4 Tips For Writing A Successful College Admission Essay

4 Tips For Writing A Successful College Admission Essay You can start working on these essays at any time and save drafts in your MyCoalition Locker. See how the first relays information in apassivevoice, while the second paints anactivepicture? Don’t just write what you think the admissions office wants to hear. Very often they are inundated with essays that cater to “what they want to hear,” making such essays exactly what they don’t want to hear. If you seem genuinely passionate about the college, then they can assume you’re more likely to matriculate if offered a spot in the freshman class. College admissions committees are looking to build a student body that will contribute to and sustain the community. They want to attract students and eventual alumni who are innovators and creators, and they want to have a hand in shaping those minds. Feel free to start out by painting a vibrant picture of yourself too! Many college admissions counselors have said that the more unique your essay â€" the content and writing style â€" the more captivating it is to read. A more concrete reason for this prompt is that colleges want to have a high yield, the ratio of accepted students who end up attending. News and World Report and contribute to the overall reputation of the school. This essay is one way for them to gauge how likely you are to attend and help them attain a high yield. It can be hard to choose what to talk about in your college essays. In addition to this, the schools that you’re applying to may have different prompts â€" which could mean having to write multiple essays. This is why we recommend sitting down and coming up with a few different topics to consider. Many of the colleges and universities that accept the Coalition application require you to submit at least one essay as part of your application. Follow these simple tips to get a strong start on your essay. A great college essay gives the reader a glimpse of the person behind the page. If a college suspects an essay is not the student’s work, they don’t automatically throw him out of the applicant pool, says Krahnke, but a negative vibe is placed in the counselor’s head. Heathman believes the job of the essay coach is to help students themselves find the right way to tell their story. But there is a big difference between a professionally written essay and an essay conceived, written and revised by a student, under the direction of a professional coach. In other words, an outstanding essay may tip the scales. Whether you’re prompted to write about a formative experience, why you think you’d be a good fit for the university or about a person who has influenced you greatly, answer the question honestly. Lots of counselors tell students to “tell a story only you can tell,” and I definitely agree with that. But sometimes students misinterpret this to mean â€" “tell me about a totally unique experience” â€" and they get totally stressed out because they don’t feel that they have any unique experiences. Telling a story “only you can tell” means that you tell the reader a story from your perspective. So you don’t need to have great exotic vacations or heartbreaking stories of community service in some far off land â€" you just need to reveal your point of view about a topic. You might want to plan to do one pre-writing essay, wait a few days, and then do another pre-writing exercise. As mentioned in step 2, writing a college essay takes time, but with enough pre-planning the actual essay writing will be easier. Getting started can be the hardest part of writing. There is information to share and college admissions officers like to read a good essay. However, once you get started, writing becomes easier. When you’re responding to the “Why Us” prompt, you’re telling them exactly how an education there will shape your intellectual and professional journey. This essay isn’t just about the college; it’s about you, too. , any other graphic organizer, and/or pre-writing technique that works for you will help you to focus your ideas. You may want to try outlining your essay in multiple formats or the same format multiple times. You may do pre-writing for several different answers to a topic and then pick the best one to write the actual essay.