Acing the NCSSM Essays

Summary

In this video, several participants discuss tips for writing successful essays, particularly for college applications. They emphasize avoiding a focus solely on extracurricular achievements and awards, as these are already listed elsewhere in the application. Instead, students are encouraged to share personal passions, unique experiences, and what they've learned from their activities. The essay should showcase individuality and personality, not just academic or extracurricular success. Participants also suggest reflecting on how one would use the resources provided by the school and contribute to the campus community.

Takeaways

• 😀 Focus on showcasing your personality in essays, not just extracurriculars or awards.
• 🤔 Avoid writing solely about accomplishments, as they're covered elsewhere in the application.
• 😄 Personal passion should be highlighted to give a true sense of who you are.
• 📜 Avoid unnecessary dramatic fluff in your essays; get straight to the point.
• 🌟 Reflect on what you learned from extracurriculars, not just what you achieved.
• 🚀 Explain how you'll grow and use the resources provided by the program.
• 🏆 Consider how you can contribute to the community of the program you're applying to.
• 🎯 Tailor your essay to show how your interests align with the program's offerings.
• 📝 Keep the writing personal and genuine, not generic or overly formal.
• 🎭 Use real experiences and hobbies to reflect who you are beyond academics.

Q & A

What is a common mistake people make when writing college essays, according to Angela?

Angela mentions that a common mistake is focusing the essay too much on extracurriculars and awards, which are already covered elsewhere in the application.

Why should applicants avoid writing solely about their awards and accomplishments in essays?

Applicants should avoid this because the admissions team already has access to this information. Instead, they want to learn about the applicant's personality and who they are as a person.

What does Angela suggest is a better focus for essays?

Angela suggests focusing on something the applicant is passionate about, such as personal interests or hobbies, to showcase their personality and individuality.

What is one way to make essays more personalized, according to the second speaker?

The second speaker advises making sure the essay reflects the applicant's unique experiences, including hobbies or interests, rather than generic statements that could apply to anyone.

What advice does the second speaker give about writing style?

The second speaker warns against using unnecessary 'fluff' in essays, such as overly dramatic descriptions that don't reveal anything meaningful about the applicant.

Why is it important to cut out unnecessary content in essays?

Cutting out unnecessary content allows the applicant to use the limited character count more effectively, including more relevant details about their thoughts and personality.

What does Shashank suggest applicants should highlight in their essays?

Shashank advises focusing on what applicants have learned from their extracurricular activities and how they plan to grow as a person if admitted, rather than just listing accomplishments.

How can applicants make their essays stand out, according to Shashank?

Shashank suggests that applicants should show how they plan to use the resources provided by the school to further their growth and contribute to the community, demonstrating forward-thinking and engagement.

What does Anna mention about balancing extracurriculars with academics?

Anna explains how she highlighted her extracurriculars in relation to how they could fit with the course schedule, acknowledging potential conflicts and explaining how she would manage them.

What did Anna emphasize in her essay regarding school resources?

Anna emphasized how her interests and extracurricular activities aligned with what the school offered, showing how she could benefit from their programs and contribute her unique perspective.

Outlines

00:00

📝 Avoid Overemphasizing Extracurriculars in Essays

Angela advises students to avoid focusing their essays entirely on extracurricular activities and awards, as these are already highlighted elsewhere in the application. Instead, she recommends using the essays to showcase personality traits, passions, and personal experiences. This helps the reader learn more about the applicant as a person, beyond their accomplishments. Angela emphasizes writing about something meaningful or personal, such as hobbies, interests, or unique experiences, to make the essay more authentic and reflective of who the applicant truly is.

05:01

💡 Showcase Personality and Avoid Unnecessary Fluff

The next speaker supports Angela’s points and adds that essays are one of the few opportunities to show personal traits. They suggest keeping the content personal and unique to the applicant, with a focus on personality. They also warn against using excessive dramatic language or 'fluff' that doesn’t add value to the essay. Instead, the writer should be direct and cut unnecessary parts to leave room for insights into who they are and how they think.

📚 Connect Extracurriculars with Personal Growth

Shashank agrees with previous speakers but highlights that while extracurriculars are important, it’s essential to focus on what was learned through these activities. Rather than just listing accomplishments, applicants should reflect on how these experiences shaped them as individuals. Shashank also advises demonstrating a clear plan for how they will use the resources and opportunities offered by the program and how they can contribute to the community if admitted.

