How To Write A Winning College Application Essay

How To Write A Winning College Application Essay According to Business Insider, Tufts University and the University of Chicago have both earned reputations for their out-of-left-field essay questions. From this vantage point, Lombardi shared some awesome expert-level college essay tips. We also enlisted the help of a qualified expert in the field. Meredith Lombardi, Associate Director of Outreach and Education at the Common Application, offers a few tips on exactly what admissions officers are seeking from a great application essay. Remember that your research will be more effective if you do early research into ALL your schools at once, or at least all the ones that have Why School essays. Essays should reveal your strengths, passions and how you connect to others by sharing your experiences in a heartfelt and authentic essay. Admissions Officers consider many factorsin evaluating your college application, including your college application essay. Once you have completed your application essay, be sure to find a couple of people you trust to look over your work before you submit it. I don’t recommend a friend who is afraid to correct your mistakes, or a parent, if you can help it. A teacher or family friend would be a great choice. By the time I finish your essay, I should get to know you. Similarly, if I handed your essay to a parent or a friend, they would instantly recognize this personality on the page as yours. Your essay should show the unique person you are. Are you a natural-born writer or is it literally the last thing you want to do? In other words, you’d run a triathlon to get out of writing an essay? In the end you may produce a competent essay, but at a school with a single-digit admit rate, just about everyone will have produced something competent. To gain an admissions edge, you need to transcend competent blandness. If, due to a time crunch, you end up playing a degree of college application Mad Libs, at least make sure you play it flawlessly. The last thing you want to do is tell the University of Florida that you’ve always been a huge Seminoles fan. This video explains what not to include in your college admissions essay. Your computer’s spell check option may not catch every little mistake you make so you should plan to read back through your essay a few times on your own and have as many other people go over it as you can. Be sure to address the question, especially if it is a two-part question â€" admission essays are just as much about showing who you are as they are about proving your writing skills. This video explains the importance of your college admissions essay. When we think of tragedy, most people think of a disastrous moment or an epic life event. However, tragedies can be small-scale and the type of experience that may have only affected your family or yourself. Either way, there is a way to write about these moments that can help a college understand you more. Everyone has strengths, qualities that somewhere someone probably will fall in love withâ€" and your goal is to help the admissions team love you. Or at least see you through the lens that someone who adores you would. Congress, reporting on issues related to college admissions and financial aid. If, after reviewing your composition, you can check both of those boxes, and you’ve avoided the common pitfalls highlighted previously, then you can rest assured that you have mastered the “Why Us? Now that you’ve done strong research and extracted some key facts as well as the ethos of the school, it’s time to show why you belong there. You value substantive and constructive feedback over chasing A’s. You plan on getting a graduate degree and want to immerse yourself in research throughout your undergraduate years. You spent your high school years independently pursuing an area of passionâ€"creating your own reading list, seeking out adult mentors, etc. Now, you have gotten the admission officer’s attention. The best recipe for creating something unoriginal is beginning from a place of fear. It’s easy to play it super-safe and get sucked-into the clichés and tropes of the “Why Us? Whichever way you lean, let’s talk a little bit about strategy, implementation, and getting ‘er done. A licensed counselor and published researcher, Andrew’s experience in the field of college admissions and transition spans more than one decade. He has previously served as a high school counselor, consultant and author for Kaplan Test Prep, and advisor to U.S. DI correllates to yield, and yield boosts rankings â€" and everybody likes high rankings. Do's and Don'ts for your College Application Essay What are the worst mistakes you can make on your college application essay? Don’t they already know what is great about their school? They’re asking because of something called demonstrated interest. Demonstrated interest is a fancy way of saying, how much do you really want to go to OUR school? Did you pick us just because we’ve got a good ranking, or do you actually know something about how we work? Cultural reputation, IE, what the students behave like and what they value?