We understand that this process can be difficult and annoying, even painful, and you may be tempted to take shortcuts, or even skip out on editing altogether. We understand the impulse, but weā€™re here to offer you a better way: a series of tips and strategies to make the editing process (relatively) easy and painless. It still requires work, but our goal is to make your life simpler, and the process easier to manage. Letā€™s jump right in!

Tip 1: Donā€™t Begin Editing Immediately

We can understand the impulse to finish writing an essay and then immediately set to editing it; you want to get the whole thing over with as soon as possible. There are two main flaws with this approach however: 

1. The longer you look at the same piece of writing, the more your eyes just glide over errors in it, your brain automatically correcting typos or awkward phrasing.
2. The longer you work on one thing in a sitting, the more you risk burn out, or cease to care about it at all.

Our first tip is to let an essay sit and breathe for a short spell before returning to edit it. This doesnā€™t mean you can just forget it forever, but leaving a week between writing an essay and editing it for the first time lets you look at it with fresh eyes and perspective, and keeps the amount of time you spend working on it in short and manageable chunks.Ā 

This does mean you will need to start your essays a reasonable amount of time before the deadline, but we recommend doing this for all of your college application work. College applications are very stressful, and trying to get them all done against the ticking clock doesnā€™t help reduce that pressure. The regular decision deadline is in January, but if you start the essays and editing now, your holidays will have much less stress for you. 

Tip 2: Edit By Order of Magnitude

There is no set term for what we mean by this, but the goal is simple: to never do any editing work you donā€™t have to do. This means your edits should start large, and then become small. If youā€™re going to remove a paragraph entirely and replace it with something else, then itā€™s not worth your time to stress over the grammar or phrasing in that paragraph. 

Here is our order of operations when we work with students to edit their essays: 

1. Conceptual edits. These change the core concept of the essay, or some piece of it, and require a large portion to need to be rewritten. For example, changing an anecdote about learning to drive to one about fishing with your grandfather. This generally involves recreating large portions of an essay, and so should always be done first.Ā 
2. Structural edits. These change the overall layout of the essay, without changing the core topic. Conceptual edits rework the whole, these rework a single paragraph or section. For example, if you are writing about learning to fish, a structural edit may cut a paragraph of set up to add more room to talk about the values you learned from fishing.
3. Line edits. These are changes to individual sentences, where you look at how each contributes to the meaning of the paragraph. Only move to these once you are certain the overall shape of the essay is in place.
4. Grammar edits. These are the simplest edits, and should be done last. Missed commas, word choice, typos; fix these things only once you are done with major rewrites of the essay, so you arenā€™t faced with doing this again and again.

We know editing isnā€™t fun, and by approaching it in this way, you minimize the actual amount of editing you have to do. You do still have to go through every step, but working from the big edits down to the small ones streamlines the entire process, and wonā€™t see you sweating over the same paragraph repeatedly.Ā 

Tip 3: Phone a Friend

All of the writing you do on your college essays must be your own, but you are allowed (and encouraged) to get help during the editing process. You must be careful to preserve your voice, but asking others for help will let you catch things you may have missed, and make sure the values you are trying to portray actually come through when someone new reads your essay. 

There are plenty of options here, but these are the most common we see students take advantage of: 

• English teachers (or other teachers). Many schools assign a draft of the personal statement in English class, but even if they donā€™t, you can often ask your English teacher to do you a favor. This is extra work they donā€™t have to do, so ask politely, and make sure to thank them after. The better student you are in their class, the more likely they are to say yes, but this is one of the best ways to get advice on revising a college essay.
• School counselors. Depending on your high school, there may be one or more counselors whose sole job is to help students with college admissions. While they have a lot of students to attend to, they can usually do an editing pass on your essays.Ā 
• Independent counselors. You can always hire an independent counseling company to help you with your essays; weā€™re quite good at that, for example.Ā 
• Parents. Your parents may not always be stellar writers, but they can offer useful feedback, especially on whether your essay is doing a good job conveying the message you want it to.
• Friends. Getting together with a group of friends and trading your essays around to edit each others may not be the most exciting hangout activity, but can get you a bunch of extra eyes on your essay.

When asking others for editing help, you want to be sure that the voice and message of your essays is still uniquely your own. After all, colleges are looking to admit you, not your parents, not your teachers, and not your friends. Many students are uncomfortable with their voice, but this is exactly what colleges want from essays. Your writing should be as good as you make it, but it should be yours.Ā 

Thus you should listen to suggestions and edits when asking others for editing help, and add them in when you can see how they will improve and strengthen your essay. For larger edits, editors shouldnā€™t suggest full rewrites, but different framings or concepts that may work better, such as removing unnecessary details, or diving deeper into the details of what you have done. 

A Note on AI Editing Help

You will notice that we did not include AI editing tools in the list of options for places to seek editing help. This is for two reasons. The first is that many colleges forbid the use of AI editing tools for anything except grammatical edits; you can use a spellchecker, basically, but nothing more than that.

This does work on the honor system, but colleges have been looking more closely at student essays for use of AI, and we suspect students who are obvious in their use of it will see their essays severely penalized. 

The other problem with AI editing is that, especially if it is proposing major structural or phrasing edits, is that it sands down the originality of your essay. What colleges want to see is your unique voice, and many AI edits remove that. The essay may be more polished, but it is also going to sound more alike to every other essay a student polished with AI help. When your goal in the admissions process is to stand out from a crowd of thousands, that is non-ideal, to say the least. 

You can use AI for a grammar and spelling check, but most writing programs have one of those built in already. In general, there isnā€™t much reason to use an AI tool when trying to edit an essay, especially when there are much better options available. 

Tip 4: Know When to Stop

You will need to do more than one editing pass, but there is a time when editing ends and you must submit. The real trick is knowing when an essay is good enough; the prose polished, the transitions fluid. This can be hard to judge on your own; there is a temptation to stop too early to avoid extra work, or to keep going past the point of madness in a quest for perfection. 

There is no singular rule for how many rounds of edits an essay needs before it is done. Once you can show it to someone else, and they come away with the message you want them to get from the essay, and youā€™ve worked the phrasing and structure as well as you can manage, we advise ending the editing process. 

We wish we had a more set rule we could use, but each essay is unique, as is the voice of each student. We use our expertise to judge when an essay has reached its final form and is ready to submit, but this is something we have gained through long years of practice in the business of writing essays. You can and should ask your high school teachers or counselors for advice on your own essays. 

Final Thoughts

College essays are always going to be stressful to write. They are very important and completely unlike any essays youā€™ve been asked to write before, and this confluence of factors inevitably leads to stress in how to manage them. We hope that this article has helped you understand one facet of approaching these essays, and given you strategies to approach them that will let you keep your own stress levels down somewhere reasonable. 

College admissions is often a terrible time for students, but it doesnā€™t have to be. Like with all confusing and difficult tasks, it is easier with a guide, and expert who can help you past pitfalls and show you a sure path towards your goals. Thatā€™s where ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų can help. If youā€™re looking for guidance on writing your own essays, or advice on strategies to apply to top colleges, then schedule a free consultation with us today, weā€™re always happy to speak with you.

The post How to Painlessly Edit Your College Essays appeared first on ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų.

The post How to Painlessly Edit Your College Essays appeared first on ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų.

This is only heightened in the age of artificial intelligence, with countless services and applications promising to help you create the perfect applications without effort, all while colleges grow increasingly strict about not wanting any applicants to use AI in their submissions. In this article, weā€™re going to break down AI policies at top colleges, and explain what admissions officers actually want to see from your application. 

What are AI Policies for Admission to Top Colleges?

Every college sets their own policy; these are developed independently, but these colleges are able to see what their fellows do, and they do exist in the same environment, with many of the same perspectives and concerns. Thus, these policies often have quite a bit in common. We arenā€™t going to be able to list out every collegeā€™s policy, but hereā€™s a chart featuring the policies of top schools in the US for use of AI in admissions: 

What we can see here is that most schools have policies, and these policies generally ban the use of AI in any substantial way. There are some differences; some schools may be okay with the use of AI in brainstorming while others are not, but no schools with AI policies are okay with students using AI tools to write their essays, in whole or in part. 

That some schools do not have written AI policies does not mean those schools are okay with you using AI to write their essays either. rules do not apply in this situation. We are not sure why some schools have not yet created written policies on the use of AI, but those that do have a remarkable consensus: admissions officers donā€™t want to see it in your essays. 

What Admissions Officers Really Want, and Why AI Canā€™t Do That

Admissions officers want to understand who you are as a person and student. The reason they ask for all those supplemental essays is to better understand who you are. It may surprise you, but they arenā€™t just trying to stress you out and give you more work to do; they really do care about your answers to these questions, and they read them carefully to gain insights into the kind of person you are, and how you think about the world. 

Coming at it from this perspective, it makes much more sense why admissions officers donā€™t appreciate the use of AI in essays. AI tools can create polished writing, but they do not understand nor speak for you. They donā€™t know your wants or passions, they have no sense of your inner life or desires, and they cannot impart who you are or what really matters to you. 

In addition to this, AI writing is often quite bland. It has a degree of polish, but it is all glitter and no substance, as satisfying as a meal of painted cardboard. When admissions officers have to read thousands or tens of thousands of essays each season, they can become quite tired of this boring sameness. If you cannot find it worth doing to write an essay, admissions officers may question how much you really care about their school.

What This Means for Your Applications

We always advise students to avoid using AI in their applications, and reading what colleges think about the use of generative AI helps show why. While not every school has an official policy on the use of AI, from conversations with admissions officers, and what theyā€™ve expressed in webinars and Q&A sessions, none of them enjoy reading AI generated essays. 

The easy takeaway for your applications then is that you probably shouldnā€™t use AI, not for drafting or editing your essays, not for activities lists, not for ideas on application strategy. This seems self-evident, but is also quite difficult for many students to implement, since these tools are becoming so pervasive. 

To help you implement this in your own essay writing, here are places where students often seek to rely on AI (which colleges specifically dislike when they see), and how you can approach them instead:

Brainstorming

Picking an essay topic is hard, one we spend a lot of time working on with students. It is tempting to ask AI for help, but the issue is that if every student asks AI, it will generate the same or similar responses for all students, thus leading to your essay being quite similar to those written by other applicants. 

Instead, when you are looking at essay topics, you should make lists of your activities and passions, and then a list of your core values. Draw connections between these, and look for unusual connections. Maybe football taught you discipline and teamwork, or maybe it taught you creativity or gave you a respect for environmentalism. How? Thatā€™s a good question, and answering it makes for an interesting essay.

Essay Writing

This is the core thing every college with an AI policy bans, and which even colleges without an explicit AI policy forbid through anti-plagiarism rules. There is no easy work around for this, you actually have to sit down and write the essays for yourself. This can be hard, but thatā€™s rather the point. 

The best trick is that an essay does not have to be perfect to start with. A first draft is almost always bad, and thatā€™s okay. Create an outline, write it out, and see where you stand. It wonā€™t be perfect, you wonā€™t have showcased your ideas fully, and thatā€™s okay. The only way to become better at writing is to do it, there are sadly no shortcuts to this, but the experience of doing it will help with future writing projects.

