Hi everyone, I recently commited to Haverford and my ED1 application is coming up in about a month. I am going to receive full support from my coach and he told me that If I submit a “good application”, I should get in 100%. I have decent grades and test scores and pre-reads came back strong so I am not too worried about those parts. However, I haven’t started my essay at all and basically have to write the common app and 2 supplementals in one month. I really struggle with writing (which is why I never started the essay) and have seen online that Haverford weighs essays heavily even for recruits. Please let me know to what extent is this true and any advice that could help me. Thank you so much,
If you have full support, as long as you don’t disqualify yourself, it will be fine.
Pick a small moment that meant something to you, or shows something about your character, and write about it. Preferably, don’t write about your sport. They already know that about you.
It looks like Haverford has two essay topics:
#1: Tell us about a topic or issue that sparks your curiosity and gets you intellectually excited. How do you hope to engage with this topic or issue at Haverford?
You have a lot of freedom with this one. Do some brainstorming… there are no wrong answers… make a long list without judging or eliminating any ideas. Just write them down. What are some topics or issues that you are about? When you’ve come up with about 20 ideas, highlight the ones that you could pursue in some way during college via coursework, research, clubs, etc. Take some time to look up Haverford’s related classes and student activities. For example, if you care about social justice, which courses would allow you to learn more about the topic? Which on-campus activities, off-campus volunteer opportunities, or other forms of student involvement would allow you to further explore this interest? Ultimately, your goal is to let your ideas – and your voice – shine through. Giving yourself this chance to brainstorm, as well as to gain information about the school’s and area’s unique offerings, will help you to do this.
#2: We have highlighted for you some of the values that shape the Haverford community. What are some of the values you seek in your next community? How do Haverford’s values, as demonstrated through our Honor Code, resonate with you? As you think about how to answer this question, you might draw from how you have been influenced by other communities you have been a part of, experiences you may have had within your communities, or opportunities you have had to shape or even change your communities.)
You’re probably already familiar with Haverford’s Honor Code, but if not, now’s the time; learn about it. This is a values essay. What are your values and where do they come from? And what, in particular, do you appreciate about Haverford’s values=? These questions will help you to focus in on writing things from a personal perspective that will help them to get to know you.
There’s also the Common App essay, of course, but these supplemental essays sound very important to the institution, so starting there is wise. Do NOT delay. Get your brainstorm list going for #1; start thinking about the broader issues for #2. Once you’ve done that, for one or other other or both, GET DRAFTS ON PAPER ASAP, even if they’re lousy. You’re wise to be asking now. A month is a long time, but also passes very quickly.
Set mini goals for yourself, and approach a teacher or friend or parent or someone in order to find someone who will agree to read and critique your drafts. Let the recruitment process take some of the pressure off, but don’t use it as an excuse to delay or do anything less than your best. You’ve got this. Start now.
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For your sake, and the coach’s, you should make the effort on these you’d make if you were just a regular unhooked student who wanted to go to Haverford.
But unlike that unhooked student, your best effort is almost guaranteed to be successful. You don’t need to worry, but you still need to make the effort.
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Echoing that you need to produce good essays even as a recruit.
The college essay guy .com site has a lot of free resources for the common app essay and a bunch of brainstorming exercises, and also addresses how to write the Haverford specific supplementals. That site has many sample common app essays, and JHU, Hamilton and Tufts also have ‘essays that worked’ on their websites.
Watch the two videos Haverford created about their supplementals: https://www.haverford.edu/admission/supplement
I don’t know to what degree this is true…but if you have good HS grades, good enough to pass the pre-read at Haverford, I suspect your writing is fine (even though you might struggle to do it.) At Haverford, you are going to be doing a lot of writing. I am not challenging the fit of Haverford for you, but just something to think about.
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Thank you, I will definitely check those out. In terms of my writing skills, I would say it is very low. I’ve spent all four 4 years of my English in regular classes and I mostly had Bs/B+s and I have to admit that my school has a pretty easy English program.
If I was asked to write timed essay in my class, (which I haven’t been luckily), I would probably throw myself out the window. I physically cannot come up with words and expressions to convey my thoughts. Maybe this is partly due to English being my second language, but I don’t think that’s really an excuse. I heard from their tours that Haverford asks you to write a lot, so I will definitely need to work on that after my acceptance. But I need to get my essay done first lol, anyways thanks.
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I don’t know if this is you, but many people who have issues with writing, especially English as second language students, have problems organizing thoughts in their heads, and just end up writing a stream of consciousness which can be disorganized and not coherent to the reader. Try working backwards a step at a time with a list of points you want to make in response to the prompt. Don’t start with sentences, start with bullet points. Don’t worry about how to organize the bullet points at first, just get those out. Then go back and determine which points are the most important and how they relate to each other. Then create an outline from the bullet points you decided to keep. Then write the sentences to fill out the outlines.
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The good news is this is not a time essay. Go through the brainstorming exercises from college essay guy. Once you put something (anything) on paper, it will be easier, even if ultimately you end up with something completely different. If you have thoughts and ideas at unexpected times, jot them down quickly on your phone so you can refer back.
Again, while you should take it seriously, it does not have to “make” your application. Make sure it is proof read many times over and grammar is perfect. Be proactive as about feedback from teachers. Good college essays take a lot of tweaking. It is not a sit down and get it done thing, but you need to have something to work with first.
Will try that, thank you.
Do you have a specific career goal or a specific academic area of interest ?
I’m oten a reluctant writer, so I will share what gets me going.
Write your essays tonight! Just sit down and write. Just put something down on paper. Be done and walk away.
No, those aren’t your final essays. But they will make you think. When you’re in bed or driving, your going to have some “I should have said…” Moments. Jot these down (phones are great for this) whenever you have them.
Research the school. Make a list of “things I like, things I’m interested in”.
Give it 2-3 days. Now go back and rewrite your essays. Incorporate what you’ve learned about the school. You may be starting from scratch or doing some very heavy editing to incorporate the “things I should have said”. Your working draft will probably look nothing like what you started with. But the hardest part is getting started and just putting down something on paper will get you going.
Continue to revise until you think it’s pretty good and then ask for input and editing help.
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