essay topic
How to – The College Admissions Essay
Essay Topic
From my knowledge and previous experience, a topic or general prompt will be usually provided. It is much more difficult for college admissions staff to compare and judge completely dissimilar essays than it is similar essays. Therefore, prompts are given to make the lives of college admissions staff easier!
If a prompt is not specific, write about something you feel comfortable and knowledgeable about. Also, think of what admissions personnel is looking for. This often includes leadership demonstration, work or volunteer experience, and/or an activity relating to your field of study. I would not recommend writing on the subject of academia, as your GPA, class rank, and test scores fill that area.
Where Do I Start?
Anywhere! The most difficult portions of essays is often the introduction and conclusion. Once you have your ideas on paper (or your screen), it is much easier to manipulate your existing ideas to form a solid, logical paper.
I often have 10 to 20 “mini” paragraphs, which I then form into larger portions and, finally, a cohesive essay.
Writing Tips
Don’t Be Boring!
- The college admissions staff reads thousands of papers per day. Your admissions essay is not the place to be mundane and typical. Especially if you are on the border (GPA, class rank, and test score wise), your essay must be extremely effective and exciting.
- If you can write about an emotional experience, may it be saddening, frightening, or action-packed, please do so! It will capture the readers attention and give your paper longer than the average minuet or two.
- Convey your feelings to the reader! If you were crying tears of joy, your goal should be to have the admissions reader excited and jumping out of their chair!
Style
- As stated in my previous post, have your own style. You have been writing for about 10 years now, and you should have a definitive, catchy style to your writing. Vary sentence structure and word choice.
- On the note of word choice: Your essay should not be the annual gathering of large words! Don’t hear me wrong, whenever I am writing an essay, I always have thesaurus up. They are great to find the word on the tip of your tongue or just to add some variety. *On a side note, my favorite are MSN Thesaurus and Thesaurus.com. They both offer a different variety of word choices.
- More is not always better. Be concise and to the point. Wordiness can cause boredom and lose attention of your reader.
Follow The Prompt
- Answer the darn question! Don’t ramble on and write an autobiography if the question is “How will ___ College help fulfill your dreams?”
Get Assistance
- It is highly encouraged that you ask for a read over from, at minimum, your parents and siblings. Having a teacher or other mentor give their input can also be quite helpful.
- Although I have not personally used an essay service, many applicants are using them to receive (what some argue) is an unfair advantage. Personally, I had three high school teachers and my mother read my essays. I was accepted to the University of Illinois, so I must have done something right. *If you insist on having a professional opinion, or want that extra advantage. I have heard EssayEdge does a bang-up job. The founder, Geoffrey Cook, also wrote Yahoo’s article on admissions essays.
- You can never have too many opinions! If you don’t agree with what someone suggests, even after an explanation, just smile, nod, and ditch their suggestion!
Don’t Panic
- Take your time, and get ideas on paper. Like I stated earlier, it does not matter what order or way the information is lied out. Just get it on paper, and your life will become much easier!
- Walk away from your essay and come back in a couple hours or a couple days, depending on your time constraint.
- Don’t wait till the last minute! Get a jump start and work on your essays longer than your competition (other applicants!).
Be an AppliCAN, Not an AppliCAN’T!
- cheesy as this sounds, I know many peers of mine didn’t apply themselves, get good grades, apply to top schools, and write solid essays. All because they where not confidant and saw themselves as appliCAN’Ts! You are reading this blog, and by doing so, you are becoming an appliCAN!
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Your College Application Essay – Managing the Feedback
Once you’ve completed your college application essay, it’s always a good idea to get feedback from other people. But who those people are, and how you manage their feedback, can often be the difference between a good essay and a great one. Here are six ways to manage that feedback, and use it to your greatest advantage.
1. Be sure you are reasonably happy with the essay before you show it to anyone. This doesn’t mean that you think it’s perfect and won’t be open to making changes. Instead, it assures that you will be able to analyze feedback from a position of strength, not insecurity, thus maximizing its benefits.
2. Be very careful about whose opinions you seek, Many people consider themselves accomplished writers or editors and, although their intentions may be good, they simply aren’t. Even worse, they don’t fully understand what makes a successful college application essay. This won’t stop them from offering an opinion if asked so please, choose wisely. Remember, not all opinions are equal.
If possible, ask for feedback from people familiar with the application process, teachers or tutors, professional writers, college students who are attending good schools, or someone whose perspective you highly respect. These readers will offer more perceptive, valuable, and ultimately more achievable input about your essay.
