Crafting a College Essay Worth Reading

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A college application is pretty straight forward for the most part. You attach your teacher’s recommendations, and you fill out pages and pages of documents telling the school about your personal information and details. But then you reach the personal essay portion of the college application, which can be terrifying in its open-ended nature. Though it may sound easy to write an essay about yourself, it can be surprisingly tough to pull off.

The point of the personal essay is for the college to get to know you better. After all, your grades and recommendations can only say so much about you, and admissions officers need to know more to determine whether or not you would be a good fit for the school. After looking over your academic achievements and deciding that you meet those requirements for admissions consideration, admissions officers will turn to your personal essay. To make a good impression with your essay, you need to make sure that it answers the prompt and reveals something positive about your character and personality. The best way to do this is to think about your personal history and find events where you exemplified positive traits, like leadership, cooperation, and intellect. Find an event that will answer the prompt while also giving you the opportunity to touch on these great aspects of your character. For example, if the prompt asks what made you decide to pick that particular college to pursue a degree, write about a moment in your life when you made the executive decision to pursue your desired degree field and how that school fit in with your plans. In this answer, you would demonstrate your determination and hard work, which are both desirable traits.

Be sure to write vividly and avoid simply telling the reader about your experiences. Instead, write in a way that will show them how you displayed certain desirable skills. For example, instead of writing that you are organized and efficient, write about a time when you put together a fundraising event for your school or about a time when you helped your theatre cast mates prepare for the show to ensure a stunning opening night. This way, the admissions officer will be able to read for themselves exactly how organized and efficient you are without having you simply state that you possess these qualities. In addition, it is a good idea to mention in the essay just how the school would benefit from having you as a student, such as how you will work hard and endeavor to succeed.

Finally, before you submit your essay, be sure to have someone read over it. Little mistakes can cost you big points in the eyes of admissions officers, so check your essay carefully for clarity, flow, and spelling and grammatical errors.

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