Maria Finan
03:56:19 PM
Essay Handout: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cR6awCJK16QmbSe-iu1Kq1dn3YAFQPsJsCSI257LlVA/edit?usp=sharing
Good afternoon, we'll give everyone just a few moments to arrive. We have put together a handout for you, so that is in the chat. If you'd like to open that document, you should have viewing privileges so that you will be able to make a copy yourself to use. But like we said, we want to give folks just a couple of moments to get in, and then we will introduce ourselves and our topic for today.
It's great to see so many of you joining us. We're really excited to be able to talk about understanding the college essay today, and we're really hoping that this will be a helpful topic for you. Zach and I both know that this can be kind of a stressful part of your application, but I think we also know we really enjoy reading the essays as admissions counselors, since it's your opportunity to tell your story. So thank you again for joining us today. We're really excited to have you, and hopefully this will be really helpful.
Still have a few people joining, but we'll go ahead and get rolling.
Sure, so my name is Maria Finan. I am a senior assistant director in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Notre Dame. I'm also a double domer, so I not only received my bachelor's degree from Notre Dame, but I also received my Masters degree as well. I studied English. I was a former high school English teacher. So for those of you who hopefully enjoy English, I hope you've been enjoying that subject and.
Well, I was a student on campus. I was involved with Scholastic, which is the News magazine on campus. So also did some writing in college.
Everyone, my name is Zach Konsynski. I am an assistant director here in our Office of Undergraduate Admissions. I am a 2017 Notre Dame graduate graduate degree in history. I also minored in journalism. While I was here on campus and I actually worked as sports editor and Assistant managing editor of The Observer, which is our name student newspaper. So I bring a lot of that background with this approach to essay writing.
Wonderful, well, I know there are more of you continuing to join us, but just to lay out kind of what we're going to talk about today. Obviously we've already introduced ourselves. So Maria and Zach will be talking about. Kind of how you analyze the prompts for the essays. We'll talk you through brainstorming some of our writing tips. Any editing advice we have will definitely save times for question and answer so you do have the ability to type questions into the chat. We will try to get through as many of them as possible, but know that.
We'll probably have more questions than we get to, and then we'll leave you with a few final reminders. You also have that handout to take with you, so hopefully that will be helpful for you and a resource that you can use as you start tackling these different pieces.
So I want to talk you through a little bit of just essay prompt analysis. How how do you decide what to write your essay on? So my very first step is just read all of the prompts, whether you choose to apply to Notre Dame with the common app with the apply coalition through score or through the Questbridge app, you will have a variety of prompts that you can respond to. I think it can seem kind of overwhelming at first because you'll have so many choices.
So eliminate any that aren't jumping out at you. You're going to want to select one prompt, ultimately to focus on, and we'll talk through kind of. How do you hone in on annotating for the keywords of? What does that prompt? Even asking you to do? Or what are the key phrases? And then the last and most important step is rephrasing the prompt. You want to put the prompt into your own words so that you know what you're responding to.
And I'll take you through kind of this as a quick practice, knowing that you will take a bit longer to go through this. So I have gone through the common app prompts and I've narrowed my options down to two so the two prompts that really stood out to me were Question 2, which is about lessons that we take from obstacles we encounter and how they can be fundamental to later success.
So the prompt says recount a time when you faced a challenge set back or failure. How did it affect you and what did you learn from the experience?
So kind of as I was brainstorming, I I was thinking about times that you know things didn't necessarily go as planned and all of the learning and growth that inspired so I could see this being potentially a good prompt for me to reflect on.
Another prompt that kind of stood out to me is describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging. It makes you lose track of all time.
Why did the captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more? So after I read through all of them, I've kind of narrowed it down to prompts. Is still one too many, so I had to make a tough decision and actually ultimately decided that I could probably write a better essay that would reveal more about who I am to the schools that I would apply to. So for me, this is the prompt that I think just kind of makes more sense.
All right, so normally you would not highlight all of this, so apologies that's a little bit of a glitch, but we can talk through kind of this prompt and what words I would actually go through and highlight if I was trying to distill out the key idea. So do not highlight everything. It is not all equally important, but topic, idea or concept. These are kind of the meat of the question.
Engaging is a word that stands out to me and also this idea of losing track of time.
I also see the word captivate and learning more so to me. If I were to annotate this and actually physically underline or highlight the words that are key to me. Topic, idea, concept. Engaging track of time captivate and learn more are kind of the key ideas that still feels like way too many words to respond to. So I would just rephrase this question as kind of what are you passionate about and so that is what I would want to write.
Now, although I went through this quickly, I spent a lot of time thinking about this. This process may take you longer, but I do want to note that when you get to this stage you should just pause and stop and celebrate. You have done the hardest work of figuring out what you are potentially kind of going to respond to as your main essay, and we'll talk you through some other pieces that are really important to actually writing the essay.
