Here is some more helpful advice from the New York Times’ College Admissions blog.  This entry discusses how to choose an acceptable college essay topic and what to do if you have been deferred from your first choice college or university.

Short answer responses are questions that ask you to confine your entire essay to a single paragraph.  Many students consider these to be less important than full-length essays and, as a result, dash off a few lines with little care for clarity or revision.  In reality, however, you should treat these responses the same way you would treat a full-length essay.

Plan to write multiple drafts. It’s okay if your first draft is too long.  Many people need a chance to “warm up,” so to speak, when they first start writing.  For this reason, it might help you to get all of your thoughts out, even if the initial draft exceeds the word length.  When you revise, strike out all sentences that are repetitive or vague.  Each subsequent draft should strive for increased specificity.

Be as specific and vivid as possible. Because of the length constraints of the short answer response, it makes little sense to waste words on a vague statement with the intention of providing specific details later in the paragraph.  Instead of, “The students were friendly,” explain how you knew they were friendly: “Everyone I passed greeted me with a broad smile even though I was a stranger” or “As I scrutinized my map in the center of the quad, two students approached to offer directions even though I hadn’t asked for help.”

Avoid repeating information that can be found elsewhere in the application. Use the short answer response as an opportunity to provide new details about yourself and your interests.  If you have already discussed it in your personal statement, do not repeat it in the short answer.

Focus on one idea or activity. Because you are striving for specificity, it makes sense to narrow your focus.  Rather than listing all of your extracurricular interests, write about one that holds special meaning for you.  Rather than reciting all of your duties and responsibilities as class president, write about one particularly memorable day, using it to stand in for the whole.

The cliche goes like this: Use your own voice when writing the college essay.  But what does that really mean?  We use different voices in different situations: the voice you use when talking to your math teacher about a missing homework assignment is probably not the same voice you use when chatting with your best friend on the phone.  In both situations, the words you choose convey an appropriate level of formality.  You greet your best friend with, “hey,” or “what’s up,” but to your math teacher, you say, “Hello, Ms. Smith.”

The college essay is no different.   Admissions officers are expecting essays to be written by high school students, so it’s important not to be overly formal.   Use words you understand and feel comfortable with; don’t feel pressured to include unfamiliar words because you want to show a complex vocabulary.  At the same time, however, remember that you are writing for a panel of adults; do not use contractions like “don’t” or “can’t” and avoid slang whenever possible.

Here’s an example of a very informal voice from Junot Diaz’s short story, “Negocios,” out of the collection Drown.

My father, Ramon de las Casas, left Santo Domingo just before my fourth birthday.  Papi had been planning to leave for months, hustling and borrowing from his friends, from anyone he could put the bite on.  In the end it was just plain luck that got his visa processed when it did.  The last of his luck on the Island, considering that Mami had recently discovered he was keeping with an overweight puta he had met while breaking up a fight on her street in Los Millonitos.  Mami learned this from a friend of hers, a nurse and a neighbor of the puta.  The nurse couldn’t understand what Papi was doing loafing around her street when he was supposed to be on patrol.

This is a very informal voice, too informal for the college essay.  Diaz uses slang words—”hustling,” “put the bite on,” “just plain luck,” —as well as the contraction “couldn’t”—which make this tone inappropriate for the college essay.

At the same time, it’s possible to be overly formal.  Here’s an example from Jonathan Swift’s essay, “A Modest Proposal:”

It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for this helpless infants, who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.

Swift uses many complex vocabulary words that make this inappropriate for a college essay—”importuning” instead of “begging”, “sustenance” instead of “food.”  An essay like this would raise eyebrows in a college admissions office, making the readers wonder whether it was really written by a high school student.

Strive for something in between these two extremes, something comfortable but not overly casual or conversational, more formal than casual speech, but not so formal that you sound like an 18th century satiric essayist.

On The Choice, the New York Times’ college admissions blog, a Harvard dean of admissions responds to questions about what level of parent assistance is appropriate when it comes to college applications.

We evaluate essays in the context of students’ transcripts, comments from teacher recommendations, any academic accomplishments that indicate unusual promise, or even by examining how the application essays compare to the essays on the SAT or ACT writing exam.

We look for, as Phil Smith (former dean of admissions at Williams) put it many years ago, internal consistency.

Writing a great essay cannot lead to admission if the rest of the application is not at the same level. What students achieve on a day-to-day basis during high school is far more compelling. But the essay provides an opportunity for students to tell colleges about something that is important to them, perhaps something that will not be found in other parts of the application.

The rest of his response can be found here.

Here is some timeless advice from Kurt Vonnegut on writing with style.

Many college applications will ask you to articulate why you’ve chosen to apply to their school in particular.  They may ask, “Why do you want to attend our university?” or “What makes you a good match for our college?”  Here are a few tips to help you proceed:

Be honest. Don’t write what you think they want to hear.  Don’t write why your parents think you should go there.  Ask yourself why you want to go to that school; what makes it different from the other schools on your list?  If you can’t answer this question honestly, perhaps you should reconsider your decision to apply there.

Be specific. Don’t say, “I like the campus.”  Explain why you like the campus.  Is it the gothic architecture? The rolling fields? The newly-renovated science center?

Be clear about why YOU are a good match. Don’t just write that you like the newly renovated science center. Write that the newly-renovated science center will help you, as a physics major, complete a course in astronomy with  more hands on, technological interaction than any other college without an observatory could provide.

Be creative. Start with an anecdote, or description.  It’s okay to use narrative to begin even this essay. DO NOT begin your essay with, “I want to go to college X because.”  As with any other essay, find a unique hook to draw the reader in.

Show you’ve done your research….but don’t just rehash facts that anyone could find on College X’s website.  If you went on a tour, you might mention some unique facts you learned from the tour guide. Again, don’t mention aspects of the college unless they’re relevant to your specific interests.  It makes little sense for someone who has avoided science throughout his or her high school career to mention how much they love the newly-renovated science center.

Reduce cluttered language, whether or not your essay is under the word limit.  Here are some tips to help you trim unnecessary words:

Avoid passive voice.

Example: “The game was won by the other team.” (8 words)

Revised: “The other team won the game.” (6 words)

Use descriptive verbs.

Example: “I came to the conclusion that my mother knows best.” (10 words)

Revised: “I concluded that my mother knows best.” (7 words)

Avoid redundancy.

Example: “Last March, during the spring, I joined the chess club.” (10 words)

Revised: “Last March I joined the chess club.” (7 words)

That said, make sure you’re happy with the shape and content of your piece before you begin this kind of  scrutiny.  It’s best to leave editing for the final stage of the essay-writing process.

Many students make the mistake of trying to cram their entire life story into their college essay.   This makes for a very dry essay: a list of facts and events rather than an accurate depiction of the student as a human being.  Instead, you should think of offering your reader a slice of your life in the college essay; describe a moment that stands in for the whole.  What you choose to write about and how you choose to write it will tell the admissions committee what is important to you.

Once you’ve chosen a broad topic–why you love cooking, or how you spent your summer, for example–try to narrow it down to something more manageable.  You might write about your favorite recipe and a special day on which you prepared it.  Or you could describe a particular summer day on which you learned something new, or did something to surprise yourself.  The key is to narrow your focus to something manageable, not just for you as a writer, but for the members of the admissions committee as readers.

Ideally, your personal statement should be 600-800 words, or around three pages in length.  That’s not nearly enough space to tell your entire life story, so shave your topic down to one memorable moment that you can describe in vivid detail.