Why Do Colleges Ask for a Personal Essay?
You’ve taken all the right classes and worked hard to achieve a stellar grade point average. Your ACT and SAT scores are impressive. You’ve also put a lot of work into your extracurricular activities just to better showcase your drive and talents.
Now, however, you have one more challenge to complete: You need to write a personal essay. Understanding more about why schools ask for a personal essay can help demystify the task and get you started in the right direction.
What’s the Main Purpose of the Personal Essay?
Frankly, your personal essay can make or break your application for admission to a school. While you may be a superstar in your own school, the reality is that the admissions board of any top-tier school will see scads of applications from students who all come with equally impressive credentials.
Your personal essay can help you stand out from the crowd. In short, it’s the one part of your application packet that tells the admissions board who you are and what you’re like beyond the classes you’ve taken, the test scores you have and your GPA.
What Else Does the Personal Essay Accomplish?
Once you realize that the personal statement or essay is an opportunity to really engage the admissions board, it’s easier to set your goals. This is your chance to do things like:
- Give more insight into your personality: Discounting your classes, grades and test scores, who are you? What motivates you to do what you do? What prompted you to take the direction you’ve taken in your life and academic career? What inspires you? What are your passions? The school wants to know what kind of person you are, and they can’t tell that from your academic transcript alone.
- Showcase your determination and grit: The admissions board wants to know what struggles you’ve overcome (if any). While this is a chance to explain any extenuating circumstances that may have affected your academic career, it’s also a good time to reveal hardships that you’ve overcome that might otherwise be hidden. Your essay can show both your resilience in the face of adversity and your strength — and that can make your transcripts all the more impressive.
- Illustrate your writing and thinking skills: The personal essay is a great chance to show off your ability to write and think critically about a subject. No matter what subject you pick (or are asked to write about), the admissions board wants to know if you can express your ideas thoughtfully and clearly.
- Explain why you want to get into that particular school: Ultimately, every admissions board has to ask the same question of every application: Does this student really want to be here? Otherwise, they run the risk of having a lot of students decline their offer of admission in favor of other schools. You can use your essay to show why you want to be part of a particular university and what you will bring to the campus.
Ultimately, the more you use your personal essay to help the admissions board at your chosen school see the “real you” behind the transcripts you submit, the better.
Don’t Be Afraid to Let Your Personality Shine Through Your Essay
Although the personal essay can be intimidating to a lot of students, you can get through it. Guidance is available that will help you focus your thoughts, find your voice and eliminate problem areas.
