I’ve Read over I’ve Read over 10,000 Admissions Essays. Here’s A Formula to Write a Good One
10,000 Admissions Essays. Here’s A Formula to Write a Good One
以上是小道今天这篇骨灰级干货的原文题目。作者Evan Cudworth是芝加哥大学的招生办总监，曾负责审核过申请文书长达五年。在每个审核文书的2月份，他通常一周就需要审核1500篇 Essay，这还只是最基本的。本文中，他将以最实际的视角，剖析审核文书时的所想。也让大家知道，长期占据全美Top 5的芝加哥大学招生总监的品味，是否可以成为你珍贵的建议。
除了那些刻板的“自恋”形象，对于Personal Essay，听到最多的问题是：我不知道应该写什么。所以我写这篇文章，是为了告诉大家一个很好的三步“公式”，可以帮助还在为Personal Essay挣扎的所有人。
跟众多的文书材料相比，最能引起招生官兴趣阅读的就是Personal Essay（个人陈述），在写文书的时候，很多同学写的非常的跌宕起伏，充满戏剧性（悲惨的人生故事或者是生病的遭遇等等），但这一切都不是能进入一所梦想大学的先决条件。下面我要说的话请记好，一篇成功的个人陈述，并不是写的多么有剧情，而是用很多将你的生活和所学，细小的巧妙地联系起来，表达你对世界，知识与学业领域内的好奇心与探索和追求。
下面是我要说的三步“公式”
The Formula
Ergo, my formula goes like this:
11.Talk in detail about a skill you developed through an interest or hobby.
22.Show how you used (or are currently using) that skill in a surprising context.
33.Briefly connect this to how you might use this skill in an academic context (college or graduate school).
Done? Bravo! You’ve just written an essay that is 17x more interesting than the majority of your peers, and you didn’t have to solve world hunger. Here’s an example:（完成了？很棒！你已经写好了一个比几千人都要好的essay，而且你并不需要解决世界人类的饥饿问题，看这个例子）
11.Sophia spent years becoming a better defender on her soccer team. She started lifting weights and learned how to contain her opponents to trap them in the corner.
22.This informed her ability to listen and position herself more carefully during a difficult political science debate.
33.She likes preparing for confrontation, and is thus considering a career in cyber security.
This is an essay I’d love to read. See how even this one paragraph essay tells us SO MUCH about Sophia, and she didn’t have to resort to hyperbole or #humblebrag? Here’s another one:（这是我喜欢阅读的Essay，即使在这段里无数次提到了Sophia，但是她并不需要夸张或者吹嘘自己。下面是另一个例子）
11.Parker played Dungeons and Dragons throughout high school and college, but gave it up (and kept it secret) when he started his high-profile investment banking job.
22.However, when a difficult boss began to offer vague demands, Parker remembered how many difficult Dungeon Masters he had played with over the years and surprised his cohort by asking the boss for clarification.
33.He isn’t afraid to ask for help, but wants to attend business school to learn leadership techniques of his own.
Yes, please — Admit! See how these incredibly ‘normal’ (i.e. ‘boring’) people have interesting stories to tell? It’s all about making small, surprising connections. And I think this formula does a good job of helping students avoid cliches because it forces them to surprise themselves.（是的，请记住这两个字“承认！”人们总是希望可以讲出有趣的，可以震撼到别人的故事。但是真正的好故事，都是从小事串联起来的让人惊喜的联系。我觉得这个结构做得很好，可以帮助学生一直看到自己的作为和长处，不会夸张自己，写的真诚实际。）
The Follow Through
I could talk for days about the do’s and don’ts of essay writing. But I’ve used this formula successfully with several of my friends and clients, and I’m genuinely curious to know if anyone out there going through this process finds this kind of exercise helpful. Let me know! Leave a comment below or shoot me an email (contact info). Thanks and good luck!
