Make Your College Essay Talk Them Into Admitting You

Make Your College Essay Talk Them Into Admitting You Finally, she checks the Common App to make sure supplemental essay prompts have not changed, then gets to work. She plans to write each morning and see her friends in the afternoon only if she has made real progress on her essays that day. Rachel decides to write about her local and global communities of Third Culture Kids. To be able to tweak this essay for several colleges, Rachel will write about her most meaningful community in the first half of the essay, and then gear the second half to each college. If Rachel has established a relationship with a college admissions representative, she will ask if supplemental essay prompts for next season will change. If she hasn’t been in touch with a rep, she will use this year’s prompts as a guide. Her counselor also suggests the University of Mary Washington, another Virginia public school, because it’s close to D.C. Right now, halfway around the globe, an American high school junior is gearing up for the U.S. college admissions process. She now has a short draft of the “Why This College? ” essay for Barnard and a Community essay for UVA; if she has time, she’ll tweak them later for Michigan. She doesn’t even start the basketball essay for Michigan now. But she does complete very rough drafts of the Catch-22 essays for UVA and George Mason. After returning from vacation, Rachel finds herself jet-lagged, distracted by friends and uninspired. Remember that her list was ambitious, with quite a few supplementals, and her momentum was disrupted by vacation. As her schedule grows heavier, she ends up taking Michigan off her list. Now school is starting, and she hasn’t even begun the unique essay for William & Mary or the conversation with a historical woman for Barnard. She considers dropping her application to Barnard but has a flash of inspiration during a study hall, envisioning herself sitting at a Jerusalem café asking Golda Meir questions about the call of leadership. They can work with students from anywhere in the world, at any time. The essay is valuable to you and the colleges to which you are applying. Because UVA and Michigan request similar word counts, she will not have to adjust these for length. Rachel has won numerous awards and intends to play at the intramural level in college. She decides that would make a better topic for Michigan’s “extracurricular activity” essay. Ask this reader if your essay sounds like you, is interesting to read, wanders off the topic anywhere, and is vivid and coherent. Instead, write an essay that sounds like you are talking to a favorite aunt or uncle. After reading your essay, the committee member should know something about your personality, your style and your values. Every admissions office has a story about receiving an essay folded into origami, or embossed on a five pound chocolate bar. Let’s give her the way-too-peppy name of Rachel Resilient. Show this draft to your college English teacher, your counselor, your Transfer Center director, or a relative who will be brutally honest. These are not amusing at 11 PM after ten hours of essay reading. Below are some tips for writing an essay that will enhance your application. Our counselors are accustomed to tutoring over the phone and reviewing drafts by email. Rachel takes a few days to relax after completing 11th grade before creating a spreadsheet listing her colleges. She then uses both the Common App and individual colleges’ websites to find guidelines, deadlines and essay prompts. Your computer’s spell check option may not catch every little mistake you make so you should plan to read back through your essay a few times on your own and have as many other people go over it as you can. Be sure to address the question, especially if it is a two-part question â€" admission essays are just as much about showing who you are as they are about proving your writing skills. This video explains the importance of your college admissions essay. In the end, Rachel doesn’t finish all her essays by the start of school.