I Have to Start My Personal Essay... But When?

The college essay is a daunting aspect of the college application process. How can you tell a college everything about yourself in a single essay? High school teachers shower you with assigned essays, poems. When it comes to the college essay, you need to channel all the knowledge and experience you've garnered to craft your most influential, heartfelt piece of writing. Many feel like the college essay is supposed to be the climax of their high school writing portfolio. However, you must remember that the countless class periods working on your English skills have strengthened and prepared you for this undertaking!

Test scores, GPAs, class rank. With all of these numbers, it can be challenging to give a college a real sense of who you are as a person and how you will contribute to their campus. This is where the college essay comes in. In 750 words, you are tasked with letting a college know who you are. The first question is what you should write your essay on. How do you pick a topic that is not too sappy or boring? While you can bounce ideas off your parents, teachers, and peers, this should be a mostly internal process. You know yourself and your strengths as a writer better than anyone. You know what topics you can write page-after-page about, without coming off as repetitive or try-hard.

My best advice is that it is never too early to start brainstorming ideas for your college essay. You might find it helpful to keep a running list of ideas on your phone as you think of them as well as a document on your computer. There will and should be a few ideas that come straight away. These would be the ideas most central to your being. A hobby you've had for ten years? An identity that has sculpted your perspective of the world? A life-changing service trip? Think of an essay topic as a thread; you want it to span through as many meaningful experiences of your life as possible. This will give you more content to choose from for the essay and allow you to be more selective when writing your later drafts. More traditional sit-down-and-focus brainstorm sessions are also worthwhile but might be difficult to orchestrate in the early-phases of your writing process. When you pick out your brightest essay idea, it should feel right. To the admissions counselor, it should feel like you are sitting right across their desk, reading the essay to them.

When you begin writing your essay, accept that fact that it will not be one-and-done. It will take more than one draft to get an essay you are satisfied with. You need to be okay with writing a draft and scrapping it altogether the next time you sit down to write. I, myself, had 27 drafts of my college essay. Each one was pretty distinct from the last, until the grammatical edits on the previous few. Twenty-seven may sound extreme, but I knew myself as a writer and was completely okay with starting from scratch when it was necessary to get my ideas down in the most coherent way possible.

Another tip is to remember to use the resources at your disposal. That said, your essay should stay 'your' essay. With too many proofreaders, your unique voice can get overpowered by someone else. Furthermore, while the essay is a central piece of your application, they will see other writing. It is crucial that the writing on your supplements and within your essays is consistent.

It is best to have an early draft of your essay going into your senior year. As we have said in previous blog posts, having an essay draft before you start senior year will make you less stressed. You want to have the first few months of senior year to enjoy long-awaited traditions with your friends and to focus on your schoolwork, not to spend long, stressful nights reworking your personal statement!

Picking the Perfect Teacher to Write Your Rec

Aside from your personal statement and college-specific supplements, teacher and guidance counselor recommendations are the next most significant pieces of writing included. This adds a sense of importance in picking the 'right' teachers to write your recommendations. The ultimate goal is that all writing in your application provides the most well-rounded view of who you are--not just as a student, but as a person.

Some factors to consider when choosing a recommendation include:

• How well the teachers’ commentary on you will complement each other; i.e. if you have two math teachers, it might be best to do one and use your English teacher for the second recommendation.

• What extracurricular activities you are involved in with them? If you have a club advisor, who is also a teacher you're close with, they might be a great candidate. They will comment on you not only as a student, but also as a person. They will know how you interact with your peers or deal with the stresses of a particular activity. This can be a great way to make your application more well-rounded and to include the most about yourself.

• How well the teacher knows you beyond normal coursework? Have you gone to them for free periods? Engaged in intellectual discussions with them? Do they have a sense of your interests? The ultimate goal is to select teachers who know you beyond a letter grade. These are the people who can write you a unique, rather than generic, recommendation.

• What will they say about you beyond just your grades in the class? Colleges already receive your GPA, and since teachers have various students scoring high marks, this alone won't add much to your application.

Keep in mind that you will, in most cases, need two long recommendations and 1 to 3 short recommendations. From your answers to the above questions, you should have a sufficient idea of who to pick for what. The teachers who know you the best and have the most to contribute should be given long recommendations.

Contrarily, those who only have a short bit to add should be asked for short recommendations. This is different at every high school, but at my school in particular, short recommendations were turned into our guidance counselors and then incorporated into guidance's recommendation. Make sure you are aware of how your school does recommendations, ideally by the middle of junior year. This way, you have the appropriate time to select and politely ask your teachers for the necessary recommendations.

Another point to acknowledge is that certain colleges have alternate recommendations types. For example, Dartmouth College has a peer recommendation that can be completed by anyone the applicant considers to be a peer. Do the proper research beforehand to know what the colleges you are applying to require of you to allow time for thoughtful contemplation beforehand.

A final piece of advice is to ask your teacher as early as you can (within moderation). Teachers are busy! They are going to have many students to write recommendations for and would probably appreciate knowing whether or not they have to write a recommendation for you in advance. This will help with their planning of your glowing recommendation too! Best of luck and happy planning!

