Are you a junior? Are you feeling overwhelmed and barely holding your head above water as you balance your most intensive year of academics and extracurriculars yet? And teachers/parents/counselors are now saying you have to start thinking about college applications, but senior year seems decades away?
What they’re saying is… true. Second semester of junior year is the ideal time to start thinking about—and even writing—some of your college essays. But don’t fret, I want to give you some pointers along the way:
1. It’s never too early to start
Chances are, you’ve already lived the big “life events” that you’re likely to talk about in your college application essay, so why not start now? Time can be a friend of yours if you make it. If you start brainstorming ideas and even drafting your common app in the spring of junior year, you’ll have the luxury of filtering through ideas that may not be the best fit, and eventually get to the one that’ll make your application sing.
Lin-Manuel Miranda once told me: “Keep writing. Don’t stop writing. … When you start writing, you’re turning on a faucet and when you turn on a faucet, the water’s brown and it’s full of whatever’s just been in there, clogged up and waiting to come out. Then you just keep writing and writing until the water’s clear and that’s when you find your own voice.”
So if you start early, you’ll get the clogged up writing out of the way.
2. Don’t get so tied up with the questions
Instead of obsessing over question specifics, I would recommend starting off more broadly and looking at your life more holistically. What are the aspects of your life that you feel are critical to getting to know you? Some of these aspects will be academically driven or extracurricular-related; other aspects might be life challenges, family situations, or even different sides of your personality. Think bigger-picture: name the five most important aspects of your life. What are they? And after you brainstorm specific anecdotes that relate to those aspects, free-write. Let the words flow on the page. Don’t let the editor/perfectionist in you stop yourself, even if the whole time you’re thinking, this is trash. It may not be usable, but it will help you get to the next draft that is. Everything is a building block.
3. Figure out your values
I love doing this exercise with my students. What values or characteristics are important to you? If I had to name five, I would say mine are: creativity, justice, faith, optimism, and adventure. Having a hard time thinking of core values? Use the internet—there are tons of lists that compile characteristics/values that you might not have thought about before, but truly resonate with you. Because you’re starting this essay-writing process so early, you have the luxury of thinking through the big picture of who you are. Why do these values matter to you? How did they come to matter to you? What was the inception story there? These questions will hopefully lead to specific anecdotes that you can use in your essays. Plus, you’ll emerge with a truer sense of who you really are, and that’s the greatest gift of this college application process.
4. Talk to your loved ones
Who in your life knows you really well? Is it a parent? A relative? A teacher? A childhood friend? Sometimes, when we’re stumped, it can be extremely helpful to ask those who know us for their perspective. It’ll help get ourselves out of our own heads. They might be able to inspire you with an anecdote they think defines you. It’s likely they’ll be able to see qualities and traits in you that you’ve never realized. Step out of your own perspective and see yourself in the third person through the eyes of people you know, love, and trust. This can be instrumental to your writing journey.
The bottom line is, junior year is the perfect time to start incubating ideas for your essays. External help can be extremely valuable as well—if you are a high school junior, I’d love to meet with you and coach you through the beginning processes of brainstorming your essays. Fill out the form here for more information and I’ll get in touch with you shortly!
By the time senior year peeks its head around the corner, you’ll be well-equipped to take on the process while managing a balanced, healthy life.
Comentários