College Essay Series: How Should I begin?

This webinar was presented on June 10, 2021, and a recording is available here.  Some details regarding the prompts and deadlines may have changed by the time you are reading this transcript. Please visit the Common Application and University of California website for the most up to date information. 

Anthony Su: Hello everyone. Good evening. I definitely appreciate you guys joining us – for a very hot topic among students getting ready for the admissions process: getting ready for essays! And thinking about, “Where do I start? How do I tackle this?”

Well, we're here today to give you an overview and understanding of where you guys can start, and a lot of the best practices in regards to editing, drafts, or topics, and things like that.

Today I'm joined by Katie Young and Lorraine Harry. So, Katie, do you mind introducing yourself – and then Lorraine?

Katie Young: Yeah, sure. Hi everybody. Welcome to another webinar with me. My name is Katie Young. I'm associate consulting director here at ILUMIN Education, and I am running our hourly essay consulting program. We're here to talk a little bit about essays, and what we can do to help you!

I've been consulting for the last eight or nine years, I think. I say a different number every time… I started in 2012; I can't do math! And I’ve worked with tons of students from all over the Bay Area. I recently got my master's degree in counseling… and nice to meet everybody!

Lorraine Harry: Hi everyone. I'm Lorraine Harry. I’m calling from Southern California, in Claremont. I graduated from Pomona College – one of the Claremont colleges. And I work as an essay specialist with ILUMIN.

Anthony Su: Perfect. And, We'll go through our topics, but if you think of any questions, or if you have something to comment on, definitely put it in the Q&A, or put it in the chat.

We'll get started, because we have a bit of a longer presentation. So I'll throw it to Katie to get us going.

Katie Young: You know me – I can't stop talking! And, yeah, we have a long one. So let's see…

What Role Do Essays Play in the Admissions Process?

We're gonna start out with the really obvious question – because, I think if you're not involved in this, it's kind of hard to understand the role that essays play in the college application process. So I'm just going to go through a little bit of the reasons why essays are important: why they matter, and why you should care about your essays. I think that's a pretty good place to start.

So here are the components, in general, of a college application. And colleges talk a lot about doing something called a “holistic review,” which means they are looking at everything about you. They're not just caring about grades. They're not just caring about test scores. They're looking at the whole package put together – to try to understand who you are, where you're coming from, how you would fit in at their school, and what your future plans are – and how there’s sort of a through line between all of those things!

So when they look at your application, they're looking at your transcript. All four years of high school. You'll apply in the fall of your senior year, so the senior year grades won't matter as much, but they will still be sent after you apply. So please don't give up!

And your test scores. I know there's been some confusion around test scores lately, with COVID… Most colleges will still be test-optional this year. The UC's – the Universities of California – will be test-blind, so in that case your test scores will not play a role in the review of your application. Just to clarify, before we get questions. This isn't about testing, but I figured people would ask.

They're going to look at your extracurricular résumé. So everything that you chose to do when you had free time outside of the classroom. How did you pursue your interests?

Teacher recommendations: they're going to read opinions from the people who know you the best! The teachers in your classroom know you the best in terms of an academic context. So they can explain how you act, and how you react, in the classroom setting. So that colleges can make sure you're a good addition to their campus.

An interview is a big component of a lot of applications. They'll have you interview with an alum of the college that you're intending to attend, so that they can get a feel for your personality, and answer all of your questions.

And then your essays. The essays are really the only place where you get a chance to communicate directly with the admissions committee. Otherwise everything is filtered through something else: it's filtered through a transcript; it's filtered through a scoring service; it's filtered through a teacher, or another adult… So it's your only chance to use your voice here.

Who Reads Your Essays?

So who reads these essays, when you send them in? It depends on the college. For big schools – like the UCs, for example – they use review readers: people that they employ temporarily to read through essay drafts and make recommendations to the admissions officers. At smaller schools, it's actually the admissions officers – the people making the decisions – who are reading your application.

If you apply for a scholarship, or you apply to a special program or an honors program, you will get representatives of that program reviewing your essays. If you are applying to the art or music program, you'll get specialized faculty from those programs reviewing your essays. And then same if you apply to an accelerated program. A B.S./M.D. is a program to get your medical degree faster. It's a really competitive program

For the most part, it's pretty unlikely that someone who is an expert in your area of interest is reviewing your application. It's people like me, people like Lorraine, and people like Anthony – who just love students and love college, and want to really connect students with colleges that are going to be a good fit for them! So don't assume that you're writing to a computer scientist or an engineer when you write these essays

Do Different Colleges View Essays Differently?

Yeah! Different colleges are looking for different things.

Primarily they're looking for fit. You'll hear that term a lot: “college fit,” when you start to research your colleges. They're trying to make sure that everyone they admit really wants to be there, really will do well there, and really would find a home and a place on their campus. That's what they mean by fit.

The less selective the campus is – meaning the more people that they admit – the less important the essay is. Then, what they're looking more for are your academic qualifications, to make sure that you're going to help them bring their rankings up. So they want people who are very talented, and they don't so much care about what you have to say.

It's the opposite at a small college like Pomona. I'm sure Lorraine could speak to the Claremont Colleges – very small liberal arts schools. Because they're so small, they're admitting 100, 200, 400 people to each class at their school. So they want to make sure that each one of those people is interesting and multifaceted and dynamic and different from each other. So it's not a good idea to try to be like “John” in your essay, or try to be like Lorraine in your essay. They already have a Lorraine. They already have a John. They want somebody different, who's going to compliment the other people at their school.

