Entrance Essay/Financial Aid Piece

Persuasive, argumentative writing is some of the most important communication that a person can do. It is also some of the most difficult. We will begin our practice in this area by working on a project that many of you can, or will eventually, relate to: the college entrance essay.
If you have ever applied to a four-year college for admission, you know that they often ask you to include a brief essay explaining why you want to enroll. Even if you have no desire to enroll in a four-year school, the practice of working on a short, controlled persuasive piece can be very helpful. Here is what you need to know to successfully complete your essay:
There are three ways you can complete this assignment: you write your entrance essay to either a college you really do want to go to (you can in fact make this essay a part of your application materials) or you can choose a school some other way: pick your “dream school”, a school you have always been interested in, choose at random, whatever you would like. Alternatively, if you are not planning on transferring to another school, or have already been accepted, or simply don’t know what school you would like to attend, you may instead write a letter applying for financial aid or a scholarship. Many of these are tailored to a specific school, but many can be used wherever you eventually decide to attend. There are even scholarships and financial aid packages available for community colleges like Waubonsee, so you can use this to aid you in your current studies.
You will need to do some research on your chosen school. The more you know about your chosen school, the better a job you will be able to do of convincing the admissions board that you are a worthwhile and serious applicant. This means knowing things like where the school is located, what sorts of strong programs it has, what sorts of things it is famous for, and so on. We will have class time to let you research your school but you may need to work on your own as well.
If you choose to work on a real application essay, you are welcome to use the essay (if any) included with the application materials. If your school does not include an essay, or if you are not really planning on applying, use this essay prompt:
Why do you want to enroll in (college name)? What qualities do you have that will make you successful here? What sorts of experiences have you had that will make you a valuable part of the college community? What are your ultimate goals for yourself and your education?
If you choose to work on a scholarship, you will find that the vast majority of them include some sort of statement or essay prompt—again, I want a copy if you use an existing prompt. If you cannot find a prompt for your particular scholarship, use the following generic prompt:
Why are you deserving of this financial assistance? How will you use this assistance to achieve your goals? What do you want to do with your education in the long run? How will you use this assistance to give back to the wider community?
You need to make sure that you consider the audience you are writing to. What are they interested in hearing about? What sort of language, vocabulary, and tone do they expect from you? What sorts of things do they already know, and what sorts of things do you need to explain to them?
You will also need to be able to give the folks who will see your essay some information and background—both about yourself, and about what you know about them. You will want to include information about your educational and working background, your extracurricular activities, hobbies, skills, and personal qualities that you think will make you successful at the school (or with the scholarship). You will also want to demonstrate that you know about them—that you have done your homework, take the opportunity seriously, and have taken steps to make sure that you will be a good fit with the college, and that you will be successful there (or will be successful through receiving the scholarship).
You will need to make use of a number of different techniques we have worked on throughout the class to write a successful essay: you may need to define and explain things, to give example, to use narrative to explain what you have done or want to do, you may even need to compare your abilities or backgrounds to the admissions requirements of the school.
Whether this is a real letter or not, you must be honest in your essay—this is really you who is applying to this school! There is one exception to this: if you do decide to apply to a dream school, and this school is one that you would normally not be allowed to attend for whatever reason (financial, distance, a school that specializes in something you have no background in, or any other admissions criteria that you don’t/can’t meet for whatever reason) you may alter your personal information to the point that it allows you to be a potential candidate.

Obviously, the essay may be very different depending on the particular school and what they are looking for. If you are writing a real application essay, the requirement of the school take precedence over the requirements of this assignment. However, there are a few rules you do need to follow—if these don’t mix with the real-life essay, you will need to create an alternate, “class version” of the essay. This essay must be a minimum of two full pages. It must follow all of the formatting guidelines discussed in class. If the real entrance essay is extremely different than the imaginary essay prompt given above, you will need to see me to make sure that the essay is acceptable for use in this assignment.
As always, see me if you have any questions about this assignment.