On How to Best “Be Yourself” in your Application Writing

 MIT’s application instructions state, “Be honest, be open, be authentic.” Stanford stresses, “There are no right or wrong answers.” And Yale claims, “It doesn’t matter which topics you choose, as long as they are meaningful to you.” Universities place an emphasis on being genuine to calm worries in applicants and ease out more compelling stories. But these messages conceal a deeper intention. The thing is, while application reviewers insist you shouldn’t try to impress them, they do want to be impressed. Standing out is the way through their golden gates. And when standing out means “being yourself,” you’re left to wonder, how can you be genuine the “right” way? How can you correctly perform authenticity in the college essay? In this blog post, I’ll walk you through some of the most recent research and opinions on self-presentation in this genre. Let’s get into it.

“The best, most authentic self is going places; it is afire with passion,” says UVA sociology professor Joseph E. Davis in his article, “How to Be Yourself: The Studied Art of the College Application Essay.” The claim Davis weaves in here that there is a “best” form of self cuts to the heart of our issue: there really seems to be a right and wrong way to do this. According to him, you want to present yourself honestly while also highlighting traits that the university system deems valuable. There is a subtle combination of true and curated self-expression at play here.

But what are those qualities that colleges look for? Davis, along with many college prep advisers, proposes that “specialization propelled by deep motivation” is what will track. You want to highlight both your marketable social qualities—things like humility, self-discipline, leadership, perseverance, etc.—and your commitment to personal improvement. In fact, narratives of change and growth have proven to be very successful. Davis calls these narratives instances of “metanoic conversion,” (coined in rhetorician Adam Ellwanger’s Metanoia) or a “decisive change of heart or thinking.” Basically, a strong essay will include some kind of before-and-after personal experience, or a story in which you begin as one self and conclude as a different, improved one.

According to Davis, by describing this transformation, you demonstrate your methods of “becoming authentic,” which is far more powerful than sharing only a present account of who you think you are. In these growth narratives, you describe your process of self-discovery, which implicitly communicates very much about the personality traits you carry. This kind of implicit communication is very effective. Students can say whatever they want about themselves, but college admissions officers have no way of verifying that information. They can, however, evaluate your reported decision making, motivations, and drive in getting where you claim to be now.

So then, what is the best way to share your “metanoic conversion”? What techniques work in the college essay to best communicate your self and your story? Sarah W. Beck of NYU and Amanda J. Godley of the University of Pittsburg conducted a research study in 2023 seeking to answer this very question. Their article “‘What Makes You, You’: The Discursive Construction of the Self in US College Application Essays” outlines their findings in a very clear, helpful manner. Let’s check it out.

Beck and Godley analyzed twelve college admissions websites from across the US and took note of the most common themes in their common app writing advice. They built the following list (in order of frequency, from comments that appeared across all sites to those that appeared in eight of them):

o   Convey your identity, personality, uniqueness, values, thoughts

o   Present unique topic

o   Reflect your maturity, introspection, grit, drive, curiosity

o   Provide new info (not a repeat of other parts of the application)

o   Stick with same main idea through essay

o   Give details, “show don’t tell,” be concise, don’t use cliches

o   Don’t be formal, but be clear and proofread

o   Use your “voice and style”

o   Stand out from others

o   Demonstrate that you are a good, creative writer

o   Show how you will fit at this school and contribute to the community

It’s interesting that about half of this list has to do with essay craft, or what elements of writing, rather than content, a reviewer would like to see. For instance, take their second to last point—“Demonstrate that you are a good, creative writer.” Beck and Godley’s biggest takeaway—after analyzing twenty application essays that were deemed exemplary by the admissions teams at Tufts, Johns Hopkins, Hamilton, and Connecticut College—was that “presenting oneself as a good creative writer may be even more important than explicitly stated in publicly available advice.”

They found that the strong essays in their study blended expository and narrative writing, used implicit communication methods instead of explicit ones, and employed illustrative literary techniques that did the work of “showing” rather than “telling.” These successful essays used elements like extended metaphors, niche interests, appraisals, micronarratives, and verbs indicating realization and change. Now, these points get into a separate discussion about writing mechanics that is too hefty to unpack here, but I have a separate blog post that fleshes out the successful writing strategies and tools that Beck and Godly identify. Click here to read more.

So now, let’s circle back to our original question: What is the best way to “be yourself” in the college essay? I would boil down all of the research I present to these few points: define positive qualities in yourself, share an instance of growth, and write your story well in a way that implicitly says something about you.  

I recognize that this post includes a lot of information, some of it quite direct and some of it quite vague. My goal is not to add stress or confusion to your writing experience. It is true that it can help to understand what makes a “good” essay, but only if you allow that advice to support you and not get in your way. If you need more suggestions on how to manage anxiety around essay writing, click here.

And if you need someone to work with you through this process and make sure you’re “doing it right” (which I consider a problematic angle, but perhaps a necessary one), then click here to book a one-on-one meeting session.