Context matters to everybody. This is the big role that essays can play. When they just see your scores, and they see that maybe there's a dip sophomore year second semester: you have straight C's! Every other year you have A's and B's. The essay can give you an opportunity to provide some context there: why did that happen? What went wrong? If you don't write that essay and give them that information, it’s gonna be a mystery!

But if you have a good reason, you can convey that through your essays. You can convey the reason why you weren't involved in so many activities at school. Maybe you had family responsibilities. Maybe you had a two-hour commute to and from campus, and you weren't really able to join the basketball team or whatever. Context is the main purpose of your essays – and the colleges are looking for that, no matter if they're big or small.

And what we've seen at ILUMIN – if we really look into our data, and we look into our applications – the essays really do matter. Especially at the top tier. They can make a big difference for students who are almost there – almost qualified. If they write an amazing essay – something really stand-out, something incredible to grab the attention of the readers – that can make all the difference for their admission.

So, regardless of the school you're applying to – unless it's a really big public school that's really not super selective – your essays are going to play a big role in your application, and could potentially make the difference for you in admission.

What are colleges looking for?

Consistently, with these essays, what colleges are looking for is writing that demonstrates three things. One: your personality. So who are you? How do you think? How do you view the world? How do you act? How do you interact? Two: perspective. What is your take on life, and the meaning of life? What are you doing in the world around you? How are you taking things in? What is your thought process? And then, three, your passion. What are you interested in? What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to do?

They're asking themselves these questions constantly as they're reading through each aspect of your application. And your essay is really what can tie it all in a bow – tie it all together, and help it make sense for them.

College Essay Basics

So now that you understand a little bit more about the role that essays play within the college application process, we're going to go through some of the basics of college essays – for y'all who are just graduating from junior year, moving on to senior year, and just want to get an idea of what the heck is going on, and what you can expect. And I'm going to toss it to Lorraine for that.

Lorraine Harry: We tried to guess what the biggest questions would be that you all would have. So we're going to run through a few of those.

FAQs

The first question is: “Do all colleges require essays?” No. Most colleges do, but not every college. The most important ones to us – the most relevant ones – are that the Cal State schools don't require essays. That includes Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Cal Poly Pomona. So if you really don't want to write an essay, those are some good schools to apply to!

Next question: “Can I use the same essay for multiple colleges?” Yes, definitely! You're not cheating if you reuse college essays for different schools. And even if you have similar prompts, but not the exact same prompt, you can maybe adapt an essay for a different prompt. You can use the same topics, or the same themes, if you have an essay you really love. For example, last year I worked with a student who was a competitive Rubik's cube solver – and he used the Rubik's cube topic for many different essays, because it demonstrated so many different things in his life.

“How many drafts should I write?” There's no right answer. But I would say aim for five drafts. It could be anywhere from three to five or more. The most important thing is to get feedback after every draft. So you could ask a teacher or a school counselor. It could be a family member or a friend. Maybe it's an older student who's already in college, who's just been through this whole process. But that's a really helpful thing: to get a lot of feedback along the way!

“When are essays due?” Essays are due when the applications are due. We'll look more closely at this later on, when we look at the timeline, but applications are generally due from November to January

“Do I have to write creatively?” No, not really. Just write in your authentic voice. You don't have to do something really out-of-the-box – that doesn't really matter! You shouldn't not do it, either, if you feel like you have something that you really want to try. But it's not typical.

“Should this be a five paragraph essay?” Like, should this be a very academic, school-like essay? And the answer to that is no. This is not an academic essay. It's really an essay about you. It doesn't have to follow a certain format that you've learned in school. So really just make it about you.

All right, last question: “When should I start writing?” The first thing you want to do before you start writing is to finalize your college list. Where do you actually want to apply? And that, maybe, is one of the hardest parts of the process: narrowing down that list! And then, after you do that, you want to decide: “Do I want to apply early decision to any of them, or early action?” That will help you get organized too with your deadlines.

After that you have the opportunity to organize all of it. Maybe you want to make a spreadsheet with all the schools you're applying to, and all the deadlines. Maybe copy and paste all the essay prompts into your spreadsheet, if you're into making spreadsheets. That way you can see, too: are there prompts that are similar between schools? That will be really helpful for you!

And we would recommend getting as much done this summer as possible. If you're a junior going into your senior year, this is a great time to get a head start. And often the hardest part is just getting started, and thinking about what you want to write about! So the summer is a really great time, while you don't have schoolwork, to get a lot of work done.

Anthony Su: I'm going to jump in really quick here, because I was going to say that, for finalizing your college essay and deadlines, the literal, literal finalization can wait. Definitely have 80-90% of your college list. And, of course, the UC app and the Common App are going to go to a lot of your schools. So don't worry about getting it completely, completely correct – and have that kind of be a barrier to starting the essay process!

Katie Young: Right. What we advise – actually, what we require for our students to do at ILUMIN – is to get through the first drafts of their UC essays and their Common App essays, as Anthony mentioned, in the summer. And then take their time with the list to decide on the supplements. But finalizing the list, like Lorraine said…

It's not not valuable, because it can give you a larger scope of what you're looking at. If the UC essay is really similar to another essay that you're going to write, but that essay is 500 words, and the UC essay is 350 words, you want to write to the 500 word prompt and then cut it down to 350 words.