Yeah, so as Maria highlighted, I wanted to chat chat a little bit with you about brainstorming, and as you're thinking you've selected this topic that you think it stood out to you for some reason and now you get to tease out a little bit. Why does it? Or why did it stand out to you a little bit? So big thing with brainstorming? Don't be afraid to go old school, break outs, pen, break out some paper and just start writing things. Use short words, key phrases. Don't worry about sentences, sentences take a little bit of time to write, especially by hand.
And so by the time you finish a sentence, you might actually lose track. You lose your train of thought a little bit. So focus on some key phrases. Keywords really think about just getting as much out there as you can to help you feel that you're really figure out. Why did this question stand out to me? And some of these could be key life events, key activities that you're involved in, you know. Obviously, we're looking at extracurriculars and everyone is doing something passionate passionately outside of class time. So that could be a good place to start thinking about adjectives that describe you.
Maria Finan
04:08:36 PM
Recorded sessions will be posted later so you can rewatch this session (and the others from this week)
I could even ask friends and family. What are some adjectives that you say describe me? What are something that I really get passionate about? Whenever you mention it, what are what makes my eyes light up and then also thinking you know what makes a good story? What is a good narrative that I can follow with this with this topic? And is there a way that I can really make sure that I have something to say that is not just me saying it, but also me being able to share a story about myself? Because the goal of essays is to help us as admissions.
Professionals learn about you and the best essays help us learn about you. So good stories are always great with that, so we don't have to do this right now. We don't have enough time, but one of the activities that we suggest is actually just studying the timer for five minutes. Never let your pen stop writing. Keep it in motion the entire time. Think of everything that you can. We can work on editing it later because because we go to the next slide.
Yeah, actually we'll get to editing and just one more slide, but when you actually writing so done our brainstorming, we've got these ideas. And again, now we're going to start to write first big point here is that. Please, please, please write in a separate Word document or Google sheet, or you know, Google, Google, doc, anything like that. That will automatically be saving things and that will automatically make sure that you feel or that that you're not going to lose something should something happen. We have heard every time, every year.
Students who will write their application essay in their application and all of a sudden their Internet goes down and they lose everything that they were writing. So please please please for your own sanity have a separate savable document. Save often. I know Maria learned that the hard way in college, but so you have to make sure that you have a separate document. Please do not write in the applications themselves, even if it is a seemingly short prompt. Just do yourself a favor and make sure you don't lose that the second is right first, edit second it is.
OK, to have too much information. In fact, that is way more helpful than realizing you don't have enough and that you didn't really fill the amount of the the most space that you could have. That's kind of a missed opportunity as we say, so always too much is too little. Again, keep your pen moving, even if it doesn't necessarily make sense. We can work on that later in terms of how you edit and bring ideas back together. Do you need a title? Absolutely not. You only have so much space on these essays. Please do not feel like you need a title. We we don't care.
If you do a good job, we will know what your essay is about just by the way that you've written it. So please do not feel like you need to break. Make a title or anything that's a little bit more structured that you might do if you're printing out an assignment to turn in for your teacher.
Maria Finan
04:11:24 PM
They will be posted in the "on-demand" section of the Admissions website
Do break it into multiple paragraphs is really hard for us to read one large kind of block of text, and also that will help you kind of be concise with your ideas. Is that if you constantly keeping a good flow going that will help with your writing as well. This last piece we do every year, we'll get essays that actually say another College in their essay because they forgot to change the name because that's the approach that they are doing. We actually just recommend don't just use an essay that you then change the name of the college.
If you are using for example the common app essay, the main essay or the OR the main application essay, or if you're applying coalition from on score.
Don't worry about trying to put our name in that essay. That is a personal statement. It is being used to apply to every school that you're applying to. We totally get it. You do not have to personalize that. In fact, we recommend not personalizing that for whatever school you're applying to, or customizing that for whatever school you're applying to should personalize it. But really, we get it. We we do not have to say I really want to go to Notre Dame in your main essay, because if you accidentally submit that to another school again, that's another missed opportunity. So please do not feel like you need to do that.
But do try and put a little thought of into this of what is maybe more unique, especially once you start getting into supplemental essays. Every school is asking you a different question. And just because the question sounds similar doesn't mean you should reuse an essay that you've written for another college. And then, as every writer knows, sometimes you just need to hit the delete button, or literally crumple up your paper and throw it away if it's just not working, don't force it. Don't be afraid to start from scratch, because if you hit kind of the brick wall.
That means there's probably something else you want to talk about, or this isn't really the right topic for you to Share your story with admissions. People on your college application essay. There's some other way you can do that. Don't be afraid to start from scratch. Yeah, and I would recommend don't delete something you wrote just because you don't think it's good, right? You might be frustrated just as you're going through the process. I mean, feel difficult, but sometimes you might have some really great ideas that you captured so kind of. Take it all as learning part of the process. But yeah, being being willing to start.