Editing Your Essays

Colleges are generally okay with using AI for baseline edits, but these are the same edits proposed by any good spell-checker. The issue with major AI edits, rephrasing and restructuring and rewording, is that it removes you from what is supposed to be your essay. The traces of personality and individuality are what flavor these essays, what makes them interesting and worth reading. 

Instead, we advise asking a third party to look over your essay and give feedback. Your
English teacher, your counselor, your peers, your parents, all can give you advice on how to improve your essay, without overwriting what makes it really yours. Just remember that these people shouldnā€™t write your essay for you; the whole of it must be your own. 

Final Thoughts

Technology changes, and so does college admissions, but what colleges have been looking for from students has been remarkably consistent over the past decade or so. The individual details change; the standards they have, the kinds of projects which impress them best, but what they want are bright and passionate students, ones who love learning for its own sake, and who will contribute meaningfully to the campus community if they are accepted.

We hope that this article has given you useful insight into how admissions officers approach applications, and why they donā€™t like seeing students use AI. If you want help crafting your own essays with the help of experts, and creating the best work that you are capable of, then ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų can help. Our mentors are masters of the admissions process, and are highly skilled at helping students show off their best traits to admissions officers. Schedule a free consultation today to learn how we can help you on your admissions journey.

The post What Admissions Officers Want in the Age of AI appeared first on ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų.

The post What Admissions Officers Want in the Age of AI appeared first on ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų.

This is only heightened in the age of artificial intelligence, with countless services and applications promising to help you create the perfect applications without effort, all while colleges grow increasingly strict about not wanting any applicants to use AI in their submissions. In this article, weā€™re going to break down AI policies at top colleges, and explain what admissions officers actually want to see from your application. 

What are AI Policies for Admission to Top Colleges?

Every college sets their own policy; these are developed independently, but these colleges are able to see what their fellows do, and they do exist in the same environment, with many of the same perspectives and concerns. Thus, these policies often have quite a bit in common. We arenā€™t going to be able to list out every collegeā€™s policy, but hereā€™s a chart featuring the policies of top schools in the US for use of AI in admissions: 

What we can see here is that most schools have policies, and these policies generally ban the use of AI in any substantial way. There are some differences; some schools may be okay with the use of AI in brainstorming while others are not, but no schools with AI policies are okay with students using AI tools to write their essays, in whole or in part. 

That some schools do not have written AI policies does not mean those schools are okay with you using AI to write their essays either. rules do not apply in this situation. We are not sure why some schools have not yet created written policies on the use of AI, but those that do have a remarkable consensus: admissions officers donā€™t want to see it in your essays. 

What Admissions Officers Really Want, and Why AI Canā€™t Do That

Admissions officers want to understand who you are as a person and student. The reason they ask for all those supplemental essays is to better understand who you are. It may surprise you, but they arenā€™t just trying to stress you out and give you more work to do; they really do care about your answers to these questions, and they read them carefully to gain insights into the kind of person you are, and how you think about the world. 

Coming at it from this perspective, it makes much more sense why admissions officers donā€™t appreciate the use of AI in essays. AI tools can create polished writing, but they do not understand nor speak for you. They donā€™t know your wants or passions, they have no sense of your inner life or desires, and they cannot impart who you are or what really matters to you. 

In addition to this, AI writing is often quite bland. It has a degree of polish, but it is all glitter and no substance, as satisfying as a meal of painted cardboard. When admissions officers have to read thousands or tens of thousands of essays each season, they can become quite tired of this boring sameness. If you cannot find it worth doing to write an essay, admissions officers may question how much you really care about their school.

What This Means for Your Applications

We always advise students to avoid using AI in their applications, and reading what colleges think about the use of generative AI helps show why. While not every school has an official policy on the use of AI, from conversations with admissions officers, and what theyā€™ve expressed in webinars and Q&A sessions, none of them enjoy reading AI generated essays. 

The easy takeaway for your applications then is that you probably shouldnā€™t use AI, not for drafting or editing your essays, not for activities lists, not for ideas on application strategy. This seems self-evident, but is also quite difficult for many students to implement, since these tools are becoming so pervasive. 

To help you implement this in your own essay writing, here are places where students often seek to rely on AI (which colleges specifically dislike when they see), and how you can approach them instead:

Brainstorming

Picking an essay topic is hard, one we spend a lot of time working on with students. It is tempting to ask AI for help, but the issue is that if every student asks AI, it will generate the same or similar responses for all students, thus leading to your essay being quite similar to those written by other applicants. 

Instead, when you are looking at essay topics, you should make lists of your activities and passions, and then a list of your core values. Draw connections between these, and look for unusual connections. Maybe football taught you discipline and teamwork, or maybe it taught you creativity or gave you a respect for environmentalism. How? Thatā€™s a good question, and answering it makes for an interesting essay.

Essay Writing

This is the core thing every college with an AI policy bans, and which even colleges without an explicit AI policy forbid through anti-plagiarism rules. There is no easy work around for this, you actually have to sit down and write the essays for yourself. This can be hard, but thatā€™s rather the point. 

The best trick is that an essay does not have to be perfect to start with. A first draft is almost always bad, and thatā€™s okay. Create an outline, write it out, and see where you stand. It wonā€™t be perfect, you wonā€™t have showcased your ideas fully, and thatā€™s okay. The only way to become better at writing is to do it, there are sadly no shortcuts to this, but the experience of doing it will help with future writing projects.

Editing Your Essays

Colleges are generally okay with using AI for baseline edits, but these are the same edits proposed by any good spell-checker. The issue with major AI edits, rephrasing and restructuring and rewording, is that it removes you from what is supposed to be your essay. The traces of personality and individuality are what flavor these essays, what makes them interesting and worth reading. 

Instead, we advise asking a third party to look over your essay and give feedback. Your
English teacher, your counselor, your peers, your parents, all can give you advice on how to improve your essay, without overwriting what makes it really yours. Just remember that these people shouldnā€™t write your essay for you; the whole of it must be your own. 

Final Thoughts

Technology changes, and so does college admissions, but what colleges have been looking for from students has been remarkably consistent over the past decade or so. The individual details change; the standards they have, the kinds of projects which impress them best, but what they want are bright and passionate students, ones who love learning for its own sake, and who will contribute meaningfully to the campus community if they are accepted.

We hope that this article has given you useful insight into how admissions officers approach applications, and why they donā€™t like seeing students use AI. If you want help crafting your own essays with the help of experts, and creating the best work that you are capable of, then ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų can help. Our mentors are masters of the admissions process, and are highly skilled at helping students show off their best traits to admissions officers. Schedule a free consultation today to learn how we can help you on your admissions journey.

The post What Admissions Officers Want in the Age of AI appeared first on ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų.

The post What Admissions Officers Want in the Age of AI appeared first on ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų.

Colleges Removing Essays in Fall 2026

Most colleges are simply changing up what prompts they offer, and weā€™ll go through those schools individually. There are, however, a number of colleges which are instead removing essays and not replacing. Sometimes simply cutting back the number of questions they ask students to respond to, while other times cutting these requirements entirely. 

Notable among these is Tulane University, which has removed its supplemental essay requirement entirely. Washington University in St Louis still has prompts, though theyā€™ve dropped one without replacing it. The University of Georgia has done the same. Cornell University, in the Ivy League, has also cut one of their long-running supplemental essay questions, the one which every student had to answer. They have maintained the college-specific questions though.

The colleges have given various reasons for doing this (when theyā€™ve bothered to publicize any reason at all). They cite everything from wanting to cut down on student stress (an admirable goal) to finding that the questions didnā€™t work to tell them what they wanted to know about students (which is understandable).

One reason they do not give, but which we find likely, is that by cutting down on the number of essays they ask students to complete as part of the application, more students are likely to apply. Other schools figured this out long ago; Northeastern makes their application process as frictionless as possible. While this wonā€™t apply to all schools, for those universities looking to boost application rates, this may seem like an easy solution, especially if essays werenā€™t proving helpful to admissions officers. 

Colleges Which are Changing Their Prompts in 2026

Some universities clearly do find use in their essays however, so weā€™ll go through these schools to talk about whatā€™s changed, and what hasnā€™t. 

Brown has edited some of their main prompts, but on the whole, they are the same. The exact questions are different, but they still want the same information. The real change for Brown is in the essay questions for their Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), which has seen all three of the prompts both changed and shortened. The new PLME prompts are: 

• Why medicine? (250 words)
• Why PLME? (250 words)
• Tell us something about yourself, beyond your interest in medicine, that you think will make you a great doctor. (250 word limit)

These questions are far simpler and more focused than prior prompts, though they are asking the same general questions. The third prompt is entirely new, and we think you should focus on one of your hobbies outside medicine which showcases your values. The PLME program specifically appreciates the intersection between liberal arts and medicine, and so it makes sense for them to ask about one of your non-medicine interests.

Caltech has been asking for essays for significantly longer than A&M, but they too have made a change to their supplementals in favor of more short answers. In a very Caltech-like maneuver, however, their essays also now require you to do math:

Choose two of the four questions below and answer both in 250 words or less. It’s up to you how you use your 250 words, whether that means you use exactly 125 words for each answer or you tell us about a niche interest in 30 words so you can spend 200 telling us more about you.

• What is an interest or hobby you do for fun, and why does it bring you joy?
• If you could teach a class on any concept or topic, what would it be and why?
• What is a core piece of your identity or being that shapes how you view and/or interact with the world?
• What is a concept that blew your mind or baffled you when you first encountered it?

Here, Caltech has done something we havenā€™t seen before. It is normal for colleges to assign you to write supplemental essays with a word limit, but to ask for multiple supplemental essays with a combined word limit is novel. These essay questions themselves are quite similar to what other schools ask for, what you must determine is how to spend your word budget.Ā 

Note that you do not have to divide this evenly; the second and fourth questions could each be answered in a sentence, while the first and third may require more explanation. It is up to you whether to take this approach or a different one, but this too is part of the challenge Caltech is setting with these questions. This is a barrier to entry, but that is intentional; if you do not enjoy things like this, you wonā€™t enjoy Caltech much either. 

Duke has kept most of their prompts the same, but has added an entirely new one for this year. Here is the new prompt: 

• We all belong to communities defined by place, faith, family, culture, interests or shared experience. Tell us about a community that has shaped who you are, any way it has set you apart, and what you’ve learned from being part of it that you hope to bring to Duke. (250 word limit)

This is not a spectacularly strange essay; many colleges want to know more about who you are and the environments who have shaped you. While they are not allowed to take race into account, you can still write about race or ethnicity for this essay, or any other facet of your identity which binds you to a community. Your essay should focus on how you have meaningfully contributed to this, how it has shaped you, and demonstrate the values it has instilled in you.Ā 

Note that at time of writing, Johns Hopkins has not yet updated the essay prompt on their admissions webpage, but they have on the Common App. The new prompt is not hugely unusual, but is different; hereā€™s what it asks: 

• Drawing on your own experiences, what have you learned about engaging across differences and how has it shaped the way you think about building bridges, enhancing community, and working with others? (350 word limit)

This essay follows a trend we have seen in many colleges asking students about how they have bridged divides between themselves and others. As society becomes increasingly fractured, itā€™s easy to see why colleges may want to admit students who are good at finding common ground.Ā 

The differences you have overcome do not need to be vast and earth-shattering (though they can be), they can be as simple as sports teams. The goal is to show how you overcame them and built a community with your peers in spite of differences you had with them.

