College Admission Essays

College Admission Essays You shouldn’t want to attend a college that would admit you for your value as a roommate. In other words, the essay section of the application virtually invites all sorts of covert assistance, and sometimes outright cheating. High school grades and test scores can be boosted by expensive tutors, but they ultimately reflect the students’ own effort. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. If you aim to apply to a college or university, you are to submit at least a paper. You should keep in mind that your writing will be one amongst hundreds or even thousands of other essays. It should be interesting and impressive, and it should make you stand out from the rest of applicants, containing facts from your life that influenced your decisions, helped you become a who you are now. It should show your personality, your motivation, and plans for the future. It's a huge turn off, for instance, when applicants write about their sports exploits or their pets. For students who are applying for college, one of the scariest parts of the admission process is writing the dreaded essay. This handout provides examples of college application essays and shows what admissions officers are looking for in an applicant. In these times of cut-throat competition just good grades are not enough to get you into a valuable program in a prestigious college. What many undergrad school aspirants tend to ignore is the college admission essay component which could actually mean make-or-break situation as far as admissions to HBCU institutions go. If you did not work hard enough on your essay, the chances are there may be a couple of letters of rejection waiting for you in your mailbox. Join thousands of students and parents getting exclusive high school, test prep, and college admissions information. One application counselor explained the objective of an essay as convincing the admissions office “that you would make a great roommate.” Here is some advice to high school seniors, with apologies to Groucho Marx. No matter how rich they areâ€"and barring parental chicaneryâ€"the kids have to submit their real grades and take their own tests. The essays, however, can too easily be the product of co-authorship, with no way to distinguish between the contributions of the student and the coach. Beginning an admissions essays or Statement of Purpose is a long process â€" many drafts over a two-month period are very common. It is essential to put in this toilsome work to come up with an essay that is very much your own, and an excellent read which convinces the admissions board that you are what they are looking for. This is a great opportunity to look inside yourself and be rewarded by a better understanding of who you are and what you want. So, it is also important to know where to begin writing such an important essay like this. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. If a student makes a grammatical error, you bet we’re going to fix it. A common mistake that students make when tackling their college essays is to pick the wrong topics. It doesn’t mean our students can’t start sentences with “and” or “but.” We love it when our students write in a colloquial tone. We strongly suggest you not listen to this particular advice of Mark Sklarow, a man who has openly defied the very bylaws of the organization he leads. Well, for starters, who uses paper and pen these days? Secondly, it is preposterous to suggest that an independent college counselor should not address (and fix!) poor grammar or word choice. If your paper reflects your ideas and strong skills that would interest the board, nothing can stop you from getting accepted. But if you’re looking for someone to tell you that your essay is great as is and those six spelling errors are perfectly fine, well, you’ve come to the wrong place. We’d be mortified if a student of ours submitted essays with grammatical errors to college. Now that doesn’t mean our students can’t submit fragments. 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. 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. 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.