College Application Essay Coaching

College Application Essay Coaching Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we’re probably going to notice. This topic is too broad and too loaded, whether you want to write about God, your mom or best friend. Sometimes sharing your difficult times reflects more about you and hence, gets more bonus points than just mentioning your achievements and accomplishments. Remember that your essay is your opportunity to share something about yourself that is not unveiled in any other part of your application. It’s your chance to become multi-dimensional and for the admission readers to evaluate how and if you would fit into their campus community. In 2015 the National Association for College Admission Counseling released their State of College Admission Report. The result of their survey revealed that colleges ranked the application essay as the 5th most-important factor in the admission process. You want your essay to stand out for other reasons than its bare-faced “ADMIT ME!!!! ” attitude, but your essay has to actually interest and engage the admissions committee to make them want to admit you. There are some mistakes that consistently show up in college admission essays that should be avoided at all costs. It’s possible that schools will be glad to hear how their university has impacted your family. A generic essay can also be detected by academic administrators who have been reading essays for ages. Before you prepare for your college admission essay get one thought straight out of your head altogether. Do not even bother plagiarizing essays downloaded from the internet. There are multiple software tools available even for free that will detect where you copied your essay in a matter of milliseconds. Your first step is to submit an application for admission online. After that, requirements vary depending on whether you are a recent high school graduate, student transferring from another institution or returning adult. It is very crucial to make your essay engaging and compelling. There should be a clear focus and you writing should reflect your passion and personality. The only items ranking higher in importance were grades, GPA, curriculum and test scores. Recommendations, extracurricular activities, class rank and interviews all fell further down the list of items…AFTER the essay. Editing college admission essays is obviously a must and seems like a “duh” tip, but it is definitely one worth repeating. Your college admission essay is very important, so you don’t want to let any typos slip through. When your creativity is sparked and your writing for a college admission essay seems to simply flow out of you, it’s a great feeling . The goal of the personal experiences described in your essay is to show that you’ve reached the level of maturity and competency to thrive in their school. If this is a legacy type of situation, where you have relatives that have gone to that school, you can mention that as well, in such a way that endears the school to your family. Plagiarism has zero tolerance in any educational institute of repute and if you are caught it means automatic disqualification. Now that I've pontificated about the value of humor in essays, let me illustrate -- once again, because it's one of my favorites from over the decades -- using a real-life example. Years ago, I worked with an amazing young man who came from a difficult upbringing. Granted, there are times when a serious tone is appropriate for your essays. Unfortunately, this also leads to the danger of getting off topic. You probably already know not to use clichés in your college admission essay, but it’s important to realize that we sometimes slip into clichés in our writing without even realizing it. Also, by clichés I mean not only clichéd phrases, but also clichéd topics. Being too obviously aggressive in your essay can backfire. While you should definitely convey your enthusiasm, you don’t want the admissions committee to read the subtext of your essay as a really basic sales pitch. In fact, trying to make light of a serious topic can sometimes backfire. While AdmitSee's findings focused specifically on applications submitted by students who were accepted to Ivy League institutions, the site has application materials for a wide variety of schools on its site. “In a world”, or, “Once upon a time”, are not good openers. Try your best to get the attention of the reader right off the bat. Admissions offices may be quick to stop paying attention if the essay is boring. Take the bold move and write something interesting. Having said that, the first line should be an indication of what the paper is about at large.