52 Weeks to College: Week 8 - Short Answer Essays

Done right, short answer essays are harder than the open-ended personal essay. That's right - harder. Why?

• Because you have to respond to their question. There's no place to hide from the fact that you don't read for pleasure if the question is "name the book you last read for pleasure and explain why you enjoyed it."
• Because you have to make sure every word counts. Lazy communicators don't organize their thoughts or decide their points before they start typing/scrawling away, nor do they bother to edit. You can't afford laziness when you have such a limited number words.

This week, I challenged myself to make my blog about "short answer essays" a short answer blog. On college applications, the typical "short answer essay" is limited to 150 words. Here are the "short answers" on "short answers" - 7 keys to getting the most from short answer essays (each 150 words or less).

1.  Connect the essays to your story.

That's right - back to Week 7. Your application should be telling a coherent story and the short answer essays are "chapters" in the story. If your story is "I'm a leader," don't write a short answer essay about being a great team member on the hockey team if you weren't the leader. Pick the activity where you were a leader. (66 words)

2.  Commit the time that is needed.

Don't be a slacker and try to minimize effort by writing a couple of generic short answer essays and then recycling them for different schools. That's what the Common Application is about - one set of answers for all schools. But that's why some schools don't use the Common App, or they require their own supplements. They want answers to specific questions. If it is too much effort to answer their particular questions, you don't really want to go to that school. (88 words)

3. Play by both the spirit and the letter of the rules.

If the application says "limit your answer to 150 words," observe that limit. Likewise, if the application says "answer in the space provided," don't go to 8 point font and ¼" margins so you can get as many words as possible in the area. If you don't play by the rules, you are perceived as arrogant or unable or both. That's about 10 strikes against you, and exactly the way you can manage to get denied even with a 2400 combined SAT score. (95 words)

4. Let your voice come through by grounding the answer in the particular.

See how particularity gives Example A more voice than Example B?

Example A: I want to be a swing dance champion. That's why I spent 8 hours last weekend working on nothing but leading turns. At my last swing dance competition, I lost style points because the turns "lacked finesse," so this weekend I practiced nothing but turns. I'm confident that by the end of the year, I will be winning major competitions and on the road to the championships.

Example B: Competitive swing dancing is my passion. I spend 8-10 hours per week practicing with my coach. Every week I pick some aspect of the dance to focus on, because practice counts with all the moves. In the last year, I've placed at 6 competitions; this year I hope to win at least one competition.

(147 words)

5. Vocabulary is key.

You should bother to use words correctly and convey exactly what you mean. When you are writing about your job at the local daycare for the summer, did you "loathe" or "despise" being the one who had to take out the diaper trash? "Loathe" conveys that you disliked it intensely; "despise" conveys that you looked down on it with contempt. Dislike vs. contempt: pretty different. Now, don't take this advice and go running to your thesaurus and use a 50 cent word that sounds preposterous; the tone of these essays should be conversational, so the words should be somewhat common. You can also use contracted words and even slang (no curse words, though). (117 words)

6. Grammar and spelling matter.

Short answer essays are not academic essays, but they aren't dashed off notes between friends either, so your grammar and spelling should be correct. There are some limited exceptions for grammar: when the correct grammatical construction is so formal that it sounds like your grandmother who was an English teacher for 40 years wrote the essay, then you can consider using the "common" grammatical construction, e.g. split infinitives, sentence that ends in preposition. However, it would be better to rewrite the sentence to avoid the problem. (91 words)

7. Edit ruthlessly.

Even if you are under the word or space limit, make sure that there is nothing unnecessary or "off" in your answer. (26 words)

Comments or Questions? 

Having trouble with a particular short answer essay?  Don't know how to apply one of these rules?  Want to challenge me to edit something to 150 words and keep its essence?  Post a comment!

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.