🎯 Align Personal Interests with Program Offerings

Anna shares her approach, which involved highlighting how her extracurricular activities fit with the program's curriculum and course schedule. She notes the importance of aligning personal interests with the opportunities provided by the program. By discussing how she balanced her passions with academic requirements, Anna demonstrated how her individual interests could complement the program’s offerings, adding value to both herself and the institution.

Keywords

💡Extracurriculars

Extracurriculars refer to activities outside the regular academic curriculum, such as clubs, sports, and volunteer work. In the video, the speakers emphasize that essays should not focus solely on these accomplishments, as they are already covered in other parts of the application. Instead, they advise applicants to highlight their personal growth and what they’ve learned from these activities.

💡Essays

Essays are personal written components of college or program applications that allow applicants to express their personality and experiences. The speakers in the video highlight that essays should focus on the applicant's personal traits and passions, rather than rehashing information about extracurriculars or awards, to provide a more holistic view of the individual.

💡Personality

Personality in the context of the video refers to an individual's unique traits, attitudes, and interests. The speakers stress the importance of showcasing one's personality in application essays, as it is a way for admissions officers to see the human side of the applicant beyond grades and accomplishments. Sharing genuine passions or hobbies is encouraged.

💡Awards

Awards are achievements or recognitions given for excellence in specific areas, such as academics or extracurricular activities. The speakers caution against focusing too much on awards in essays, as these are already documented in the application. Instead, they advise discussing what personal qualities and growth were developed through the experiences leading to those awards.

💡Fluff

Fluff refers to unnecessary or overly descriptive content that does not add meaningful information to the essay. The speakers suggest avoiding fluff, such as dramatic or irrelevant details, as it takes up valuable space that could be used to share more personal insights or important information about the applicant.

💡Reflection

Reflection involves thinking critically about personal experiences and what one has learned from them. The speakers encourage applicants to reflect on their extracurriculars and experiences in their essays, focusing on how these experiences contributed to their personal growth rather than just listing achievements.

💡Passion

Passion refers to a strong enthusiasm or love for a particular activity, subject, or interest. In the video, the speakers suggest that applicants write about something they are passionate about in their essays, as this helps convey a more authentic and engaging story that reflects who they are.

💡Admissions Officers

Admissions officers are the individuals responsible for reviewing applications and making decisions about acceptance into a program or institution. The speakers mention that admissions officers look for essays that provide insight into the applicant’s personality, values, and growth, rather than a rehash of awards and extracurriculars already listed.

💡Growth

Growth refers to personal development and learning from experiences over time. In the context of the video, the speakers recommend that applicants highlight how they have grown from their extracurricular activities or life experiences, as this shows depth and maturity in their essays.

💡Individuality

Individuality refers to what makes a person unique in terms of their personality, interests, and life experiences. The speakers urge applicants to emphasize their individuality in their essays by sharing personal stories and reflections that set them apart from other applicants, ensuring that their essays feel original and authentic.

Highlights

Focus essays on personal experiences and passions rather than extracurricular achievements.

Avoid discussing awards in essays, as they are already covered in other parts of the application.

Use essays to showcase personality and dedication, giving readers insight into who you are.

Personalize essays by discussing unique interests or hobbies that reflect your individuality.

Be concise and eliminate unnecessary 'fluff' to better highlight your personality.

Showcase personal growth and learning from extracurricular activities instead of just listing them.

Explain how you plan to utilize resources and opportunities provided by the program.

Incorporate how you can contribute to the community, highlighting mutual benefits.

Reflect on unique aspects of your life that are not covered elsewhere in the application.

Avoid overly dramatic or generic statements that do not add personal value.

Show humor and genuine enjoyment in your essays to stand out.

Highlight your readiness to balance program demands with existing commitments.

Discuss how specific program features align with your personal and academic goals.

Detail how you can benefit from the program and how the program can benefit from your participation.

Ensure your essays offer a clear, authentic representation of who you are and what you value.