MIT isnā€™t on the Common App, and doesnā€™t ask for a personal statement. Instead, all of their essays are the kinds of short prompts that other schools ask for in their supplementals. These are relatively consistent year to year, but they do change. This year there are two changes, a new prompt, and a new collection of short-answer responses. Hereā€™s the new prompt: 

• Reflect on how your personal and academic experiences have influenced the types of problems you would want to tackle with an MIT education, and who you would like to work on those problems with.

And here are the short responses (which are to be answered in 40-50 words apiece):Ā 

• What do you do just for fun?Ā 
• Who is someone you admire, whether you know them personally or look up to them from afar? Tell us why.Ā 
• Whatā€™s a topic, academic or non-academic, that you could talk about for hours?Ā 
• MIT values both ā€œgeneralistsā€ with varied interests and ā€œspecialistsā€ who focus deeply on one or a few passions. Which do you think best describes you, and why?

The first prompt isnā€™t quite asking what you want to major in; they already have that, though your answer should reflect how you have previously engaged with your chosen field of study. This may be harder for some fields than others, but the trick is to show the logic behind your desires, how your past experiences have contributed to your current interests.Ā 

The short answers, meanwhile, are simply a way for MIT to get to know you better. You should answer these honestly, and let your personality shine through, as that is something MIT cares about. There is no ā€œrightā€ answer to these questions; the point is to be authentic, and to show off how youā€™re the kind of person who would fit in well with MITā€™s community.

Texas A&M only introduced essay prompts at all a few years ago, and theyā€™ve been fiddling with them since, as they try to find the right composition that will tell them what they need to know about students. This isnā€™t surprising; it can take a while to get things right, and itā€™s thus unsurprising theyā€™ve changed things for this year. This time, theyā€™ve added a number of short answer prompts: 

Required Short Answer Questions (100 words max):

• In a few words, what are some of your life goals and objectives?Ā Ā 
• In a few words, why have you chosen your academic major(s)?Ā Ā 
• We know you have a lot of options.Ā  In a few words, why did you choose to apply to Texas A&M?
• Briefly describe any educational plans you have beyond earning your bachelorā€™s degree.

None of these are particularly novel questions, but they are perhaps more difficult to answer due to how little space you have to work with. After all, youā€™re going to write full essays about your desired major or why you want to attend another college, and here youā€™re going to need to cut that down to a mere 100 words.Ā 

Your life goals and objectives are perhaps going to be harder to answer. We advise not using money as an objective; talk about grand goals, especially any you have related to helping people, creating new things, or bettering communities you are part of. Everyone wants to get a good job and make a lot of money, but that means saying so is cliche, and doesnā€™t tell admissions officers anything new or interesting about you. 

For educational plans, this includes any further graduate or professional school you plan on attending. If you do not plan on attending any programs of this sort, then focus on any certifications you may seek, or say simply that you intend to enter the workforce straight out of college. 

Tufts has changed from letting you pick your prompt from a short list, to instead requiring all applicants respond to two short essays. The first, for everyone, is on why you are interested in Tufts generally, in up to 150 words. This is a prompt many colleges ask, and you should be able to give at least a few reasons why youā€™re interested in applying to and attending the school. 

The second is varied depending on the college within Tufts you are applying to, but in each case seeks to dive into some aspect of your recent academic past, your favorite assignment, project, or piece of your portfolio. This is not quite an essay asking you why youā€™re interested in a particular major, but it is an essay which lends itself well to answers related to your intended major, and this is how we recommend students answer it.

While the exact project or assignment you choose is up to you, we suggest picking something that is related to your proposed field of study, that you are quite passionate about, and which shows off your intellectual curiosity and excitement. You want to show off your love of learning for its own sake, and if you can tie that to what youā€™re intending to major in, all the better.

University is well known for how outside the box their essay prompts are, and for the fact that these prompts change every year. This then, is an expected change, but doesnā€™t necessarily make these prompts easier to answer. These prompts are strange, a puzzle for applicants to approach, and thatā€™s the entire point of asking them. 

You should try to answer these prompts in the spirit they are asked. You can use your essays to discuss yourself, or simply show off your thought process, how you approach novel and odd problems. UChicago prides itself on its eccentric culture, and showing how you would mesh with that through these essays is a boon for your application.

University of Florida

The University of Floridaā€™s main essay hasnā€™t changed, but they do have a fully new prompt for their Honors College. As many of the students we work with are interested in applying to this program, we thought we should include it in our discussion here as well. Here is the new prompt:

• The UF Honors Programā€™s mission is to connect, nurture and engage the next generation of scholars who change the world. How do you envision yourself contributing to this mission? Consider the people, experiences, resources, and aspirations that have shaped your journey thus far and your future plans. Please use a maximum of 400 words in your essay for full consideration.

This is a chance for you to describe your goals, and how the honors college specifically will help fulfill them. You want to be specific in answering this; show off that you have done your research about the program and its options, and how well it suits your plan. This isnā€™t a place to praise the college (they already know how great it is), but to show off how well you fit within it, and how well it fits into your plans.

The main UPenn prompts havenā€™t changed much. The phrasing on the prompt for the College of Arts and Sciences is new, but what itā€™s asking hasnā€™t really changed. The major changes come in the essays UPenn requests for their special programs, all of which have been altered this year. 

Note that what they are asking hasnā€™t really changed; the questions are phrased differently, but they still want the same general information. The big change is length; all of the essays are now 400 words at most, cut down from 600 in many cases. You still need to convey all the important information, but this is a bit less daunting for most students to consider. 

For all of these questions, they want to see why you want to apply to this special program, and how its offerings specifically work with your plans and past experiences. You donā€™t need to have mastered the material of the program already, but you do need to show interest in what the program is doing, and that you have explored these interests in the past on your own.

University of Michigan has kept one of their prompts the same, while changing the other (note also that Ross, the Business School, has also kept their supplemental prompts the same). They maintained the question about why you wish to attend your university, but instead of asking about your community and background as last year, their new prompt asks: 

• At the University of Michigan, we are focused on developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future. In your essay, share with us how you are prepared to contribute to these goals. This could include the people, places, experiences, or aspirations that have shaped your journey and future plans. (Required for all applicants; 100 word minimum; 300 word maximum.)

This essay is not particularly well worded, in our opinion at least. What they want, really, is evidence of how you have made an impact already, and how you might continue to live by that example going forward. Ideally, you should speak of some leadership experience you have had, some responsibility you have taken on, and how you have made a community you are part of by doing so.

Even if you havenā€™t taken official leadership of anything, you can still answer this question by describing how youā€™ve stepped up and assumed responsibility in your life, and worked to better communities you are part of. Michigan wants to see evidence of how youā€™ve made the world a better place already, taking that as a sign of how youā€™ll do so in the future. 

USC has left their primary prompt the same, but has added a new optional prompt which students may answer if they choose. While some optional features of an application are truly optional, we do recommend all students answer this prompt; the more admissions officers know about you, the better they will be able to judge how well suited you are for their school. Hereā€™s the prompt: 

• (Optional) The USC Student Commitment charges Trojans to “value honest, open communication and robust debate,” and to “champion ideological diversity and embrace freedom of expression.” Describe a time when you disagreed with someone you know about something important to you. Did you change your mind or reach common ground? (Approximately 250 words)

This is one of the common questions universities have begun asking, in response to increases in political and other tension, on campuses and off. They want to make sure that students coming to their school are able to find common ground and build community, even with those who they may not agree with.

When answering this question, what specifically you were disagreeing with someone about matters less than how you approached and handled the matter. They want to see how you were able to find common ground, or handle things in a mature and respectful manner. The topic should be something important to you, but it doesnā€™t need to be inherently political.

Final Thoughts

Many colleges have set forth the same essay questions this year as last year, but others have decided to go further afield, exploring new and verdant pastures. Colleges are always trying to hone their applications to best support the students who apply. They donā€™t necessarily want to make your life harder, they just want to find the best way to determine if you fit what theyā€™re looking for.

If you are looking for help answering any of these essay questions, or crafting your applications in such a way that you display yourself to admissions officers as the kind of student they want on campus, then ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų can help. Our mentors have long experience guiding students through every step of the admissions process, and helping students tell their stories. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more, weā€™re always happy to hear from you.

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This requirement often creates a great deal of concern or consternation for students, as it is so different from the supplemental essays other colleges ask for. The biggest problem is often one of choice paralysis, which of the essays youā€™ve done is the best, and best shows off your potential to admissions officers? In this article, weā€™re going to go through why colleges ask for these essays, how you should pick one to send, and what makes for a good writing sample. Letā€™s jump right in!

Why do Colleges Ask for Writing Samples?

This is not the most common practice; is the only school which requires it outright, though others allow it or offer it for special programs (Amherst allows it in place of a supplemental essay, for example, and requires a graded paper in place of a supplemental). That said, the schools who do employ it seem to find it quite valuable when it comes to assessing a studentā€™s potential. 

Weā€™ll focus on Princeton here, though with some notes on the University of Houstonā€™s Honors Program as well. The goal of Princetonā€™s requirement is to assess the studentā€™s skill as an argumentative academic writer. Indeed, they specifically point to this paper requirement as a replacement for the writing section on the SAT and ACT. 

Colleges, especially liberal arts college programs like Princeton, require a lot of writing from their students. This is a core part of the liberal arts educational model, and it makes sense that when considering students for admissions, they would want to make sure that students are comfortable with this requirement, and adroit at producing the written word.

This also explains why an Honors Program like the one at the University of Houston asks for it. These honors programs are designed to mimic the liberal arts model exemplified by schools like Princeton, so they too want to be sure the students they admit are comfortable with written language. These essays take a different form from standard supplements, and showcase a different set of writing skills.Ā 

Choosing Which Essay to Submit to Princeton

Princeton is at the very least specific about what they want from a graded paper, but thereā€™s a lot of wiggle room left in their specifications. Your paper:

• Should come from an English, Social Studies, or History class
• Have been written in the last three years of high school
• Should be expository writing, not creative writing
• Be one to two pages in length
• Should include the instructorā€™s grade along with any comments they made

The University of Houstonā€™s Honors College is slightly more exacting; they want a literary analysis essay, while this can come from any class, generally only English courses require literary analysis papers. For Princeton, though, you are likely to have a significant number of papers to choose from, which brings up the important question of which essay best represents your academic skills. 

