Brain Storming College Essays

Sorry about the lack of posts lately guys, I've been crazy busy with precisely what this post; college essays. Last post was about how to get those college essays cleaned up perfectly, but some of you wondered how do you get them in the first place? It's not an easy process.

For those seniors who didn't go to Lisa and Celinda's talk at the beginning of the year about college essays, let me say it was fantastic. The tips from that talk are actually the very tips I used to develop my big common app essay, which is also the essay I used for my University of Pittsburgh app. So what exactly are the tips, is what you are wondering now. Well I'll tell you.

The first was to start off with a list of everything that has ever influenced you or still influences you. This is the hardest part. You basically open a word document, or get out a piece of paper and just start writing anything that has held agency in your life. When I did this I got out paper and actually wrote because it allows you to slow down and really think about what you are writing. I started with just bullet points. I got the big ones out of the way, mom, dad, church, then it got hard. What else has influenced me? I wanted to write school, but that was too broad, so I listed teachers. I went all the way back to my 4th grade teacher who pushed me to apply to Uni, and moved forward. I wrote down the teachers from 7th grade that did my letters of rec for Uni, up to the teachers who are doing my letter of rec this year. Then I was done with school, but I knew there were more than just these four things. Then I realized I was holding back for the sake of preserving my own image. And at that moment it hit me that there's nothing to hide, no one is going to read this but me.(except for you guys, now...) Thus, I wrote Juliana cause she has been a major part of my high school experience. I wrote sports because they shaped my work ethic. I put down clothing because the way I present myself is important to me. After I finished the list and looked down and thought to myself, "Wow." as I read over the list. It was interesting to see so many different things that influenced me and see how they can all connect. This took me to the second step.

From here I picked three of the things, got out my computer and wrote for 10 minutes straight on each topic. I did not stop typing for the whole 30 minutes. If I didn't know what to say I typed "ummmmmmmmmmmmmm" or "I don’t know what to say here but I'm going to keep going." remembering in the back of my head that no one is going to read this so it doesn't matter. From here I took the best of the three free writes and highlighted three recurring main topics. I repeated the free write for each of those. At that point I choose the most specific, meaningful free write and that was my topic.

From here the final step is to then relax and think about that topic. Let it develop further in your head. Give it an hour or so and then sit back down at the computer. Go back and rewrite what you have with the information and detail that you have come up with in that hour of relaxation. Once you've done this all that's left to do is take it to the writing workshop for clean up.

During this process make sure you SAVE EVERYTHING. You need to save because those other two specific free writes and the other two general free writes can actually provide perfect launching places for great essays. My final tip is that if you ever, EVER, have an idea for an essay come to mind and you think, "That's perfect!" WRITE IT DOWN! Don't let yourself forget the idea, even if you wake up at 3am, at least write it on a piece of paper so you can read it in the morning.

Using this process I promise you guys that you will get some quality essays down. My big one I used for Pitt actually ended up getting me emailed by the college to say it brought real emotion to the college essay process and they liked that, so don't hold back. If these essays involve your real emotions that's a good thing! That means you actually put effort into your essay. It shows you took the time to care what you presented yourself as. Ultimately following these steps can be one of the most helpful ways to write your college essays.

Best of luck to you all!
-Joey