11 Things Students Should Include In Their College Application Essay

11 Things Students Should Include In Their College Application Essay This is why a two-word essay is a poor choice, much like an essay on genuinely dangerous or illegal conduct. But humans take risks every day, and finding a space to reveal your own risk-taking, in your own words, will keep your application impactful and honest. So even if all the revising and nitpicking on the college essay may not help your kid get into college, it will almost certainly make him or her a better writer. Consider setting a time limit for this part of the process, or a limit for the number of sample essays you will read, and then set the examples aside and move on to creating your own masterpiece. You’ve finished writing your essay, and you want to immediately submit it and be done with it. Before you check that box, read over what you wrote, and read over it slowly. Good admissions essays take risks, but ones that remain in the control of their authors. A perceptive admissions counselor can always sense when something is bold, and when something is just plain reckless, or worse, made up. Because your essay is a story, think of the introduction as the beginning of your story. We believe that the best essays start right in the middle of some action . When you start reading through past admission essays, one of the first things you will notice is that nearly all of them tell a story. The best ones tell a specific story about an incident or moment in time that provides an insight into who the author is and how they view the world. Coax better writing from your child by suggesting that they concentrate on improving their word choice. Hunt for what one high school English teacher I know calls “fugitives” â€" words that sneak into our prose and undermine its power. For instance, amazing might be a perfectly accurate description for that volunteering experience that changed your son’s life, but it’s such a common word, it actually makes the experience seem trivial. But astonishing still conveys the idea that your son’s mind was blown; ditto for the tamer but still pointed startling. That question can generate a lot of generic responses from students, said Sawyer of “College Essay Guy.” Don’t be generic, he said. If a university finds out you lied on an application or essay you will get rejected, almost guaranteed. Plagiarism is always wrong, and schools are getting better at detecting it. Still, going deep on finding a descriptive word to replace, say, three to five overused or otherwise mundane words is worth the extra effort. Many of the supplemental essay questions from colleges will ask the student why they are choosing to apply to that college in particular. The admissions committee is looking to learn about youâ€"your achievements, your obstacles, your goals, your passions, your personality, your values, and your character. If you are asked to write about an influential person, the college wants to know his or her influence on you. Whatever topic you choose to center your essay around, make sure you shine through. Why not take the final candidates and offer them a chance to write an essay or a paragraph when they arrive at an interview? This is similar to the on-the-spot assessments we as teachers often give our students to assess their comprehension of a particular unit. Change up the questions and allow the students to produce their work directly in front of you. This would ensure that the words were in fact their own. While strong academics and social curricula are essential to getting into a top school, for over 300 colleges it is the infamous personal essay that gets them into universities. Admission counselors heavily weigh the heartstrings pulled when presented with a well-written story outlining the applicant’s young life. For many, this will make or break their acceptance to a top-tier school.