Marketing-U

Top 10 College Application Essay Tips

When a college considers two equally qualified candidates for admission, the deciding factor can sometimes be the quality of the application essay. Colleges look for insight into its applicants through this written personal statement. They look for things not found elsewhere on the application in addition to how well the applicant can articulate a certain point of view.

10 Tips to a better college application essay:

  1. Identify a unique characteristic of yourself - highlight one or two strengths!
  2. Let people who care about you read your essay (friends, parents, teachers, coaches, guidance counselors) - they will give important advice from different perspectives, which is valuable.
  3. Proofread thoroughly - grammatical mistakes can be very costly. Make sure that all of your sentences are correctly punctuated, and that you haven't committed spelling errors that the spellchecker hasn't picked up.
  4. A strong introduction is critical to setting the tone for the whole essay. Spend quality time honing your first paragraph.
  5. To catch the reader's attention because they are reading through a lot of them - have a clear thesis in mind.
  6. Be sincere, don't write an essay for the sake of writing an essay - readers will see right through that and won't take you seriously. Be sure to answer the actual question (you'd be surprised at the number of people who don't acknowledge the question), but make sure that you are revealing enough information about yourself to give them an idea of who you are.
  7. Remember your target audience - think about what they are looking for and use a personal characteristic of yours that would best fit the college (but, do not suck up, be clear and precise).
  8. Do not be informal, but do not write like you are Shakespeare ? you just sound corny and dorky. DO NOT USE WORDS THAT YOU DON'T KNOW. Just don't. Oftentimes, even though a thesaurus states that a word is a synonym, it may not be a direct synonym, or it may convey some other secondary meaning that you aren't aware of. IF YOU LOAD UP YOUR ESSAY WITH BIG WORDS JUST TO IMPRESS THE ADMISSIONS PEOPLE, THEY WILL THINK YOU ARE DUMB. That's right. They will think that you know how to use a thesaurus, but that you don't actually know how to write.
  9. Avoid clichés and do not use rhetorical questions.
  10. Be innovative - creativity is a plus, remember these people are reading a lot of essays everyday! Just remember that a good essay won't come from checking off points, but from inspired motivation.