I’ll never forget the day that I learned about the volume of applications when I was applying to graduate school. George Saunders, one of my favorite writers, was giving a talk at Google HQ, and the room was packed. He was, and still is, a head figure in the Syracuse Creative Writing MFA—a prestigious program. Before reading from his newest book, he told some jokes, generally was incredibly likeable, and then asked us to excuse him if he looked tired because he’d just finished reading almost a hundred application essays on the flight over from the East Coast. Mind you, the Syracuse program admitted about 6 fiction writers each year. And apparently, he had at least another hundred to go before finishing his share of the applicant pool—not to mention all of the applications that his colleagues were also reading. The entire room groaned—we obviously all were there because, in part, we were hoping to study at that program. Saunders’s reassurances that Google employees were better off staying that way, and not becoming writers, didn’t reassure many of the people in that room. But it did drive home how important it is to write your essays to keep the reader engaged—we want to make sure they wake up when your name crosses their desk.

But what does it mean to stand out?

It’s true, college admissions officers are reading a lot of material every day, so we want to be concise and unique to captivate them. We want to stand out – not write something that sounds like everyone else! But what does that mean, exactly?

Some people make the mistake of thinking that they need to open with something incredibly tragic, or incredibly impressive, in order to stand out from the crowd. You might have heard someone recommend that you write about the hardest thing that has ever happened to you, and show how you’ve grown from it. And this structure could work for some people—after all, if you have faced a central challenge in your life, it could feel strange to write an essay about who you are without mentioning it. But the key is not focusing on how difficult things have been, or finding a way to elicit pity from your reader—instead, we want to identify what is actually central to your life, and bring that out on the page.

Authentic experience matters

If you’ve spent every weekend volunteering at an elder care facility since you were ten, or have built a club to serve your local community through trail and road clean-ups, that can feel incredibly impactful. The key is showing why it’s important to you—then the reader can appreciate your story, and see how you have grown through your experiences.

Brainstorm: What's important to you?

So, as you brainstorm topics for your essays, don’t get stuck on this idea of whether your experiences are shocking or attention-grabbing enough. Instead, think to yourself about what is most important to you—which activities, experiences, books, research projects, actually have taught you something about who you are and what you want to do in this world—and start there. If you show your commitment and your passion for those things, you will stand out by being uniquely, authentically you.

How to Make Your CAPS Stand Out

Photo credit Yan Krukau