Can I Reuse The Same Essay On A Different Application?

Can I Reuse The Same Essay On A Different Application? When you start writing, don't worry about your essay's length. Instead, focus on trying to include all of the details you can think of about your topic, which will make it easier to decide what you really need to include when you edit. Contrary to what you may have learned in elementary school, sweeping statements don't make very strong hooks. If you want to start your essay with a more overall description of what you'll be discussing, you still need to make it specific and unique enough to stand out. Maybe you feel more comfortable sitting down and writing the whole draft from beginning to end in one go. Maybe you jump around, writing a little bit here and a little there. It's okay to have sections you know won't work or to skip over things you think you'll need to include later. As I touched on above, the narrower your focus, the easier it will be to write a unique, engaging personal statement. Again, there are sections for all of your extracurriculars and awards; the point of the essay is to reveal something more personal that isn't clear just from numbers and lists. What experience, talent, interest or other quirk do you have that you might want to share with colleges? Before you start editing, put your essay aside for a week or so. It will be easier to approach it objectively if you haven't seen it in a while. Then, take an initial pass to identify any big picture issues with your essay. Once you've fixed those, ask for feedback from other readersâ€"they'll often notice gaps in logic that don't appear to you, because you're automatically filling in your intimate knowledge of the situation. Finally, take another, more detailed look at your essay to fine tune the language. One way to find possible topics is to think deeply about the college's essay prompt. I would also recommend starting with a longer personal statement before moving on to shorter supplementary essays, since the word essays tend to take quite a bit longer than word short responses. The brainstorming you do for the long essay may help you come up with ideas you like for the shorter ones as well. If you have one essay that's due earlier than the others, start there. Otherwise, start with the essay for your top choice school. That way you'll be able to see exactly what you need to do and when you need to do it by. Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education. Read what admissions officers wish applicants knew before applying. You can talk about the effects of either your family life or your cultural history . You can also choose between focusing on positive or negative effects of your family or culture. No matter what however, the readers definitely want to hear about your educational goals (i.e. what you hope to get out of college) and how they're related to your personal experience. Check out essays by authors like John Jeremiah Sullivan, Leslie Jamison, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Esmé Weijun Wang to get more example of how to craft a compelling personal narrative. The best essays convey emotions just as clearly as this image. The simplest way to restrict the scope of your essay is to recount an anecdote, i.e. a short personal story that illustrates your larger point. If you just don't have an idea you're happy with, that's okay! Sometimes you'll end up having a genius idea in the car on the way to school or while studying for your U.S. history test. Possible topics include hobbies, extracurriculars, intellectual interests, jobs, significant one-time events, pieces of family history, or anything else that has shaped your perspective on life. This question is basically asking how your personal history, such as your childhood, family, groups you identify with etc. helped you become the person you are now. Otherwise, try the brainstorming process again when you've had a break. Once you've gone through the questions above, you should have good sense of what you want to write about. Hopefully, it's also gotten you started thinking about how you can best approach that topic, but we'll cover how to plan your essay more fully in the next step. Your essay should add something to your application that isn't obvious elsewhere.