Many college essay prompts ask applicants to discuss their “world” or “community.” For example, the University of California asks, “Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.”
Even with that detail in the prompt above, many applicants feel compelled to think big. They discuss their culture, community, city or even country as a whole, something that’s not necessarily revealing anything specific about their particular world.
The best essays use big world thinking to simply set the state, then switch to smaller world thinking to describe their particular (smaller) worlds.
For example, your culture might be something very important to you, as it is to many people. That’s big-world thinking. What do you and your family do to embrace and celebrate it? Be specific. That’s smaller world.
Your community may be one that’s very diverse, religious, affluent, or under-resourced. But what is that experience like for you? What have you learned or done to succeed in that world? What challenges might you have overcome? Think smaller world and be specific about your place in it.
Your city may be one where 60% of families own farms. Or where the majority of kids come from single parent homes. Or where most families immigrated from a different country. That’s interesting bigger world context. Then dive into your smaller world within that city. Do you work on the farm after school? If you come from a single parent home, what has that experience been like for you or your parent? If you live in an immigrant-rich population, has that made life easier and more comfortable for you? Or have you had to make even greater efforts to feel like you’re part of your community? You’re the one the college is trying to get to know better.
Use your bigger world to set the stage, then use the rest of the essay to bring them into your smaller world.
In almost every case, the best college essays use small slices of life to tell effective stories. Colleges do want to get a sense of the larger world around you. But remember, their interest in that larger world is secondary to their interest in learning about your smaller place within it. You’ll bring elements of your world with you to college. But you, not your larger world, are the one who will ultimately be moving into a dorm and heading to class.