admissions essay writing part 1

Admissions Essay Writing: Part 1Polishedpaper.com

• Physicists emphasize starting conditions. Take a run-of-the-mill mechanics problem. You throw a ball. You want the ball to fly high and remain airborne. You need to counteract gravity pulling the ball down and drag holding it back. These external obstacles are mostly outside your control. What you CAN control is initial velocity (part of which is throw angle). How fast and how high you shoot determines the distance it travels and time it remains aloft.

Admissions Essay Writing

• How does this relate to admissions essay writing? Quite simply, this basic mechanics problem is the perfect analogy for your academic and professional paths.• Gravity = Standards all students must meet (e.g., curriculum)• Drag = Personal challenges (e.g., other responsibilities)• Initial velocity = Preparation (e.g., GPA, community service, AP courses, pre-college programs, leadership positions, and recommendations)


• Angle = Challenges you set (e.g., prestige of the college and difficulty of the program)• To maximize your ultimate success, you must prepare well and aim high.• The scary part is, translating your preparation into a high trajectory hinges on a single essay of 650 words, your admissions essay.• Let me tell you a secret. A winning essay requires just three qualities (besides perfect grammar): honesty, individuality, and imagination. I will discuss honesty here and individuality and imagination in subsequent posts.


• The common application, which everybody completes, offers 5 essay prompts. Three ask you to describe moments of crisis: a failure, a time you challenged a belief, or an accomplishment sparking your entry into adulthood. These require the most honesty. They are the most challenging, but perhaps also the most beneficial.• Why? Admissions committees need you to acknowledge that you are human. As such, you make mistakes, and you suffer. A common mistake applicants make is to pretend that they, their academic career, and their personal life have been perfect. This is understandable. You want to put your best foot forward because image matters. A LOT. However, believability matters, too.

• And, don’t forget, struggle makes us strong. Mistakes and misfortune come to us all. What defines us is how we handle them. Admissions committees need you to admit missteps and vulnerability and, most importantly, to show how you turned such setbacks into moments of profound growth. How have they made you smarter, more skilled, and/or more mature?


• College-level work is hard, especially at the most prestigious schools. You will face an at times frightening amount of pressure, and admissions committees need to have faith that you won’t crack— that you are a good investment. They need you to give them a concrete example of how hardship made you stronger, so they know whatever challenges you face, you will earn high grades and honors, graduate, and continue to soar higher afterward. Image is everything, even for them. They need to trust that you will ADD TO, not DETRACT FROM, their college’s reputation.


• 1. Select a moment that truly mattered to you. Your essay is a story, and the best stories recount the protagonist’s desperately desiring something, struggling to the point of failure, but then ultimately succeeding. Give readers a hero to root for. • 2. Choose a moment where you actually learned something important (to you). Readers will know if you’re giving them lip service—if you’re simply telling them what you think they want to hear.

Here are some suggestions:

• 3. Recount a later moment (briefly) where you applied what you learned and succeeded (because of the previously obtained insight).• Admissions committees want to know that you can learn from your mistakes, challenge deeply held beliefs, and evolve.• As Samuel Becket wrote, “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

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admissions essay writing