If you are planning for higher education studies, you need to get familiar with the college application essay. Because you are going to do it when you apply for college admission. College application essays are supplemental essays for completing the admission process. So, you need to have a strong grip on essay writing skill.
College admission essay matters as much as the entry test scores matter. Students need to do preparation for essay application as they do test preparation
Continue reading the article to learn how a perfect college application is drafted.
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A college essay is something you know as a personal statement of a statement of purpose. A college application essay is a common part of high school or college application process. It is a statement written by students applying to get admission to high school, college, and university.
A personal statement is all about you. You might want to tell the unique and informative things about yourself. While writing a college application essay, keep admission officers in your mind. Think about the admission committee who will be reading your essay, and write the things that you want to tell them about yourself.
It is a kind of opportunity to present your real personality, challenges, influences, life experience, goals, and lessons learned.
The major purpose of writing a college application essay is to let the committee know of your abilities to present and support the ideas. The admission committee can not personally meet every applicant to decide who should be granted admission to study in a college.
It is this essay that lets them decide whether the applicant is passionate enough and deserves to be in the college or not.
In a nutshell, a college application essay is a document written to inspire the college admissions officers and make them believe why you are the best choice for the institute.
The format of a college application essay is similar to the typical essay. A well-written essay always has a start, a middle, and an end.
Develop your piece of the essay as you are telling a story. Usually, all essays have a typical structure. It has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
College admissions essays have a specific word length, and you have to complete your story in that particular length. The general length is 250 to 650 words in which applicants are asked to write this essay.
Cooks rely on recipes. Architects use a blueprint. The tailor uses a dress design. They all follow a proper set of instructions to produce the perfect work. Similarly, good writing needs a good plan.
Before you start writing, make an outline of your essay. It will help you organize your thoughts.
Plan your essay by developing an outline and organize your thoughts accordingly. The college application essay can use the traditional essay outline of 5 paragraphs. This outline has the following sections:
Break down the essay into sections and decide how you are going to express yourself. In order to make sure that your essay is successful, plan your essay in the following way:
The college application essay can be written in three ways. In some situations, the essay type to be drafted is presented in the guidelines. Decide which approach you want to choose /to present yourself in front of the committee.
Take time to understand the prompt before you get into the writing process. Make sure you have understood the prompt and all the essay questions completely.
Usually, students use the “Common Application” while applying to college or university. The common app allows the student to submit an application to several universities by completing one online form.
Once you understand your prompt, you’ll know exactly what you need to write. Set aside time to think about your life experiences, as you have years to draw from. This is also a time for self-reflection, realize your strengths, your weaknesses.
Think from other points of you, how do they describe you? How do your friends describe you?
You can also go through your photo album; it’ll help you remember a lot of things you might have forgotten. Write down all the things that you remember from your past. Narrow down your memories, choose the one which exactly answers to the essay prompt.
Picking an interesting topic for a college application essay is essential. It is the first thing that the committee will come across in your essay so it should be really engaging. Depending on the type of essay you are drafting, shape your essay topic.
You can come up with a good topic by following the steps provided below:
Once you have created an outline, begin the writing procedure. By now, you know what story you want to tell and how you want to say it. Stick to the main point and put the words in your voice. It would be best if you sounded natural when you tell something about yourself.
Keeping in view the outline and the format required, write your essay including the following things:
The first section to draft for your college application essay is the introduction. This part of the essay should interesting enough to motivate the committee to read more about you. Include the following information in this part to make it look attractive:
Keep in mind that the committee receives hundreds of applications. In order to make yours stand out, draft it according to the instructions provided.
The body of your college essay will be containing all the detailed information about your personality, goals, or knowledge depending on the type of essay you chose. Answer the following prompts to draft the body of your essay.
Describe yourself. Tell about your hobbies, things that are unique about you, things you have learned from the experience, extracurricular activities, or any social activity you are involved in.
Try to show your best self, tell them how good you are as a leader, how well you can perform in a leadership role.
Avoid generalities like, “to study in the top-ranked school/college”, or “to develop career skills”. show your genuine interest, “your science department has a long list of qualified professors”. Admission officers are more likely to admit students who can give a specific reason why they want to attend this school.
Don’t tell a lie and do not exaggerate things about you. Admission officers can easily identify when you’re lying. Use the college’s website, do some research about professors, departments, and programs they offer and articulate a specific reason why you are the best fit for this college.
You can describe a problem which you have faced, and explain the strategy that you have used to solve that particular problem. Here you have an opportunity to show your problem-solving skills.
You can tell how you handle challenges and show that you are not afraid of challenges, you accept challenges with an open heart and try to win the challenge for good.
Share the moment you have failed at something, and how you handled that situation. Tell the truth, everybody is not at handling failure, so it’s okay if you feel bad, just tell the truth.
Your answer to this question could focus on an experience that changed your life or your perspective about life. That experience might be a success story, a failure, or some inspiration. You can present your own preconceived view about life, and explain how a moment affected your view.
When you respond to this prompt, go beyond your family and career goals.
For this prompt, choose a quote that perfectly fits with your personality. Do not go for common quotes that are constantly being used. Choose something which the admission officer hasn’t seen over and over.
Unlike other essay types, a college application essay does not require a writer to provide a summary of the entire writing. Give closure to your essay by stating the concluding statement or a relevant quote.
Keep in mind to not repeat the information in this section. Neither drag it. The length of the conclusion part should not exceed the introduction paragraph.
Start from your central point, follow it from the start to the end. Don’t lose your reader. Be specific, be concise, and be yourself.
Once you are done with your essay go back and revise. Add things if you remember something else. Remove things that are irrelevant to the essay prompt or your story. Keep your essays focused and personal.
Give yourself some time to relax; a few hours or might be a day or two. Reviewing the essay with a clear and fresh mind allows you to concentrate on the exact words, rather than perceiving what you believe you wrote.
College application essay is considered as the most important part of the admission process. Follow the college essay writing tips to make sure your essay is flawless and impresses the admission officers.
Check out our sample essays that worked in getting applicants the admission in their desired institutes.
College Application Essay Outline (PDF)
College Essay Checklist (PDF)
College Application Essay Example (PDF)
Besides, check some other college application essay examples for further guidance and help.
By following our straightforward guide and tips......
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