Colorado College is a small, private liberal arts college located in Colorado Springs. The undergraduate population is about 2,000. If you love the outdoors, this is a great option for you. Colorado College is known for its “Block Plan” with classes occurring in three-and-a-half week intervals (four intervals a semester). The acceptance rate is about 13% and the school is known for its science and economics programs.
The Prompt
Why do you wish to attend Colorado College and how would you contribute to the community? (no more than 200 words)
The First Thing to Do
Read the prompt again and take some time to reflect upon what you think it means. This prompt (and all others like it) can also be read as “Why x school.” Now, consider who is reading your essay. Imagine a room full of adults you don’t know. Many of them are tired. They’ve read thousands of applications and are ready for a lunch break. Your job is to stand out to them. Keep that in mind.
Planning Your Response
Your objective should also be, above all else, to show the university that the two of you are a match made in heaven. If you read the prompt as “why Colorado College,” then your essay should be structured around crafting an answer. There’s a lot to like about Colorado College, from the Block Breaks every few weeks in which students are encouraged to take hiking trips to the beautiful campus, to the short distance to Denver. But that’s not really what we want you to talk about in this essay, as true as they might as to your reasons for applying to this school. Instead, we encourage you to focus on your own academic journey. What is the niche you’ve been carving out for the past four years? Your high school career should have been headed in a certain trajectory with a specific academic theme, from the classes you took, to the activities in which you participated. Four years later, you might be ready to abandon this specialty completely and start anew in school, moving from a high schooler with great interest in molecular biology to someone who just wants to go in undecided and paint in their dorm room. We’re here to tell you, you can go in undecided! But for the purpose of this essay, you’re not going to say that’s your intention. Instead, the essay should be about how you intend to continue the pursuit of your academic niche into your time at Colorado College.
A Note on Specificity
One quick thing—if your objective is to frame yourself as an expert in a particular academic corner of the world, you should get as specific as possible. You shouldn’t write an essay about your pursuits in science, or even just biology. Rather, you should frame yourself as an expert in, for example, ecology, and more specifically, someone who is really interested in the study of coastal wetlands (or whatever subset is true for you). Here’s why: colleges don’t want a class full of generalists. They want each class to be brimming with students who are going to become the top in their respective fields, make money and donate to the university. Students who don’t really know what they want to do in life at 18 should be considered completely normal. But in today’s world, in order to play the game, you should position yourself as an extreme specialist.
The Next Step
Now you should research everything there is to know about your academic area at this school. Don’t just look up the major that matches best with your area, check out the higher-level classes. Who are the professors? What are their research projects? What clubs and activities fit best with what you’re good at and interested in? How about internship opportunities? Given Colorado College is on the Block system, there should be no shortage of classes to reference. In order to enroll CC in the idea that you and the college are the perfect fit, start off by writing the origin story of how you got interested in your niche. This shouldn’t be a big, emotional tale. Keep it simple and also, don’t just write something they’re going to read about on your resume. Talk about something different. Perhaps you had a childhood experience or completed a project in middle school. Remember, this essay has a 200-word limit, so keep your story to one paragraph. Next, talk about the school (the classes, professors, research opportunities,etc.) that fit in with your academic interests and how participating in this school is a natural extension of what you’ve done for the last four years.
Need some help with your essay? We’re great at helping students flesh out their experiences. Call us.