3 Keys To Successful College Admission Essays

3 Keys To Successful College Admission Essays Make a plan to meet with your college counselor and go over your college list and essays, and ask for feedback on your writing. Your college counselor can provide valuable insight into how to improve your college application essays, so seek feedback on your drafts as soon as possible. School-based counselors have a lot of students to advise and are very busy, so seek guidance early and often. Writing the college essay takes time and effort, and you should feel accomplished. When you submit your essay, remember to include your name, contact information, and ID number if your college provided one, especially if you send it to a general admission email account. 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. A great college essay gives the college an opportunity to see who you really are. Pick a meaningful experience and take the reader through your process of self-discovery. A man that she adored but discovered that he was a cocaine addict. With some space between yourself and your initial writing, you'll be able to view your essay objectively and have better luck finding the flaws. After polishing it up, let it sit again and give it another coat of polish before showing it to your proofreaders. The best college admission essays go through several drafts before they're finished, so don't be afraid to rewrite your essay as many times as needed. Unlike the rest of your application, which consists largely of objective facts like grades and test scores, your application essay allows you to truly showcase what makes you unique as a student and a person. The admissions counselors thought the pies were quite tasty but this did not lead to an acceptance. Another student sent a life-size blowup of herself attached to balloons. She took the reader through the stages of loving, hating, being disappointed, ashamed and finally acceptance, understanding and again loving while “Dad” was going through treatment. She allowed herself to be vulnerable which made the essay dynamite. Another student talked about the struggles of having learning disabilities and the pain that he experienced during his educational career. You might think, “I don’t have anything like that.” All of us have experiences that have impacted our lives. Sit down with your folks and talk about your family and your “growing-up” years. 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. It was supposed to fly…but alas the balloons didn’t work. And yet another student staged a sit-in in an admissions office lobby, refusing to leave until she was able to speak to a few admissions people. Needless to say, this tactic proved as ineffective as the pies and the blow-up person attached to balloons. Similarly, one topic you should never write about in your college essay is romantic relationships. It’s hard not to be cliché when writing about young love, and a relationship shouldn’t be the main aspect of your life that you want to showcase for college admissions officers. Nothing is worse than trying to match an application essay with no name (or, worse, an email address such as ) to a file. Make sure to keep copies of what you sent to which schools and whenâ€"and follow up on them! Be certain the college or university you're applying to received your essay. I have seen too many essays where parents “helped” and as result, the essay lost the student’s voice. Too many words had been added that just did not reflect the student’s vocabulary or mode of writing. College admissions readers are bright and intuitive and can tell when an essay has been “helped” too much. I see no problem with parents doing a grammar/spelling check as well as offering suggestions on how an essay could be improved. Just be sure that it still reads like it was written by a 17 year old and it shares the story that is important to them and not just an important sounding topic that a parent thinks would be more impressive . Use your own voice and your own stories to illustrate why you would be an asset to the school. Don't fall into the trap of sanitizing your speech and your opinions for risk of offending an admissions officer. Although you do need to use proper spelling and grammar, your college essay is a perfect place for creative metaphors, witty turns of phrase and humor. Your college counselors are there to help, but they can’t if you don’t ask or wait until the last minute to seek guidance and feedback. Coming up with a good topic for your college admission essays can feel like the ultimate form of writer’s block. After all, what could you possibly write about that will represent you in 500 words or fewer? The creative process definitely isn’t easy, but these tips and tricks from students who have been through the process should help you get your thoughts flowing and ideas moving. Check out these five tips for choosing an essay topic to help get you started. Aside from mistakes on the essays, college admissions counselors discuss in “The Daily Beast” how one student sent pies, claiming she wasn’t a good athlete but she was a good baker.