So don't let it hold you back, but if you have the opportunity to finalize your list earlier, I think Lorraine would agree it's advantageous. You can also visit schools. Guys, they're open again. They're open – yay!

Lorraine Harry: Okay, so we're gonna look at the main essay types right now. And the first type we're going to talk about are the UC essays.

The UC Personal Insight Questions (PIQs)

The UC schools call them “Personal Insight Questions,” or PIQs. And the UC application, for those who aren't familiar, is basically one application that you can use for as many of the UC schools as you want. There aren’t separate applications – it's all one. And you write the same essay for all the schools. You can choose how many you want to apply to – I think it's just checking boxes, maybe.

For the UC essays, they are shorter, and you choose four of them. There are eight potential questions you can choose from, and you write four. And 350 words is actually quite short. It's maybe a couple paragraphs. And they are not elaborate or fancy. They're just getting some information across quickly – because there are a lot of applications to read for the UC schools, and they don't have a lot of time to read everybody's long essays! Even though you write the same essay for all the schools, the readers will be separate, based on the schools that you apply to.

I'm going to read for us the eight different questions – just so you know what you're working with, and maybe you can start thinking about which ones you'd want to write about. The first one is, “Describe an example of your leadership experience, in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.” So this question is really about leadership.

Number two: “Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.”

Three: “What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?” I think this is one of the prompts the guy wrote about for his Rubik's cube. Another student I worked with last year wrote about dance: dance was a huge passion for her. So lots of possibilities there.

Number four: “Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity, or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.” Those are kind of like two different questions.

Next prompt, number five. “Describe the most significant challenge you have faced, and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievements?”

Next: “Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside or outside of the classroom.” This could be a great place to write about a topic that you want to major in – that would be a really good connection to make.

Next: “What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?”

And, last, “Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admission to the University of California?”

How Do I Choose My Four Prompts?

Some thoughts on these questions: “How do I choose my four prompts?” Pick the ones that you can really use to showcase your strongest activities, accomplishments, or traits. Maybe even before you pick your prompts, you might want to make a list of things you want to make sure get covered in your essays. What are the things you really want to come across? Pick out the prompts after that, to cover the things you want to talk about.

And think about how all four of your essays can work together to give a full picture of you as an applicant. You want these four essays to cover everything that you would want to get across – for them to highlight different things, but for those all to come together to show who you are.

The other thing I would say about these questions is that they're really a way for someone who's reading your application to get to know you. Otherwise, your application is really just going to be numbers and GPAs and lists of activities. This is a great way to think, “What if I were just to sit down with someone, and I could just tell them who I am, or why they should accept me?”

So it's, like Katie was mentioning, a way to communicate directly with the admissions counselors – and to have a conversation, in a sense.

What Style or Approach Should I Use?

I would say, if, maybe, you are not someone to show off very much, this is not a time to be modest! Write about things that you are really proud of. Feel free to just brag about yourself – not in an annoying way, but to really let yourself shine.

These essays are also a way to demonstrate not only your accomplishments, but your character and your maturity. These are really important things that colleges are also looking for. Maybe you have ways that you've really persevered or overcome difficult things in life, shown particular empathy, or solved problems. These are all really really important attributes that colleges are looking for!

Lastly, in these essays, try to be as specific as possible. Tell stories. Give examples. Don't just say, “Hey, look, I'm really empathetic,” and then leave out examples. You want to really bring people in, and help them to really see how you demonstrated those qualities.

Anthont Su: Lorraine, would that be where you would recommend students start this process? Instead of just brainstorming ideas, also coming up with stories. Instead of just going on about this extracurricular or that club, try to find the – as you're saying – specific things within that?

Lorraine Harry: Yeah. I know some people are really good at telling stories, and some people have a hard time telling stories. But if you can just dig deep and reach for those stories, stories really are so powerful!

And I think I'll turn it over to Katie at this point.

The Common App Personal Statement

Katie Young: Yeah, I'm going to cover the Common App, which is the other really big essay that we, again, push our students to work on over the summer. Because it does underlie a lot of the other applications. I'll explain that in just a second.

The Common Application is a platform. It's just a hosting platform, and it hosts a ton of colleges. Colleges jumped on board with the Common App to make the process easier for students and for schools – so there's one common place where you fill in all of your information, and where you enter this one main personal statement. And all the colleges will be able to access it that way. So that's what the Common App is, if anybody says “Common App” to you.

How do you know if your college is on the Common App? You can Google it, or you can take a look. You can actually make a Common App account right now, search for the colleges that are available on the application, and add them to your dashboard – so that you have all of your colleges handy. If you have questions about their deadlines or their requirements, you can check them out right there within the platform itself.

How many essays do you have to write? Feasibly, just one: just one big personal statement that's going to go to all of your colleges. But you're going to be really lucky if you choose only colleges that don't require supplements. Most colleges require additional essays on top of this main personal statement.

I was talking to a student today, telling him how lucky he was because he just happened to select schools that had very minimal supplemental requirements! So I do think it's possible to get through this process without writing a million essays. But it really depends on the schools that you choose – and we'll talk about those supplemental essays in a little bit.

