10 College Application Essay Dos And Donts

10 College Application Essay Dos And Don'ts We want you to expand upon a few characteristics that make you great, not just give us a list with the thousand and one things that contribute to your greatness. This way, we are able to fully grasp why these particular characteristics, out of the many you could have selected, are so important to you and who you are as an individual. Don’t tell us how much you want to attend XYZ University when you are submitting the essay to The College of ABC. While it is important to talk yourself up as the awesome student you truly are, you still have to remember that the application essay is not a résumé. You can certainly submit a résumé with your application, but your essay is not the place to do it. This is one of the most unique pieces of college application writing I’ve encountered. The author’s sarcastic tone really shines through, and it’s clear he’s a creative writer. College application essays can be an effective way for you to communicate your uniqueness to admissions officials. Besides, that other essay would go on forever, and, as I mentioned, we read thousands of these things each year. It’s OK to reuse the same story more than once, but we don’t recommend recycling an entire essay. It can be tempting, but will ultimately strip the personality and specificity from your essay, harming your case. As a rule of thumb, everything that is “optional” in the admissions process is something that you should absolutely do. Make it a point to put time and energy into your responses. That’s why we created this guide to help you write powerful essays that will help you get into college. For similar categories of essays, Rachel plans to write one rough essay, then tweak it for different colleges. Now Rachel goes through her colleges’ essay prompts and groups similar essays together to come up with a list of what she has to write. CollegeCovered.com was created to provide students, parents and high school counselors with the know-how to plan and pay for college. This website offers a variety of resources and tips for each step of the college planning process. The word limit is usually specified in the requirements. Either 250 or 650 words, that is quite a short essay. Thus, you should be able to demonstrate your writing skills in such a short paper. On the other hand, some college applications require applicants to submit a supplemental essay that specifically asks why you want to go to their college or why you chose X major or field of study. If your reader is one paragraph in and thinking, “I don’t have a clue what this student is talking about,” you’ve moved from arousing interest to creating confusion. It’s certainly possible and often effective to begin your essay with a description that piques interest without necessarily revealing exactly what the description is about. But while enticing and intriguing are good, bewildering and unintelligible are not. You may have a beautifully crafted essay or a wonderful story to tell, but if you don’t take the time to proofread, your essay may be overlooked and end up in the rejection pile. So, you can also write your potential major there, if required. Some students try so hard to be creative, or to entice the reader with a sense of intrigue, that they sacrifice clarity. The college essay length requirements differ among universities. However, it ranges between 250 and 650 words in universities. If you have questions about Discover Student Loans, visit DiscoverStudentLoans.com or call STUDENT anytime 24/7. Speaking of which, even the best writers in the world need another writer or editor looking over their shoulders. A second pair of eyes naturally catches mistakes that you might miss as a result of reading your words too many times. A reader also may find sections or concepts that are unclear, even if they seem apparent to you as the writer. This is a cue to rethink your wording or perhaps add an extra sentence of clarification. If you can get one other person to read your essay, great.