<p>I guess I need some ideas on how to make my CommonApp essay capture the reader’s attention. How did you guys do it? Any comments or ideas?</p>
<p>Good advice here
[Essays</a>, Admission Information, Undergraduate Admission, U.Va.](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html]Essays”>http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html)</p>
<p>Started it long before the deadline, focused on a very specific thing, kept it short (350 and 450 words) and generally made it amazing.</p>
<p>I didn’t really. Haha. Oh well.</p>
<p>T26E4, Thanks.
Bigboba, 350-450 words? That’s impressive. I mean, it must be hard to pack a lot in yet it must be a relief for admissions.</p>
<p>Do you guys have any advice on the opening sentence? I mean, to grab attention. Any where I can see some examples, or … anything at all? I think it’s really important part of the the essay.</p>
<p>The essay link is so helpful. I like UVa :)</p>
<p>My advice is to start way, way ahead of time. I spent at least a month on both my Yale essays.
I really don’t think the first sentence needs to “grab the reader’s attention” in a cheesy/gimmicky way–my opening sentences were more like the opening curtains on a play, I guess. They led the reader into the essays.</p>
<p>Put it on dayglo pink paper, crumple it up before flattening it and putting it in the mail, use a really expensive, nice-smelling perfume, use a cool font that nobody else uses, and start it off with “It was a dark and rainy night…” then cross it out because that would be incredibly funny and crossed out words don’t count against the word limit. Well, I’m not sure about the word count part, but the rest of this is solid gold.</p>
<p>Oh, and be yourself…which generally means you shouldn’t follow the advice of anonymous people on a message board about how to write your essay. I think, in the case of my advice, you can make an exception. Just as long as you don’t let others in on it.</p>
<p>My first sentences:</p>
<p>“It was still for a second, perhaps more.” (my supplement essay, about a dance performance I was in)</p>
<p>“At the age of eight, I became enthralled with one of the most intense Gothic romances of the nineteenth century.” (my main common app essay, about Jane Eyre and my love of literature)</p>
<p>I think the real key is to pick something that’s important to you and write about it using small details (like using a few seconds onstage to describe my dance experience or using a man on a bicycle to talk about your community [that’s my UC essay])</p>
<p>Also, I don’t know whether there’s any validity to this advice, but I would say write it in your style. Like if you’re good at professional, analytical papers, keep it more formal. If you do satire well, make it funny. I want to do creative writing, so my essays were both sort of abstract, I’m sincerely hoping they don’t come off pretentious.</p>
<p>Honestly, just speak your mind, don’t spend a humongous amount of time perfecting your essays to the very last syllable, because the admission’s officers look right through it. They want you to tell them your life story in your own voice. Don’t try to sound sophisticated by adding in some clever little anecdote from Candide and make sure your message sounds clear and organized.</p>
<p>I wrote it like I was telling the entire story to someone, kind of like how a grandparent would to a grandchild. I spoke from my heart, and luckily, admissions saw that.</p>
<p>Another idea: write it in really really [size=1]small print<a href=“as%20it%20makes%20the%20reader%20pay%20really%20close%20attention”>/size</a> and write it in overlapping spirals to show how your thoughts weave in and out and interconnect with each other. Each sentence should start at the center…using a different color…as they spiral out to create an overall flower effect which is an allegory for how you bloomed as a student and writer.</p>
<p>Or, if spirals seem too mundane, write your essay so that it forms the silhouette of a unicorn (if your essay is about unicorns, that is) or better still, cut out a portrait of yourself and write the essay around that silhouette – up the back of your neck, around the cowlick, through the part, zipping over the forehead (making sure not to pop the zit), blazing a new trail through the unibrow, skiing down the slope of your nose, rappeling over the lips, and using the chin to create some dramatic tension before garroting things at the neck. They’ll think you’re a genius. Guaranteed.</p>
<p>Essay is tough but you ll make it good!</p>
<p>My biology teacher helped configure my essay; she said that it was one of the most bizarre essays that she’s ever read and that the essence of my personality in that paper really made it vibrant. Although, I’m not really sure if my bizarreness is a good thing (still crossing my fingers and praying that I get accepted) I’m sure that Yale is looking for an essay that will give them a general feel of you and your personality. I’m sure that if you write something that shows your true colors that it will be captivating. I compared my progress to a degenerate of natural selection (it was a strange metaphor) if it helps. Good luck.</p>
<p>I actually didn’t make them as short as other people have said, mine fit on one page single spaced with a space between each paragraph but were easily all in the 500’s possibly upper 500’s…
basically, and this applies no matter how long your essays are, don’t write a single unnecessary word. If you write it, make surte they will want to read it (note, I don’t mean write to the admissions board, I mean make sure there’s a reason for that sentence/wpord/paragraph, etc.)
as for opening sentence, in media res is standard for any good writing, show don’t tell, have your english teacher read it over for quality if they have the time and the relationship with you
that aside, write from the heart, best of luck, decisions come out soon don’t they?</p>