The college application essay is how applicants present themselves to colleges in order to create a holistic image of themselves along with their academic records, with the goal of ultimately convincing the admissions office that they should be accepted. When writing a college application essay, most high school students have similar ideas about what this kind of writing looks like. It will typically discuss the students’ strengths that “set them apart”, taking form in perhaps a story about how they learned a character trait or how they applied it. I saw this in the University of California application, where they see the largest number of applicants in the country. My trait was “perseverance” and I talked about transferring to a new high school my senior year. Some schools wanted an answer that catered to a specific aspect of the school. For example, the USD application asked what the applicant found interesting about USD being a Changemaker campus. Because I graduated from a Catholic School I was able to tie Catholic education to what it means to be a “Changemaker”, demonstrating my experience with Catholic education and highlighting what makes USD different from other Catholic Universities. There can be a variety of questions, but the purpose and goal remain the same.

Kerry Dirk discusses how the definition of a genre is more complex than typically thought of, naming the college application essay as a genre of writing. Dirk describes a genre as not following an explicit form, but as having a known audience where a specific response is desired. The college essay certainly does not have a form to follow, as the questions themselves vary and the way even the same question can be answered has unlimited possibilities. However the audience, purpose and expected response are clearly outlined and understood.

Further, the parameters of the college application essay are part of an unspoken consensus that create a rhetoric for this type of writing. The applicants understand the purpose and goal of essay for the audience of admission offices to find out if the applicant will accepted.