This doesnā€™t necessarily have to be the essay which got the best grade (though of course we advise against submitting one which failed). You should submit a paper that you wrote recently, and which shows off your skill for argumentation and evidence, your ability to craft the written word into interesting argumentative forms. This can be a paper from a test or a homework paper, but you should choose one that is well polished and refined. 

Note that you should absolutely not choose a paper which you used AI to help you write, even if your high school didnā€™t catch it (or didnā€™t penalize you if they did). Princeton is a school with a very strict , and any violation of it in this essay, if detected, will be a major negative on your application, likely resulting in it being discarded outright. 

If you, for some reason, have no essays from a Social Studies, English, or History class, then you are allowed to submit one from another class. The on Princetonā€™s site goes over other edge cases like this as well, especially for non-traditional students. 

If you come down to several papers, all of which fit the requirements, read them again, and try to determine what the writing shows about you. Not your beliefs, but how you construct and evidence an argument, how you structure your thoughts and prove a point rhetorically. This is really what Princeton is looking for, how you are able to express yourself fluently through the written word. 

Creating a Good Writing Sample for Princeton

If you know ahead of time that youā€™re going to apply to Princeton, then congrats, you get to do something very clever, and produce your writing sample intentionally ahead of time. You can look over upcoming assignments and essay-based tests and pick one that best suits your writing style and skills. 

If you are considering doing this, we recommend picking an essay where several drafts are done or encouraged, so you have a chance to work through and improve your writing several times. You can also discuss your intentions with your teacher; indeed, we advise doing this, attending any extra study or preparation sessions the teacher offers to help draft and polish your essay.

Note that the actual topic of the essay does not matter to Princeton (so long as you arenā€™t doing something like arguing for cannibalism or other outre topics). This can be from any of the classes they prefer, we advise one where you have a good relationship with the teacher, and a strong understanding of the subject matter, as this will help you in writing a well-reasoned essay. 

When writing this essay, we recommend following a full and in-depth planning and writing process, even if the class doesnā€™t require it. Decide what you are arguing, and the structure the essay will follow. Each paragraph should contribute its own piece to the broader argument, and each point should be evidenced. They donā€™t need a super-long research paper (and likely donā€™t have time to read one), but do want to see the absolute peak of your writing abilities. 

Teacher feedback matters, but that exists in large part as a verification that this is an essay you wrote for class and turned in, a way to ensure that this is a typical representation of your work. You do not need to ask your teacher to heap effusive praise on this essay; asking for honest feedback on earlier drafts and working hard to implement it is a much better way to get good comments on a final draft. 

As a final note, and one weā€™ve brought up before, donā€™t use AI in crafting this paper. It can be tempting, especially if you are pressed for time or worried about the strength of your writing, but it is counterproductive. Your high school teachers want to read your own words and ideas, and admissions officers are the same. Submitting something drafted with AI will not produce a good writing sample. 

Our Experience With Writing Samples

At our core, ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų excels at helping students write essays. We help with every aspect of college preparation and admissions, but each year, it is the essays which take the most time, and which students are most worried about. We bring this experience to bear on the writing samples as well, especially when students are getting started early. 

We donā€™t write essays for you of course, but we help with drafting and polishing, coaching you through the process of drafting an essay. Creating an argument through text is a skill, one which high schools endeavor to teach, but are not always able to with the time and resources allotted to them. By working one-on-one with students, we are much better able to help them craft solid pieces. 

Not all of our students want to apply to Princeton of course, but over the past few years, our acceptance rate to Princeton has been about twice the average; there is variance year to year of course, but we have been quite pleased as to how well our students have performed. 

Final Thoughts

Colleges want to understand who you are, as both a person and a student, and have only the narrow window the application provides to examine you through. Princeton, with its strong focus on academic rigor and character, makes sense as a school that cares about your past writing, and wants to focus on admitting students who will be able to handle the coursework requirements of the school. While most colleges donā€™t require this kind of writing sample, we hope that this article has helped you understand the ones that do, and what theyā€™re looking for from it.

If you are looking for help with your own application to Princeton, or arenā€™t quite confident in your own writing skills as of yet, then ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų can help. Our mentors are all expert writers, with long experience guiding students through the process of turning ideas into tangible, excellent writing. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more, weā€™re always happy to hear from you. 

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Of course, this same reputation makes it quite competitive for admissions, especially for out-of-state students. In this article, weā€™re going to break down a particular part of that admissions process, namely the Ross Artifact, part of their supplement. Weā€™ll cover what it is and why they want it, then go over an example from a past ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų student, so you can understand how you can answer this question yourself. Letā€™s get started!

The Ross Supplement

Each college within the broader University of Michigan handles admissions separately. Most ask only for the overall application, but the Ross School of Business wants more; namely a pair of additional essays. Given the amount of interest Ross receives, this makes sense; they both want to make sure students are serious enough about attending to be willing to write two more short essays, and have more information to go off of when evaluating students.

The supplement asks for the following two essays: 

1. Choose a current event or issue in your community and discuss the business implications. Propose a solution that incorporates business principles or practices. The review panel will look for creativity, drawing connections, and originality. (Please limit this response to approximately 500 words.)
2. Upload a document or artifact that represents something significant about your life to show your learning in action. Describe how your artifact demonstrates your learning in action. (250 words)

The first of these is an irregular essay perhaps, but it is an essay still, much like you would find at any other college, even if the prompt is unique. Itā€™s a great place for you to show off your passion for business, and any bright ideas you might have for your future endeavors in the field.

The second prompt, however, is far strangers, and throws many students for a loop. They ask for an image, and then writing describing it. This is unique; Rice asks for an image, yes, but the only thing that really compares to this is arts supplements; itā€™s not something anyone really expects to find in a business schoolā€™s application.

Why Does Ross Have This Supplement?

They do not give a specific reason; does share examples of what they accept, but doesnā€™t dive deep into their motivations for asking for such a thing. We can, however, glean some information based on what they highlight, and what they give as past examples of exemplary work.

The first prompt is to delve into your understanding of and approach to business. Ross, as with every school, wants students who will contribute significant things, both while they are students and after they graduate, and they use this first prompt to judge your current understanding of business, and your ambitions within that broader field. This isnā€™t an essay asking why you want to study business, but much more a dive into your understanding of it.

The second item is much more intended to understand you, as a person and student. It doesnā€™t need to be related to business at all (though it certainly can be). Unlike the first essay, this one can much more easily re-use material from another application, with the caveat that you then need an item, a picture, to upload alongside it. 

It is this second part that creates the most challenge for students; if you donā€™t intend to study art, then you likely never expected to need some visual representation of what youā€™ve done and how it showcases your personality. This is, however, a great chance to show off aspects of yourself that you otherwise would not get to in the admissions process. 

A Ross Artifact Example

We arenā€™t going to share an example of a Ross artifact directly, out of respect for our studentsā€™ privacy, but you can see some on University of Michiganā€™s . We will, however, include an example of what a student wrote for this essay, and a brief description of what they included for their artifact, along with a selection of other artifact descriptions from students past. 

Example

After an hour of intense debating, my eyes were locked on the judgeā€™s hand as he wrote his vote on the ballot. ā€œGreat round. It was close, but I vote for the affirmative.ā€ The corners of my mouth turned down involuntarily. Losing the round meant that I couldnā€™t qualify for state for another three weeks. I knew that in order to qualify, I would have to work more diligently than ever.

The artifact I have submitted is a rebuttal redo from the round I lost. In a rebuttal redo, debaters get together and remodel their unsatisfactory round, adding the judgeā€™s feedback while the other debater listens and offers feedback. After a few days of contemplating the judgeā€™s comments, I called my friend and asked her to be my redo partner. 

Although this recording is only nine minutes long, it accurately reflects my learning process. Analyzing and applying the judgeā€™s comments, I added ā€œweighingā€ arguments and additional responses to the ā€œframeworkā€. After delivering the redo to Charly, I absorbed her observations and applied them to future debate rounds. After countless redos, I successfully qualified for state. I am eager to employ the same process of learning in college.

Artifact Analysis

This is a short essay, at merely 250 words, but is a chance for you to show off aspects of your interests and values you have not had the chance to cover yet elsewhere in your application. In the example above, the student chose to focus on an example outside of business; namely, their experience as a debater. 

Debate is an interesting activity, partway between sport and academic endeavor, but the point of this essay and the submitted artifact in this case is not to highlight the thrill of victory over the authorā€™s competitors. Instead, it focuses on a less-viewed aspect, how the author responds to failure, and how they learned from and built upon the lessons of that.

There is a brief discussion of what the artifact is; this is important to provide context, especially if it is something the judges may be unfamiliar with. A photo of you playing baseball is likely to be self-explanatory, other images may need more context. In this case, the student needed to explain what the artifact itself was, and then its significance in the realm of debate. This can be important; admissions officers know a lot, but they wonā€™t know the particulars of every activity. If your artifact is related to something niche, or relies on understanding of the workings of a very particular field, then you will also need to include context like this.

Note that any description of what an artifact is should be brief; you only have 250 words for this essay, and the bulk should be spent on why this artifact is important; not what it is so much as what it symbolizes for you. 

In the example above, the author explains how this artifact showcases their response to a failure, and how they learned from and built upon this failure. This is a way for them to demonstrate their values and resilience, and also to showcase a side of themselves that admissions officers like seeing.

You will encounter failure in college; at some point things will go wrong, and youā€™ll bomb a test, have a catastrophic lab, or write an essay that completely misses the mark. Whatā€™s important is how you respond to that failure when it occurs, learning and growing from it, rather than letting it overwhelm you. This essay does a good job of that, showcasing the authorā€™s resilience. 

Your own essay doesnā€™t need to showcase this specific value; indeed, you can highlight any particular aspect of your personality you feel is worth showing to admissions officers. This can reuse another essay you wrote, highlighting your leadership, or an extracurricular you excelled in, or some other aspect of your life and skills worth noting. This can be related to business, but does not need to be. 

Choosing an Artifact

Your own choice of artifact can be almost any image, from photograph to schematics to certificate; the point is not the image itself, but the story behind it. When you apply to college, you are telling admissions officers the story of you, and the point of this artifact is to contribute to this story. 

You should begin by picking what story you want to tell, and then choose an artifact based on that, rather than the reverse. If you have already written another essay exemplifying one of your values or activities for another college that you havenā€™t already discussed in your University of Michigan application, then you can definitely adapt that. You will need to add to the essay to explain what the artifact is and how it relates to your message, but the core of the essay can remain the same.

As always, we advocate never doing more work than you have to; working smarter is the best way to reduce the stress of the college application season.

Final Thoughts

The University of Michigan is an excellent school, and their business program is one of the best in the country. As with every great program, admissions are competitive, all the more so because of the unusual approach they take to the essays they ask for. We hope this article has given you the insight you need to understand the Ross artifact, and how you can best represent yourself in your application to the university.

Every application has a lot of moving parts, and the Ross artifact is just one of the things youā€™ll need to keep track of when you apply. If you are looking for help writing your own essays to Ross, or on polishing any other aspect of your application, then ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų can help. Our mentors are experts at every aspect of college admissions, and have seen plenty of students get into Michigan. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more; weā€™re always happy to hear from you. 

