한국 학생들이 에세이 쓸 때 가장 실수하는 점
지난 2000년 유펜(University of Pennsylvania)을 졸업한 뒤, Los Angeles Business Journal에서 기자로 활동하다가 현재는 대학입학 컨설턴트로 일하고 있는 이부연 기자의 글을 게재합니다. 에세이를 쓸 때 가장 많이 실수하는 점들이 무엇이고, 해야 하거나 하지 말아야 할 점(Top 5 Dos and Don'ts of College Admission Essays)은 무엇인지를 알아봅니다.- 편집자주
Everything in life is a narrative. That's why everyone loves a great storyteller.
College admission essays are no different. These essays are not meant to be 5-paragraph persuasive essays or a glorified resume. The essays are meant to serve as a snapshot, a vignette of the on-going narrative that is your life.
Admissions officers will not want to lean back in their chairs with a cup of coffee to read about the fact that you built houses in Mexico on a missions trip or that you got selected for the All-State orchestra. They want to be captivated by a heartrending dialogue you had with a barefoot single-mother while building houses in Mexico and how that conversation changed you. They want to experience the transcendent moment of beauty you experienced
playing the last measure of Elgar's Enigma Variations with the All-State orchestra and how that absolute beau ty has transformed the way you value music.
Admissions officers want to hear a story. They want to be transported into your life through your essay. If you succeed in that, then they will remember you. If they remember you, then you're halfway through the doors of the college of your choice. If they don't, you end up in a pile of thousands of other unmemorable applications.
A practical way to help the admissions officer remember you is to apply early. Some students wait until the last possible day to turn in the application because they want to take their SATs again or boost their GPA during the first semester of senior year. But admissions officers won't be as impressed by a 50 or even a 100 point bump in your SATs if your essays are not compelling. The difference between a 3.9 GPA and a 4.2 GPA is minimal in the
grand scheme of your application.
By opting for early action or early decision, you're putting your essay and the rest of the application before a fresh pair of eyes that haven't been strained by thousands of applications already. You want the admissions officer to remember you by name, or at least recall your story.
As a college admissions consultant, I see the same mistakes made over and over by top students that hamper them from writing fresh, inviting and memorable essays. Here is my "Top 5 Dos and Don'ts of College Admission Essays":
1. Do not try to pack your illustrious academic career into your essay. You'll sound stuffy. Save that for your exhaustive list of activities and awards.
2. Do not write about generic topics. Focus on one specific event or one issue. Identity crisis growing up as a Korean-American is too broad and too cliche, unless you can package it in a story uniquely you. For example, one Korean student later admitted to Harvard wrote an entire essay based on his curly hair ? an oddity in the Korean race. "For the last seventeen years, I have been struggling to peacefully coexist with the beast residing
on my scalp," he begins the essay.
3. Do not try to be overly philosophical or profound. Universities like Princeton ask questions about your definition of honor or your experience with an ethical dilemma. They want to hear your honest and thorough analysis of the topic that expound general political or philosophical implications of the concept in question and relate them to your own ideas and aspirations. They know you're 17. Don't try to be Friedrich Nietzsche.
4. Do not tell, show. "What did it smell like?" one editor once asked me as I struggled to capture a scene in a news story. Readers want to be whisked away to the setting of your story. Instead of telling the reader about the first time you went to the Himalayas, take him there with vivid diction and detail.
5. Do not rely on gimmicks, like writing the essay backward, in Latin or in iambic pentameter. (Yes, it's been done.) Be yourself. Be authentic. You'd be surprised at how compelling your narrative can be.
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