It’s the start of November. In other words, the middle of application season—Grade 12s are now facing more stress than ever, especially with COVID and this year’s hectic semester system. Here’s a broad overview of some of our best tips for essay writing and more in-depth information tailored for specific applications to help you out.
General Tips and Things to Avoid
Brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm! It’s often difficult to think of essay topics, especially with the open-ended prompts, but start reflecting back on powerful memories and jot down potential essay ideas and their structures. If you’re having trouble, talk with family or close friends! When you’ve narrowed down your essay topic list, start making drafts. Your first draft is probably not perfect, but if you’re not satisfied with the overall idea, you could always try writing another draft for one of your other essay topics. It’s difficult to see which ideas will work and which won’t without actually putting them into writing! You might find that an idea that you weren’t particularly fond of flows easily and gets your message across.
It’s common for writers to have a hard time starting their essays—if this is the case for you, just start putting your ideas on paper. There’s always opportunities to revise your responses, and you can generate new ideas and an engaging hook and conclusion as you put your ideas into practice. If you’re stuck with writer’s block while drafting your essay, take a break or sleep on it. This makes it important that you start early!
If you’re writing about an experience you’ve had, balance the narrative with some reflection (typically at the end) in your essay. You want to clearly show the admissions officers the significance of the story and what you learned from it.
Get someone to read over your essays/responses!
Any grammar/spelling mistakes that you may have missed and awkward phrasing
See if the overall tone and message of your responses are clearly communicated
New perspectives and ideas for certain parts
AVOID cliché/common topics, phrases, and quotes! While one of your grandparents may have passed away or you may have had an amazing basketball game, try to refrain from using those topics unless they have some distinct element that’s unique to you. You want to avoid paraphrasing and vague ideas because it seems impersonal, and defies the whole purpose of a personal statement.
Try not to talk too much about other people in your responses. Talking about others can often shift the focus of your essay away from you, which is definitely not what you want. If you are going to talk about others, always connect it back to you.
Do research on the university and see what kinds of students they want. (Do they emphasize leadership? Community involvement? Academic interest?) These are good indicators of the tone and content of your response.
Always give examples to back up what you are trying to say. Simply saying you are curious and hardworking will not be enough. Include an experience that not only tells the readers this, but also shows them.
Tips for Writing Your Personal Statement
In this section of your application, you want to emphasize your merits in the extra-curricular part of your life. Taking this into consideration, you want to shy away from referring to your academics depending on the institution you are applying for—it will be mentioned in your transcripts.
Respond to the question! The questions for UBC are often complex and include multiple factors. This is why you want to make sure that you respond to all parts of the question.
Take example of the following:
Tell us about who you are. How would your family, friends, and/or members of your community describe you? If possible, please include something about yourself that you are most proud of and why.
Tell us about who you are
This is the theme of your response—by the end, the admissions reader should be able to synthesize something specific about you.
How would your family, friends, and/or members of your community describe you?
Relate this to an activity where you actively engaged in the community. (For example, volunteering for a Youth Council.) From here, you can draw the conclusion on how they (friends/family/community) might describe you.
If possible, please include something about yourself that you are most proud of and why.
Connect this with the experience you explained before. Try to always interconnect the contents of your response.
Understanding the complexity of these questions may be the hardest part; however, once you break down the question into its basic components, forming your line of reasoning and the overall structure of your response becomes much easier and clearer.
UCAS
Students applying to the Uk will have to apply through UCAS, which is kind of like OUAC, where you can apply to a maximum of five different schools, and, or programs by only filling out one application—that is, considering that the institution doesn’t require supplementary applications. UCAS requires a personal statement, and the formatting is similar to the US Common Application where the students will have a certain character limit to write about themselves rather than UBC’s somewhat guided questions. At this point, you should be familiar with the conventions, but if you aren't sure UCAS has a character limit of 4000, or line limit of 47—whichever comes first.
When you are just starting out, have a good idea of what subject you are applying to because your personal statement will be trying to convey how you are a suited academic candidate. (A main difference for applications in the UK is that your statement should not only show that you are a well-rounded candidate as a person, but also an academically capable one.) Research becomes vital; you want to express that you are interested and well-informed about your subject without explicitly saying so.
After narrowing down your subject of interest, there are three things you want to consider in the structure of your statement:
What are your motivations? What makes you want to take on this subject post-secondary?
What evidence do you have in communicating your statement? (Here, you want to use research, and your own experiences.)
How does studying an institution prepare you for your future? What lies ahead?
Be reflective, logical, and always have evidence to support your claims.
Surprisingly, extracurriculars should not plague your statement. Include them sparingly, and only if they relate to your subject. The majority of your statement should be communicating your knowledge on the subject of interest.
Commonapp
Unlike Canadian or UK schools, many US schools use the Common Application, widely known as the Commonapp. The Commonapp is similar to the UCAS in that it can be used to apply to multiple schools—up to 20 in fact! The Commonapp provides schools with an in-depth overview of your academic and personal background as it features space for putting in information like academic courses, SAT/ACT and other standardized test scores, extracurricular activities, and, of course, the personal statement. With US admissions officers very familiar with your academic and extracurricular backgrounds, the personal statement is a chance for them to look at you as a person instead of a series of test grades and activity descriptions.
Not all schools use the Commonapp, though; many have their own application form, so make sure to do your research before applying! UC schools, for instance, have completely separate UC applications. Many schools also have supplementary questions, essays, and portfolios that they ask for in addition to the Commonapp, and they’re usually more specific to the university itself.
The Commonapp personal statement has a word limit of 650 and offers a range of prompts for you to choose from. It’s okay if you’re not a fan of any of them though; there’s even an option to write about any topic you want! With this freedom, it’s suggested that you don’t focus on the prompts too much as they might limit your thinking. You could go back to the prompts from time to time if you’re having trouble thinking of essay ideas, but consider the personal statement as a totally free space for whatever you want to write.
With that being said, many students often struggle with this broad freedom. After all, what do you write about? You may have heard stories about miraculous essays on a life-or-death situation or a heart-wrenching divorce story; in reality, though, some of the best stories can come from seemingly ordinary events. It’s how you express your experiences and growth that matters the most. Try to think of an essay topic unique to you. What do you love to do? What are some noteworthy stories that you can think of? How can you demonstrate your best qualities? What message do you want to communicate? Start writing your ideas down and think of how you would frame them. If you’re having trouble thinking about essay topics, consult with friends and family about memorable experiences you’ve had!
Here’s a more subtle tip: be wary when repeating information already in your application unless your personal statement expands on that particular extracurricular/interest in some informative way that hasn’t been explained earlier (this goes for other sections of the Commonapp as well). This may lead admissions officers to believe that you don’t have much else to offer!
While the personal statement is all about showing who you are to the admissions committee, it’s also important to show that you aren’t just thinking about yourself. Expand on your volunteering experiences or ways that you’ve helped others! This shows that you aren’t just a self-centered student; you’re a mature and caring person that can balance both academics and community involvement.
We hope that helped! Remember to start now if you haven’t yet; extra planning, writing, and editing time is crucial. Good luck on your essays!
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