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College Essay How-to: Who is someone you admire?

Another common question on college applications is:

#2. Who is someone you admire?

On the Common Application, a similar question is worded as, “Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you and describe that influence.” Even if your college application has the simple phrasing of “Who is someone you admire?” applicants should give more words to telling about the “why” part of that question.

To elaborate on what I mean by this. . . . it should only take you about 5-10 words to tell “who” you admire. The other 150+ words should show the readers “why” you admire that person.

You, the applicant, have a lot of leeway here in terms of who you choose. Safe people to write about may be a historical figure like Gandhi or Martin Luther King. Another safe person to write about may be your mom or dad. I suggest that students dig a bit deeper in terms of who they choose to write about. Every other student will likely choose the safe people. . . low hanging fruit, as I call it. If you really want your application to stand out among all the other thousand essay, choose a different person.

Like WHO?

To start thinking about who you should write about, ask yourself these questions:

  • What is a meaningful experience I can describe well? (When I say “describe well,” I mean that you should be able to write about this experience in a way that the reader feels that they were there with you.)
  • What happened in that meaningful experience?
  • Who was there with me during this meaningful experience?
  • What characteristic about a specific person present during this meaningful experience was most memorable?

As you’re thinking about your responses to these questions, please free-write your initial thoughts. (Yes, I do mean to handwrite and you can read more about that here.) These responses will start you on a path to writing a stronger essay that stands out!

Who did you choose?

Next week, I will cover the 3rd most common essay question:

#3. Why do you want to attend this college??


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