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Answering these is often a challenge for students, as many college essays are. In this article, weā€™re going to go over each of the prompts the UC system has, then give an example of a past essay written by an ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų student to answer it, and analyze what that essay does well. Finally, weā€™ll give you some brief advice on knowing what prompts you should answer. Letā€™s get started!

The Mechanics of UC Personal Insight Questions

There are eight prompts for the Personal Insight Questions (PIQs); you must choose four of these to answer. Each essay you write can be up to 350 words long, we generally recommend you make use of all of this space (as you will see in the examples below).

As with the Common App, these answers are entered directly into the online form. You should compose your essays ahead of time and edit them in a separate document, then enter and upload them only once you are ready to submit. You may choose any four of the questions to answer; the schools give no preference.

As with the Common App essay, these responses go out to each of the UC schools you are applying to. Thus, none of them should address the schools directly; UC Santa Barbara has no desire to read about how much you love UCLA, or what a great fit UC San Diego is for you. Your responses should focus on you and your accomplishments, what you have done and what your values are. 

We will now go through each prompt in turn, and give an example of a response to each, along with analysis. You need only answer four of these, but weā€™ll give examples for all of them.

Leadership Essay Example

Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time. (350 words)

ā€œZai jian,ā€ my dad says as he leaves home to manage our family restaurant two hours away. 

ā€œXiao xin,ā€ my mom replies as she locks her office door behind her. Though my dad works onsite, my mom works at home, taking care of all the financial aspects of our family business. 

Once alone, I see the light flicker above me, hear the faucet drip in the kitchen, and eye a cracked tile beneath my shoe. The responsibility of housework falls upon me. When light bulbs burn out, rusty faucets leak, and expired food piles up in the fridge, I take matters into my own hands. While my parents are busy running their business, Iā€™m busy running our home.

My journey into home improvement began when the first wave of video doorbells entered the market. Intrigued by the night vision functionality, I was the first to pounce and install one. I began to see other ways I could help — installing smart light bulbs not only lasted longer, but saved power and lowered energy costs. I began to replace old, burnt-out ones with newer, more energy-efficient ones instead.

Two years ago, when the sink basin began to rust and the wooden cabinets started to fall apart, I became responsible for picking out new, more durable wood and deciding on a more efficient floorplan that worked for all of us. Since then, Iā€™ve taken on even more responsibilities at home, from installing security cameras to replacing frayed wires by soldering new ones. I change broken light switches for new smart switches, and research and purchase new appliances like dishwashers and microwave ovens when their time comes. 

I am glad to have taken on the role of in-house contractor. My parents have given me amazing support to pursue my interests in robotics, coding, and videography, and have given me an opportunity to develop a sense of responsibility and the grit to solve everyday problems. 

Fixing our home is my way of thanking my parents for their hard work with a bit of my own.

Leadership Essay Analysis

The key to understanding how to answer this prompt is to understand what counts as leadership. The prompt wants to see how you positively influenced a group via your leadership; which means this isnā€™t something you were directed to do by others, but came from some intrinsic motivation. The UCs want to see how you stepped up and assumed responsibility, whether through a position which imparts it (such as student council), or in a more informal setting (such as the above essay).

Whatever essay you write should impart how you showed leadership, why it was necessary for you to do so, and what you learned from the experience. Showing how your experience with leadership made you learn and grow as a person will add further depth to the essay, and allow you to show off your other values and qualities. 

A narrative is often the easiest way to answer this question, either with a deep dive into a single instance, or a more extended overview of your process of assuming a leadership role, as in the above essay. It is possible to write a non-narrative essay about leadership, but this is often more difficult. Regardless of the style of essay, make sure you convey how you acted as a leader.

What do leaders do? They demonstrate leadership by taking on responsibility, offering guidance to others, working for a goal greater than themselves, or directing the efforts of a group. Regardless of how you personally showed leadership, this essay should demonstrate how you have acted as a leader.

The UC schools value leadership greatly, so we recommend answering this question if you are able to. Demonstrating that you are willing and able to take initiative when called upon is a trait all colleges like to see, but the UC schools, especially UCLA and Berkeley, value it more than most. This is a question asked by many schools, and if you are converting another leadership essay for this prompt, consider adding more details, and a deeper exploration of what you learned from the experience.

Creative Essay Example

Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side. (350 words)

My feet hit the floor to the beat of the tablaā€”a classical Indian instrument. 

In Hindi, ā€œguruā€ means teacher, and Shiva Aunty was my guru. She opened my eyes to Kathak, an Indian classical dance form originating from North India. For six years, I learned the graceful art which was focused on telling a story through facial expressions and rhythmic footwork. 

Unable to find a Kathak guru after moving, I pursued my passion for Indian dance through another styleā€”Bharatanatyam. This style originated from South India, emphasizing firm movements. I eagerly drove to Sowmya Auntyā€™s classes and danced as though there was no tomorrow. 

As I transitioned schools, I wasnā€™t able to continue to attend my Bharatanatyam lessons. Instead, I watched Bollywood dance videos and aspired to dance like my favorite Indian actresses. At the end of junior year, I rallied my creative juices, choreographed an Arshia-version of a Bollywood dance to a Hindi song, and performed with my floormates for our school talent show. 

Both junior and senior year, Iā€™ve signed up for studio dance, one of the fine arts offered at my school. Iā€™m definitely not the best at hip-hopā€”popping and locking donā€™t really blend with my classical upbringing. But itā€™s a way for me to giggle at myself as I swing my arms and jump side to side with my friends. When our studio teacher, Aubrey, instructs us to freestyle in the middle of the gym floor, I no longer hold back. I spin to the hip-hop beat, remembering my Kathak roots and exhibiting a mixture of my Kathak-hip-hop rendition of Andy Grammerā€™s ā€œGood to be Alive.ā€ 

Iā€™ve been able to gain a richer understanding of my culture through my classical upbringing by learning about the background and importance of the dance styles. Though itā€™s been challenging to find ways to continue dancing, Iā€™ve realized that remaining connected to my culture and passions is whatā€™s most important to meā€”resulting in my ability to spread a creative blend of Indian and American dance through our Melting Pot. 

Creative Essay Analysis

This prompt is rather open ended, as creativity is something which everyone expresses differently. This is a good prompt to answer if you want to highlight your artistic talents, and if you are applying as an art major you should definitely answer this prompt. If you are otherwise engaged in artistic or traditionally creative extracurriculars, this prompt will be easier to answer. If you have a definitive answer for this prompt, you should consider answering it, even if it involves a non-traditional creative outlet. If you canā€™t come up with an answer, move on to another prompt, instead of struggling to answer one which does not complement your skills and character.

The example above discusses the authorā€™s relationship with dance. First through learning several traditional styles of Indian dance, then through learning choreography, and finally through melding their traditional styles with American hip hop. While this essay is mainly about how the author interacts with dance, and through that the wider world, they also express several other values in the essay. They show a willingness to step outside their comfort zone, and learn new styles of dance. They show an eagerness to collaborate with others, and a desire to experience new things.

What the author does well in this example is going beyond merely answering the question. While they do answer the question posed well, they also take this as a chance to demonstrate who they are as a person and artist to admissions officers. This is clearly an important aspect of their personality, and this essay gives them a chance to dive deeply into one of their extracurriculars. While the UC application does give more space to discuss your activities than the Common App, for one as important as this clearly is, itā€™s good to devote an essay to exploring its impact on you more deeply.

This prompt is not a good one to answer for everyone, but can be a good opportunity to show another side of yourself to admissions, and add some depth to your essay. If you unwind from doing calculus by teaching yourself guitar, or find beauty in creating video games, then this essay will allow you to show yourself and your activities in a different light. Admissions officers want to see the most complete and genuine portrait of you possible. If your creative activities are integral to understanding who you are, you should definitely respond to this prompt.

Education Example

Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.

My mind was dominated by Calculus II. Pop quizzes and five-question exams presented uncertainties that I had never encountered before; the idea of academic failure sent chills down my spine. What was previously unfathomable soon became a reality. I held the grade report in my trembling hands, peering down at a letter I had never seen. As my shock dissipated, I faced the challenging task of restarting my stalled learning process. Step by step I inched my way into Dr. Kighuradzeā€™s office, the tension tightening my shoulders. Admitting I had a problem was my first step, and it was all downhill from there.

Resources were abundant, but what made the difference was a paradigm shift: starting the school year scared of failure, I finished with the Zen acceptance that failure was an opportunity to self-correct. The word ā€œcalculusā€ became less daunting. Fear now fueled me to push forward, driving me to engage with the problems that provoked me. Intrinsically motivated and driven by a thirst for knowledge, I dug into the theoretical groundwork of my exams as well as the mechanics of their problems, determined to hunt down every last bit of confusion. The journey to the top of calculus mountain concluded, my grade 16 points higher.

Evaluating antiderivatives and natural logarithms taught me more about myself than I ever expected. I now view life through a different lensā€” one that shows me I am capable of overcoming anything. The ā€œBā€ I received reflects this. ā€œBā€ no longer means ā€œbad.ā€ It now means ā€œbold.ā€ The word has shifted in my vocabulary from being used in the context of Microsoft Word, to a word I use to describe myself. When I face new challenges, I am proud to say I have new things to learn. Where I once saw my transcript as merely a record of attending classes, I now see it as a showcase of my resilience.

Education Analysis

If you struggled academically in highschool due to circumstances outside of your control, or if you took part in an educational opportunity outside of the norm, this essay is the place to discuss it. The prompt goes in two directions simultaneously, the first aimed at those who received an educational opportunity not commonly available, the second aimed at those who struggled academically and succeeded in spite of barriers. This essay allows you to give greater context to the grades you received, and to your academic accomplishments.

Note that this essay is not a place to try and explain away every poor grade. Instead, if you faced circumstances which interrupted your education or otherwise made success difficult, this is a palace to expound upon them. Admissions officers know that many circumstances are out of your control as a student, but they want to see how you dealt with the challenges which you faced, and how you worked to overcome them.

The example above shows how to approach the subject of academic challenges and failures in a concrete way. The author details how they confronted their own shortcomings in calculus, and how they worked to overcome them. The idea of shifting mentality, and recontextualizing a problem is a good one. This shows personal growth, and that a change occurred besides ā€œworking harderā€ or some movie montage of late nights in a library. 

Explaining the problem you faced and how you overcame it in concrete terms helps contextualize your academic performance. In the example above, the way the author frames their journey shows their maturation, both as a person and as a scholar. Failure is often part of the learning process, and while a consistent record of failure may harm your application, this essay is a chance to show how you overcame and learned from failure.

Not everyone will need to complete this essay, and not everyone should. Only if you have educational pursuits, good or ill, which you think deserve a greater depth of explanation should this be one of the essays you select. While colleges will get a report from your counselor as to the difficulty of the classes you took and other information relevant to the school, this essay is a place to explain how you interacted and learned from the process as a whole. If your educational journey deviated far from the norm, this is a good essay for you to write.

