Imagine you are an application reviewer. You are tired. The room is either too hot or too cold. You have already read 8,000 essays and need to read 400 more today and every single one feels like it starts with something like “3 summers ago, I….” or “My grandfather was the strongest person I knew.” How would you feel? If it were us, we would be some combination of bored, tired, and antsy. You turn over the next essay and it’s written as a screenplay and is titled Act 2 Scene 3. You are immediately thrown out of your routine and, more importantly, you’re grateful to this student for livening up your day.
One of our past students did exactly this., He wrote his essay in the form of a play’s dialogue because he wanted to be a playwright. He conveyed a few key things about his personality, told a gripping story in an unconventional way, and Yale really liked it.
Every student we work with has to say thank you, next to the 5 paragraph essay, but what comes after can really be anything. If you haven't read our essay on what is form and why we break it, we suggest you read that first. You can find it here.
You don’t have to want to be a future writer to break form. Breaking form can take many shapes. You could write a diary entry, a letter to your future self, poetry, etc. We love three small vignettes tied together by quotes. We love adding dialogue. We love almost anything that isn’t argumentative school writing. That still might feel big and scary.
Having a lot of freedom can often feel terrifying. If you aren’t drawn to a certain idea, don’t do it. For example, if you never read poetry or write poetry or even like poetry, this might not be the time for you to start trying. Instead you can break the 5 paragraph essay form in a smaller way, like starting your story in the middle and working your way back to the beginning.
Not everyone has to reinvent the wheel when it comes to form, but it can really help especially if you know you need to stand out. If you are worried about the strength of your application, having an interesting essay that breaks form will add more color to your application. Maybe you just realized what you want to do as a junior or senior and you’re worried about not having enough leadership roles or records in your extracurriculars. A creative essay is a great move for you. Having a break-out essay won’t change your grades or your scores, but it can make you seem more interesting as a whole. As the youths say on TikTok, “Let me add a little bit of Spice to that.”
If you think about our example about cooking for your friends, your essay could be in the form of a recipe or a food reviewer’s blog. It could be a set of 3 smaller instances of cooking that are weaved together by a set of ingredients. It could be a shopping list, it could be a story that starts at the end and then flashes to the beginning. The only thing it can’t be, is a 5 paragraph essay.
No matter what form you chose, this is an opportunity to show not only your creativity but the characteristics that you want to highlight about yourself. In any form you chose, make sure to weave them in. If you choose a grocery list, add notes about why you need to pick up vegan cheese for your friend who has an allergy and why that’s important to you. If you choose a set of vignettes choose them carefully to showcase something about you in them. Any form you chose is a vessel to say something about yourself not only as a writer but as a person.
We know this is a tall order. There are a lot of things to juggle. Our biggest piece of advice is to start early so you can take your time. We never advise students to wait until the last minute for any part of the application process, but you should especially not do this for the common app essay. Your first draft will most likely sound at least a little like an argumentative essay from a class. It’s what you are most used to doing and it’s hard to break from that at first.
If you let yourself be creative and are prepared to do multiple drafts you will set yourself up best for creating a memorable and interesting essay. Good writing often starts as one thing and ends as another through the process of making multiple drafts and edits. If you don’t write your masterpiece on day one, go back, see how you can mold it to what you really want to say. Have other’s read it and give you notes. No one said this process is easy, but we know that with a little push, you can do it.
Get in touch with us here if you have no idea where to start, we’d love to help.