And who reads the main personal statement? It's all the colleges that you select on the platform. They have a limit of twenty. So let's say that you're applying to the UC campuses – which is nine. Let's say you're applying to twenty schools on the Common App. You're officially insane – that's too many! But you could feasibly apply to twenty-nine colleges with the four Personal Insight Questions, this main personal statement, and a few supplements. And, again, we'll go over the supplements in a little bit.

Sorry if I'm going too fast. Anthony, am I going too fast?

Anthony Su: No, you're good.

Katie Young: All right. So the Common App personal statement… They're not as simple and straightforward as the UC prompts, so I decided to put them in my own words to make it a little bit easier to present. But these prompts are available very easily – if you just Google “Common App essay prompts,” they'll come up first thing!

Basically the first one is you're going to talk about your background or identity, and why that's significant to you. So maybe a story of how you grew up. A story about your culture. Something that really influenced the person that you are today.

The second one is really focused on a challenge that you overcame, or a failure that you experienced and bounced back from. And writing about what you learned. Not focusing on the negative, but what you learned from that experience, and what you took away.

The third one is a time where you questioned a belief or idea. This doesn't have to be a religious idea, or a political idea. This can be an idea about yourself. Maybe people told you you weren't good at volleyball, and you questioned that, and you chose to pursue volleyball – I don't know. It can be that simple, and it can still answer the prompt.

The fourth option is about gratitude. And this is a new prompt for this year. How has gratitude affected or motivated you? It asks you about a time where someone did something really nice for you, or did something really awesome – what that meant to you, and why you're grateful for it in your life.

The next one is about an event that sparked personal growth.

Next one is about a topic that engages you really easily. So, like Lorraine said, in the UCs there's that topic about an academic interest that you can relate to your major. Here's a similar one for the Common App. You can talk about something that really interests you, and that's relevant to your major.

And then the last one is “topic of your choice.”

Again, you're just choosing one of these. You're not choosing all of them. The UCs have eight; you choose four. The Common App has seven; you choose one. It's kind of confusing, but I think you'll get used to it as you start to read about your college requirements and make that color-coded, beautifully formatted spreadsheet that all of my students have – wink, wink!

Okay, so how long is this? The minimum is 250 words, but the maximum is 650. I wouldn't say you have to hit 650, but if they're giving you all of that space, and you're only writing 250, it feels a little lazy. I would aim to go for at least 500 – to make sure that they know that you took advantage of the opportunity that you were given to express yourself.

Contrary to the UCs, where you need to be straightforward, these essays are meant to to allow you some leeway in terms of your creativity. Again, you don't have to be “creative.”

What Style or Approach Should I Use? Authentic, Vulnerable, Enagaing.

What we mean by “authenticity” is talk and write in the same way. So when you're reading your writing out loud, it sounds natural to you. It's in your voice. You can hear yourself saying it. If you're using all these technical terms and jargon, and saying, “I do not know the answer to that question, sir,” that's not how you talk, right? Make sure that when you're reading your essay out loud, it sounds like your voice. It sounds like you.

“Vulnerability” just means being honest with yourself. Being honest about your shortcomings. Being honest about where your weaknesses are. We're not bragging here! For the UCs, we're bragging. We're talking about, like, “This is what's great about me. This is why I'm awesome. Please pick me!” They want to get through this real quick. For the Common App, they want nuance. They want to understand, deep inside your soul, who you are. So it's a different approach.

“Engaging” just means, again, you have an audience here, so make sure that your essay is entertaining to read! Make sure, if you write that essay about failure, you’re not just dwelling in this sad, terrible moment that makes the reader feel bad. Make sure that you're bringing it back to you – and being engaging and exciting.

You want to reflect, in this essay, “What did I learn? Why does this matter? Why is this important? How did I grow?” The “why” is the question that you really need to answer. You don't need to discuss your résumé here. Your résumé is going to show up in a lot of the supplement topics – which, again, we're going to talk about shortly.

And, as I mentioned, creative writing is welcome.

Anthony, should I pause for a question?

Anthony Su: You're good so far. I'll put a comment in there, really quick, because we had BU – Elise Fisher – last week, who commented about essays as well.

Katie Young: Oh, cool!

Anthony Su: She was like, “Please, please use all the words.” She was saying one of the indicators of a bad essay, or a not-so-good essay, was that you only use half the amount of words, because they do want to see you elaborate and talk more.

Katie Young: Yeah.

Anthony Su: Of course, you don't need to be literally 650, but try to use up that space.

Katie Young: Yeah. If you find you're rambling, I would stop!

Anthony Su: Fair’s fair.

Katie Young: But if you're saying something about yourself that you want to say, say it.

Okay, so that's the Common App. If anybody has questions about the Common App, feel free to put them in the chat.

Supplemental Essays

We're gonna talk about supplemental essays. Again, in addition to that main essay that is going to go to all the colleges on your Common App, each individual college has its own requirements on top of that main essay.

Like when Lorraine was talking about how all four of the UC essays need to work together to paint a picture, the main Common App essay and the supplements for that school need to work together to paint a picture. If you've already used your Common App essay to talk all about your interest in biology, and then the college asks, “Hey, so why are you interested in studying biology?” You're going to be in trouble! Planning ahead, and spreadsheets, are helpful in understanding what you're going to have to answer so that you can make a plan!