From scratch, I think it's it's a brave thing to do, and it can be hard to do, but as long as you don't procrastinate you will have an opportunity to do that. So just keep that in mind. Metaphorically, I'm thinking of the little X on the word. It'll save, but it's gone for the moment now we've got to get this.
Your essay in front of you, and maybe it's still a little bit long, but you're still trying to shape it a little bit and now you're getting to editing. And as we think about this, there are lots of people who will want to edit your college essay. But really think about who do I trust? Edit My essay a. Who do I trust to do it? Well, who do I trust to really know me and help me make my essay better and maybe not rewrite my essay in their voice, right? So the best editors will help you bring your voice out more.
And so think about people that you trust who are really good at that, who can help you in this process. That's really important.
We love all rather college essay where half the time we need to go look something up in the dictionary. Please lay off the thesaurus. It is not necessary at all. Yes, you wanna use good word choice and you don't want to repeat a word all the time and you wanna show that that skill but you don't need to come up with these crazy words that you dig into the sorus to make yourself sound smarter or come across that way. Oftentimes the word doesn't mean exactly what you think it means, or it can confuse readers and really anything.
That is, doing that is detracting from the message that you want to be sharing with admissions people, which is introducing yourself to them via the essay.
Always, always, always analyze your content first. Don't worry about the commas until you have gotten your main ideas in the right order. It is, you know you you can. It's very easy to just start editing for grammar for spelling and not actually do the bigger job of asking yourself. Is this content really what I want to be sharing? Is this the best way? Is this the best order to be sharing all of these things? So analyze the content 1st and that's a lot harder and I know that.
But that is the best way to really start thinking about what is it really saying in this essay, and then we can get into spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax. All of those. Those are very important if you miss a comma, it is not the end of your college application essay. We totally get that you're writing a lot of essays, and sometimes you might just miss something. So please don't stress too much about that. You should have proper grammar. You should do all of these things and definitely should not be detracting from again. Your overall message, but we understand again that.
Because these are one of many says that you'll be writing in this fall, and so it's much more important to us what the content is saying and how we are being introduced to you that it is that you use the exact right comma or whether or not you use the Oxford comma or not, and that's a whole different debate. Big thing, sleep on it. At the end, you know, give yourself some time, Maria said. Don't procrastinate. Please do not procrastinate. It only makes your life harder. I know as a procrastinator, I'm telling you please don't procrastinate. I've realized that's hypocritical.
But especially with your college application essay, you want to be able to come back to it the next day or two days later and reread it again. Thank you. Is my voice still in this? Sometimes, especially in editing, you can actually edit yourself out of your own essays and suddenly you've lost that authenticity piece that we mentioned there at the end, and so being able to kind of distance yourself and then come back one you might think of a better way to do it. Two, you might see something that you missed that you didn't that you wanted to change before, but it also really gives you that.
Have is this really me? Is this the essay that I want to submit it don't over edit yourself out of your essay you wanna be authentic you wanna be you can be funny if you think you're funny. If your friends tell you you're not funny, maybe you don't try and be funny in your college application essay, but you can be creative. You can be practical. There's anything that you wanna do is all up to you but be authentic be you because that's the best way to introduce yourself to us.
Maria Finan
04:17:39 PM
https://admissions.nd.edu/visit-engage/stories-news/how-to-write-a-great-essay-tips-from-a-notre-dame-admissions-counselor-part-1/
Alright, so we do have more advice for you, but we really want to open it up to questions and you all have had some great questions. I know that you cannot click on this link so I am going to drop in the chat just this link. So Zach and I have taken some time in prior years to write responses to some commonly asked questions that we often see. So that is there is yet another resource for you. But let's dive into some of the questions you have and obviously you are.
Ainsley E.
04:18:13 PM
Is it a requirement that the essay is written in first person?
Able to continue asking them as we start answering them. So I will start kind of publishing some of them, but I think we've actually got a really good question from Ainsley that we can start with. Is it a requirement that the essay be written in first person? No, not at all. Is it what most of them will probably be in? Yeah, but you have creative rights. Creative license with your essays if you feel that you want to tell your story and the story that is shaping up in your head is is not told in first person.
Great again though. Remember that the key piece to essays is that we want to learn about you and and so some of the easiest ways to do that is in first person and I would again say the vast majority of our essays are in first person. It doesn't have to be, so do you feel you can do a great job and not be in first person? Great, that's awesome. We're excited to read it and so really it's. It's all up to you and what you want to approach. But no, there's not really any requirements other than.
Elizabeth R.
04:19:18 PM
is it better to write our essays in academic writing form or more conversational / informal form?
