As the Director and the primary Admissions Representative of a small, private and highly-competitive art and career training school, I view hundreds of enrollment applications on an annual basis. Admissions Essays serve two main purposes; 1) they provide personal and educational background information about the prospective student to the school, and most importantly in my opinion, they offer the student an opportunity to let the Admissions Team and Faculty get to know them better.
There are two essay questions on Academy of Make Up Arts’ application. One asks “What was your main reason for choosing AMUA” and the other “Why do you want to become a makeup artist”.
The essay portion of an application allows the student an opportunity to let the decision makers get to know them a little better. In some cases, like when we often have a wait-list and have to make tough decisions about whom to allow into a class session, it can be the tie-breaker.
Sample 1:
Q.) Why do you want to become a makeup artist? (In 200-500 words)
A.) I don’t want to go to a four year college and makeup is fun and I heard you can make money doing it.
Sample 2:
Q.) Why do you want to become a makeup artist? (In 200-500 words)
A.) As a young child I always loved watching the makeup and costume design of different theater productions. Starting at a young age my grandparents took me to musicals where I saw shows such as “Wicked’, “Sweeney Todd”, and “Rocky Horror Picture Show”. I was always mesmerized by the makeup and costumes I would see on the stage in front of me. I loved how it brought the show to life before my eyes. From there I started to enjoy watching award shows for costuming and makeup. I wanted to see more of the fantastic costumes and and makeups I would see on stage.
They soon became my favorite part of televised award shows like, “The Academy Awards”. I loved seeing how makeup could completely change an actor into that character on screen. I especially loved seeing the makeup from fantasy movies because of the transformations that they made. I remember when I was young how happy I was when “Chronicles of Narnia” won for best makeup. I feel like ever since that moment I had an underlying passion for makeup. As I grew up and started to wear beauty and everyday makeup, I never thought of going into a career with makeup. When I was in high school I started to attend anime and comic conventions where I dress up as different characters. I started to teach myself makeup so I could better pull of these characters.
With wearing different costumes I started to experiment with makeup. I spent many hours on “YouTube” and surrounded myself with makeup. It filled every free space in my bathroom. I loved trying out new products and learning new skills. I was at my happiest when I was working with makeup. I started to realize how important it was becoming in my life and I never wanted to stop working on it. Being self taught gave me the freedom to explore my growing interests in makeup. I started enjoying the way I could completely transform my face with makeup. I loved looking in the mirror and seeing a completely different person. My favorite makeup look since then has been to make my face look more masculine, complete with a beard and all. It made me so proud when people didn’t recognize me in photos when I had that makeup on. It didn’t take long from there for me to begin dabbling in special effects makeup. There was something fascinating to me to see these disgusting works of art on my skin. I loved seeing the reactions I would get from my friends and family when I finished creating a realistic injuries. It made me so proud of myself that I could transform my skin into something disgusting yet wonderful. The more I got interested in special effects makeup, the more I sat down to learn more on my own, which helped me discover so much more brands and techniques that I still use today. It also helped me to learn the power of makeup and how somebody could completely transform themselves with it and helped me discover my passion for it.
The more I practiced special effects, the more I fell in love with the transformations I could make with makeup. I began wanting to create similar pieces of art on other people and exploring other makeup and different techniques. I wanted to be able to create more wonderful transformations on myself and others, along with ways that I could apply makeup onto other people. When I began working with my college’s theater department was really when I saw the future I could have in makeup. I loved working behind the scenes on shows or films. I found my passion for work behind the scenes and how I loved working on bringing characters to life. During this time I worked backstage on “Bonnie and Clyde” and even helped to build a costume for the play “Talking With…”. While I was studying theater at Saddleback College I traveled abroad in Ireland for a month to study theater and film where I saw many theater productions. I even had a chance to visit the Abbey Theater, the National Theater of Ireland. This only helped to further my passion for makeup and theater and film. Soon enough I started being able to see myself making a career out of it.
The reason I want to become a makeup artist is so that I can transform people into walking pieces of art, gory or beautiful. I also want to be a makeup artist so that I can transform ordinary people into wonderful creatures and terrifying monsters. I want to be a makeup artist so that I can help actors fully become their characters. I want to be an artist so that I can continue to learn more about a world that I have come to love so much. I feel like I have only seen such a small part of everything that makeup has to offer and I know becoming a makeup artist will help m widen my horizons. I also want to create makeups to help audiences becomes more engrossed in the characters in stage productions, film, or television. After years of dabbling in makeup and costuming, it finally became clear to me that I want to become a makeup artist full time. I want to become a makeup artist so that I can create and transform people into living art.
Now my question is, which one would you choose to enroll?