Hey there.
It’s Dr. Bernstein, president and founder of Get Yourself Into College.
Today, we’re focusing on why college admissions officers are interested in learning about
“a time when you challenged a belief or idea,” what “prompted you to act,” and
whether or not you would “make the same decision again.”
I’m also sharing with you a case study of one of my students who was accepted to an
engineering program at an Ivy League school.
So stay tuned!
A big part of your intellectual life as a college student involves studying other people’s
ideas; forming and refining your own thoughts about what you’re studying; and engaging
in respectful dialogue with others who might have very different perspectives.
So it’s not that surprising that admissions officers are curious about your beliefs and
ideas, your process of forming them, and how you interact with others who are different
from you.
Let’s get your creative juices pumping by looking at how one of my students approached
this essay prompt.
I want you to listen creatively—obviously you can’t copy what she wrote, but you can
think about which underlying strategies you might be able to borrow.
Okay. . .so my student wanted to write about her experience challenging the conclusion
made by a judge at a science event.
Let’s look at how she structured her narrative.
To generate immediate interest, she plunged readers right into the moment before the event,
a really great strategy for helping readers feel like they’re right there with you.
Then, instead of jumping right to what happened during the event, she flashed back to the
painstaking process she and her partner went through while preparing for the event.
This strategy allowed her to help admissions officers see their lengthy process.
She didn’t just tell them they’d spent all this time and energy on the project—she
showed it through vivid, sometimes funny examples about experimenting with various materials.
So here, she was providing insight into her work ethic, attention to even the minutest
details, ability to handle setbacks, and capacity to collaborate with others.
By this point, the student was in the middle of her essay, but the reader still doesn’t
know that she’s writing about a time she challenged someone’s idea or belief.
That’s totally fine.
You’re not writing an academic essay on challenging a belief or idea.
You’re immersing admissions officers in your world—taking them behind the scenes
in your life—and, when the moment’s right, you can “tap” on the essay prompt.
Let’s consider the shifts in tone in her essay.
She started by creating an anticipatory mood, then mixed the seriousness of preparation
with a certain degree of humor, and now after the flashback she’s getting to the serious
part.
She’s bringing readers back to the present moment to describe the engineering event itself
and the judge’s decision.
Because she so effectively described the process, readers feel the let down when something goes
wrong.
Readers feel like they’re going on a journey.
That’s a good thing.
The student describes how they were so taken aback by the results and how they tried to
make sense of what happened.
Through these anecdotes she’s showing her critical thinking skills.
She didn’t just jump to the conclusion that the judge was wrong.
Then she describes how, when she realized the problem was with a certain measurement,
her partner didn’t want her to say anything about it.
She feared speaking up against the authority figure and felt they might suffer some sort
of other penalty.
However, even though my student felt kind of queasy about challenging the judge, she
did it and the decision was changed in their favor.
She drew her essay to a close with some insights into how this process of learning to speak
up for herself—something she hadn’t really done before—changed her life in other ways.
It’s not like she’s now always challenging authority but she feels more confident.
I hope you’ve gotten a lot out of this behind-the-scenes look at the structure of one student’s essay
on challenging a belief or idea.
Head over to my website to access other strategies for this Common App essay.
I’m putting the link in the description box beneath the video.
While you’re there, make sure to sign up for free access to “What Really Matters
to Admissions Officers and Why.”
Okay, that’s it for now.
Take care.
Bye.