College Application Essay Tips
COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY TIPS
Who Are You?? The college application essay provides an
opportunity to tell the admissions committee more about you.
When you personalize the essay, the reader knows you didn't get the
essay from the Internet.
Possible Essay Topics:
Significant experience
Achievement
Goal
Interest
Overcoming a hardship
Community Service
A risk you have taken
COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAYS
The college application essay is an important part of your application.
Plan ahead and spend time writing the essay. A good essay makes a
big difference.
Essays topics vary from choosing a topic of your choice to a very
precise topic. The essay helps the college to get to know you better.
Who Are You? The essay provides an opportunity to explain
something in your background.
Think of the personal essay as an interview. The reader should be
able to pull out adjectives that describe you after reading your essay.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD ESSAY?
It is written in your own words.
It provides personal information about your goals, interests or other
experiences.
It follows the guidelines on the application, answers the question and
stays close to the word limit.
It is well written and proofread. Spell check does not catch every error.
You must proofread several times.
A good essay should give the college a reason to accept you.
If you use the common application www.commonapp.org to apply to
over 240 colleges, you will have a choice of six essay topics. These
topics normally do not change from year to year. You could get an early
start on your essay during summer vacation.
Many books are available to help you with your essay:
100 Successful College Application Essays by Georges
The College Application Essay by College Board
COLLEGE ESSAY WORD LIMITS
The essay normally has a word limit. What happens if you are over the
limit? If you are a few words over, it shouldn't be a problem. If you are
twenty, thirty or more words over the limit, you should reduce the
words. It's a good idea to follow directions and stay within the
guidelines. Don't try to reduce the size of the type or make small
margins in order to fit all the words.
