Dreading Writing Your College Application Essay? Tips From The Pros

Dreading Writing Your College Application Essay? Tips From The Pros They are not general or abstract, the more details the better. The best essays are 20% about the “topic” (the “what”) and 80% about the writer. A great college essay grabs your attention from the first sentence. It takes readers into, through, and beyond the story in 500 words or less. A great essay tells a a unique story that communicates key qualities you can offer the college. We can’t guarantee results, but this advice might help you get started. Far too many students don’t have anything worthwhile to say in their conclusions to application essays about why they want to attend a particular college or university. Additionally, you might email an admissions counselor at the school with some questions or speak to a current student or alum. (If you don’t know anyone affiliated with the school, try asking your guidance counselor if there are former students from your high school who attend or attended X college.) Peruse a course catalog. These steps will help you develop a list of specific qualities that are unique to the school. If you are completely out of ideas, it’s always a good idea to express appreciation at the end of your college-specific essays. The ultimate point of a college essay is to engage and hopefully convince the reader that you would be an asset on that campus. You need the essay to wow them with your personal qualities while sharing an engaging story, perhaps- a snapshot of your life. The tone could be funny or sad, reflective or poignant, but you NEED that reader to like you, so that they would support your application in admissions. If your essay does not reveal some sense of your best personal qualities are i.e. maturity, leadership or compassion then it has failed. Few things are as eternal as the search for the great college essay. But given the range of factors that go into the decision making process, it is hard to know if the “successful” essays ones really tipped the balance. That being said, the essay is something you can control so you want to make it good. Quite simply, a great college essay helps illuminate who you are. A great college essay is one that makes your reader want to get to know you better, to engage in a conversation with you. It is an essay that makes your reader laugh or cry or think. The best college essays deal with specific examples from the writer’s life. Personal Essay/Pre-College Essay Workshops are available for freshmen and sophomores. Many of the prompts on the Common Application are left open-ended for a reason. They serve as starting points while giving you freedom to show colleges who you are. A common mistake that students make while writing their essays is focusing completely on an event that took place. While what occurred is important, you need to demonstrate how it affected you and how you felt. The college essay is often the most difficult part of preparing your application. To help you get off to a good start, we’ve put together the following tips and hints. These are comments from our admissions staff who actually read your essays and evaluate them in the admission process. One of the main goals of these college application essays is to help differentiate students from the competitionâ€"other students. If your topic is one that many others will be writing about, you are already fading into the crowd. Essay writingis an important part of the college application process. Using the Common Application, you will have to write one major essay, and possibly write a series of smaller essays for each school on their Supplement Forms . Admissions officers want to see how you think and how you’ve grown. The essay is the only place on your application to truly take them into your mind. You should read a college guide book, methodically review the website, and hopefully, if at all possible, visit the school. The worst things you can do is write an essay that is generic, one where if your name was replaced by another, the reader could not tell the difference. The people in the admissions office are trying to learn about you and the essay is often the last chance you have to shape their impression and understanding of you.