You should answer the question you should introduce yourself to us and you should stay under the word limit and that's that's. Those are pretty much the only requirements. Yeah, and we've gotten some other questions. Kind of about voice and tone. I know Elizabeth was asking about you know. Should it be academic? Should be more conversational or informal. I saw questions about it. You know? What kind of language do I need to be using? It should sound like you so you know if you think about having a conversation, you probably use contractions. Sometimes you probably are.
Brendan G.
04:19:59 PM
Is it better to write with grammatical perfection, or is some personal voice (like telling a story) and colloquialism ok?
Not necessarily pulling out all of your good English vocabulary words at the end of the day, it's a story. It's your story to tell in your voice. So if you don't talk like a dictionary, then don't write like a dictionary. We really are looking for that authenticity. Your grammar should still be correct. You know we we want to see that you're capable of writing, but personal voice, colloquialism contractions. All of that is completely fine. So for those of you asking about that.
Definitely feel free to write in your own voice that's working for.
Neel G.
04:20:37 PM
Hi! What would you say is the best way to answer the "Why School" essay?
Yeah, I love this other question that we have from Neil as well. Which is you know, what would you say is the best way to answer the why insert school here essay for us our our why Notre Dame essay is a little bit different. Just a little extended in the words but the essential question is why Notre Dame and we want you to reflect on that. So do you have any advice about kind of as you're starting to approach the why? Insert school here essays that that we can give to our audience. Yeah, and I think this is a question so many of you.
They're asking, and my first bit of advice is really to think about what are you looking for in a school. I think the students who struggle the most with kind of the why any school question are the students who haven't spent the time to kind of call their list. So some of you might be thinking I'm going to apply to 25 schools.
Do you really want to attend 25 schools? Do you know enough about 25 schools to write a heartfelt, passionate essay about why you want to be a student there? If you can't genuinely answer that question with a yes, then I would encourage you to spend more time on selecting what schools to apply to. I think my favorite why Notre Dame essays are ones where I can tell that a student has done this self reflection and also taking the time to get to know a school that they're able to speak to, you know?
What Notre Dame is like as a university? What we value our mission that they've taken the time to really identify what it is about this place that makes them want to be a student here. But I also really love getting to hear from students about, you know what they're bringing to campus and who they hope to be. So I think.
Take that time, do your research on your schools. Make sure you're applying to places you genuinely would be excited to attend that you would be proud to be a student, and then also put yourself into that equation you know. Can you see yourself as a student there, and if so, why? What aspects of it are you really excited and passionate about? Yeah, I think one of the easy.
Traps to fall into with this kind of question is just simply telling us about the school, and I think Maria and I we're paid to tell you about the school. We know a lot about Notre Dame. We went here as students. We've worked here for four or five years. We know a lot about Notre Dame. What we don't know is we don't know a lot about you, and it's really making sure that you're understanding.
Yes, we want to know that you've thought about why the school is important to you, but also making sure that you're really emphasizing why you are a great. You know it's a great school for you personally, and that you've shown that reflection, rather than just telling us. You know, we have a really good football team like we know we have a really good football team. Maybe great this year excited with Marcus Freeman.
But why you know why is that important to you or what you know? What about research or study abroad, or any of these other opportunities that we have in writing? Why is that important to you as a person?
And I thought you were asking some logistical questions. So each each essay has some kind of word limit. I believe it's 750 words for the personal statement, so you don't want to go over that because you don't want your essay to get cut off. So very important that you do stay within word limits are short answer. Prompts are 200 words, so you're probably talking about one paragraph. Sometimes students depending on how they respond to it, will split it into 2.
So again, just make sure you're paying attention. That will vary from school to school in terms of the supplemental essays, so again, you always want to make sure that you are meeting kind of the word requirement, staying within the limit, but I also would encourage you to use the words you have allotted to you. You know if your personal statement can be 750 words if you only write 250. That doesn't seem like your best effort. I think all of you have stories to tell about who you are that are longer than 250 words, so.
You know, make the most of the space you have available. If you are somebody like me who writes way too long, that's OK. Again, the editing phase is really where you can kind of call that back. If you need help, ask someone you trust a lot of times I find that I'm really attached to my writing and it's easier to have somebody else point out. Hey, you're overusing adjectives, or you know you. You've said this idea multiple times, so definitely be willing to.
Kind of edit and again if you give yourself time and space, if you're able to walk away and come back, it's that much easier to kind of cut.
The best part is I was literally doing that for Maria about 1/2 hour before the session started, so she thinks that she we we find we find ways to make sure that we're we're helping each other get better as writers and that we're conveying what we want to convey really well.
One of the questions that I also like is kind of more. Again logistical comes from Riley's talking about can you include a link in your essay about articles written about you regarding your passion, or even just if you're making a reference to something that is, you know, you just want to make sure we understand the reference, like how is the best way to communicate that we can't click on links like that are in your essay what you can do, however, is direct us to the additional information section of whatever application you're using to apply to Notre Dame.