Challenge Essay Example

Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?

5:30AM: ā€œWake up! Youā€™re gonna be late for cross country practice!ā€ 

What had been an ā€˜emptyā€™ threat used to get me off the couch all summer was suddenly a reality. Picture a scrawny newb tiptoeing across the linoleum, blending into the lockers like a chameleon in a den of fierce varsity lions. As I prepared to run the first mile of my life, the track extended before me like a python coiling around its prey. Within minutes, my lungs ached and my shins stung as my sneakers hit the turf, and by the time I finally crossed the finish line, the other runnersā€™ sweat had already dried. 10 minutes, 38 seconds. I never wanted to see the track again. When my dad asked me how practice went, I lied and said I didnā€™t make the team, but he saw right through me. I resorted to syllogisms, puppy-dog-eyes, and everything in between, but he wouldnā€™t budge.

Although I had shaved more than two minutes off my turtlish mile time within a few months, I never even made the top 50% in the participation race. Rather than getting frustrated, I slowly shifted my line of sight from the finish line to the track itself, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, aligning my breath with each step, and embracing who I was in the moment: The Winded Cross Country Star.

My life has been a succession of sprints toward an ever-moving finish line. From grades and test scores to hobbies and extracurriculars, my incessant pursuit of achievement has often left me exhausted and unfulfilled. Cross countryā€™s seemingly unattainable finish lines in the distance sparked a shift in my understanding of a life well lived. Running has enabled me to balance this pursuit of achievement with an appreciation for ā€œthe raceā€ itself. This mentality will serve as my starting block at the University of California.

Challenge Essay Analysis

This prompt is somewhat similar to the previous one, but with a wider scope. Instead of only academic challenges, you are free to discuss whatever setback life threw your way which proved most challenging. In addition, you should discuss how this challenge impacted your academics, for good or ill. If you struggled in classes for reasons outside of school, this prompt may be a better place to discuss those setbacks than the previous one. 

The challenge you face does not necessarily have to impact your academics negatively. In the example above, the author learns valuable lessons in perseverance and acquired a new perspective on chasing success, which translated to their academic interests as well. Challenges can teach many lessons, though they may come painfully, and seeing how those lessons can be applied in new circumstances allows you to avoid having to learn the same lesson twice.

The authorā€™s struggles with cross country are small things, relative to the grand scheme, but that is often the case. All struggles are personal, and someone always has it worse. While you should avoid making a big deal about nothing, if you struggled mightily with something and learned valuable lessons from the experience, this essay is a place to share. 

This is a less popular prompt, as not everyone has faced a significant challenge, or learned an important lesson from overcoming one. If you did face major challenges outside of school, and they did impact your academic performance, you should detail that here. You should also include what you learned from these challenges, and what new perspectives you gained. Many people face challenges, and colleges want to see students who are able to succeed in spite of them, or learn valuable lessons from them.

If you have not faced challenges of this sort, consider answering another prompt instead. This prompt can highlight lessons you learned the hard way, and highlight your character, but it is one of the harder prompts to respond to, and there is no shame in selecting one of the more straightforward ones.

Academic Interest Example

Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. 

During my second semester of junior year, I was able to deepen my friendships with some fascinating friendsā€” Heterochromatin, Poly(A) tails, Genes, Hairpin Loops, Proteins, and of course, DNA and RNA. The genetics course that I took during junior year sparked a passion for understanding the mechanisms that made my new friends tick and how their dispositions changed our lives. 

Guided by my mentor, I now conduct graduate-level research on the neurodegenerative disease, Friedreich Ataxia (FA). By growing my own cell cultures using FA patient cells, assisting with bisulfite conversion (a process which changes the chemical makeup of DNA), and helping with polymerase chain reactions (a lab technique used to amplify a gene), I learned techniques that help me ask new, better questions than I used to. Participating in these activities with my macromolecular friends, I saw a future in science where I could both have fun and make a positive difference in the world. Then, I made a mistake.

After my first experiment went awryā€”I should have taken extra steps against cross-contaminationā€”I was terrified to admit my mistake to the team. I never would have guessed that I was actually going through a rite of passage for every scientist. I was stunned when a senior researcher beat me to the punch at our weekly lab meetings, telling us that she made the same mistake and discussed the protocol she should have followed. The small moment changed my perspective; I began to see research not only as living up to expectations, but as discovering new and improved techniques. All of a sudden, what felt like a risk now felt like an opportunity.

I knew that I loved scienceā€”after all, I do go to a math and science schoolā€”but having the ability to have hands-on experiences has truly driven me forward to act on my passions. The ability for me to take the step toward my passions for science has reemphasized my determination to make a difference in this world as I plan to work to learn about the genetics surrounding neuroscienceā€”how genetic predispositions differ culturally, affecting mental health globally. Iā€™ve expanded my friend group. Now, it includes DNA methyltransferase, CpG islands, and Dr. Bidichandani and his team. 

Academic Interest Analysis

This essay is similar to a Why Major essay, without specifically calling itself a Why Major essay. If you have already had to write, or will have to write, an essay about your academic interests and what you want to major in, this is a very easy prompt to answer. It is also a good prompt to answer generally, as some of the UC schools admit by major, and are keen to see what caused your interest in the subject.

The above essay does a very good job of this. The author clearly displays their passions for science, goes in depth into one of their extracurriculars in the field, and also shows how they grew and matured as a researcher. In this way the essay is able to do many things at once, and is stronger for it.

This example does touch briefly on the authorā€™s plans to consider pursuing biology in the future, but it is almost an afterthought. This is as it should be, the main focus of this essay should be what you have already done, and not on what you plan to do. As this essay goes to every school in the UC system you apply to, just like the personal statement, it cannot be school specific. This means the normal advice of targeting an essay about specific majors to a school does not apply in this instance. Instead dive deeper into why you became interested in the field in the first place, and how you explored those passions.

This is an easier prompt to answer, and we recommend that most students answer it, especially if you have heavy involvement with extracurriculars which match your interests. This provides a place to dive deeply into one of your activities and what it taught you, and to demonstrate how your passion for a subject was formed and nourished. If you are able to include other values and lessons, as the above essay does, all the better.

Community Example

What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?  

“YES! I GOT IT RIGHT!” 

Amidst the kids’ joyous cheering, I couldn’t help but laugh aloud. STAAR was right around the corner, and the elementary students were lively, happy, and ready. Over the past fifteen months, I had learned more than I ever could have taught. 

When I co-founded PiLinguals with my friend, the club was focused exclusively on facilitating a small, weekly math circle for aspiring AIME qualifiers. Cloistered in the local library every other Saturday afternoon, we coached middle schoolers through tough problems and difficult theorems ā€“ all in the hopes that they would breach the boundary to the AIME, which some soon did. 

However, after six months of diligent work, our mission suddenly and definitively shifted when we glimpsed a striking lack of textbooks, encyclopedias, and computers during a community service visit to local elementary schools. We turned PiLinguals into a collaborative non-profit organization focused on broadening STEM learning opportunities for all children, not just competition trainees. And in doing so, we’ve discovered a new sense of passion. 

Now, weekends are bustling. One day I’m explaining fossil fuels to a class of elementary kids, and the next I’m reviewing De Moivreā€™s Theorem with rising mathletes. Excitedly reading technical postulates and presenting intriguing analogies fills me with joy, allowing me to apply my own creative twists to simplify largely-obscure concepts. 

As I have taught, I have also learned much more. While scrambling door-to-door and pleading for book donations, hosting PiLingual’s very own charity competition, and speaking our Middle School’s Career Day, I have learned how to coordinate large-scale fundraisers and other meaningful events for worthy causes. Our traction allowed us to take our efforts to AoPS, a popular math problem solving website and discussion forum that now hosts more than 300 of our online students.

But our work isn’t done. We plan to expand even further, and are already establishing a branch in Maryland. PiLinguals has taught me how to interact with the students around me, but most importantly, how to be a leader in my community and spread the love of education. 

Community Analysis

This question is looking for how you contributed positively to a community you have been a part of. The question itself is very vague; this is intentional, as there are many ways communities are expressed, and many ways students have made them better. These schools want to admit students who are eager to improve their communities, and use past evidence of involvement to gauge whether students will be well suited to continue doing so in the future.

Your community impact does not have to be world-changing, but you should show a genuine willingness to help make the world better through your efforts. The magnitude of your impact on the community is one of the better ways to measure success, but it is not the only one.

In the example above, the author describes how their initial community involvement, impressive in its own right, grew into something larger. By showing how their connection grew naturally, and how much they were willing to do for the community they were a part of, they clearly show their values. At the end, where they discuss plans for future expansion of their program, they show that they arenā€™t willing to accept a modest success and coast, but are instead constantly looking to improve even further.

There is no correct answer to this question, no singular form of community service which is clearly better or which admissions officers value more. Instead, you should demonstrate your own passions and willingness to work to improve communities you are a part of. It is this passion and drive that admissions officers are looking for. 

This is one of the easiest and most straightforward essays to answer for the UC prompts, as so many schools ask similar questions. This essay allows you to discuss one of your extracurriculars in depth, and also demonstrate what values you hold to admissions officers. We recommend this prompt, as it is an easy way to show what you care about, and who you are as a person. 

Free Response Example

Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?

Ascending the headquartersā€™ steps, I imagined my time at the campaign headquarters would be spent tediously phone banking and endlessly canvassing door-to-door. Speaking to the Field Director, though, I learned she instead wanted help reaching out to the underrepresented Asian voters by creating relational networks from databases of volunteersā€™ friends and family. 

Initially, the campaign envisioned a simple Excel-based system to track potential voters; However, as the field director walked me through the Texas Democratsā€™ extensive online database and taught me how to analyze raw voter data, it dawned on me that I could apply familiar algorithmic concepts to carry out the campaignā€™s vision. 

To construct the system, I canvassed from one side of the city to the other, requesting and gathering daily early voting reports from three county offices. Returning to campaign headquarters, I was immediately greeted whole-heartedly by the staff and welcomed into the tech room: I was now a fully-fledged member of the team.

For the next six weeks until the start of early voting, I tirelessly improved upon the system. I compressed hundreds of relational and voting files, creating a mailing system that updated the nearly 250 volunteers with daily emails indicating whether their friends had voted yet. By the time election day arrived, the system had gone through dozens of iterations.

As I watched the results roll in on November 6th, coding transformed from an abstract language into concrete action capable of changing the world. The painstaking hours I spent constructing the system, the countless phone calls I made with the field directors, the numerous team meetings I had eagerly joined ā€“ all were worth it. 

We lost the election, but each and every new refinement to my program was a small step toward changing the political system as a whole. I helped narrow the gap from 20% to 5% ā€“ an unprecedented turnout for a Texas-based Democrat candidate. 

It was a first step ā€“ not just for political representation of the Asian community, but for me as a future programmer and conscientious citizen.