Which College Size is Right For You?

Starting your college search and don’t know where to start? We recommend starting with size.

Colleges are typically broken up into three different sizes: small, medium, and large. “Small” colleges commonly have less than 5,000 students, and are most of the time private institutions. Some examples are CalTech, Williams College, Reed College, and Vassar College. “Medium” colleges have student populations between 5,000 and 15,000. “Medium” colleges are a mix of both public and private universities, some examples being Johns Hopkins and Georgetown University. “Large” colleges have over 15,000 students -- some examples are most of the University of California schools, Big 10 Schools, and USC.

So, which school size is right for you?

The best way to truly know is to visit one of each kind. Even if you may not be interested in applying to them, it is still worthwhile to visit nearby universities to shed some light on what a small, medium, or large sized college might feel like. However, while you begin creating your college list, it is still helpful to consider the pros and cons of each, and what you are willing to sacrifice and what you definitely need to have.

Small Colleges:

The benefits of attending a small college is that they have the smallest class sizes, so that you have more hands-on professors and better guidance in your classes. You also have access to a tightly knit community. You see faces more often, making it easier to get to know everybody in a small school. The drawbacks are that there are fewer clubs and student organizations to choose from, less people to meet and interact with, and thus a smaller alumni network. Smaller institutions also tend to have less financial resources for undergraduate research.

Medium Colleges:

Medium colleges are attractive to students who want a mix of both. You reap the benefits of easily finding friends and partaking in social activities, but the school is not overwhelmingly large or too small. On the other hand, you might find them to be not as diverse as you’d like, or not as intimate as you’d like. As such, it’s key to visit several medium colleges to get a sense of which size is right for you.

Large Colleges:

While large colleges may appear impersonal on the surface, they allow you to meet more people that share common interests with whom you can create a smaller community within the larger one. Large colleges have more social opportunities, and also are likely to host extensive research and graduate programs that can enhance your education. Some cons of large colleges is that it is easier to feel “lost” in them. Classes are more lecture-oriented, the campus is bigger, the faculty is less hands-on. You, as a student, have to be more independent and take control over your own education and opportunities.

In conclusion, size is one of the most important factors of selecting the colleges to apply to. But it’s not the only one. Other college qualities may be more of a priority to you than student body size. Factors such as location, urban or rural, academic rigor, sports, Greek life, and others may play a more crucial role in your personal college experience. If that’s the case, you might want to have a mix of small and large colleges on your application list. However, if having a small, intimate community, or having a diverse and expansive list of opportunities at your disposal matters to you, then put it among your top college requirements. But first and foremost, be sure to visit small, medium, and large campuses so that you truly understand which size is right for you.

S.A.T. College Application Advice

Welcome to Student Agencies Tutoring (S.A.T.)! The management team at S.A.T. has created this blog to share with you helpful advice that we have acquired from our own recent college application experiences. You can’t find this information anywhere else, and what you’re about to read changed the game for their college applications and led to a successful college process!

1. Get your college essays done over the summer. Especially for the schools you are applying to Early Decision and Early Action, you should aim to have your essays done before your senior year starts. This is crucial so that during your senior fall, you have the time to focus on securing the grades that will complete your college application package. You also don’t have to worry about the stress and frenzy that comes with squeezing college essays in the week before they’re due. While all your friends are drafting up sloppy last-minute essays, you can sit back, relax, and rest assured knowing you put in the time and effort needed for an excellent essay, months ago.

2. Put in the extra time to get to know your teachers. Ask them to meet before or after class, or even to meet for lunch or a cup of coffee, if it is appropriate. Your teachers are there to help you, and more often than not, they are waiting for you to build the bridge and make that personal connection. Getting to know them outside of class will not only make their class more enjoyable, but building a good relationship with your teachers will make them more enthusiastic about going the extra mile to see you learn. Not only will student-teacher relationships help you in the classroom, but spending that extra time with your teachers each week will help them understand you on a deeper level so that when it comes to ask for a teacher recommendation for your college application, they can write one that will truly set you apart. 

3. Talk to any current college students you can at the colleges on your application list. What the college tour guides will tell you are often manufactured responses by the university, but what real, current students will tell you is often much more realistic. See if there are any graduated students from your high-school who are enrolled in the schools you are looking at, reach out to them, and ask to meet for a cup of coffee if possible, or to just set up a phone call. Current college students will be more than happy to have a quick conversation with students from their high school about their experiences at the college. If you don’t know anyone at a college you’re interested in, try seeing if your friends do, or if you are on a tour, introduce yourself to students who look like they have a free moment. Ask these college students what they like about the school, what they dislike, what they’d want to change, what they wish they knew about the school before applying. Having this insight will be instrumental in deciding which schools to apply to and which to attend.

We are confident that taking these steps will deeply enhance the quality of your college application, and ease the stress of the process overall. If you have any other pieces of advice you’d like to add, write it below in the comments section! And as always, for many more nuggets of key information, tips and tricks, personal experience and advice, S.A.T.’s tutors are here for you.