Undergraduate Admissions

Undergraduate Admissions Trying to “cheat” the prompt by quickly writing about what was asked of you, and then going on to write about what you really want to say is not going to help you in the long run. So do yourself a favor and stick to that promptâ€"it’s what the college wants to know about you. Besides, the prompt gives your piece backbone and direction; it’s a useful structuring tool. Another topic-generating exercise is to ask students to imagine that a documentary filmmaker will be making a movie of their life. They cannot list a scene that would appear in their classmates’ movies unless their scene would offer a unique point of view on the experience. This happens, and it’s a serious turn off to admission committees. Always have someone proofread your essayâ€"particularly a professor or someone familiar with admission essays. If your own essay is coming up a bit short, turn to essays like the one above as a model. That’s because Kalamazoo College uses a Test Optional application process. You are not required to submit standardized test scores as part of your application materials and your scores will not determine your admission decision, nor will they factor into merit scholarship allocation. If you think your test scores are a strong indicator of your academic potentialâ€"or perhaps a stronger indicator than, say, your GPAâ€"you are more than welcome to send them to us. All the same, if you campaigned hard and worked to get policies changed in your time as class president, talk about it! If you practiced extra hours to shave a few seconds off of your personal swimming record, talk about it! If you formed a club, if you were the lead in a school play, if you got a 4.0, if you won the school talent showâ€"this is your time to showcase it. First and foremost, write what they want you to write. Google the phrase “college admissions essay,” and more than 6 million results come back. At the top you’ll find countless samples of “essays that worked” and all sorts of tips on what to do in order to get that acceptance letter in the mail. Select your essay prompt by first deciding which colleges you plan to apply to. If all the colleges you plan to apply to use the Common Application, this application may be the best choice for you. If all use the Coalition Application, that may be the better choice. Let them see and feel what you experienced before zooming out to tell us about it. Graduating high school is an accomplishment, always filled with additional successes along the way. You worked hard, now is the time to showcase your hard-won talents and wins. That isn’t to say you should be cocky or boastful, however. Populate your writing with rich and meaningful scenery, and plunge deeply into what that setting reveals about you and your dreams. Though the introduction may seem long, its lack of precision sets the stage for an essay that is likely to be short on details. If you read the entire essay, you can see that this writer drifts frequently into generalizations. Instead of telling your readers that a difficult time in your life was stressful, show your reader how that stress manifested in your life. Maybe there was a specific day or a specific hour or moment when that stress reached a climax. What are you most passionate about and how will you be involved on our campus? Essays that recap all the awesome stuff on your list of extracurricular activities don’t show the College how awesome you are. Essays that reveal a significant tragic life experience may make your application reader feel incredibly empathetic toward you, but that doesn’t necessarily tell that reader who you are. Sometimes the word “essay” conjures up images of a five-sentence, five-paragraph response to a straightforward question. One strategy to generate topics is to instruct students to label a paper Aâ€"Z, and for each letter, they write a word or phrase with which they feel a connection. The connection needs to be substantial; they shouldn’t put “apple” for A solely because they occasionally eat the fruit for lunch. However, if apple picking is a long-standing family tradition, then “apple” could be a good choice. Students who have been out of school for several years or who have a personal circumstance that affected performance, may wish to address that situation in their essay. Never send an essay to one school with the name of another school in the text! The essay prompts, then, are not “gotcha” questions, but an opportunity to reveal parts of your character and identity that we can’t see anywhere else. Like the Honor Scholar Program itself, these essays address a variety of topics and represent different kinds of opportunities for thought. The topics may touch on sensitive issues; they may challenge you to think in ways to which you are not accustomed. Because creativity and analytical ability are part of the essence of our program, we think that you will find these essays both challenging and rewarding to consider and write about.