Mistakes to Avoid in College Essay - A Guide by an Essay Writer

We all know how college essays are written. According to an essay writer’s traditional method, you start with an introduction throwing in a hook, followed by three paragraphs of stories and personal experiences, and a neat conclusion.

To draft a perfect essay doesn’t just include a perfect pattern. To write an effective and winning college essay, make sure you avoid some common mistakes highlighted by an essay writer. If you don’t want the committee and the officers to discuss your college essay as a bad example, just avoid a few mistakes, and you are good to go.

What is a College Essay?

A college essay, commonly known as a college application or a personal statement, is an applicant’s work to get admission to a specific college.

This essay reflects an applicant’s personality and perspectives on which a group of people or a committee grants admission to him.

An engaging essay has a unique and surprising topic that's clearly expressed. In contrast, an essay that is not engaging and that has a boring subject is hard to follow.

Here are two problems that students mostly do when they start writing a college essay.

• Topic Related Problems

  When choosing a topic for your essay, make sure you don't end up with an awful one that could jeopardize your dream of getting into college.

  College essays are vital because they reveal students' personalities to the admission committee - if their topics aren't good choices, it shows immaturity and poor character.

  A college essay is not just about writing a hideous piece, but it could risk admission to your dream school. An ill-chosen topic can portray immaturity and poor character in many ways, making the officers less inclined towards you as a potential candidate for their institution.

• Execution Related Problems

  The clarity of your writing style tells a lot about how organized and responsible you are as an applicant. The presentation matters, too - both the syntaxes and punctuation should be correct to make sure that it is easy for anyone reading your essay to understand what you're trying to say.

  Suppose anything seems off or instructions were missed when preparing this application. In that case, admission officers will begin thinking that may be applying to college or high school wasn't worth much effort since they couldn't even take time to read all the information given thoroughly.

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College Essay Topics that Should Never Choose

College essay topics are mundane because they're simpler to write about. Avoid boring, everyday topics and go for something more creative that will make your paper exceptional.

Here are some topics that professionals suggest to avoid picking.

• Personal

  When writing your essay, do not get personal. Personal life details are discouraged because it shows that you don't understand the boundaries of academic writing and can negatively affect grading.

  Here are some personal topics that you should avoid in writing a college essay.

  • Write about your relationships in particular.
  • Write too much about your weaknesses, disabilities, and illnesses.
• Revealing Your Bad Judgment

  When writing your college essay, be sure to avoid mentioning any of the illegal activities you've participated in or immoral actions that have occurred. You're trying to leave a positive first impression on the jury rather than making them believe that they should not select someone who might influence younger students for bad reasons.

  Examples:

  • Never talk casually about committing a crime for fun.
  • Do not show them that you are a drug abuser.
  • Do not share stories that are fake and made up.
  • Do not only show the flaws in your personality.
  • Do not show that you work many hours a week on your assignment.

  Therefore, these topics should not be a part of the application.

• Overconfidence

  It is great to be confident about your topic in the essay, but it's worse to be overconfident. Therefore, it is appreciated that you firmly believe in your abilities and skills, don't show off yourself.

  The jury should believe that you can be polished at this institute rather than believe they're hiring an expert who doesn't need any more training.

  Examples:

  • Do not brag about knowing and not knowing at all in an essay.
  • Do not show unawareness of your scope and accomplishments.
  • Do not show more about your extracurricular activities.
• Too Mainstream

  Be unique and interesting in your writing. Avoid cliches, which are boring to read about because they're so common.

  Examples:

  • Do not restate what is there in the resume already.
  • Write about sports in your essay.
  • Do not tell them that you moved to a third-world country for a community service trip.
  • Do not try to be a professional by giving ideas on how to fix world issues.
  • Using a famous quotation as an opening statement is old. Avoid it.
  • Do not use common objects as a metaphor to describe your personality.
• Off-Topic

  To make your essay engaging, start by telling readers a little bit about yourself. What interests you? Who are the people that have influenced you the most in life? Be sure not to stray off-topic by providing irrelevant information.

  Examples:

  • Mentioning something and someone extremely close to you is useless.
  • Do not include other people’s perceptions and ideas.
  • Talking about a piece of art that inspired you and moved you is boring.
• Extremely Offensive

  The essay's tone should be engaging. You are not lecturing your readers about an issue, so do not tell them what to think or how they feel. Also, avoid showing that you lack awareness of new trends and ideas since this gives a bad impression on the reader.

  Examples:

  • Do not critically analyze political, religious, and other sensitive topics.
  • Avoid talking explicitly about taboos and stereotypes.
  • Never mention the flaws and rumors about the institute you are applying to.

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College Essay Execution Problems that Should Avoid

Your college essay can be good or bad, depending on the way you present it. If your topic is interesting, but if your content isn't as engaging, people will not want to read further, and you'll get a poor grade.

• The Tone of your Essay

  The committee is looking for an active candidate who shows enthusiasm in their essay. Your tone should be engaging, but also show your intellectual side to get you college admission.

  Examples:

  • Do not write about your life and problems the whole time in your essay.
  • Use a sense of humor correctly and appropriately.
  • Do not sound depressed, cynical, and pessimistic.
• Lack of Uniqueness

  While writing your college application essay, make sure that no one writes what you are about to write. The uniqueness and the element of your personality should be present in your essay to distinguish you from other applicants.

  Tell how differently you observe the world and its issues. Your jury wants to hear you out.

  Examples:

  • Do not portray yourself as a heartless person who doesn’t have emotions and is dead inside. Over enthusiasm is also not the answer.
  • Do not miss reaction, feeling, understanding, and transformation while describing something.
• Off-Kilter Style

  Although many essays prompt suggest you submit your portfolio of other work you did, that doesn’t mean you submit everything available in the house. Sticking to the prompt and requirements is safe playing.

  Examples:

  • Do not submit things other than what’s asked to.
  • Do not act smart and try to write your essay in the form of a play. Writing experiences, stories, and ideas in bullets and points are inappropriate.
  • Use vocabulary and language that compliments your writing and doesn’t take the originality out of your essay.
• Not Giving Importance to Proofreading

  No matter what, proofread your essay. Take some time to sit and critically analyze and evaluate your great essay and check for mistakes. You might not find any mistakes at first, but revising it for the third time will surely bring up mistakes and errors.

  The quality of your personal statement should be improved by spell-checking, grammar, punctuation, syntax, and vocabulary.

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4. College Essay Examples

To provide a better understanding, some examples are presented for your guide and help.

Sample College Essay (PDF)

College Essay Example (PDF)

Personal Statement Sample Example (PDF)

College essays should be perfectly written as your whole process of admission to the college depends on it. Therefore, it is always recommended to seek a professional essay writer’s help if you are uncertain about something.

With the help of CollegeEssay.org, you can easily create an engaging and well-written letter of recommendation for your college application without any mistakes.