for key commonalities between them. Note the application that is accepted by the most schools, and circle the schools that take it.
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Don’t discount the schools that you haven’t circled. Just be aware that you’ll need to do some additional work to apply to those. If you don’t think you’ll have time, or are you feeling overwhelmed, you may want to more carefully consider where you want to apply.
Types of applications
All colleges are going to ask you for certain basics:
· personal details about you
· information about your parent/guardian
· your intended major
· your activities
· your grades and applicable test scores
Most will also ask for essays and application letters. Beyond that, the specifics may differ, so look at the following summary of different application types to determine which one—if you have a choice—you want to submit.
If a school accepts multiple types of applications, you can safely choose to submit any of the ones on their list. For instance, Harvard, which accepts the Common App, Universal App, and the Coalition App, isn’t going to look more favorably at material that comes from one source as opposed to another. Unless you really don’t like a particular application’s format, choose based on whatever will create the least amount of work for you.
The Common Application
The name doesn’t lie: this is the most common application used by schools, as nearly 900 colleges accept it. It also comes with the most support thanks to its complimentary app, Common App On Track, available for Apple and Android devices.
One key thing to know about this application is that if a school uses it, that school must practice a holistic admissions policy, by which we mean that they promise to factor in your academics, extracurricular activities, and personal qualities as opposed to just judging you by your grades and test scores.
Website
Commonapp.org
Used by
885+ colleges and universities
Components
Personal and Parental Background Information, Courses and Grades, Test Scores, Awards and Activities, Recommendations, Writing Supplements, Additional Information section, Portfolios
Essay
Choose 1 of 7 prompts (max. 650 words)
Help/Support
Videos, downloadable playbooks, and more resources are available on their website www.commonapp.org/help
Special Notes
Holistic admissions
University of California Application
The University of California system is, in fact, so massive that it uses its own application system to cover its nine undergraduate universities. You will note that UCs do not ask explicitly for gender or ethnicity in its application. If you choose to disclose that part of your background, you may do so explicitly in your written responses.
Website
apply.universityofcalifornia.edu/
Used by
9 undergraduate UCs: Merced, Irvine, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Santa Cruz, Davis, San Diego, UCLA, Berkeley
Components
Household Income and family information, Campuses and Majors, Academic History of Courses and Grades, Test Scores, Awards and Activities, Scholarship and Special Programs
Essay
Choose 4 of 8 personal insight questions (up to 250 words each)
Help/Support
ucinfo@applyucsupport.net
Special Notes
Recommendation letters are not accepted (unless specifically requested). Gender and ethnicity are not requested. Until at least 2024, the system is test-optional.
The Coalition Application
The Coalition Application is one of the newer application systems, put together within the last decade. It aims to be more than an application by offering both a virtual locker that students can start organizing material in as early as 9th grade and a variety of resources to help prepare them for college. The application also focuses recruiters on a student’s background more than a student’s test scores.
Website
www.coalitionforcollegeaccess.org/
Used by
140+ Colleges in 34 U.S. States
Components
Personal Information, Contact Information, Demographic Information, Use of the Locker, Add Colleges, Invite Contacts for Recommendations and Grade Reports, Activities/Experience, Fee Waiver
Essay
Choose 1 of 5 prompts (500—550 words)
Help/Support
mycoalition.help
Special Notes
You can opt to start sharing your information with colleges and allow them to text you; You can link your account to the Collegeboard website to share your SAT, Subject tests, APs, and more.
The Locker
The locker is a cloud-based, digital storage system that allows you to collect, organize, and store your high school work, including papers, photos, videos, projects, art, and even awards. Once the “locker” is created, you can invite your teachers and parents to review its contents and offer feedback about whether the materials will enhance your application. The contents of your locker can be submitted with the Coalition Application. It’s a great way to keep track of a graded English paper you did well on, high school activities, class trip photos, and more.
It can be used as a virtual collaboration space, where you can connect with counselors, teachers, and other trusted adults, who can add input to your college application and preparation. Here you can work on college lists, essay ideas, and your applications, among other things.
Sample Prompt
The prompts on the Coalition Application are designed to focus on the applicant’s background. Here’s a sample:
· What is the hardest part of being a student now? What’s the best part? What advice would you give a sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)?
