In most of our clients’ applications, as well as other successful applicants who’ve been accepted to their dream school, we’ve encountered a particularly interesting pattern in their admissions essay. About 70 percent of successful admissions essays have been versatile. Most universities they’ve applied to asked two different essay prompts and they’ve had at least one versatile admissions essay. In response to this, we’ve built some of our Common App essay advice around this particular trait. In this article, we’ll be covering what makes an application essay a versatile one as well as how to achieve a versatile essay. We will also cover examples of the versatile essay.

Disclaimer: doing stylistic techniques such as this in the application essay is as rewarding as it is difficult; usually versatile college application essays are the result of both good writing and expert advice. Don’t worry if you can’t get it right the first time. If you feel that you can’t do this right or are unsure, speak to a consultant for Common App essay advice and revisions to make sure everything looks fine.

So, you’re ready to maximize your admissions chances and be that “70 percent” that we listed above. Before you can get to the good stuff, we need to define what a versatile application essay is.

A versatile university application essay is one that is compatible with many other prompts; it can fit in and answer multiple prompts if it were only slightly tweaked. For instance, a topic about winning a competition is versatile because it would clearly answer a prompt asking about one’s greatest success, but it would also work for prompts asking about overcoming obstacles or the most stirring event to happen to the applicant.

So, what’s the advantage of having a versatile admissions essay to begin with?

In short, it boosts your admission chances. But one should understand the nitty gritty of how implementing this trick is so helpful.

There are a few reasons having a versatile admissions essay will further improve your admissions chances. For one, the essay can easily be edited and molded slightly to fit into other prompts, quickening the writing process for those who want to finish their applications on time. This is especially useful for students who are applying to multiple schools but need to have good safety nets to fall back on.

The second reason one would want a versatile application essay is for its emotional impact in multiple mediums. In other words, you may think of versatile application essays like this: They answer the prompt but also imply much more about you to flesh out your positive attributes. Say for instance one was to write about winning an award. Prompts that ask about how an applicant had overcome a problem will only get one dimension of what characterizes the positive traits of the applicant. Obviously, applicants are more than just how they’ve overcome hardships; good applicants are a salad of personalities and artistic talents. Admissions officers won’t be able to see that part of the applicant if they are not exposed to a versatile application essay that not only answers the prompt but is CAPABLE of answering many other questions about the applicant.

 

The two parts of a versatile university admissions essay: the topic; the content.

 

Now the first question is this: how does one know their topic is a versatile one? A good test is to get some of the most common essay questions to see if they can be answered with the topic in question. For instance, one of the most common university application essay prompts are the following.

• What is an obstacle that you’ve struggle to overcome in your high school career?
• What are some of your greatest passions that do not concern academics?
• What are your dreams and aspirations for your future? This may concern career choices.

In general, we consider a topic to be versatile if they answer three or more of the most common questions such as the ones above with minimal editing to the completed version of the essay.

Here is an example of a versatile topic that covers all the of the above questions: successfully winning a journalism competition. The reason why this works is that it covers the first one rather straightforwardly: the obstacle is the competition that the applicant won. The next two can be implied: the applicant may imply they are also interested in writing for fun and their dreams are to work in the journalism field in the future.

Here is another example of a good topic that is versatile. The applicant writes about the traumatic experience of seeing a minority unfairly sentenced during a trial.  This works very well as it covers the emotional trauma of unfairness as the obstacle the applicant may go through. It also paves the way for the applicant to hint at extracurricular passions related to justness or fairness such as posting blog content about moral ideals. The topic also hints that the applicant may want to work in the field of law in the future. Both these two examples demonstrate the depth of the applicant by answering the prompt but also heavily implying other dimensions to the applicant’s character.

Now for the content of the application essay. In order to make the application essay versatile, the content needs to both cover the main prompt as well as answer some other hypothetical common essay prompts through implication. In general, this is usually a rather straightforwardly job –as one simply needs to imply the positive traits of their character in the essay– but it is heavily dependent of having a good and versatile topic to begin with. If you do not have a versatile topic already, making versatile content will not be a walk in the park. The key to making good content that implies other characteristics about you is having a combination of straightforward words with subtle connotation. Here’s an example.

“I seldom found myself tripping over myself to assume a position of power and authority, but I was not a stranger to difficult group situations either. The answer was clear as day: I was as afraid as my group members to assume a leadership position, but I had to in order to keep the club running.”

This piece of the essay works well since it is more direct about how the applicant had to struggle with an issue, but it is also hinting that the applicant is being humble in saying that he has never assumed a leadership position. This also suggests that the applicant may be a person who is capable of being helpful during a stressful emergency when others are struggling.

At PenningPapers, we take pride in the great lengths we go to give our readers the best and most comprehensive Common App essay advice. Unfortunately, following the specifics of our essay writing advice and executing everything properly can be difficult. Making every part of a paper versatile is not a walk in the park, especially if the applicant is unsure of the foundation of their paper. With so many moving parts in the application process, we advise applicants to consult experts for Common App essay advice and application services to check if their application essays are competitive enough to beat out the rest of the application pool in the admissions office.