The Foreign Service Journal, June 2019

56 JUNE 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT Some Guidelines to Remember While You Write • Be enthusiastic. You want to convey the sense that you’ve gone as far as you can go with your talents in high school, and you’re excited that this college offers so many ways for you to take your pas- sions to a new level. • Be specific. Remember that enthusi- asm expressed in generalities can sound insincere. • Follow the old writer’s rule: show, don’t tell . In other words, a story from your life will show them how creative you are much better than stating, “I am a creative person.” Which would you believe more? • And please, please, please: triple- check the name of the college in your essay before uploading it to your application. If you’re tweaking the same basic essay for many schools, it’s easy to make this mis- take. Sounds silly, but colleges get essays naming the wrong school every single admissions cycle. Your Personal Stamp The two-section system—showing your passions, followed by how those passions will blossom at college—is tried and true. But there are other approaches. One of the most effective essays I read recently was written by a student who fell in love with her first-choice college’s library, and then wrote about all the libraries she has loved in her life and what she hoped to accomplish in that college library were she to be accepted. Another student homed in on the univer- sity motto and made that the focus of his Be specific. Remember that enthusiasmexpressed in generalities can sound insincere. Continued on page 60