ApplyTexas
ApplyTexas, as the name implies, is pretty much a one-stop shop for schools in Texas, since all public schools in Texas (and many private ones) can be applied to through its portal. That said, the type of essay that you submit may differ depending on the school, so pay close attention to your selections.
Website
ApplyTexas.org
Used by
100+ colleges in Texas
Components
Biographical Information, Educational Background, Educational Information, Test Scores, Residency Information, Extracurricular/Volunteer Activities, Employment Information
Essay
Up to 3 prompts, each between 350—650 words
Help/Support
applytexas@austin.utexas.edu
Special Notes
Depending on your major or the school being applied to, you may have to submit multiple prompts.
Sample Prompt
ApplyTexas offers three main prompts, labeled A, B, and C, as well as one labeled D that applies only to students majoring in specific artistic fields at certain schools. Of these, C and D are a bit more creative than other prompts you may have seen.
· Topic C: You’ve got a ticket in your hand—Where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there?
· Topic D: Personal interaction with objects, images and spaces can be so powerful as to change the way one thinks about particular issues or topics. For your intended area of study (architecture, art history, design, studio art, visual art studies/art education), describe an experience where instruction in that area or your personal interaction with an object, image or space effected this type of change in your thinking. What did you do to act upon your new thinking and what have you done to prepare yourself for further study in this area?
If you prefer to look ahead to your future aspirations rather than your past, or if you have been strongly influenced by the arts, these might be ideal prompts for you to address.
Universal Application
Be aware that the Universal Application is less accepted this year than ever before; as of this book’s print date, it was only being accepted by four colleges, all of which also accept other platforms.
Website
https://www.universalcollegeapp.com/colleges
Used by
University of Charleston (WV), Cornell University, Harvard College, Notre Dame of Maryland University
Components
Personal Information, Family Information, Academic Information, Extracurricular Activities, Employment Information, Multimedia Information
Essay
One personal statement (650 words max.), no prompt provided.
Help/Support
https://applywithus.kayako.com/uca
Special Notes
This application does provide room to link to online material that may help to showcase your talents, be it a video, portfolio, song, or article.
Other Applications
Though University of California’s is the biggest, some other large public school systems have their own applications. There are also a few schools, like MIT and Georgetown, that have their own platforms. Note that specialized schools such as these, which have gone to great lengths to set themselves apart, tend only to accept their own application.
ACTIVITY
Setting Yourself Up for Success
You may not yet be ready to actually fill out your application, and might not even know which one you’re going to be submitting. However, there’s no penalty for registering with a site, even if you end up going in a different direction. To make sure that you avoid any pesky technical issues down the road, take some time now to do the following.
First, choose your three favorite applications. Yeah, we know, this is like choosing your favorite medicines, or your favorite tests, but this is a necessary step, so pick an application that will be accepted by the majority (or at least a plurality) of the schools you want to apply to. If a school, such as Harvard, accepts more than one type of application, choose the one that seems most straightforward to you.
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Now, visit the website for at least one of those application platforms and create an account for yourself. Make sure you keep track of your log-in information so that you can jump right in when you’re actually ready to get started.
Once you’re in, browse the interface and take notes about what the application is asking for. Note what you already have and what you may still need, and make sure you set yourself up to get anything you’re still missing.
Now that you know what you need, plan ahead and make sure that anybody else you’re going to be reaching out to for help knows what you’ll need from them. Whenever others are involved, it’s important to leave them enough time to get back to you by the application deadline.
Gathering the materials for your application
We’ve spoken about the various applications you can use to submit your application, and you’ve gone through and gotten a sense for what material you may still need to gather. Here’s a list of some of the big-ticket items that you may need, with room to insert any other more specific elements.
· Transcript(s)
· Activities
· Academic Awards/Accolades/Achievements
· Test Scores
· Parent/Legal Guardian Information
· Digital Locker Information
ACTIVITY
Making a List, Checking It Twice
Don’t just use the checklist to keep track of whether you’ve gotten material; make sure you also keep track of where that information is. For instance, if you’ve had test scores sent to schools, note which schools you sent them to so you don’t forget to send those scores to additional schools, as well. Make a list of anything that you might need to manually submit.
