Tuesday 14 April 2015

Tips on Writing A Good College Admission Essay

Writing a college admission essay can be a very daunting task. Even though it is only 500 words you must write, it can be the hardest part of the college application process. There are two goals that you must accomplish with your essay; first you want to convince the admissions officer that you are worthy of admittance to their college, and second you want to show them that you are not just a GPA or standardized score, you are a real person that wants to represent their college.

Unfortunately there is no sure-fire method for writing a college admission essay. But using college admission essay examples are a good way to find some ideas to get started. Below are some tips and examples for you to use while you are writing your college admission essay.

1. Answer the essay question. The college application question is the most important part of the essay. No matter how well you compose your essay, if you do not answer the essay question you will not be accepted to the college.

2. Your work should be original. If you are writing about a competition that you trained for, do not start the essay by saying "I trained for many hours a week to get prepared for this competition", that is a very generic statement and does not show creativity. Try using a more descriptive sentence by writing "I would wake up at 4:00 every morning, start my training routine, and even though I was soaked with sweat and exhausted I would still make it to school on time". This will show you dedication to whatever competition you were competing in, but you did not allow it to get in the way of your studies.

3. Be yourself. The admissions officer wants to know about you and your writing abilities. Choose a topic that is meaningful to you, and write more about your feelings and not so much about your actions. Unless current events are something you follow with great interest, you want to stay away from the grand themes in which you may have very little personal experience.

4. Do not "Thesaurus" your essay. Most students think they need to use big words in there essays. The use of big words is fine as long as they are used in the appropriate context.

5. Spend most of your time writing your introduction. Admission officers usually have 1 to 2 minutes to read each essay. This means that they only have the chance to read the introduction paragraph of each essay, so you will need to grab their attention in the first paragraph.

6. The body paragraphs must relate back to the introduction. You body paragraphs must be related to the topic in your introduction. And you must use transition when starting another paragraph. If you abruptly change topics when start a new paragraph your essay will not flow and it will be hard for the reader to understand.

7. Have others proofread your essay. After you have written and proofread your essay, ask a few family members and friends to also read over it for you. Having another person's opinion of your essay can provide insight that you did not see, and my find a few grammatical errors that slipped past your proofreading.

8. Revise as much as you need. You are only giving 500 words to express yourself; you will want to use them wisely. Remove things from your essay that do not relate back to the main topic. Is your introduction and conclusion more than just a summary? Did you correct all of the grammatical errors? These are just some of the questions you will need to ask yourself.

9. Professional Editors. The application essay is way to important not to spend about $50 to have a professional proofread it. This will improve your essay's style, transition, and grammar. They can also offer suggestions to make your essay unique and stand out to the admissions officer.

The most important thing you need to remember is to take your time when writing your essay. Reading through college admission essay examples can help you be more prepared to tackle your own essay. It can be very stressful to write this kind of essay; don't try to write it all in one day, or one sitting. Write a rough draft and then take a break for a little while. But don't hesitate too long and get stuck trying to write it all in one night.



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