So these are additional essays that are unique to each college. You can tell if a college has a supplemental essay, again, by making a Common App account – search the college, and add it to your dashboard. You can click it and see all their deadlines, requirements, and questions, for the most part. Colleges have one, two, or three supplements – that are somewhere between 100 words and 500 words. It's rare to find a college that has more than that.

How important are supplements? They're just as important! I want you to spend as much time on your supplements as you spend on your Common App essay. Usually time doesn't allow for that, but if you plan ahead in the summer and get through the majority of your Common App, you can use the fall – and we'll talk about this later in the timeline – to really focus on the supplemental essays.

Why Us?

One really common type of supplemental essay is called the “Why us?” essay. It's basically, “Why do you want to come to our school?” I've put three examples from schools that are pretty common for our students to apply to.

The most simplified one is from Purdue: “How will opportunities at Purdue support your interest, both in and out of the classroom?” This question is asking you to read about Purdue, research what Purdue has to offer, and connect it to your interests – in terms of classes, research, activities, study abroad opportunities, or whatever they have that's relevant to you. Explain why you picked Purdue. Why are you applying? What do they have that's a good fit for you?

The question is asked in different ways, depending on the college that you're looking at, but you can usually suss out a “Why us?” type of question. And this is one where a lot of kids think, “This is really easy!” and a lot of kids think, “This is really hard.” It just depends on the type of writer that you are. This is less narrative. It's a little bit more structured. It's more of a persuasive approach to an essay: “Here's what I'm interested in. Here's what you have. Here's how those things connect.” You're making the case for how what you're doing now connects to what they have, and connects to your future plans – the through line, right?

So why do colleges ask this? Again, they're looking for kids who fit. They want to make sure that they're admitting kids who want to be there. So if you're applying to BU, for example, as your safety school, and you're just like “BU is cool, and has some stuff I like,” they can tell that you don't really want to be there, and you're just applying there because you think it's a safe bet for you. So make sure to really research. A lot of colleges will ask this. A lot of different kinds of colleges: private schools, public schools…

The UCs do not have a question like this, you'll notice. The reason for that is, because they're all sharing a common platform, they're not going to ask, “Why do you want to go to UCSB? Why do you want to go to UCSD?” You're writing about yourself there. In these supplements you're writing about yourself at the school – proving your fit!

How should you approach this? Definitely, do your research. Specificity is really important. Give examples. Tell stories from your life, to show how you would look. “I engage with the robotics club at my high school” indicates that I will engage with the robotics club at your college, right? Draw those connections – and spell it out for them, so that they can see, “Okay, when Katie gets here, she's gonna really get involved with the thespian society,” and, “When Lorraine gets here, she is gonna join the pancake makers union.” you know like

They want to see what your plan is, and how you're gonna go. So, please, take your time on these, and be really, specific.

I see lots of questions in the chat.

Anthony Su: No worries. I was going to chime in again.

Katie Young: Yeah, please.

Anthony Su: To speak for Elise, or speak for BU – because I just remembered from last week, right? The admissions reader was saying that her indicator for, “Do you actually want to come to our school?” is how well you write this essay.

Katie Young: Uh-huh.

Anthony Su: How much work did you put into it? How well do you understand the campus culture? Things like that. Those takeaways become really important.

Again, very rarely does the admissions reader ever get to meet you. They're seeing you on paper. They're seeing the essays and the text you write. So you want to be able to be compelling, and tell them a little bit more there.

Katie Young: Yeah. There's a segment of This American Life where they have the guy on from, I think, University of Georgia, saying, “I get dozens of essays every year that say, ‘Here's why I want to go to Georgia Tech.’” He's just like, “Are you guys kidding me?” So please double-check. Please don't copy-paste. This is important to them; they wouldn't ask this question if it wasn't important to them!

Why do you want to study X?

Another super common type of supplement is, “Why do you want to study the thing that you want to study?” There's UT Austin: “Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major?” Boom. Pretty straightforward, right?

You're not just gonna say, “Computers are cool. I like computers.” Again, you're gonna dig into your résumé. You're gonna dig into your experiences. You're going to tell some stories that really demonstrate your commitment and aptitude for this interest of yours.

It's hard for some people, because, “I don't know what I want to study. I don't know what my major is.” Right? What if you're applying to a school and you don't know what your major is, and you have to write this essay?

It's tough. They don't modify it for you. You have to generalize, and say, “While I'm not sure specifically what I want to study, here's what I want to accomplish in the future. Here's the cause that I want to contribute to. Here's the problem that I'm interested in solving. And I think that your school has a lot of classes and a lot of resources that will guide me in this direction, or help me put together a plan to solve that problem or meet that goal.”

Or you can just say, “I've only taken math, science, and English in high school, and I don't really know what I'm interested in. Here are the things that I'd like to explore. Here are the books I've read about that. Here are the articles I like. Here's the TV show I watch religiously about this topic.”

It's okay if you don't know your major. You can find a way around it. They want to know that you're prepared and you're motivated.

A lot of colleges will ask this. Even the UCs had that question about “What's your academic interest?” In that case, you can opt out. You don't have to answer that question. But it's good for them to understand what you're doing – what your focus is, if you can.

How should you approach it? Here's my catchphrase for this particular webinar: create a through line for yourself. Who you are now, what they have for you, and what you want to be in your future.

Okay. That was a lot of information!

