College Expert Advice

College Expert Advice You should also make sure that your essay is coherent â€" that your ideas flow and your arguments make sense. Don’t be afraid to show off your writing skills, but don’t do anything that takes away from your core message. Everything I’ve covered in this article matters only if you give yourself enough time. If you start the day before the application is due, all I can say is good luck. For the most part, it’s unlikely that you’ve experienced anything extremely uncommon in the relatively short amount of time you’ve been a human. Most high school students lead lives that don’t deviate too far from the norm â€" except that one quiet guy in your class who sits next to the window near the back. He’s almost certainly either a genius mech pilot or the subject of some prophecy in an alternate dimension that he’ll be transported to. Even if you’re only applying to a couple schools that you know you can get into, it will still serve you well to write a compelling admissions essay. Standing out from everyone else could put you in the running for additional scholarships and will also simply make a good impression, which never hurts. You and I and your teenager will come up with a schedule that works best for everyone. The Word Barn is a great space for writing and sharing ideas. Showing that students can write, however, does matter. You are writing a personal narrative, not a parable, so don’t feel compelled to conclude with a lesson learned or a happy ending. Regardless of the topic about which you choose to write, be sure the essay reveals more about you than the other characters or places in the story. The paradox of the overzealous editing of the college essay by many helicopter parents is that they don’t know what a college essay is really about. Unlike the other parts of the application, where high grade point averages and SAT scores reign supreme, the essay is less about being impressive than it is about being authentic. Do not allow your essays to descend into an impenetrable bulk of buzzwords and banality. This is best described in How to Write a Great Statement of Purpose, by Vince Gotera of the University of Northern Iowa, which was my guide to writing my essays when I applied to graduate school. In addition to making sure that all of these things are included, you should also be aware of HOW you write your essay. Admissions committees want essays to be concise â€" you want to make your point in about 700 words or less. Their stylistic choices matter, their word choice matters, and their authenticity matters. Putting your ideas into the right words may take time. Don’t procrastinate on this part of your application. Once you zero in on your topic, it’s time to organize your ideas. It was right there in the last sentence of the first paragraph of Mikey’s college essay. I was supposed to believe this typical high school senior, who had inhabited this planet for a slight 17 years, chose to use the word “henceforth.” Mikey was a good kid. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. Look, we all procrastinate. But please, please, please do not not procrastinate on your admissions essay. You might want to use an outline, laying out your main points, developing supporting ideas, and sequencing your thoughts logically. This should help you to organize a clear rough draft. So what’s the takeaway from this array of unexpected, possibly even bizarre essay questions? Well, first of all, you can presume that some admissions officers are just bored of essays about challenges you’ve overcome or experiences that have changed you. They want to see how you function when removed from the safe confines of formula and expectation. So treat a college application essay as a tool for standing out in ways the robots can’t. It’s a lot like the cover letter you write when applying for a job â€" it’s your chance to reveal the person behind the accomplishments and statistics. in Exeter offers both group classes and one-on-one writing coaching sessions to help students through this process. Meeting times will vary, depending on each individual. This video shows you how to write an effective college admissions essay. The moral to the college essay is that there need not be a moral.