Crafting An Unforgettable College Essay

Crafting An Unforgettable College Essay The end result should be a carefully designed, insightful essay that makes you proud. Take advantage of being able to share something with an audience who knows nothing about you and is excited to learn what you have to offer. If you’re applying to all the Ivies, the two weeks in December after early results come out is not enough time to effectively work on your regular decision application essays. This should be the first busy month for essay writing. The summer is the best time to get essay drafts done, and most students have this entire month off from school. If you can decide on which schools you’ll be applying to early, it’ll be easier to know how much work you have to finish before the Nov. 1st deadlines. You definitely want to prioritize the remainder of your applications here. Your top priority schools should be worked on first so that you have more time to work on/perfect them. If you have a long college list, you have a lot more work to do and you can easily fall victim to overconfidence. Procrastination + the unfounded belief that you’ll definitely get into Penn for Early Decision is a recipe for disaster. When there are only a few spots left in the class, you want to be the one they choose. If your essay is forgettable, well, you might be too. Some college and university applications provide essay questions that influence some pretty good answers. These are the qualities of successful college students, who will be able to navigate the independence college classes require and the responsibility and quasi-adulthood of college life. No spelling mistakes, no grammar weirdness, no syntax issues, no punctuation snafusâ€"each of these sample college essays has been formatted and proofread perfectly. Although they are all quite short, that’s 10 questions to answer in a thoughtful, efficient manner. If you’re serious about getting into a school like Stanford, those essays will also have to be quite excellent. If this kind of exactness is not your strong suit, you're in luck! All colleges advise applicants to have their essays looked over several times by parents, teachers, mentors, and anyone else who can spot a comma splice. Your essay must be your own work, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting help polishing it. Admission officers realize that writing doesn’t come easily to everyone, but with some time and planning, anyone can write a college application essay that stands out. One way to do that is to work step-by-step, piece-by-piece. One of the most common struggles students encounter is resisting the urge to squeeze everything they’ve seen, done, and heard into their essay. But your application essay isn’t your life story in 650 words. The only thing holding applicants back from REALLY putting the pedal to the metal is the fact that many schools don’t release their updated essay prompts until August. Every college applicant will have varying essay workloads, depending on their college list. Students with high aspirations for top colleges should be prepared to write A LOT of essays. Schools like Stanford require answers to 6 short answer questions , an extracurricular essay , and 3 short essay questions . For less competitive schools, there might not even be any supplemental essays to write. Hamilton has a long tradition of emphasizing writing and speaking as cornerstone values, and students come here to find their voice. We seek students who embody that aspiration and demonstrate that potential in their application essays. This connection of past experience to current maturity and self-knowledge is a key element in all successful personal essays. Colleges are very much looking for mature, self-aware applicants. For example, at The University of Tampa, the question, “How do you feel about the month of February? ” rarely results in a boring application essay and can go in numerous directions. In fact, many schools have cool, offbeat essay questions that really provide you with the opportunity to present the admissions committee with new insight as to who you are. Go out on a limb and take a stab at the question that helps you paint a unique and compelling self-portrait. And if your dream school presents you with some of the old standards, remember to approach the subject from the most unique angle you can.