Recipe for a Draft
Under pressure to show something to Mom/your guidance counselor/your English teacher? Here’s a recipe for getting started.

Assemble these ingredients:
paper and pencil (or keyboard and data disk)
an egg timer or stop watch

++ Begin by thinking about yourself. What are my strengths and weaknesses? What are my best qualities? Am I a plugger? An intellectual? A creative type? Curious? Passionate? Determined?

++ Choose a positive quality you’d like to convey to the admission committee, a strength that makes you an addition to any group. (DON’T pick an event or something you’ve done. President of the Nuclear Awareness Club is not a personal quality.) Focus on a quality of your mind or of your character. Now complete this sentence: “I am a very __________ person.”

++ Set the timer for 20 minutes. Pretend you’re taking an exam at high school and the question is, “Tell a story about an experience or time when you showed you were a very _______ person.” Use the characteristic you identified in Step 2. Write or type non-stop for 20 minutes; force yourself to keep telling the story and what it reveals until the timer goes DING.

Ok…that’s it. You’ve got a reasonable rough draft for your application essay! (And we haven't even talked about the question!!) Key concept: start with yourself.