Transcripts

talked a lot about them whether to be

stem focused whether to you know

procrastinate don't procrastinate um

what advice

other than the ones you already gave

would you give on writing essays what is

one thing you advise not to talk about

in the essays and one thing you advise

definitely to talk about in the essays

let's go to angela first so for the

essays i would say a common mistake that

i've um i've seen is that people focus

their essays around their

extracurriculars only and they go out of

their way to like force

uh being able to talk about their

accomplishments or their awards in their

essays

which i think is one of the main

mistakes since obviously in the

application you have an entire page uh

part of it that is dedicated to just

your awards and your extracurriculars so

the the people who are reading your

application they know that about you

already and they're using the essays as

an opportunity to get to know you like

your personality as a person and to see

whether or not like you as a person are

dedicated to things in general and are a

good learner um

so they want to know about you and your

personality much less and they want to

hear about the awards that you want

again uh so that's the thing i advise

you not to talk about is to not write

your essays about the awards that you've

won again um because then they lose

focus of like who you are as a as a

person

and uh what i advise to talk definitely

about is i know it sounds cliche but

something that's actually about you so

something that you're passionate about

um i'm not i can't be sure that the

essay prompts are the exact same this

year but i know there usually tends to

be a general one that's just tell me

about yourself um

and i say you take like advantage of

those essays to actually express a part

about like your passion for things so

for example i think the essay that i had

i wrote about performance because that's

something that i love to do and i had

friends write about like cooking or

reading

or like baking cookies and how that

represents who they are as a person so

don't force your essays into

extracurriculars and stem but instead

talk about something that you actually

care about so uh so they know about you

as a as a person

great yeah to touch upon that you know

make it personalized um i think angela

talked about

they want to get to know you as a person

so if someone else can say whatever you

say in the essay then it's probably not

first less um so that's just my tip but

to build advice

um

just like general writing essays i would

say

um

it's like

definitely important to

make sure you convey

like

part of your personality because

um the rest of the application is very

like just facts like these are awards i

got these are things i participated in

um these are the grades i got so you're

like really only

kind of chance to showcase who you are

as a person is through your essays

especially because i think like the

teacher evaluation is just like

clicking buttons and not a letter of

recommendation um

so

i would say like you know it's okay to

be funny and show that you enjoy more

things than just

like your extracurriculars and you have

like

a lot of these just like random hobbies

that you do um

so i would say that because

like

um a lot of the times when you write

essays there's like a lot of fluff kind

of like

some people make it really dramatic and

be like the lights were dark the sky was

blue clouds were everywhere but like

that doesn't really tell anyone anything

about you or your personality um so you

like want to cut out fluff like that

because i looked through mine and i know

there was just a lot of

like

random things that didn't need to be

there and they were like taking up

character count and if i'd cut them out

then i could include more things about

me and how i thought as a person so um i

would say to try to limit that

yeah again on on that personal note um

delete the fluff write more about you uh

let's go to shashank

yeah i agree again with everything has

been said already but a couple of points

of advice from me um

i

i wouldn't focus entirely on

extracurriculars of course you want to

talk about who you are as a person too

and i think going on with that

your extracurriculars are an important

part of who you are but

how you bring that out in your essays

outside of oh i wanted first place in

this time from that event

you really want to talk about

what did you learn from the events that

you've done you know

all of the applicants have like so many

different types of events and a lot of

you do unique things

right like um

some of you may be interested in sports

or

interested in playing a certain type of

game like there's a lot of things that

you guys do are outside of just like a

stem stem envelope that you guys might

not might not even like consider as

very like

uh

like a good thing to write on essays but

try to think about the different things

that you've learned from everything that

you've done

and reflect that in your essays

um

the thing that

i

like another thing that i really want i

guess like you should highlight is

how are you going to grow as a person if

you were admitted

to ssl you know like how do you utilize

the new resources that you got

because of course ntsm residential and

online they provide you with tons of

resources

um

that you can use to either further your

stem career energy career whatever you

want to do how are you going to use

those resources and

you could even try to incorporate how

how could you be of benefit to the ssl

community

because um

those are like if you hit those points

in the essay that'll really show the

admissions officers that

you sort of have a plan for what you

want to do in the future

and how you can actually use

those are kind of my tips of advice and

uh

yeah

great let's lastly let's go to anna

thank you sorry about

earlier um so i kind of like what she

shanks said um a little bit different

though i highlighted it on not i did use

my extracurriculars i highlighted upon

how those fit in with the

um course schedule and this um conflicts

with um class that sometimes arise

because i found myself out of town for

like a week or even um a couple of

weekends with some of these shows i was

doing

and it just it would have been something

that would have been hard with a

homeschool which

i wouldn't have had all that option

online of course now with covet it's it

would have been easier

but as far as i looked at what was

offered on their website i checked back

with what i was interested in i kind of

um

made it where it appealed to what they

offered and how that would fit in with

what i already did so it was just kind

of letting what my own individual

interests were and how that would fit in

with what they could offer and what i

could offer them

[Music]

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