Writing the Contributions/Lived Experience Essay

Tips for a Great Contributions/Lived Experience Essay

1. Pick an experience to highlight. Start by thinking about what aspect of your lived experience you want to highlight. The obvious candidates are social identities like race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, etc. But you can write about ANY experience that has had an impact on the person you are today.

2. Identify how you contribute. You’ll also need to think about how you might contribute to a college community. For example, you could contribute through character traits (see the Top Ten list), skills and abilities, or a unique point of view.

3. Connect the dots between #1 and #2. The strongest essays won’t just say “I’d contribute a passion for biology and a unique point of view on Southeast Asian politics.” They’ll also show the reader how you developed those qualities through your life experiences.

For more on the Contributions/Lived Experience essay, including strategies for picking your strongest lived experiences, contributions, and telling your story, check out Chapter 6 of Write Yourself In (p. 149).

Contributions/Lived Experience Essay Example

Prompt

Reflect on an element of your personal experience that you feel will enrich your college. How has it shaped you? (300 words)

Essay

In seventh grade I began playing the bassoon in band, and a dream quickly developed in my mind: to play in an orchestra. Having listened to classical music from a young age, I knew that I loved the orchestral sound, and I believed strongly (if inaccurately) that all the “serious” music was written for orchestras. There was just one problem: I live in rural Virginia, and there is no orchestra in my town.

So I started asking every adult I met—at church, at school, while doing volunteer work—how I could play in an orchestra. Eventually I learned about a small youth orchestra on the campus of Eastern Mennonite University, about 30 miles north of my town. As soon as I got my driver’s license (my parents work nights and weekends, and they can’t afford to take time off to shuttle me around), I called the orchestra’s conductor, auditioned, and was accepted.

As a gay teen, I was nervous about being on the campus of a conservative, Christian school, but people there turned out to be very open and welcoming. The experience was incredible, and the following year, it led to an offer to play in the campus orchestra of Washington & Lee University, which is 40 miles south of my town (more driving!). Playing the exposed second bassoon part in Mozart’s A-major piano concerto was terrifying, especially because all of the other players were college students or professors. But the feeling of being totally surrounded—literally and figuratively—by such beautiful music was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life.

Reaching beyond my local community has not only made me a better musician, it’s transformed me as a person. It’s meant less time for friends, schoolwork, and other activities, so I’ve had to get much better at managing my time. I’ve also become more resilient, learning to trust my inner voice, persist in the face of challenges, and to keep asking questions even when I don’t know the way forward. In college, I can’t wait to continue playing orchestral music. I also want to bring the spirit of this experience to the Yale community, not only for myself but to support my classmates in following their dreams and creating meaningful experiences that enrich their lives.

Notes on the example essay – why it works

You’ll notice that this essay mentions sexual orientation (“As a gay teen” in paragraph two), but it’s not actually about the writer being gay—or about race or gender. Instead, it’s about challenges they faced due to geography and socioeconomic status.

The essay is effective because it shows the writer overcoming obstacles and making sacrifices in pursuit of a goal and then explains how that experience impacted them as a person. They developed character traits such as resilience, persistence, maturity, and self-confidence, while also building time management skills (and presumably becoming a better musician, too). Finally, the essay directly connects those traits to ways they might contribute to the college community: not only as a musician but also by supporting their classmates in following their own dreams.

For more help with the Contributions/Lived Experience essay and the rest of your college applications, get a copy of Write Yourself In from your favorite library or bookseller!