Chris Kerr has been a community mentor and writing mentor for the First-Year Program for three years.  He is an economics major and is a member of the baseball team. He’s from Manlius, N.Y.  “Write it as if you are speaking to the person reading it.  Be yourself, and not who you think anybody else wants you to be.”

Express Yourself!
Show colleges what makes you unique when you write your college essay.

By Chris Kerr ’07

Let me guess: you are getting ready to apply to a hundred different schools and each one is requiring you to write an essay about why you should be admitted, right?  Writing the college essay, or “personal statement,” can be very stressful.  As a senior at St. Lawrence University, I still recall the overwhelming sensation of anxiety going through the college admissions process.  The applications are long and often monotonous, and they mark the first time you have really had to consider who you are.  This is a difficult question to ask yourself! 

But there’s no reason to feel angst.  I have a few tips that ought to help ease your admissions essay anxiety. 

First, this essay is completely about you.  It’s your chance to show colleges what you have to offer aside from your résumé, your SAT scores (at some colleges, including St. Lawrence, submitting SAT scores is optional), your GPA, and your academic achievements.  You are interesting, even unique.  The colleges need to see that, but how you approach it is up to you.  Look at the essay as an opportunity to sell yourself, not as a chore.  Write it as if you are speaking to the person reading it.  Don’t be superficial; be relaxed and conversational.  Be yourself, and not who you think anybody else wants you to be. 

Second, show these colleges that you know how to write a coherent essay.  They want to know that you can communicate clearly.  This doesn’t mean that you need to right-click on every word and substitute in the longest synonym; selection committees will see right through that.  Colleges are not interested in your vocabulary skills; they want to know that you can write!  So, focus your attention on the more important aspects of writing, like sentence and paragraph structure.  These attributes of good writing are more important than the utilization of big words—oops; I should have said “use.”  And be brief!  You will be far more effective when your writing is short and clear rather than long and muddled.

Make sure you edit your paper.  EDIT, EDIT, EDIT!!!  I can’t stress this enough.  It’s important that your essay flows logically from one point to the next.  The best way to assure this is to have lots of people read it.  The more eyes that see your essay, the greater the chance that someone will catch a flaw in it.  Trade your essay with your friends’.  You’ll all benefit from seeing each other’s perspectives.  You can also try reading it out loud to yourself and others.  Ask them if it sounds like you.  If not, you haven’t achieved the purpose of the personal essay.

To summarize, the theme here is to express yourself in your essay, but it’s necessary to present who you are in the appropriate manner.  Your final essay ought to be polished to perfection.  It should flow so that no one has difficulty reading it.  Remember to look at this as an opportunity, not as a tedious chore.  You are interesting!  I promise you that.  Now, show the selections committee what makes you that way.  Good luck!