Transcript
For most applicants, this is just going to be your high school transcript, which you can request from your school. Note, however, that if you’re transferring from a college, you will need to include both your high school information and any material from your current college, as well as any summer school programs you may have taken part in elsewhere, but that you want considered for credit and to demonstrate academic rigor.
Activities
While academics are what get your foot in the door with colleges, it’s what you do outside of the classroom that helps build a college campus’s community, and that’s something admissions officers are always thinking about. This is why most selective colleges practice holistic admissions where they look at your academics, extracurricular activities, your personal qualities, and background. Think of the activities section as a fill-in-the-blank resume of sorts. Extracurricular activities include more than school-sanctioned clubs and teams. Carefully consider how you spend your time outside of the classroom when you’re not eating or sleeping.
Academic Awards/Accolades/Achievements
While activities give schools a good idea of your interests and commitments, awards are an opportunity for you to show how you shine in those activities. This doesn’t mean you have to be the MVP of your varsity sports team; being the runner-up or getting an honorable mention, especially in a competitive crowd, is still worth celebrating!
Don’t worry about being modest in this section. You’re just dutifully reporting on the nice things that others have said about you. So long as you don’t lie about receiving an award, it’s not possible for you to exaggerate.
Test Scores
Unless you enjoy checking websites over and over again, you’ll want to keep track of the scores you’ve gotten on any tests that you’re submitting to colleges—especially if they’re required. You’ll also want to note which schools you’ve already submitted your scores to for each test: this way, if there are any that still need them, you can request the outstanding scores.
There may be additional fees for sending scores after the test date, so be prepared for those. If a school doesn’t require you to officially verify a score until you’ve accepted admission there, then don’t! Your AP scores, for instance, aren’t going anywhere, so if a school will let you submit them later, take advantage of that.
Parent/Legal Guardian Information
You might not know all of this information off the top of your head, or you may have limited information about some members of your family. Fill in the fields to the best of your ability, and where possible, ask your parent/guardian to give you any missing information.
Digital Locker Information
We spoke briefly about this while discussing the Coalition Application, which comes with a built-in virtual collaboration space in which you can store key information, such as a school research paper that you were especially proud of, or video of a science fair presentation you made, that would be difficult to share in another format. Keep an eye out for schools that accept links to websites or lockers such as ZeeMee, and know that this provides one more chance for you to put yourself over the top with a college admissions officer.
Filling out the application
As you’ve probably heard, “Knowing is only half the battle.” Once you’ve gathered all of your information, you will still need to make sure that you include it in the right places. If you’ve had the misfortune of having to file your own taxes for a summer job, you may already know just how prepared and meticulous you’ll have to be with your paperwork and accounting. Here are some of our recommendations.
Start Early, Finish on Time
You don’t have to finish early, but by starting earlier, you give yourself a bit of a cushion. You can iron out any technical issues with setting up your account and uploading your information. You can also avoid a last-minute mad dash to complete forms or write your essay, as both of these things can lead to silly errors.
Know Your Deadlines
Be aware of pressing deadlines for individual parts of your application and make sure you’re aware of these up front, so you can focus on them before turning your attention to obtaining information that can be submitted later on.
Spread Things Out
If the application program that you’re using allows you to save your work—and most do—then you don’t have to get everything done in one sitting. In fact, we recommend that you don’t try to wrap it all up at once. Give yourself time to catch errors! As long as you remain organized, don’t misplace documents or forget which ones you’ve already accounted for, you can take your time.
Read, and Then Reread, the Directions
Each time you start back up again, make sure that you look at the directions. This is especially important if you’re submitting through multiple platforms. You don’t want to answer the right question in the wrong portal!
Putting it all together
Gather your materials, sit down in a quiet place, take a deep breath, and get started. For sample purposes, we’re going to focus on what you can expect to find in the Common Application, but feel free to follow along by looking at the application that you registered for back in the first activity of the chapter. Take note of any differences that you’ll need to account for. Also be aware that we’re not going to walk through every line—much of what you’ll need to fill out on the Common App is, well, stuff that should be common knowledge to the applicant. We will, however, point out tips and strategies where applicable for each section.
Use the same name on each document you submit. The full legal name you use in your profile should match what’s on your test scores, on your transcript, and on any other supplemental information that you submit.
