Mastering the College Admission Essay

Mastering the College Admission Essay Mastering the College Admission Essay College admission essays can be intimidating for a lot of students. The idea that something as simple as a few paragraphs can have such an impact on your future is understandably scary. Putting in the time, thought, and effort into crafting a standout admission essay can seem daunting, but there are a few simple things you can do to amp up your paper. Be You As clichà © as it may sound, you want your own personality to come across in the essay. Dont try to sound impressive. The college administrators read thousands of essay every year, but only one of them is yours. Take the chance to show them yourself, and express your own triumphs. A lot of hopeful students try to make themselves sound better with tales of charity work, or underdog stories. When so many of those types of essays are submitted, its the everyday experience that starts to standout. Language Of course you want to sound smart, but dont overdo it. A college admission essay may seem like the perfect opportunity to crack open a thesaurus and wax poetic, but the truth is that using synonyms and lengthy descriptors only weighs your essay down. Wading through a four sentence description of the scenery is only going make the people reading your essay tired, and possibly confused. Using concise language is far more likely to make a lasting impression. The more you try to shove SAT words into your essay, the more you disconnect yourself from the reader. Generally, you want to write the way that you would speak. Read your essay aloud. If it sounds clunky and unnatural when youre speaking, its going to be clunky and unnatural when they read it. Content Subject matter is another tricky task. Students seem inclined to write about what they think the college cares about dont! Write about whats important to you. Demonstrating the way you think is the exact purpose of the admission essay, in the first place. Kicking that aside to try and please the person reading your essay defeats the point. Your essay is a chance to say what you couldnt express in the application. You want to come off as if youre speaking directly to the person reading your paper, and telling them what your standard application couldnt. Proofreading Once youre happy with your content the next step is to go over it with a strict eye. Any misplaced punctuation, spelling errors, or grammatical mistakes can have a negative impact on how your essay is perceived. If you arent confident in how your own editing, its a good idea to have someone else look for you. has a team of experienced writers to make sure your admission essay is as perfect as possible.