Conquer The College Essay

Conquer The College Essay If your reader is one paragraph in and thinking, “I don’t have a clue what this student is talking about,” you’ve moved from arousing interest to creating confusion. It’s certainly possible and often effective to begin your essay with a description that piques interest without necessarily revealing exactly what the description is about. But while enticing and intriguing are good, bewildering and unintelligible are not. Regardless of the topic about which you choose to write, be sure the essay reveals more about you than the other characters or places in the story. You don’t need to have worked on a cure for AIDS or helped send a rocket into space to write a compelling essay. Don’t just say that volunteering in a soup kitchen allowed you to see the importance of helping others. Admissions committees really want you to speak to the experience and really explain the impact it had. Another very simple tip, but many of the less compelling essays we read each year fail to focus. Think about the special nugget of information you want the reader to know about you at the end of your essay and write with that central theme in mind. Finally, colleges can use the essay to begin picturing how you’ll connect with and make the most of resources within their specific campus communities. Finally, you’ll need to be able to strike a balance between being self-effacing and being a braggart. Some students try so hard to be creative, or to entice the reader with a sense of intrigue, that they sacrifice clarity. Usually, your English teacher will be happy to take a look. Your college essay gives you the chance to talk about your best assets. While your essay should convey your best qualities, you want to avoid bragging too much. If you write about an activity or an experience, focus not on how good you are or what you have accomplished, but instead on what the experience/activity means to you. Admissions officers read thousands of essays every year. Yours doesn’t have to be the most creative; it just has to be a good read. The examples, tips, topics and prompts outlined above should help you rock your college application essay. And hopefully, this is an illuminating part of the process, one that not only helps you get into the college of your choice, but one that also helps prepare you for success once you get there. My College Options ® is an online college planning program that connects millions of high school students with colleges and universities. Before you begin to tackle this essay prompt, there are a few points of which you should be aware. First off, don’t reiterate information that can be found in other parts of your application. Instead, use this opportunity to showcase an additional side/aspect of yourself. Secondly, you must recognize that schools don’t only view “big” achievements as a viable topic. No generic essays come out of this process, because this is real essay writing, not essay shopping. Keith Berman is the President of Options for College (), which he founded in Harvard Square right after working in the Harvard Admissions Office. He has appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, PBS, Fox Business and Lifetime. Over 70 percent of students choose just three of the seven Common Application prompts . That is because three of them work well if you write your essay first and pick the prompt second. This should help you to organize a clear rough draft. So what’s the takeaway from this array of unexpected, possibly even bizarre essay questions? Well, first of all, you can presume that some admissions officers are just bored of essays about challenges you’ve overcome or experiences that have changed you. They want to see how you function when removed from the safe confines of formula and expectation. Cited a few real-world examples of college essays that actually worked. Careful proofreading shows the reader you care and you aren’t sloppy. Before you send your essay to colleges, have someone you trust read it and provide feedback. Putting your ideas into the right words may take time. Don’t procrastinate on this part of your application. Once you zero in on your topic, it’s time to organize your ideas. You might want to use an outline, laying out your main points, developing supporting ideas, and sequencing your thoughts logically.