How To Write The College Admissions Essay

How To Write The College Admissions Essay Talking about how being in marching band taught you the value of hard work isn’t your story; that could be anyone’s story. Talking about how helping people feel good isn’t original; everyone experiences that. It’s just that admissions officers learn nothing new about you when you write something that anyone could claim. A lot of students feel anxious about this because they don’t feel like anything unique has happened to them. But everyone has a different perception of their experiences, and the more you can share that, the more you’ll stand out in that stack of applications. Gap years are coming up more and more nowadays. Taking a semester or a year before diving into college life can help students go into their freshman year with confidence, maturity, and some real-world perspective. For students thinking about taking a gap year, I would encourage them to apply to colleges during their senior year. Teenagers change a lot from August to May, and while you might feel sure in the fall that you want to take time off, seeing all your friends making college plans might make you feel differently in the spring. One of the things that helps students feel in control of this process is having options. Prior to her career in education, she was a book editor at Simon & Schuster and Hyperion Press. She is the mother of four children, and she delights in helping her students improve their writing. Being able to consciously choose to take a gap year feels a lot better than having to take one by default. Some schools will allow you to defer enrollment for a year, and if you reapply after taking a gap year, you’ll have new experiences and stories to share in your application. Students should make sure to choose a company that’s reputable and employs highly qualified editors. Every selective school receives countless applications from highly qualified students. With the current de-prioritization of transcripts, test scores, and extracurriculars, even more applicants meet the basic criteria for consideration. How can students stand out from the thousands of other applicants? One time-tested method is writing a strong admissions essay. from Harvard University (History & Literature) and an M.A. She has been teaching students how to write successful college essays for eight years. Nothing has more impact than just being yourself. I worked with a student last year who had played in the marching band all of high school, which is something thousands of students can claim. Even if I happened to read another essay about being a drummer in the marching band, there’s no way I could confuse it with this one. Even if you have had such an experience, don’t write about it. These types of pieces can come off negatively, and sometimes a teenager’s perception of a life changing event is much different than that of a college admissions reader. I once had a student who wrote about how he observed a water droplet while on vacation. This seemingly insignificant event caused him to think about why he loved art and philosophy over science and math. As college application deadlines near, students across the country are hoping that their essays will earn them a spot at their dream school. For most students, it takes about 10 hours to write a good college essay. If you’re applying to schools that request supplemental essays or do not accept the Common Application, you may have several different essays to write. Even more if you are applying for scholarships. These details belong only to this student, and they show us her leadership qualities rather than just telling us. With a January 1 application deadline racing toward us, now is a great time to be brainstorming, creating, polishing and revising those essays. In September we published a blog post that provided a basic framework for how to write a killer college essay â€" and offered tips on how to incorporate the Outward Bound experience into the application. This month, we’re giving you another nudge â€" and a slightly different perspective from yet another expert. Contrary to popular belief, students should not write about a horrible life event that changed their life forever. The fact is that most of us have not had such a life changing situation before the age of 18 (so don’t make one up either!).