Free Response Analysis

This is quite possibly the broadest possible prompt for a college essay. You can write about almost anything, so long as it is germane to your application. This is a good chance to show off other values you hold, other lessons youā€™ve learned, or other extracurriculars youā€™ve taken part in. Ideally, you can cover all three in a single essay. While this choice may seem overwhelming, it is also freeing. You can cover any topics you wish which you think will show your best aspects to a school.

The example above is about many things at once, but tells the reader a number of important things about the author. It is, in part, a challenge essay. While this may not have been the biggest challenge the author faced, this response holds similarities to responses to the challenge prompt above. The author explains the difficulties they faced, the long odds against them, and what they learned and accomplished in spite of their apparent failure. While their candidate did not get elected, they contributed to the democratic process, increased voter turnout, and expanded their skillset as a programmer.

This essay further explores the authorā€™s role in the Asian-American community, especially in regards to political involvement. While the essay does not delve deep into the authorā€™s own ideas about identity, it is an undercurrent which informs the events in the essay.

The values the author learned are perhaps the most important part of the essay. Failure is a part of life and learning, and can be a good teacher if you let it. While the author and the campaign they worked on did not win, they did increase voter participation, and create a system which will be used and built upon in the future. Winning isnā€™t everything, and the author displays maturity in knowing that, and acknowledging the positives that came alongside their electoral loss.

Your own essay does not have to be on the subject of a challenge, or a failure. What it should do is display what values you hold, what lessons youā€™ve learned, and who you are as a person. This is a high bar, and if you would have an easier time answering one of the more constrained prompts, there is no shame in it. The other benefit this prompt provides is a chance to repackage your personal statement, if it canā€™t be used to answer any of the other prompts. You put a lot of effort into perfecting your personal statement, and using it to answer one of UCā€™s prompts is a great way to cut down on the amount of writing you have to do.

Which UC PIQs Should You Answer?

Now that weā€™ve seen all of these examples, the question facing you is which of these questions you should answer. Thereā€™s no single right way to do this, but we do have some advice to ensure that your time is spent both wisely and well. 

First, you should try to cross apply essays where you can. If you already need to write an essay about a particular activity or answer a similar prompt for another collegeā€™s supplemental, then you should use it for one of these essays as well. Never make more work for yourself if you donā€™t need to. 

Next, you should always turn your personal statement into the answer for one of these essays. UC schools donā€™t want your personal statement, but you spent a lot of time and effort working on making a great one, and you shouldnā€™t allow that to go to waste either. Which prompt this answer depends on what you wrote, but thereā€™s always prompt 8 if it doesnā€™t match any of the others. 

Finally, if you complete the additional information section on the Common App, some of that information, especially if you had an academic disruption, could be used to answer the related UC question. This wonā€™t always be relevant; some things discussed in the Additional Info section wonā€™t fit the prompt, but it is worth looking into. 

Final Thoughts

The University of California schools are excellent, and include some of the best public universities in the country. Their application can feel daunting, especially since their essays are something of a departure from the Common App. We hope that this article has given you the insight you need to properly answer these questions, and to figure out which essays will best enable you to tell your story. 

If you are looking for help with your applications, or advice on crafting these essays when you apply to UC schools, then ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų can help. Our mentors are well experienced at guiding students through the essay writing process, and weā€™ve helped students get into every one of the UC schools before. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more about how we can help you.

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Virginia Techā€™s AI Essay Review

In an in late July, Virginia Tech unveiled two major admissions changes. The first is that their early admissions deadline is moving up, from November 15 to November 1. The second is that they are integrating a new review system where essays are read by both human reviewers and an automated system. This, understandably, caused a great deal of concern amongst prospective students. To help clarify things, a provost from Virginia Tech sat down for an interview with .

In Virginia Techā€™s current system, essays are first read and scored by two human reviewers; if their scores differ by four or more points, then they are reviewed and rescored by a third. In the new approach, the essays are read by a human and this new AI tool; if the AI score differs from the human one by two points or more, then the essay is reviewed again by another human reader. 

This is not a commercial tool, but one developed and iterated on in-house by Virginia Tech, though they are not releasing all of the data on it publicly. Their goal in this is to lessen the burden on admissions officers and to return decisions to students faster; they had to read 500,000 essays last year, and as application numbers continue to rise, they are looking for ways to streamline the process. 

One thing they make clear is that all essays will still be reviewed by humans, and that humans, and not this system, will have final say in how these essays are scored. This new system is intended to serve as a tool first and foremost, something to help admissions officers in their work, rather than replacing them. This is something we understand, though its efficacy remains to be seen. 

How Virginia Tech Reviews Applicants

We are going to dive a little deeper into how Virginia Tech reviews applicants, since they do look at more than the essays. Compared to some schools, which major you are applying for is extremely important at Virginia Tech, and changes everything from how competitive your applicant pool is to how they weight different portions of your application, including the essays. 

Academic preparation is always most important, and essays after that, though some majors and programs put far more importance on essays than others. Virginia Tech unfortunately does not offer a granular breakdown of which majors care about which application pieces. 

Finally, Virginia Tech does not ask for the personal statement on the Common App, but instead has four supplemental essay prompts they ask students to answer instead. It is these essays that are going to face the new AI review. 

Are Other Universities Going to Use AI Tools Like This?

At some point, almost certainly. When and how, however, are more open questions. Virginia Tech was facing two related problems in dealing with their admissions that they thought this tool could help them solve: 

1. They are receiving such a high volume of applications compared to previous years that itā€™s taking admissions officers much longer to review them all.
2. Because of how long it takes to review applications, by the time decisions go out, many students that Virginia Tech wanted to attend have already committed to other schools.

While Virginia Tech may be feeling these particular problems more acutely than many of their peers, these are hardly unique circumstances. A great many colleges are seeing similar spikes in application numbers, and admissions officers are being stretched ever thinner to get decisions out in a timely manner. That said, there are likely a few approaches colleges will take to implementing AI review. 

As Counter-AI Tools

One change most every college has made this admissions cycle is new policies stating that students should not use AI tools to generate their essays. There are several ways to check for AI usage, from reader intuition all the way to dedicated tools. As AI use becomes increasingly prevalent, we anticipate more and more colleges will begin using automatic detection software to flag AI use in essays. 

Now, these tools have many problems, and flagged essays should still be subject to human review. But as a simple tool; we understand why colleges would use it.

Following Virginia Techā€™s Lead

Virginia Tech is the first, and we anticipate a lot of schools are going to watch and see how this goes for them. If it works well, then we anticipate schools that consider themselves to be peers with Virginia Tech to begin experimenting with similar programs. Not all will decide to go through with them of course, but all of these schools are facing similar pressures, and if Virginia Tech has found a solution that works, then other universities will take note. 

No AI Use At All

We anticipate that some schools wonā€™t implement AI use for review at all, particularly among the most competitive schools, the Ivy League and their peers. These schools do get an incredible number of applications, but they also have the resources to hire admissions officers to deal with it. Just as they now emphasize holistic review, we anticipate having all applications reviewed by humans alone to become a selling point. 

Finally, we do not anticipate any universities, or at least not accredited ones, to use AI without human oversight to review essays. These tools, while useful, are still tools, and need human correction often. 

How Does This Impact You?

Currently, very little, unless you are planning on applying to Virginia Tech this year. As AI tools grow more common, however, we anticipate a more widespread adoption of them for this use. In those cases, there is still likely to be little change for students; the colleges that care heavily about essays still will, and what they are looking for from students is unlikely to change. 

The biggest question is how these tools will score essays, and how they will compare to a human reader. More varied and unconventional essay structures may trip these programs up, but without being able to test these systems, we canā€™t say for sure. There are hazards here, that these tools may introduce some unforeseen quirk or bias into how admissions decisions are made, though human oversight should be able to correct that.

Overall, we recommend making sure your own essays are as well written and polished as possible, and written by human hands alone, without AI involvement. While these are useful tools, colleges are cracking down on their use in applications ever harder, and you donā€™t want to do anything that will jeopardize your chances of acceptance.

Final Thoughts

College applications change with the changing times. No more are applications filled out by hand and sent in by mail. Just as the digital age transformed applications, so too do these new AI tools seem to have the potential to do the same. Whether or not Virginia Tech is a pioneer or this experiment fails, we, along with many other colleges and students, will be watching with interest. 

We hope this article has given you a good sense of what Virginia Tech is doing and why, and how this new inclusion of AI tools in admissions may impact you. Even as these tools become more prevalent, writing excellent essays remains one of the best ways to impress colleges and increase your chances of admission. If you want to learn more, or gain help from experts to craft your own essays, then schedule a free consultation with us today; weā€™re always happy to hear from you.

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What are Cover Letters anyway?

Cover letters are a component of many job applications, and can also be referred to as introductory letters or letters of motivation. Their purpose is to introduce applicants to employers, so they can better understand who you are and why you want the job you are applying to. 

Traditionally, cover letters fulfilled the following purposes: 

• Giving more insight into relevant experience you have. Your resume covers everything youā€™ve done, but the cover letter has space to give full context to how those skills will work for the desired role.
• Explaining why you want a particular job, and what attracts you to this career.Ā 
• Giving more context to anything in your resume or otherwise that employers may need to know, such as additional skills you have.Ā 

In addition, many jobs currently use cover letters as a basic test of competency and fluency in language, seeing if you can use words to make your point clearly and succinctly. There is also a trend of using cover letters to prescreen applicants; eliminating those from applying who are unwilling to do the work of writing a cover letter in the first place.

Many companies are also using automated tools to screen applicants for their suitability for positions; reviewing both resumes and cover letters before a human does. This is due to the high volume of applicants some jobs receive.

Generally, however, high school students donā€™t need to worry about this. Most jobs you will be applying to will not ask for cover letters; Burger King knows you arenā€™t particularly passionate about hamburgers, they just care that youā€™ll show up on time and not burn the building down. 

There are some occasions where you will need cover letters however, namely when applying to internships. In many ways, the experience of having to write a cover letter is part of the experience of the internship; teaching you how to apply for a job much as the internship itself teaches you about the mechanics of a particular field. While not all positions you apply to as a high school student will want cover letters, there are a significant number that will.

How to Write a Cover Letter

The best way to explain how to write a cover letter is to give you an example letter, and then to explain what it does well. To that end, here is a letter written by a past ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų student seeking to apply to an internship. Note that we have edited this letter somewhat to anonymize it.

Example Cover Letter

Dear [Employer],

I am writing to express my keen interest in an internship position with you, which I view as an early-stage leader in leveraging deep learning for the biomechanics of athletes. As a sophomore at Generic High School, I have been steering my academic and extracurricular pursuits towards a future in sports medicine, driven by my fascination with human physiology and kinesiology, and their applications in improving athletic performance and injury prevention.

My passion for the biomechanics of sports is not limited to theoretical knowledge. As an avid tennis player, I struggled with correcting my own form and can empathize with the vast majority of your target customer demographic. This shared perspective enables me to provide potential insights to further enhance the value proposition and identify additional market opportunities. In particular, I have been intrigued by how understanding biomechanics is pivotal for athletes. This led me to continually analyze and optimize me and my teammatesā€™ movements, a practice that aligns closely with your mission to transform sports training through innovative solutions.

