Going to college is a key goal of most senior high school students. After all, college or university is the momentous next chapter of the academic journey, where you can boost your knowledge, meet new interesting people, pursue your passions, and explore loads of potential career opportunities. However, before you step through the college door, you have to prepare and polish your college admission essay.
Most institutions require undergrads to accomplish an application paper in order to see their best qualities and main achievements. To help you get started, we listed some of the most important admission essay writing tips to help you write and edit your piece on your own.
1. Write about something both unique and personal.
One of the most crucial things to keep in mind is that you have to choose a personal topic. A lot of the best college admission papers are memorable, intimate, and unique. The reps of the college admission board are looking to know more about your aspirations, background, and identity. If you share your unique experiences in your piece, you have a chance to stand against the background of the other candidates.
Choosing the right topic for a college admission essay will require certain self-investigation. Make sure to start by wondering what it is that you’re most passionate about. What academic achievements and skills make you especially proud of yourself? What range of experiences and skills define you best as an individual? Give preference to the essay topic that resonates best with you on a personal level.
2. Create a hooking introduction.
Writing a quality admission essay is tough, but it is impossible if you fail to include an attention-grabbing introduction. In the field of journalism, it is important to catch the reader’s attention with a hooking title. That’s how it works in the case of a college application essay.
The reps of the admission committee will spend a very short amount of time checking your work, which means you have to begin your work with a vivid paragraph that will keep your target audience engaged. Use your introductory section to reveal what your work is about and hook your reader’s attention. For instance, you could open with an interesting story or an anecdote that will show a clearer picture of who you are and what some of the best parts of your character and personality is.
3. Stay away from clichés.
While you’re working on your college application essay, you will 100% check out some of the pieces written by students before. While there’s nothing wrong with using previously written papers, a lot of undergrads allow themselves to be influenced too much by the samples found online. As a result, they use loads of clichés in order to impress the admission officers.
Don’t forget that there are many other candidates applying to your institution, and you have to stand out. Re-read your essay, eliminate all clichés, and include a more original viewpoint.
With loads of applications, the reps of the college admission board will notice only those essays that were written by a unique personality.
4. Include good examples to support your points.
Your college admission essay serves as a “door” to your mind that shows your readers how you see the world and how your mind actually works. To make sure your essay will be noticed, include strong points that support everything that you write. Ponder over how the essay question is related to your personality and then write from a specific and unique angle.
In other words, every time you want to express a point of view, you shouldn’t just state a fact, but also give specific examples and details to develop your ideas. For example, you can include examples from your personal experiences and mention what really inspires and motivates you, and how you managed to cultivate a particular belief.
5. Focus on positive experiences.
If you plan to write a college admission essay on something negative, like some tragic accident, the death of someone, or a heart-breaking experience that you have had, make sure to accentuate how you handled the situation and overcome the challenge instead of using your essay as a shoulder to cry on.
6. Meet the word count requirements.
If your college admission officers want you to provide a 650-word essay, make sure to include 650 words. If you turn in 900 or 300 words, your application paper is going to stand out but in a bad way. If you’re applying to a college that doesn’t give any essay length, choose to work within a 650-word limit.
7. Give yourself enough time.
It’s impossible to find a student who would write a quality paper under pressure. That is why it is important to do your first draft a couple of weeks before you have to submit your application essay. There’s no need to work on your piece every day. Just make sure to allow an adequate amount of time to revise, edit, and proofread it when the job is done. At some point, you may discover that you want to pick some other topic or write on the chosen topic from the other angle.
8. Proofread and edit your essay more than once.
When you’re done with the first draft, editing and proofreading your work is a must. You will have to re-read your piece several times, fixing your typos, or sentences that seem to be awkward. During the editing session, you will have to cut out unnecessary sections, re-write certain paragraphs, and boost the overall quality of writing.
Review your work more than once, each time focusing on different issues, such as punctuation marks, typos, grammar mistakes, and so on. Make improvements until you are satisfied with the document. If you don’t see any mistakes anymore, approach some trusted service online with the “Please, edit my paper for me based on my professor’s requirements” or ask your college fellow, “Help me do the editing.” Getting more opinions on your paper will provide you with a chance to polish up your admission essay.