That additional information section is not a space to put in additional essay. It is not a space to, you know.
Basically, it's not a place to list of research paper another essay, but if there is something about extracurricular activity that you wanna expand upon, that can be a great place to do it. Or if there's something that relates to your, you know essays or anything that you feel is really important for us to know. Whether it's an article that you're referencing, or whether it's new I've I've had, you know, YouTube clips of a movie where there's maybe a minute long scene that the student is referencing in the application. That that's really helpful, because now I get that reference.
Even if it's a very wide reference, I mean just want to maybe make sure that people know what you're talking about. Otherwise it could be again a missed opportunity to really connect with that reader and have them understand what it is. The story that you're trying to tell. So yes, you can include links. The best way to do that is on the is in the additional information section and be as explicit as you can. You know maybe a little parenthetical in your essay of.
Link number one and then in additional information you put link number one very clearly and that helps us get to where we need.
Riley S.
04:26:52 PM
Can you include a link in your essay about articles written about you regarding your passion?
And I would remind you this is about you, and so your work might be something that you feel like reflects you, but a lot of times.
I would say like 99% of applicants. There are no links, it's just writing, and so I would definitely encourage you to feel comfortable with that aspect. We of course are getting the classic, you know, memorable essays. And how do I change my topic and do I have to overcome something? Do I have to have you know, cure cancer? So let's talk through a little bit about kind of the best essays and maybe some shared components, because I think that's a common question that we get a lot from study.
Yeah, my favorite essay that I think I've ever read was about a teddy bear.
I don't really want to go into much more than that because we are bound by FERPA federal regulations. I can't share too much identifying information.
Either right? You can write a good essay about any topic you can write a bad essay about any topic. It is not the topic that makes an essay, it is for us. Do we feel that we get to know you and really get to understand you through that essay? The topic is just an introduction or a gateway to help introduce yourself to us. So yes, choosing the topic is important, but it's most important for you so that you can help understand how do I want to write.
Allowing me to be myself and open myself up to share this information with people who are trying to get to know me, so I think that's the biggest thing is any topic can be done well. Any topic can be done early. Favorite essays about Teddy bear and. And yeah, absolutely those. Those are a lot of great options. Mail order. Somethings stand up to you. Yeah, so my favorite essay is about a student who began her essay with the very kind of notable line of I'm part of a species that's going extinct.
Now instantly I was like I I need to read more about this like where is this going and it was an essay about a student who had red hair. So on the surface again teddy bear hair color. These don't seem like earth shattering topics but they were really memorable and it's it's one that you know stands out from. Honestly, my first year of reading applications because I got such a sense of who that student is as a person and so don't feel like you need to use metaphors. Don't try to tell us six stories in 750.
Words, I think the best essays are really ones where students pick a specific aspect of who they are, a specific moment, a specific thing that's important to them and they tell us that one story. So we really are trying to get to know you. The kind of function that the essay serves in the application is to share your voice with colleges. Some schools do interviews. We are not a school that does interviews. So the one place that we really get to hear from you is in your personal statement and then in the supplemental essays. And that is the goal.
To hear from you, right? We've seen who you are academically with your transcript and your course selection. We've heard from teachers and of your counselor about your life as a student. Your activities tell us how you spend your time, but this is your opportunity in your own words and your own voice to tell us who you are and that gives us a sense of who you will be in college and who you might be as a school. Like Notre Dame. I will say one of the easy traps to fall into when you're writing an essay that I'll often see is. I'll read a great essay about a student's dog.
And this dog is wonderful. It's amazing. I wanna pet this dog. I wanna admit this dog to Notre Dame.
But the essay was about the dog, and it wasn't really about the student.
Yes, like using writing about your dog as it could be a great way to open up again that gateway to share more about yourself, but go that extra layer of what what's really important here. How does this reveal something about me to someone? Why do I really love my dog? It's not. I can't admit the dog to Notre Dame. I'm trying to admit you to Notre Dame and so same thing will happen sometimes with a student's grandmother at the end of it. Wow, your grandma was so cool. I wish she.
You know comes another name.
But did we learn enough about you in that as well? I'm not saying don't worry about your grandma. She may be great. Not saying, don't write about your dog. They're definitely great, but really, the again, the whole idea of this is we want to learn more about you. So don't forget about that extra little layer in these essays and the best essays do that.
Natalia L.
04:31:29 PM
Do you believe a personal statement can make or break an application?
I I like this question from Natalia. Do you believe a personal statement can make or break an application?
It's not going to be the one piece in your application that probably makes or breaks your application rate. Everything is important. You've probably heard colleges talk about holistic review. I know we talk about it, we need all of these pieces to get a sense of who you are, but it is really important and again, for my those of you who are seniors, which I know is the vast majority of you. This is kind of the last piece that you really have in your control at this point. Obviously we want you to really continue doing well in your classes. Your grade senior year do matter. They are important.
