How To Write The Best College Admissions Essay

How To Write The Best College Admissions Essay Make sure you include personal experiences with each one. When you have finished, go back and choose the ones that you are most excited to talk about and make a note of why they motivate you. You’re the only person with your exact combination of personal qualities, beliefs, values, and experiences, so you don’t need to lie or exaggerate to make your essay unique. In fact, it’s important to write in your authentic voice and avoid using “fancy” vocabulary just to impress admissions officers. Remember that the purpose of a college admissions essay is to help admissions officers get to know you. If your essay is filled with lies and exaggerations, then you’ve missed the point entirely. It’s possible that college admissions officers may suspect you’re lying, which is a poor reflection on your ethics and morals. When you begin to write your essay for a standardized test, you must first decide what type of essay you are being asked to write. There are many different types of essays, including narrative, expository, argumentative, persuasive, comparative, literary, and so on. Even if they don’t suspect you’re lying, you’ve missed your chance to showcase the real reasons that you’re a good fit for this school. Often, students feel pressure to write about a completely unique, never-before-seen essay topic that will help them stand out. When these students can’t think of anything “cool” or “special” enough, they make something up. You may have been advised to take risks with your college application essays, but you don’t want to be too risky. Still, it’s best to avoid especially polarizing topics such as religion, abortion, and other hot-button debates. Every year, more than 3 million essays will land on the Admissions desk in universities across the country. With so many eager young minds seeking acceptance in a school of higher learning, one can easily see just how difficult it is to get noticed when applying to a quality university. It’s particularly important when writing a piece about yourself that you write naturally. By planning the layout of your essay ahead of time, you’ll avoid changing your writing style mid-story. The type of essay will determine your topic and thesis. Essays for standardized tests are typically either persuasive, in which you will answer a question, or literary, in which you will write about something you read. Admissions officers want to get to know applicants. There’s only so much that application readers can deduce from your extracurricular activities, transcripts, test scores, recommendation letters, and other application materials. Take your time, don’t rush as this will become the foundation of your essay. Take a notebook and write down whatever comes to your mind that would fit with that particular prompt. But that’s not nearly as scary as it seems, because you get to choose what to share and how to share it. For standardized tests, students usually have to write a five paragraph essay, which should be 500 to 800 words long and include an introductory paragraph, three supporting paragraphs and a concluding paragraph. They also are looking to see how well you interact with other students, your willingness to see others succeed. Your essay should show evidence of how you interact with others. Evidence that you’re not just out there to help yourself but that you are willing to extend assistance to other students who may need it. It should reflect your social skills showing that you are an interesting individual that others will want to share their college years with. Many times the best way to get a clear picture of a student’s goals, accomplishments, and character is to hear it directly from the student him or herself. Some of the best college application essays are written about small moments that are meaningful to the applicant. Your college application essay needs to breathe life into your application. It should capture your genuine personality, explaining who you are beyond a series of grades, test scores, and after-school activities.