At this point, what we want to do is just walk you through what the next steps are. You juniors just – thank goodness, I think the last AP exams were today. I think everybody's done. If you're still in school, I'm sorry, you're almost there – keep going! But if you're ready to start focusing on college, here's a timeline. We just want you to understand what's coming up.

So – sorry, I talk a lot! Here's Lorraine.

When Are The Deadlines?

Lorraine Harry: Most of the early action and early decision deadlines will fall between November 1st and 17th. And then, right after that, is the UC deadline on November 30th. And after that, most regular deadlines for universities are January 1st through 15th – somewhere in that window. So you can expect to be pretty busy with college applications from October to January!

We're breaking it down month by month. This is not set in stone, but these are our suggestions for how to break things down month by month.

June – which is now – finalize your college list. With the caveats we said before. It doesn't have to be your final list. But at least try to do as much as you can to decide where you're going to apply this month.

Once you do that, decide if you’ll apply early decision or early action to any of them. And, this month, also start writing your first draft of your Common App personal statement, and your UC essays.

That's kind of a lot, so it's a good time to get started!

In July, just continue working on those essays. Write your intermediary drafts. Get feedback if you can from people.

Come August, try to finalize those essays as much as possible. And once you're wrapping that up, begin brainstorming and writing your supplemental essays for the applications due in November – which are going to be your early action and early decision schools.

All right, that's the summer. In September, keep working on those essays for your early action and early decision schools due November. And keep getting feedback on your UC essays and your Common App personal statement. It never hurts to get more feedback!

In October, you want to start wrapping up your supplemental essays for the November deadlines. Try to wrap those up so you can send them in.

And once you send those in, in November, you can start writing your supplemental essays for the applications due in January! It's a lot, I know.

In December, keep working on those essays. And try to start wrapping those up, because those will be due as soon as January 1st for a lot of schools!

Okay, I think that's it for the timeline.

Katie Young: I think so. Sorry, that went by kind of quick, so hopefully, if there's Q&A about the timeline, we can give you some more specific information about some of the deadlines.

Let's see…

How Can ILUMIN help?

How can ILUMIN help. I guess that's why you guys are all here. How can we really help you with all of this stuff?

Obviously there's a lot of information out there. There's a lot of advice out there. What we have to offer is our hourly essay consulting services with our essay specialists like Lorraine. We are going to just run through what that service looks like – what we have to offer you.

And I think Anthony just put a poll out about who would like a free consultation with us. We're happy to talk to you more about how we can meet your personal needs in this situation.

So we will assign you to an essay specialist, who will be with you one-on-one throughout the whole process. You won't be bouncing around between different employees at ILUMIN.

You can choose between a five-hour or a ten-hour package, depending on how much support you think you need for your applications. It's okay to start with five and then add more hours later if you'd like to. What we found is that ten hours is enough, definitely, to get through the UCs and the Common App, and one or two supplements with our assistance. And you can send us essay drafts to review, or you can have meetings with us. It's very flexible, depending on the package you buy.

The ten-hour package comes with our essay boot camp curriculum. Our essay boot camp is something that we run for our students every summer. And we're about to start – actually, next week is the first week. It's going to be really busy! But what we do is we run through ideas for what the UCs are looking for, and what the Common App is looking for. And we support you one-on-one as you start to brainstorm and outline your drafts.

For students who are part of this package, you'll get access to that curriculum – that you can walk through on your own time, and send your results to your essay specialist to get feedback. It's just a different version of what we do for our own students. Which I think is really cool! Flexibility is a big part of this package – so if you're not really sure how much support you need, or you're not really sure that you want to get started right now, that's okay.

You can use your hours whenever you want to use them. Obviously you're not gonna call us at 2AM! But you can decide, maybe, “I want to push all my hours to the fall.” Maybe, “I want to use all my hours on the UC application.” That's okay. That's your choice. We'll support you on whichever essays you choose, with your brainstorming, outlining, editing, and polishing them – making sure that they're shiny, making sure that they really stand out from other essays.

We've seen a gazillion essays. We have a gazillion essay examples that we can share with you. So we'll really make sure that your essay is interesting!

And feel free to visit our website. There's – under “Services” – our essay consulting, or you can talk with Anthony about our admissions services as well, which are more hands-on and comprehensive in terms of finishing your whole application with our assistants.

That's how ILUMIN can help.

Thank you. And I think we are ready for some Q&A!

Anthony Su: Yeah, definitely. So, again, if you have any questions, put them in the Q&A – in the chat. We'll try to cover it. I just linked, also, the website with the essay consulting service there, and the pricing is also on the website as well. So you can just take a look there.

So, first of all, Katie, can you go back to the “July” and “August” timeline slides?

Katie Young: Yeah. Give me a second!

Anthony Su: No worries. Take your time!

Yeah. We'll pull it up just so that you guys can go back and take a look. But also, there’s just a question about – so this is specifically about the Common App, but I think it's also just in general – about brainstorming.

The specific question is, “Hey, would it be a bad idea to write about coming out of the closet for a Common App main statement?” But I guess, also, the general question of, how would you help someone, thinking about what they should tackle for the Common App essay?

Lorraine Harry: Yeah. I would say that it's great to write something that's really core to your identity. One way to brainstorm is: “What are things that are really important to who I am?” And I think your sexuality or your gender identity are big parts of your identity – or can be. I don't see why you wouldn’t write about that – what it's meant to you, and maybe any things you've had to overcome as you've embraced that identity. If it's something that's important to you, I think it's a good idea.

