Kurt Vonnegut offers up eight tips for writing great short stories, seven of which are perfectly aligned with college essays, too. His portions are in bold.
1. “Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.”
College essays don’t need a moral or a message, but you should never leave the reader wondering why they just bothered reading your essay. An essay about how much you enjoy baking desserts with your grandmother is interesting. An essay about how much you like to eat Oreos probably isn’t.
2. “Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.”
Paradoxically, the worst way to do this is to write what you think the admissions officers want to hear. Just write something honest that actually matters to you. Arun once told me that while he doesn’t much care for opera, if he was reading an essay during his time at University of Chicago or Caltech from a student who was passionate about it, the essay didn’t make Arun interested in opera, but it definitely made him interested in that kid.
3. “Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.”
The college essay’s job is to help readers get to know you better. You’re the subject of interest. If you follow rule #1, write honestly about something that matters to you, and keep the focus on you (more on that here), you’ll almost certainly be sharing something that will include at least one of your wants.
4. “Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.”
Want to write better sentences? Start by writing fewer of them. Brevity is a mark of good writing. That’s why good writers do a lot of editing and rewriting to say more with fewer words. Share the details, yes, but don’t use three sentences to describe something that one well-crafted sentence can handle. You might be convinced that you can’t possibly unleash your full essay potential without more words. But you need fewer than you think you do.
5. “Start as close to the end as possible.”
Childhood and other pre-high school experiences can add context. But admissions officers are trying to get to know the you of today. Keep the focus on high school events. For example, an essay about your experience in second grade when you were diagnosed with a learning disability tells them a lot about something that happened over a decade ago. It’s fine to share the discovery portion, but keep the focus on how that learning disability impacts you today.
6. “Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.”
I said at the beginning that 7 of the 8 tips are appropriate for college essays. This is the one to disregard. If something tragic or otherwise difficult has happened to you and you believe it is important for admissions officers to understand it, please share it. But don’t “make awful things happen” because you think that tragedy is somehow rewarded. It’s a common mistake. Admissions officers even have a term for it—“manufacturing hardship,” not because the event itself was fictional, but the purported devastating effects were.
7. “Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.”
You are the most important person to please when it comes to your essays, more important than your parents, friends, even your counselor or teacher. Yes, it’s a good idea to get feedback, especially from someone who a) knows you, and b) knows something about college essays. Your high school counselor, English teacher, or a qualified private counselor are good sources. But please don’t shop your essays around to an endless feedback committee of friends, family members, counselors, etc. The more people you ask, the more conflicting opinions you’ll get. Remember that it’s your essay, your application, and your college future. Please yourself first.
8. “Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.”
There’s no need to reveal the ending prematurely. But during reading season, college admissions officers are tired and weary. If after three paragraphs your reader still has no idea what the essay is about or where it’s going, you’re likely to lose their interest fast.