There is more writing waiting for you after your Common App essay is completed. The way you enter supplementary essays as a writer is make or break. Most play it safe and screw up by simply walking through the front door. The best applicants will kick down the door. Or find another way altogether.

The details matter critically in your college essay. Your objective is to render your lived experience real for the stranger in admissions reading your story. When you leave your reader to fill in the blanks, mayhem ensues and your writing’s potency is compromised. To ensure there is no mistaking your intent, write as precisely as possible.

Your essay can cover lots of ground, and stories from the past are often a critical piece of the puzzle. And yet! The best essays must also reveal the version of you that exists right this moment. You can absolutely acquaint your reader with younger you, back when you proudly rocked a side-part and ranked in the top one percent of Imagine Dragons listeners. But be sure to live in the now and burn words on 12th-grade you — that’s the version admissions needs to know best.