But what do you guys think?

Katie Young: Yeah, I agree. I think it's totally okay to write about something personal. Just make sure you're comfortable with it! If you're not comfortable sharing that part of yourself, these are strangers who are gonna be reading about you! So make sure that you feel okay revealing that part of your identity. And, definitely, the vulnerability aspect that I was talking about before – that would really come through.

I just want to make sure that, whenever you write about a challenge or a failure, or something that's just been tough for you in general, you always want to reflect on the growth and the lessons learned from that experience. And I don't know. Maybe coming out of the closet was easy. But I'm assuming you're asking that question for a different reason. I think that coming out is different for everybody – so it could be a unique topic for everybody, and it could also convey a lot about you: how you think, your perspective, your values…

And then, Anthony, what was the second part of the question that you asked?

Anthony Su: I guess, just in general, how would you brainstorm what's going to be a better topic for you to write about compared to other experiences?

How would you compare and contrast, really, between experiences like that?

Katie Young: Lorraine, do you want me to go? I've been talking…

Lorraine Harry: Go for it.

Katie Young: Okay, sure. That's a tough question. I think it would be individual, by the person. Subjectivity is my forte! But what I would say is you can lay out all of your different essay topics, and all of your different ideas.

I think Lorraine mentioned a really brilliant strategy for the UC essays – which was to look over your résumé, and make sure that you're talking about the four things that you really want to say. Pick those four Personal Insight Questions. If you can map out your Common App and your supplements, and you're looking at your supplements, realizing, “I only have a chance to talk about, ‘Why this school?’ and ‘Why my major?’ – so if I don't say anything personal in this main essay, they're not gonna get to know me at all!” If you work backwards from the big picture of what they're gonna see, that might help you pick your topic.

I also encourage my students to write multiple versions. They hate me, but I encourage my students to write multiple versions of their essay – so that we can look at all of them and get feedback on all of them, and decide what's resonating with people and what's not. The whole point is you want to appeal to as many different people as possible – because you don't know who's going to be reading your essay! You don't know if they're a man or a woman. You don't know if they're old or young. You don't know if they have shared life experiences or perspectives or not. That's why we emphasize the feedback – to make sure that your ideas are coming across with lots of different people. And if your topic is too specific, too niche, too sad, or too creative that it's going over people's heads – we've had that before – don't use it!

But I think there are some universal truths to speak to. Like personal growth. Admitting when you're wrong. Feeling gratitude towards people. That's what those Common App essays are really trying to get towards. So as long as you can resonate with people on a certain level, it's probably a good topic.

Anthony Su: We've got some good questions coming up. First one is thinking about clichés. Are there any particular ones that you would avoid, or ask students to not use?

I think the general one we hear about is the big game story, or sports. Lorraine, do you want to give us a thought about that? What would you steer clear of?

Lorraine Harry: I wouldn't say anything for sure. But maybe things are just too dramatic. If your whole story is like, “First one of my parents died, and then this bad thing…” Sometimes it can just feel like too much. So that's maybe something I would say steer away from – being overly, unnecessarily dramatic.

Would you agree, Katie?

Katie Young: Yeah, I would agree. I think it's unique to each student, but there are just some sorts of stories that have been overused in essays. The sports one is a good example. And let me be clear – it's okay to talk about sports. Feel free to talk about sports! What you don't want to talk about is, “I was doing really badly, and then I worked harder, and then I did well, and then I won.” That's the typical story. If you have a totally different story that just happens to be based in sports, that's okay.

If you have a story, like Lorraine was saying, that's really negative and really sad – that's the feeling that they're gonna take away with them after they read your essay. And you don't want them to go away thinking like, “Oh, I feel gross. I feel terrible.” If you're gonna write about those bad things that happened to you, write about what you learned and what you took away, and how you're gonna use that to fuel you or move you forward.

So there is no cliché topic. There are cliché takes on topics, if that makes sense. As long as it's personal to you, and it's authentic to your experience, I say write about whatever is meaningful.

Anthony Su: And I'm gonna fill in for Elise again, from BU.

Katie Young: Okay. All right, Elise, calm down!

Anthony Su: Yeah, I don't know why that’s in my head today. But she was talking about how, a few years ago, there was a really common essay that everyone would write about: learning to drive, or getting their driver's license. And just saying, that's fine, but you have to realize that your entire generation – a lot of people – are going to have that in mind!

I saw this question, “Do I write about small challenges, and COVID also?” And I was thinking, “You're going to run into an issue with the entire generation experiencing this at the same time!” So, of course, you need to write about yourself instead of your generation. It needs to be specific to you, and your take on the situation. Not just, “This situation was terrible and it was hard.”

Another spicy question: Should we avoid certain topics, like politics, religion, or anything in that area? Potentially hot topics that, in general, we don't discuss openly. In a day-to-day conversation, we don't bring these things up willingly, right? Would you recommend bringing that up in a potential essay?

Lorraine Harry: I think it all depends on how you approach it. Are you approaching it like, “This is about me,” versus, “This is what all people should obviously believe.” With religion or politics, obviously don't take that kind of attitude.

But I worked with a student last year who was very religious. And that was mostly what she did. She was a part of her youth group. She taught Sunday school. She went on mission trips. That was a huge part of what took up her time. So a lot of her essays were about that. And it was authentic to who she was. But it wasn't as if she thought everybody else should also do those things!

