10 of the Best College Application Essay Tips

Your College Application Essay:

• Don’t State Your Resume

  • This is a challenge! You want to show off all you have accomplished and all the clubs you’re involved in….. and you deserve to! Just remember- the admissions officers have a list of all your activities along with a resume. You are simply wasting space by restating your resume in your essay! Instead, delve in deeper about something on your resume and how it affected you.

• Keep Your Focus

  • Keeping a central focus is important in any piece of writing, but I think it is worth emphasizing specifically in college essay tips. The prompt should not be strayed away from in the essay! Everything you write should be related to the prompt and your answer to the question at hand. Keep that in mind!

• Everyone Loves a Good Running Analogy

  • OK- we’re not just talking any trite analogy here…. but if a really solid analogy stumbles upon you, run with it! In my common app transfer essay, I came upon a really great analogy that enhanced my essay and made it super easy for me to write an impactful conclusion.

• Read Tons of Examples!

• • There are tons of places where you can find great college essay examples. Looking at these examples gives you a good idea of how the writer conveys his/her message while still adhering to the prompt, which is one of the most tricky tasks in college essays.
  • I’ve listed some of my favorite college essays down below categorized by common prompts, including one of my own!
    • The “Why this School” Prompt
      •  Why Columbia – Anonymous
    • The “Significant Experience” Prompt
      • A Fishing Trip– Anonymous
    • The “About You” Prompt
      • Costco– Brittany Stinson
    • The “Why Transfer” Prompt
      • A Virus and a Vector- Me! EMAIL me at soulfulseedsblog@gmail.com if you want to receive access to the transfer essay that got me into my dream school!

     
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• Avoid too much Fancy Talk

  • This is my greatest pitfall. What can I say- I’m a vocabulary aficianado! LOL. The biggest edit I got across all my essays was about my grandiose vocabulary and how it clouded the actual meaning of my writing. You don’t have to try to sound “smart”, let yourself speak freely from the heart (while using correct grammar, of course)!

• Don’t try to be a Jack of All Trades

  • I remember my first attempt at the Common App Essay prompt. I was so excited because I thought that I had concocted up an amazing answer- I would tell colleges how I was a do-it-all, jack of all trades girl who wanted to do so much that she didn’t even know how to express it.
    • Although in high school it is favorable to be a jack of all trades instead of a king/queen of one, the opposite holds true for college. You can only have so many majors and so many jobs- at some point, you DO have to narrow down what you want to pursue, and you want to be a king/queen in that trade!
    • Don’t make the same mistake I almost did- thinking that expressing my confusion at what on earth I wanted to do because I loved it all would impress admissions officers.

• Check for Word Overuse

  • You may not notice it, but it is very easy to overuse words, pronouns, or sentence structures in personal essays. Be conscious of possible word overuse.
    • A simple CTRL+F search on your essays can be a powerful tool for eliminating excessive verbage or word overuse.

• ReUSE and Refine Essays!

  • There’s nothing worse than having to write a new essay for every single prompt for every single school- especially if you are applying to a crazy amount like I did!
  • If schools have similar prompts, you can reuse the foundations/outlines of an essay! This saves a whole lot of time and much needed brain energy.

• Make It Eye-Catching

  • College admissions counselors are reading a zillion essays in a short span of time. What differentiates your essay from theirs? Imagine that your admissions counselor is super tired of reading essays when she/he stumbles upon yours. What are YOU going to do to catch their attention and make them more excited about reading yet another essay?

• No Over-Editing!

  • I don’t like more than 4 people to look at any given essay. Your limit might be more or less than mine, but when you surpass a number of external edits, opinions become jumbled and your essay becomes subject to too much fluctuation.
  • Remember- this is YOUR voice. The reason you should ask people to edit your college essay is so that you can get corrections/adjustments that you did not see yourself. Don’t let anyone change your essay such that it doesn’t reflect your own voice!

If you are interested in getting some help for your essays from me, my inbox is open! Email me and I’ll let you know about my rates for general college/college essay advising!