Continue challenging yourself, continuing excelling, but this is the piece that you can impact that you can control. So spend your time on this. If you are stuck. If you are overwhelmed again, go back to the prompts. Just see like what are you excited about. Do that brainstorming process that Zach talked about, or just you know, jotting ideas down for five minutes if you're really stuck, sit down and talk to your best friend about like you know if you are going to introduce me to a college, what would you say about me?
Maybe that'll help you figure out kind of what your story is to tell. Again, it doesn't have to be a monumental topic, it just should tell us who you are. We really are trying to get to know you and and so for some of you, you might be very future focused. You might want to write about, you know what it is you think you want to do in the future, but oftentimes I find that those personal stories about who you are now and you know impactful experiences in your life are kind of the best topics. Zach and we want to talk about.
Any topics that they should avoid?
Yeah, and I I always hesitate to say you should avoid this topic.
Because that might be one of the most impactful moments of your life so far and that is not a bad thing. But what will happen sometimes is if you are writing about a topic that you think other people will also be writing about.
You just have to think how am I putting my own spin on this? How is mine going to be a little bit different than the typical essay that's written about this topic? And so I think there's a lot of hate given out there to sports injuries. You can write a really good sports injury essay. You can read a really average sports sports injury at essay as well, but it doesn't mean you should stay away from it just because others are writing about it because you did experience it.
In a different way, you experienced it in your own personal way, and maybe there was something else that during your recovery or during, you know watching the game from the sidelines while your teammates were out there, you learned something about yourself that is in a very different place than you were then, and just it came to you very differently than you think that you have.
I heard from other people you have something interesting and maybe a new way to think about it. Again, it's harder to do that with some topics because there have been a lot more essays written about certain topics than others, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do that if that is what is most important to you, and that is what you keep coming to throughout this process. Listen to that your your brain and your subconscious are trying to tell you something that hey, this is really a great way to open that gate, to introduce yourself to the college admissions.
Process with two college admissions people who are reading your essay like myself and Maria. Would you have to say, yeah, I, I think as we've said, you know any topic can be a great topic if you do it well. Any thought that can be not great topic if you do it poorly. Something I always think about is if you think that it's a more common topic, you know it is worth asking yourself. Do I think I can write one of the best versions of this? And if you sit there and you go? Honestly, I'm not going to write the best version of this, then maybe it's not a great topic.
I think the big thing is really emphasizing that to be a great essay topic, something doesn't have to be the most monumental experience in your life.
If I could go back in time, I would write a completely different essay topic than what I wrote about.
I look back and I think I could have done a better job really capturing who I was. I talked about something that mattered to me, but I didn't talk about what I loved most or what I spent the majority of my time doing. And so I I think that's something that I want to empower you to feel like you have the courage to write about. You know, it's OK if you have a hobby that you think is like, not cool. It doesn't have to be something like trendy or amazing. You know, maybe your passion is cooking and cooking says a lot about how you are as a person, like how you think about planning things.
that could be a great topic for you, so I think for those of you who are worried about topics you know if if you think oh this is cliche or this is overdone, maybe trust your gut on that and think about is there something else I could write about.
Or if that really is the topic you want to write about, think about how can I write the best version of this essay?
Will F.
04:36:45 PM
Do you have any good tips to not procrastinate?
I really have a question from will kind of going back and as a procrastinator I'll definitely go that. Maria is much much better at getting ahead of things but will get every question. Do you have any good tips not to procrastinate? And I think one of the one of the things that really helps me in my pre writing process is I mean the hardest part is getting started right? That's the biggest hurdle in procrastination. Then one of the ways that I found in college. Actually that helped me get started was I my first drafts.
Most of my papers are bulleted lists and so I have like headings and sub headings and like the bullets go in and out and the very easy with tab or Shift tab and it really allowed me a lot more flexibility to feel like.
I am starting and I am going and I am getting content in an order and it's very easy to shift but it was also very not intimidating to me. I really liked doing the bulleted lists. My first couple drafts of my thesis were a bulleted list. Bless my thesis advisor when he saw that, but it worked out really well because I then just connect those ideas that I've been working on in the bullets with some transitions with some words and I have a really well formed official like rough draft and I find that.
A lot of my writing at that point didn't need a whole lot of revision. Didn't need to write 6 drafts, and so that made the process less intimidating for me. That might scare the crap out of people who are listening here. That's OK, we all have our own way of doing that, but I think any way you can make something less intimidating.
If you lower that barrier, it's easier to just start and just to do that, and that's one of the great ways to do it, and hopefully then you also start finding a little fun in the process, too. I think that was also something that helped me as well. With that bulleted list, yeah, there are some kind of good logistical questions that we should clarify so the personal statement, the prompts that we talk through are specifically for the common app, but the personal statement is kind of your opportunity to tell your story, and that does appear on all of the applications, so just know, although the prompts.