If it's true to yourself, or if you're very involved politically, and you do a lot of political work or activism, I think it's definitely appropriate to write about those things. But don't make it seem like your view is the right view or the only view.

Katie Young: Yeah, that's exactly right.

Anthony Su: Perfect. Another question about the shorter essays – this person was saying 50 to 100 words. I don't think essays will get that short. I think 250; I've heard of 250-word essays. But how would you recommend tackling an essay that's going to be that short? 

Katie Young: Anthony, you’re wrong – so wrong!

Anthony Su: Oh, really? They get as short as 50 words?

Katie Young: Stanford has 50-word essays. They make you write five of them! It is terrible. It is really hard to write in a unique way when you only have like two sentences! We have to get pretty creative when we write those essays.

250 is average, yes. It’s gonna be hard to find a school that's below 250. But Stanford is a big standout there. And then Purdue's essays are 100 words each. UMass Amherst has 100 words each. Usually what I have my students do is write a very long thing, and then I help them edit it and pare it down to fit. As we mentioned, there are going to be a lot of schools that have pretty similar topics.

I would draw your attention to the “Why major?” essay. All of these are asking pretty much the same question. UIUC’s essay is 400 words. Purdue's essay is 100 words. UT Austin's, I believe, is 300 words – I might be wrong about that. You can write one really long one and then pare it down to fit into the requirements for the other ones.

I would say that if it's a 50-word or a 100-word essay – I guess Stanford would be the exception of this, too – how much creativity can they really expect in that amount of space, right? In Purdue's case, at least, I would say they're doing that because they want you to just be specific and straightforward and get out of there and go!

In Stanford's case, I think they're trying to challenge you. They want to see that you're an Ivy-type student – you're smart, you're creative, you can get around challenges, and you can make your ideas fit into the spaces that you're given.

So if you're applying to those colleges, deal with it. But I guess our advice would be: it's specific to each student on how to approach those, and specific to each school.

Anthony Su: Got it. You guys have a tough job with 50-word essays!

Katie Young: Welcome to my life!

Anthony Su: Less than a tweet now, right?

We're wrapping up, so we're going to get to the last few questions. But here’s a question of a more sensitive identity topic: writing about being undocumented. Any recommendations on how you would approach this, or if a student came up with this idea? How to go about addressing such a sensitive topic?

Katie Young: Yeah. It's core to your identity. It's also core to your college application. You should be very clear that you're an undocumented student. Colleges are not going to reveal that information to anyone else. And there are specific programs that you can apply through, that will guide you through your application as an undocumented student.

I think colleges are interested in lifting up undocumented students – providing programming and providing support for you. So I definitely think it's okay to be honest. If you really want to clarify with a college, what are their policies or what are their rules, you can obviously call them or email them – or have your counselor do it, so that you remain anonymous – and understand what their perspective is.

But, far and wide, colleges really want to support you. So please, please don't hesitate to apply.

Anthony Su: Last question. We'll wrap it up for today. But, in general, thinking about this process of essays – and I guess this is helping the parents and students understand – where do the essays fit in comparison to GPA, test scores, and things like that? Or is that just an “All of them are important” type of answer? Which is more important?

Katie Young: I'll go back to that first slide.

They say “holistic review,” right? That everything has a weight in your application. Will they reveal what the weight is? No. But the closer that you get to the top tier, the more the essays are going to matter: the more weight they're going to have.

But you still have to get through the door with your academics and your test score. There's a threshold. There's a minimum that they really need you to have. They're not gonna be able to take a person with like a 2.0, with a really good essay. In that case, that student would have to have absolutely incredible recommendations and accomplishments!

When one thing goes up, another thing goes down. So if everything is good, you're good, and your essay's just gonna help you. If things are bad, your essay can really help you. If things are really good, your essay probably isn't gonna matter so much, because everything else is already really strong.

In this past year, because test scores were not part of the equation, definitely more weight went to essays. I saw someone in the chat – yeah, take your tests this year. Colleges are going to consider them optionally. So if you take the test and you score badly, you don't have to send it. If you take it and you score well, you can send it. It can help you.

But the essays are always going to be here as a key component. So please spend your time this summer wisely!

Anthony Su: Not BU this time, but UC Santa Barbara, mentioned there are thirteen points. Even within saying that, “These are the thirteen points we consider,” each individual campus has their own different weighting of what's important and what's slightly less important.

Katie Young: Yeah.

Anthony Su: Not just BU today.

Katie Young: Yeah, so popular!

I think I got some of the questions in the chat. I hope that helped everybody.

Anthony Su: Yeah, definitely. And, again, appreciate everyone joining today. If there are additional questions, of course feel free to request a free consultation. Definitely there are a lot of things on people's minds as we're going through this!

We'll be doing more webinars. I think we're doing a UC-specific one and a Common App-specific one within the coming month or two. So definitely feel free to join us there.

All right, thanks so much everyone for joining. And hopefully we can see you next time. The next webinar, next week, is actually with Santa Clara University. So if you want to join us there also, you get some additional thoughts as well. You don't have to hear from me about BU last week! You can just come and join.

So hope to see you guys there. Thanks so much, everyone.

Katie Young: Thank you. Thanks, Lorraine. Thanks, Anthony.

Anthony Su: Good night. Bye.