Profile
The first section of most applications is usually a bunch of personal information that you can recite off the top of your head, since it’s about you. We’re talking things like your legal name, gender, date of birth, contact information, and address. Pay close attention to what is and isn’t optional, and where there is and isn’t room to elaborate. The Common App provides space to elaborate on gender, if you wish, and certain demographic information such as religion, military status, and ethnicity does not have to be provided. By contrast, you must provide information on the language(s) you speak and your citizenship status.
If any of these optional categories are an important and positive part of who you are, you should share them. It is hard to paint the complete picture of who you are to the admissions readers when you are only using some of the colors.
Application Fees and Fee Waivers
In the opening section, you will also have the opportunity to apply for a fee waiver, which is essentially a way to ensure that the cost of submitting the Common App does not stand in the way of students who may not be in a place to pay to do so. If any of the following are true, you probably qualify for a fee waiver:
· current eligibility for other fee waivers, like those for the ACT or SAT
· eligible to participate in the Federal Free or Reduced Price Lunch program (FRPL)
o Check the income eligibility guidelines set by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.
· enrollment in a federal, state, or local program that aids students from low-income families (for example, TRIO programs such as Upward Bound)
· living in federally subsidized housing, a foster home, or are currently displaced
· receiving public assistance
· being a ward of the state
If there are other circumstances of note, you can ask a school official, college access counselor, financial aid officer, or community leader to fill out a fee waiver form on your behalf.
Family
The family section includes several categories for listing the members of your family, their occupations, and their education.
Education
Colleges aren’t trying to trick or trap you when they ask you to list information about your schools and guidance counselors. They’re just trying to get the whole picture behind your grades and your courses; learning that you wound up at four different high schools because your family kept moving might help to explain a dip in grades or make above-average scores even more impressive. Also, if you know that a class is AP, honors, Dual-Credit, IB, or the like, make sure that’s reflected in the name of the course.
Note that most applications ask for the courses you’re currently taking (or from your most recent year, if you’ve already graduated). That’s why it’s a good idea to take some AP-level courses in your junior or senior years, where you can most clearly illustrate a highly valued thing like academic rigor.
Honors
If you have more than five honors to list here, congratulations! List them all on a separate piece of paper and then, as suggested, add the five that are “most important to you.” What that means, exactly, is up for interpretation. You know your own story and achievements, and you can be proud of them regardless of what you put down. Consider prioritizing those accolades that will impress any reader or help you to stand out.
Community-Based Organizations
If you’re not sure whether this section applies to you, set the dropdown to 1 and then scroll through the list of organizations that appears. If you didn’t use any of those services, set the dropdown back to 0 and move on.
Future Plans
It’s okay to be undecided here. It’s also okay to put something down and later change your mind. Just remember to be consistent throughout your application. If your personal statement talks about your dreams for the future, your answers here should mirror that.
Testing
In this section, you are given the choice of self-reporting scores or listing upcoming test dates. This is a good option for either letting schools know that you are scheduled to take required tests (or ones that demonstrate academic rigor) or for more cheaply satisfying application requirements. Remember: it costs money to send official score reports, and some colleges don’t require anything more than a self-reported score unless they accept you, in which case you can hold off until you’ve decided to go there.
Superscoring
Some tests, like the SAT and ACT, give you an opportunity to superscore, which is to submit the highest scores from two (or more) different testing dates. There’s no reason not to take advantage of this.
If you are applying to a test-optional school or looking at a non-testing alternative path, you do not have to fill out this section in the same way as other students. Remember, you are demonstrating that you more than fulfill what your college needs, and if scores aren’t a part of that, you don’t need to stress about them. Do keep in mind that it can sometimes be helpful to include them (if they’re good) even if the school doesn’t require them.
Make sure that you check each school’s website for up-to-date information on what sort of information is required. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, many schools considered implementing (or did enact) test-optional policies.
Activities
Don’t look at what other students are doing, and don’t feel as if there’s some sort of perfect list of activities that will help you get into the school of your dreams. So don’t force yourself to unhappily play a sport or participate in a club just to put it on your resume. Be especially cautious about overloading your schedule in a way that impacts your grades. Instead of doing community service, serving in student government, and working a part-time job all at once, focus on the activities that you do best, and you’ll have a stronger story to tell.
The best way to get into the school of your dreams is for there to be an alignment between your dreams and theirs. That is, if you’re naturally into activities that the school values, they’re going to see you as a good fit.
