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7 Tips for Writing the College Application Essay

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Writing an essay for college admission is extremely important and difficult at the same time. It takes time, mental effort, and quite a bit of your personal resource - those are the main tips for writing the college essay. In a nutshell, you need to concentrate on many aspects simultaneously. For example, on your language, your skills, and experience, some of your personal traits, etc. While you are thinking which word to use and how to make the best impression of yourself, here are some useful pointers for you.


#1 Choose a topic thoroughly. Focus on those aspects that are not covered in other parts of your application and share a story about you. Brainstorming takes time, so be ready to spend at least one weekend to work out an outline. Then, don’t write too much. The essay should be concise. It is not your thesis, and the admission officers are going to spend no more than a couple of minutes on reading it; nobody is interested in reading your complete and detailed autobiography – yet.


#2 Be honest. You don’t need to be a star. It is better to tell something more detailed about yourself than to embellish your story with numerous titles and achievements. Nobody likes a boaster. Besides, professors are trained in seeing through a possible fraud. Just be smart to show your interest in a special subject, and reveal why you are the one to be trained in this field.


#3 Show your individuality. To distinguish yourself from loads of other essays, add some striking features to your story. Admission officers will get acquainted with your personality while reading your essay, and may even feel your attitude. But be cautious with anecdotes and jokes. As we never know which reaction will be in respond. A sense of humor is only to be applied if you are convinced that it is necessary here, and if you are positive that you know how to do it right.


#4 Be consistent. Don’t try to cover everything in your story. Remember that your readers need to follow and understand the main idea. So it shouldn’t be too detailed, it should look more like a resume. Otherwise, it can look scattered and incomplete, and you don't want that.


#5 Don’t tell, show. No one is interested in events, but your reader is more interested in reasons and results. In conclusion, you need to ask yourself, “What did I learn from the experience?” , and provide the answer in your essay.


#6 Write literate. Here, take into consideration not only spelling (however, it goes without saying that you should check how you spell), your college essay should reflect a good command of vocabulary. Most of the time, be recommended to use plain language and just add a few slices of advanced vocabulary to give some flavor as if you spice it.


#7 Ask your parents and/or teachers to read it through. You need an opinion of someone who will say “Whether it sounds like you or not,” so to say. You can discuss it and add something or just correct mistakes. However, don’t ask too many people; otherwise, you will be even more confused. You cannot revise your essay to each opinion. People whom you definitely trust are the best choice. They will honestly tell you what they think.


So, as you see, writing a college admission essay is a serious undertaking, and it should be regarded as such. These tips for writing a college essay should help you to come up with the kind of an essay that will make you proud of having written it, - and get you admitted to your dream school.


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