We have used and we've got an example of our common app. We don't have a preference on what application you fill out, so feel free to use any of them, but the personal statement is the longer essay and then the supplemental short answers are specific to Notre Dame and potentially to other schools you're applying to, and the number does vary from school to school, so Notre Dame short answer prompts are available now. You have to answer essentially why Notre Dame that is our one required question, and then we give you the choice of one more every school's.
Zach Klonsinski
04:39:32 PM
You can find our supplemental prompts on our website! https://admissions.nd.edu/apply/application-overview/
Different in terms of do they have supplemental questions? Are they required? Are they encouraged? Are they optional? I would always say that things that are encouraged in the process, you, you should do them right. You want to write about why you're interested in going to a school, but hopefully that just helps clarify a little bit between like the personal statement which is your longer essay, and then the supplemental essays, which function in kind of a different context. I just put the link to our supplemental essay questions right there so you can actually find it on our website.
Riya T.
04:39:48 PM
Should you answer optional supplemental questions?
They're also once you the applications common app, the you know, applying Coalition on score. Once those go live on August 1st or the 1st week of August, we'll also be there. But that's a great way to just kind of look at them if you're curious and start thinking a little bit, start that brainstorming process and start that. You know prompt analysis process that we've been walking through today.
That's I was gonna actually transition right to this Maria with with Rios question. Should you answer optional supplemental questions? We have 4 prompts that are optional. You will pick one.
Please stick to the one. It doesn't show more demonstrated interest. We don't actually track that in our process at all anyway, but it doesn't make a bigger impression on us to read three more essays that you wrote. In fact, it can kind of be. Why did this student, you know, write 3 additionals that's adding extra reading, extra reading for our process. We're going to read them still, but it's definitely something that is not encouraged in any way, and I would strongly, strongly strongly recommend that you follow the directions that colleges are giving you.
So even though we have 4 optional props, please only pick the one that is. That is really what we want you to do. Yes, it's always good to demonstrate that you are capable of following instructions so that that's kind of some good advice on that one.
Again, more questions kind of about topic. You don't have to talk about your intended major you can provide background, you can talk about multiple kind of.
Circumstances or life events, but I think the big thing to think about is that if you were to sit down and tell someone a story about you know what you did last night or a fun event. You're probably going to pick a specific moment in time, and so there could be additional context that is important to understand your story. But I would really encourage you to think about kind of a specific story to tell. If you're trying to tell us about something that happened from age 3 to age 16, that is.
Just too many too much content honestly to really do justice to the story you're trying to tell. So think about you know is there a more focused kind of way to tell the story you're you're thinking of? You don't have to have learned a lesson. There doesn't have to be a moral. This is not a fable. It doesn't need a title. It could have one. If you really were passionate about it, but it doesn't need one.
Again, it it's really up to you. You won't specifically have to write out. You know what prompt you're responding to. A good essay stands alone. It's clear what your topic is, what you're writing about from the content that's in it, so you know. Again, you, you're telling your story it, it can't be too personal, but it could be too impersonal. So just kind of. Keep that in mind. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And and to go back to Maria said, you know you don't have to include the question because.
On the common application I and I saw a question about this, our system will identify which prompt you selected. So you do not have to put the prompt in your essay, save those words for what you want to use to introduce yourself to us again, title if you feel it's really important. Yeah, you can absolutely use it. You do not need it at all, though in that process do we want to answer maybe one more question and then leave them with kind of our last bit of advice. I know there are more questions that we haven't gotten to. There are so many great questions and thank you all for just.
You're incredibly high level of engagement.
Yeah, absolutely. Do you have one with your two favorite?
Well, that's a that's a good question. I think for me I'll I'll answer it. And then you can pick your own. When someone I saw a question asking about the tone doesn't need to be funny. It doesn't need to be serious, doesn't need to be a happy mood. Can it be a more somber mood?
It can be anything. It is what you feel that you will be best able to introduce yourself to us. There's been a lot of hard things that have happened in the last two years and if you are, you know, writing about something like that.
Yeah, you might. You might be more serious, or you might be thinking about how can I solve a problem in the world or anything like that. You might be really serious about it. You might be writing about your dog and they're happy. Go lucky and then that just naturally lends itself to a happier or a brighter mood essay. I think as as the question phrased it so it.
There's not a right or wrong answer here. The answer is, how do again do you feel that you can best open that gate to introduce yourself to us? And I'll often align with your topic again if you wrote a somber essay about a dog like you can definitely do that, but I think most essays about dogs are probably going to tend to the higher to the happier side. That's nothing. There's nothing subjective, or you know better or worse than that. That's just an objective statement of. That's probably the way it will go. That's OK, it doesn't matter. You don't have to strike a mode.
