Good News
All right, you know what they’re looking for now. The essay is your letter to the admission office, your little piece of yourself sent to illuminate your folder and show that you can both THINK about things and WRITE about them, too.

And yet, almost everyone's first reaction is “I’ve never done anything like this before!”

My first book, Writing Your College Application Essay (College Board, 1986) was a “hold on just a minute” treatise meant to show seniors that they were in fact more than ready to write these essays. These were kids who were happy to turn out 3-4 pages on a scene of importance in The Great Gatsby or The House on Mango Street. They felt totally comfortable culling the events of the Civil War for that one battle or policy decision that captured all the North had going for it and all the South was willing to risk.

So to me their confusion was confusing. New text? Yes--themselves. But the same strategy they’d been practicing for years: find a core characteristic or theme and show how a small bit of the story (in this case, your story) bodies it forth, illuminates it, lights the whole darn thing on fire.

Remember the scene with the pearl necklace and the decomposing note in Daisy Buchanan's bathtub? Can’t we see there the reasons Daisy marries Tom…and how limp were the chances of Jimmy Gatz. So let’s look closely at your interactions as a clueless first-year counselor at Camp O-At-Ka—I think we can easily discover there your limits and your fine points and some interesting reflections.

So not to worry. Trust me. You’ve done this before. Both the thinking and the writing are what you’re teachers have been teaching you for years. New text (but one of your favorites)—familiar process. Take a deep breath—relax—you’re ready!