3. Get three opinions per draft. One is too few, more than three will only be confusing.
Generally, if all three of your readers, or two out three, give you similar feedback, then there is obviously an issue in your essay that needs to be addressed. Make your revisions, further polish the essay, then look for three different readers to comment on the next draft. Continue in this manner until the feedback is almost unanimously positive. That’s when you’ll know that your essay is almost finished.
4. Don’t be defensive. Listen carefully to everything your reader has to say, without rushing to defend why you used that turn of phrase or what you really meant in that paragraph. Stay objective about your work, as if you’re discussing someone else’s essay. This will allow you to truly hear what your reader is saying and to decide whether you agree with it, which is still your prerogative, or not.
5. Ask questions. If you think a particular bit of feedback is accurate and valuable, ask the reader why he or she feels that way, what is it in the essay that provoked that opinion? Sometimes a reader will have a feeling about the essay (”something is missing, I’m not sure what”) that he can’t quite articulate. By asking genuine questions, you can often pinpoint what the issue is, and fix it.
6. Trust yourself. Readers will sometimes suggest sweeping changes that are good, but not compatible with what you want to say. They might also be coming from a more adult, rather than a high school student, perspective. Remember that you worked hard to develop an essay topic that reflects your values and personality. While other ideas certainly exist, this is the one you’ve chosen – the one you believe in – and it’s okay to stick with it.
People who give feedback on your college application essay are clearly doing you a favor, and it’s important to be appreciative. At the same time, however, keep in mind that your ultimate commitment is to writing the most effective application essay possible and to do that, you’ve got to use that feedback wisely
Tags: adult, application essay, college, college application, college application essay, college s, college students, essay, essay topic, good essay, good schools, high school, school, schools, student, students, teach, teacher, teachers, tutors, writingRelated posts
Your College Application Essay – Managing the Feedback
Once you’ve completed your college application essay, it’s always a good idea to get feedback from other people. But who those people are, and how you manage their feedback, can often be the difference between a good essay and a great one. Here are six ways to manage that feedback, and use it to your greatest advantage.
1. Be sure you are reasonably happy with the essay before you show it to anyone. This doesn’t mean that you think it’s perfect and won’t be open to making changes. Instead, it assures that you will be able to analyze feedback from a position of strength, not insecurity, thus maximizing its benefits.
2. Be very careful about whose opinions you seek, Many people consider themselves accomplished writers or editors and, although their intentions may be good, they simply aren’t. Even worse, they don’t fully understand what makes a successful college application essay. This won’t stop them from offering an opinion if asked so please, choose wisely. Remember, not all opinions are equal.
If possible, ask for feedback from people familiar with the application process, teachers or tutors, professional writers, college students who are attending good schools, or someone whose perspective you highly respect. These readers will offer more perceptive, valuable, and ultimately more achievable input about your essay.
3. Get three opinions per draft. One is too few, more than three will only be confusing.
Generally, if all three of your readers, or two out three, give you similar feedback, then there is obviously an issue in your essay that needs to be addressed. Make your revisions, further polish the essay, then look for three different readers to comment on the next draft. Continue in this manner until the feedback is almost unanimously positive. That’s when you’ll know that your essay is almost finished.
4. Don’t be defensive. Listen carefully to everything your reader has to say, without rushing to defend why you used that turn of phrase or what you really meant in that paragraph. Stay objective about your work, as if you’re discussing someone else’s essay. This will allow you to truly hear what your reader is saying and to decide whether you agree with it, which is still your prerogative, or not.
5. Ask questions. If you think a particular bit of feedback is accurate and valuable, ask the reader why he or she feels that way, what is it in the essay that provoked that opinion? Sometimes a reader will have a feeling about the essay (”something is missing, I’m not sure what”) that he can’t quite articulate. By asking genuine questions, you can often pinpoint what the issue is, and fix it.
6. Trust yourself. Readers will sometimes suggest sweeping changes that are good, but not compatible with what you want to say. They might also be coming from a more adult, rather than a high school student, perspective. Remember that you worked hard to develop an essay topic that reflects your values and personality. While other ideas certainly exist, this is the one you’ve chosen – the one you believe in – and it’s okay to stick with it.
People who give feedback on your college application essay are clearly doing you a favor, and it’s important to be appreciative. At the same time, however, keep in mind that your ultimate commitment is to writing the most effective application essay possible and to do that, you’ve got to use that feedback wisely
Tags: adult, application essay, college, college application, college application essay, college s, college students, essay, essay topic, good essay, good schools, high school, school, schools, student, students, teach, teacher, teachers, tutors, writingRelated posts