The best piece of advice I have though is your friends tell you you're not funny. Maybe don't try and be funny on your college application essay because you you're writing it and sometimes how you write something and how someone reads it in their head is different than how you were writing it in your head in terms of its talent. So just just be maybe cautious with that. And I saw a great question. I think it was from Carolina and I'm not going to tell you what I wrote my college application essay about or what I would write it about now because I I want you to do that.
Going with yourself, but I will say of my own college essay.
I I want to go back and if I could give my like 17 year old self advice it would be to spend less time psychoanalyzing admissions counselors and what I thought they wanted to read and really just be true to who I was. Again I I would write a little less formally, I would write a little bit more in my own voice. I would pick a topic that really was about how I spent the majority of my time. I felt I think a lot of pressure to try to anticipate what did that college admissions officer want to read about.
And so I would encourage you not to psychoanalyze Zack and I or any of the other admissions counselors who might be reading your essays. Really. Just tell your story. Talk about what you care about. If you're excited about it, it comes through in your writing. I think so often essays are not fun in class. I'll admit to that. I was an English major. Some of the essays I wrote were not fun, but this is your opportunity to talk about yourself. It may be the first time you're having this opportunity. It may feel very awkward you are not boasting about yourself. You're not.
Arriving we don't read it as egotistical to talk about who you are.
Like I said, we really love getting to hear from you, so write in whatever voice or tone is true to who you are. Again, I, I don't think I'm a funny writer, so that wouldn't have been appropriate for me, but I I do wish I had been a little truer to my own voice.
Actually amazed that you even remember your topic because I have no idea why I wrote for my college application. Has like none whatsoever, so that's pretty impressive.
All right, all right. So we're going to give you some final bits of advice. Final reminders. Hopefully these are things that can stick with you. Zach, do you wanna go first? Do you want me to start? Why not? So remember to read everything first.
Yes, it can be really important to, you know, eliminate those prompts, but also you don't want to miss a prompt that was later in the in the process that you might have actually wanted to write about. Sense. Read all of them before you get going. Yes, and we've given you this advice, but it bears repeating any topic can be a good topic if it's done well.
Tell your story. This is about introducing yourself to us. We want to get to know you.
And use your voice. We've harped on that, but that's because it really is important. Save often or use something that automatically saves for you. You will thank yourself later when you're gonna crash and don't procrastinate. Not to scare you, but the common app has crashed before the night before the deadline. So again, if you are somebody who knows that maybe being on top of things is not your strong suit, I would encourage you now to start looking at what colleges are you applying to. What are their requirements? Maybe you make yourself a list of dates and deadlines.
And what you need to write. I love organization. So when I was applying to college I had like I wouldn't do this on paper. Probably anymore, but I had a handwritten list of all of the schools I was applying to. All of the requirements and when they were due, I personally took great joy and crossing things off and so kind of plan ahead. It's August right now. You are not in school. It's not August yet. It's July end of July. You've got even more time. So start looking into this now while you're not in school. Once the school year starts, you're probably going to get busy with all of them.
Million of the things you do, so start thinking now you can start writing now try to take the pressure off.
Lower your your barrier of entry. Make it easier for yourself. Do check your formatting before you're submitting. If you're going across documents and maybe you're you're you're copying in from a Google doc into the common application site. Sometimes formatting can go a little bit wonky, so do double check that and just make sure it looks like you want it to look when you're actually submitting that application, especially you're bringing it in when you're bringing it in from an outside source.
Take deep breaths. We know that this process can be stressful, but senior year also should be one of your most fun years in high school, if not the most fun year. So make sure you kind of breathe deeply. Step back when you need to and don't miss out on all of the moments that make your senior year of high school so special and the college discernment process to speak to this last bullet point is not in any way related to your self worth.
One of the great things about this essay process, though if you're going through it, is that you get to learn more about yourself than you even do about the schools that you're applying to. And if you're doing that, you're learning more about yourself and you're discovering who you are and you're going through this discernment process intentionally.
You're gonna have some fun with this process and it's gonna turn into something where you're gonna find where you where you belong, where you are going to be a great success. Regardless of where that school ends up being later on and your worth is not defined by the college that you attend or the colleges who did accept you or who did not accept you. This is a process for you. It should be fun. Never forget that as you're doing it.
Yeah, and for all of you who've been asking, how do I learn more about a college? How do I get a sense of a university aside from just looking at a website? Social media is a great way to do that. Obviously we have lots of great kind of different formats that you can check us out on. I'm a big fan of our Instagram because we constantly have current students doing takeovers, but kind of enjoy diving into that. Again, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it and hopefully this has been helpful. These will be posted as recordings online shortly on our website.
So you will be able to watch this or any of the sessions that have been part of the College Application Workshop, right? Thanks for joining us today everyone.