To put it another way, colleges value quality over quantity and any attempt to do things just to impress a prospective college may backfire. Being in a dozen clubs doesn’t matter nearly as much as being on the leadership team for one or two of them.
Activities for the Common App
Activities are a lot like food; you won’t necessarily know which ones you like until you give a bunch of them a taste. Here’s a menu, so to speak, of some of the most common ones and some examples of each, but know that this is by no means a comprehensive list. In fact, when you get to college, you’ll find that there are often hundreds of clubs (depending on the size of the school), so trust us when we say that schools will value any activity that you value.
School Clubs 
Science Club
Student Council
Spirit Club
JV Soccer
Robotics Club
Key Club
etc.
Recreational and Community-based Organizations and Teams 
Baseball League
Religious Group
Mayor’s Youth Council
Martial Arts
Music Lessons
etc.
Home Responsibilities 
Childcare
Eldercare
Family Chores
etc.
Work, Internships, Volunteering 
Retail Jobs
Summer Internships
Part-Time Employment
Supervised Research
Campaign
Work
etc.
Special Conferences and Programs
Attending Leadership Seminars
Academic Meetings
Athletic Conventions
etc.
Honor Societies
Organizational Work or Planning
Sponsoring/Running Events
etc.
Self-Study
Online Courses
Experiential Learning
Coding Projects
etc.
Arts
Creative Works in Theater,
Art, Film, Literature,
Dance
etc.
How To Input Activities on the Common App
Once I List an Activity, I Just Can’t Stop
You can only list ten activities. This doesn’t mean that you need to list ten, and in fact, you shouldn’t list random activities that you only participated in for a few weeks. Schools are far more impressed by seeing that you’ve stuck with an activity for several years, especially if you’ve made an impact in them.
That said, if you absolutely have to squeeze in more than ten activities, or want to fill every available box, consider creative ways in which you might combine or separate similar entries. For instance, if you played on the varsity soccer team and also worked with a recreational soccer club, you could put those two together. By contrast, if you played on separate leagues or held more than one position, you could list both. If you do this, though, try to emphasize a difference that justifies your repetition of an activity type.
Ways to Express Yourself
Let’s face it, you’ve all probably used Twitter before, so the idea of having only 150 characters to sum something up shouldn’t be that much of a nightmare. Look at the following descriptions of the same activity to get a sense for how and where you can elaborate.
ACTIVITY
Short and Sweet
Pick several of the activities on this page and see if you can sum them up in 150 characters (or less). Imagine that your audience knows nothing about the process.
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Now that you’ve had a bit of practice, do the same for two of your activities, being careful to avoid acronyms and getting lost in the details.
Writing Section
You’ve already learned a lot about how to write the essay throughout this book, so we’ll just cover the technical aspect of adding the personal essay to your application. Whether you have to include an essay all comes down to the requirements of the colleges you identified in the “My Colleges” tab of the app, so if you have not already done so, make sure that you do.
If you need to submit an essay, make sure you select the prompt that matches the one you’ve already chosen, and then paste your finished essay into the box. We do not recommend typing your essay directly into the application because you won’t be able to share it with others. You also won’t be able to ensure that it saves properly, nor will you be able to use common software functions like spell-check to avoid sloppy mistakes. Write your essay off-platform, share it, edit it, and then paste it into the box provided, and review the finished text one last time to make sure it’s formatted properly and that nothing got cut off.
Courses & Grades
Like the Writing Section, whether you have to list courses and grades on the application depends on the schools you identified in the “My Colleges” tab. Only about 30 colleges require this section to be completed; the rest will simply accept the official transcript(s) from your high school(s).
Having to list your entire high school course schedule is not a good reason to remove a dream college from your application list. If it needs to be done—as is the case with the UC and Coalition Applications—it needs to be done. Just pace yourself and don’t try to cram in all that information in one fell swoop.
End of chapter review
At the end of the day, only you know how well your application reflects you. Before you click the send button on that application, sleep on it, and really consider if you’ve exhausted every available opportunity to tell schools about yourself as a candidate. On a scale from 1 (least sure) to 5 (most confident), rate whether the completed application
· reflects who I am as a person
· demonstrates what I care about
· explains and provides details
· answers all the questions
· shares everything that is important to me