How I Know You Wrote Your Kids College Essay

How I Know You Wrote Your Kid’s College Essay Look for a strong opening line that really grabs the reader’s attention. If you fall into the excited category, consider this a complimentary resource. We’ll spotlight some of the essay prompts you’re likely to see, and we provide a few examples of essays that have actually earned students passage into the colleges and universities of their choice. Consider this a good set of references as you hammer out your ideas, and work through your essay drafts. As a college essay coach at MEK Review, I encounter many students who have difficulty writing about their hardship effectively. Ask your readers whether the essay provides an accurate depiction of who you are and ask whether it is clear, concise, and easy to read. If you were given a prompt by a certain school, make sure that your essay actually addresses the prompt. News and World Reportranking, they take another sip of coffee and move on to the next file. After pouring their heart and soul into the Common App essay, students often run out of gas by the time they encounter any remaining supplemental essays. While supplemental essays may ask you anything from “What is something you can talk about endlessly? ” to your thoughts on time travel , the most important question in this section will, in some form, ask you to explain why this school is the perfect postsecondary home for you. We assume some well-meaning English teacher shared this advice with you in high school. Admissions officers aren’t interested in a timeline of events or a bullet-list of accomplishments. To accelerate the process, they want you to talk on paper; let them get to know you by giving them a guided tour of your heart, your brain, and your life. If you succeed, they will look up from reading your essay, and be surprised you aren’t in the room; indeed, they will swear the chair next to them is warm from your having sat in it since Tuesday. While no lives are riding on your college application essays, this is a great time to revisit some of the rules of writing well. Imagine an admissions officer, at the end of a long day’s work, getting ready to digest his or her 37th “why this college? Picking up your essay, the officer learns that you want to attend their school because it is “great” and “has a stellar reputation.” Yawns ensue. After being reminded for the 37th time today of their school’sU.S. Even if you don’t have anyone else who can read your essay, you can review it yourself â€" just take a day or two off after writing it before you read it back so you can view it with fresh eyes. To put it another way, in a world where everything else is equal between the applicants, a good essay can make a difference. ” essay, in whatever permutation, lulls students into spewing clichés, empty hyperbolic proclamations, and other vapid, “let me just fill up this space” commentary. Once you have written your college application essay, your job isn’t done â€" you need to keep working on it to improve it until you can improve it no further. It is a great idea to have someone else read your essay to provide feedback. In fact, the more people who read your essay, the better. What they’re really seeking is a story, a personal narrative, a reflection that carries subtext. That story shows your hard work, dedication, and generosity without ever referring explicitly to these fantastic qualities. The goal of your essay is to make an impression on an admissions officer, but you don’t have much time to do it. If you want to write about a personal challenge, emphasize what you learned and how you grewâ€"if you dwell on the details, the essay will not achieve its purpose. The best way to move forward is to see a college essay as a conversation. If they could, colleges would welcome you to campus and ask you questions for hoursâ€"but if they did that, no one would be admitted to college until they were 43. I work with them closely to create an engaging essay that reveals the student’s core character traits and personal growth. Essays on negative life events can be very tricky. Unless enough time has passed since the experience, the essay can be too personal, too much of a rant, or just too hard to read. One rep said the general rule of thumb was no essays on the Four Dsâ€"Drugs, dating, death, and divorceâ€"but you get the idea.