My previous experiences, such as my role as an Operations Researcher at Generic High School DECA, have equipped me with skills in research, data analysis, and strategic problem-solving. Specifically, my work on inducing genetic mutations in bacteria colonies and enhancing operations efficiency at a veterans clinic demonstrates my capability to contribute effectively to diverse areas of work, including Research & Development and new product development.

I am particularly excited about the opportunity to work in a company that is at the forefront of integrating AI with sports science. My hands-on experience in tennis and my academic interest in sports medicine provide me with a unique perspective that aligns with your mission to enhance education for athletes and coaches.

Thank you for considering my application. I am eager to bring my diverse skill set to your lab and contribute to your innovative projects. I have attached my CV, and very much look forward to the opportunity to discuss how my background, skills, and interests align with the needs of your team.

Sincerely,

John Doe

Cover Letter Analysis

This cover letter does a lot of things right, so letā€™s go through it step by step to look at what it does, and why itā€™s effective. First, it gets right to the point. This is not a standard letter where you spend time on pleasantries first; that is not expected nor necessary. Instead, begin by saying what position you want, and then introducing yourself. Since you are a high school student, this introduction should invariably feature where you are attending school, and what grade you are in. 

If you are applying to an internship involving a particular field, you should highlight any coursework you have taken which relates to that field. This is not always possible, especially early in high school. 

Your next paragraph should discuss your interest in the field of the internship; why are you interested in this particular subject, and what past experience do you have with it. This can relate to personal experience as the letter above does, or tie in to past learning experiences or classes you have taken, or to your future career goals. Whatever your motivations are, you should express them clearly and concisely. 

Follow this up by providing more details about past experiences you have which give you needed skills for the field. These can either be directly related, where you have had positions before doing what this internship requires, or tangentially related. In the letter above, for example, the student writes about how their past experiences have given them the soft and hard skills the internship requires, even if the work is not exactly the same. 

Depending on the number of things you have done which are relevant, this could be done in a single or multiple paragraphs. Give each the space it needs to explain the skills you acquired and how they are relevant, but donā€™t get caught up in the weeds or provide extraneous details. 

A brief paragraph near the end should explain what draws you to this opportunity in particular. What about it suits your specific interests, and how will it further your future ambitions? Connect this with how your past experiences have prepared you, and you can aptly demonstrate that you and the position are a perfect match. 

Conclude your letter by reiterating your interest in the position, and giving any other needed information. You donā€™t want to heap effusive praise on the potential employer, but do want to show sincere enthusiasm for the opportunity on offer.Ā 

Cover Letters FAQ

So weā€™ve covered most of what you need to know about writing a cover letter, but some questions come up a lot. Hereā€™s the most common questions we get from students about writing their own cover letters, and the answers to them.

How long should a cover letter be?

Around a page, depending on how much you have to say. It shouldnā€™t be shorter than half a page, but should also not be longer than a full page. Writing too much often leads to getting into unnecessary detail, while too little doesnā€™t convey needed information about your experience. 

How should you format a cover letter?

Use a professional font (not Comic Sans, definitely not WIngdings), standard 1-inch margins, and 1.5 or 1.15 spacing. The letter itself should be broken up into paragraphs by subject, each of those should be a few sentences in length. Begin and end as a standard letter. 

Can you reuse cover letters?

Yes, to an extent. You cannot reuse a cover letter exactly, but usually some minor edits can make a cover letter for one position fit for another. Note that this only works if the positions are similar; for example if you are applying to multiple internships in robotics, you can reuse the same cover letter multiple times. If you are applying for one robotics internship and one internship in theatre, then you will need to rewrite the cover letter entirely. 

Be very careful when reusing a cover letter that you do not accidentally call one company by another companyā€™s name. This shows carelessness, and usually gets your application discarded offhand. 

Do cover letters actually matter?

For some jobs and internships, yes, they matter a lot. They are how employers judge your experience and fit for a particular role, and let them see what you will bring to the position if it is given to you.Ā 

Final Thoughts

Cover letters are not a common thing to need in high school, but they are becoming increasingly prevalent, especially as students seek to apply to ever more internships and opportunities to prepare themselves for college. We hope this article has shown you what a well constructed cover letter looks like, and given you practical tips for writing one yourself.

Before you write a cover letter however, you first must find a job or internship worth your time, one that will teach you important skills and give you enticing opportunities. If you want help finding just such an internship, or drafting and revising your cover letter, schedule a free consultation today to learn how we can help you. We have years of experience helping high school students find the perfect opportunities for them, and are always happy to hear from you.

The post How to Write a Cover Letter as a High School Student appeared first on ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų.

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In this article, weā€™re going to explore how colleges are doing this, and why they care about the use of AI in essays. Weā€™re going to look at whether there are any ways to use AI in your writing process, and finally give a few tips on creating the kinds of essays admissions officers do want to see. Letā€™s get started!

How Admissions Officers Know if You Use AI

This varies by school. As with every aspect of the admissions process, each school handles things differently. There are, however, two general ways colleges detect these: 

• Plagiarism checkers
• Personal insight

The first method is the most straightforward. Many plagiarism detection tools now also include a feature that assesses whether or not a composition is AI generated. These are not foolproof of course; they miss some AI generated content and produce false positives on occasion, but they are still quite good on the whole at detecting the use of AI. This is an arms race between them and the generating companies of course, but essays that are flagged for being primarily written by AI will be marked down. 

The other method colleges use is the personal insight of admissions officers. This is quite straightforward; admissions officers read thousands of essays each year, and are extremely familiar with how high school students think and write. They are then able to use this expertise to notice when prose feels off in a way that is unnatural, as if it wasnā€™t written by a student. AI generated writing itself has a number of tells, especially if you encounter it often. Again, this is not a foolproof method, but essays suspected of using AI will be marked harshly for it. 

What impacts exactly this has will depend on college. Some schools will automatically reject applications they believe used AI, others will just have it as a major mark against them. Since essays are such an important part of the admissions process, a major penalty here is often the same as a rejection. Admissions officers will likely not catch every student who uses AI, but those who do are taking a major risk for their chances of acceptance, often without even knowing it. 

Why Colleges Care ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų AI

Colleges clearly care about whether or not applicants are using AI in their application, but why? There are two main concerns admissions officers have. Now, we generally advocate for students to do all the work themselves, but colleges do have some legitimate reasons to want you to do this work yourself, rather than outsourcing it. 

The first reason is that colleges are trying to get to know you through your essays. They want to understand how you think about the world, and your place in it. For this, they need to hear from you in your own words, to get inside your thought process and view things from your perspective. The use of AI precludes this; they arenā€™t hearing your words and thoughts, but a generalized abstraction of them created by another entity, one without your unique insights. 

The second reason is that college requires a lot of writing, and has high standards for academic honesty. With the rise of easily available generative AI, most colleges have rolled out policies stating whether or not students are allowed to use it in their coursework, and under what conditions. These vary slightly, but the general consensus is that students are not permitted to use AI to do their coursework for them. 

If colleges have this as a standard for their current students, then theyā€™re definitely going to apply the same standards to those students who are trying to join their student body. This makes sense logically, but can still catch high school students off guard, as they are generally unfamiliar with the AI policies of universities. 

Thus, if you use AI in your essays, you are hurting your chances twice over from the perspective of colleges. First, they donā€™t know what insights and thoughts are yours, and which are of the AI. Colleges want to know you and your voice, to see how you will fit with them, and they canā€™t do that if writing is not your own. Second, if you violate a college’s academic honesty policy on your application, thatā€™s a major red flag. Current students who violate these can face suspension or expulsion, so prospective students who do so are simply not admitted at all. 

Can AI be Used in College Applications?

So AI pretty clearly should not be used to write your essays. That said, this is a tool many students are coming to rely on, so is there any place for it in crafting a college application?

In general, the answer is going to be no. AI does have uses, but many of its strengths work against it in the admissions process, while its cons come more clearly to the fore. Weā€™ll go through this point by point, to discuss how AI can be used, and where it probably shouldnā€™t. 

Research

Many people now turn to ChatGPT and other AI tools to do research. Indeed, Google even encourages this with its own in-built AI system. The issue with this is that the answers you get are not always accurate. AI tools can pull from old data, or hallucinate something that sounds plausible, but which doesnā€™t actually exist. 

This can be a problem when researching colleges, as AI may describe to you a program which doesnā€™t exist alongside one that does, or mention scholarships that have been cancelled, or give you incorrect details. The point of researching colleges is to determine whether or not they are a good fit for you, and to do that, you need an accurate picture of what they offer to students. AI, unfortunately, canā€™t guarantee being able to do that yet. 

Writing

As we discussed above, AI is not a good tool to help with writing either. You may be able to find some use in getting help brainstorming or structuring your essays, but here too there are some drawbacks. In brainstorming, an AI is not able to differentiate a good idea from a bad one; many of them are programmed to be agreeable, so will go with whatever you think. This can be good to play off of, but doesnā€™t offer legitimate critique for a brainstorming process. 

The one place an AI can help is in determining a structure for an essay. It canā€™t write it for you, but it can help you order your ideas. We do want to urge caution here; many AI tools have been trained on vast swathes of mediocre college essays, and this shows when you ask one to generate an essay for you. These have repetitive ideas, generic examples, and lots of flowery phrases that sound quite good without ever actually meaning anything. Even if admissions officers donā€™t detect that these are AI, they just arenā€™t very good as essays.

For editing, we advise not using AI. Many students are surprised to learn this, but getting editing help from one of these programs often counts as academic dishonesty, and will frequently ping plagiarism checkers. Working with mentors, teachers, or your fellow students to edit your essays is a far safer approach.

Other Application Components

An Ai tool is possibly useful to help you reduce character count for activities list items, but here too it is unlikely to know the best approach, or which details should be included and which can be safely cut. We recommend working with a mentor on this. 

Your additional information section, if you need one, should be treated as an essay, and written by you alone. Again, this is a palace to give colleges key details about you and your context, details that an AI doesnā€™t know. At the end of the day, you are the only one who can write this section.

Final Thoughts

Generative AI is an amazing tool, and is capable of a great many things. As with every tool, however, it is not right for every situation; just as you cannot build a house with a hammer alone, so too does AI have situations where it is not the correct tool for the job. College applications are one such arena, and we hope this article has helped you understand why this is, and the potential pitfalls of misapplying such a powerful tool. 
We do understand why students turn to AI of course. College applications are stressful, and take a lot of work; so many forms, so many essays, all coming on top of the schoolwork and activities you already have in your life. Any way to ease the load is seen as a wonderful thing. There is, however, a better way. ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų works with students every year on the college admissions process, striving to make their lives easier. We have a well-worked system that lets you apply efficiently, and have seen great success helping students get into their top choice colleges. Schedule a free consultation today to learn how we can make your life easier.

The post Colleges Automatically Rejecting Students Who Use AI to Write Essays appeared first on ³Ō¹Ļ¹ŁĶų.

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