What kind of essays are colleges looking for

You can demystify the essay for your students. This is especially true for selective colleges. They can show their commitment to learning and their eagerness to contribute to the college community. Admissions officers read a lot of essays, and a well-written one can make a refreshing change. Advise your students to check their essays against these criteria:.

A common concern for admissions officers is just how much help a student has received with their essay. This can cause counselors to wonder how much help is too much help. Here are some appropriate ways to help your students:. Education Professionals. Again, remember that you are more than just an international student. You have so much more to contribute to the campus social and learning environment than just your home culture.

Take a few moments to consider what else you may contribute. Now you need to focus your goals to only three or four ideas — the ones that will make you the most attractive to the college admissions board. No matter what the prompt asks, you want to ensure you include those three or four ideas in your college admissions essay. The concept is to present a few ideas very well, rather than list all your ideas poorly. A narrowly focused essay will be much more effective than a general, vague one.

You should take the time to read and re-read the essay prompt, so you can answer it fully. However, you must demonstrate that you can read and follow directions. Think of that great pile of applications. The admissions officers are looking for a reason to disregard candidates.

On the other hand, the prompt is designed to give you some freedom for creativity, which will allow you to work in those three or four key ideas that you have developed through tips 1 through 4. You are encouraged to find novel ways of answering the prompt, so long as you do indeed answer the questions provided. If you need more help choosing a topic , you can find some tips on our Choosing a Topic for Your College Essay page.

At this stage in the college admissions essay writing process, you have considered the goals and psychology of the college admissions board. Now it is time to actually write the essay. The key to excellent and memorable writing is to write in fine detail. The more specific your essay, the stronger an impression it will make on the admissions board. Despite having a degree fever and being required to stay in bed, I still completed my draft speech on the possible impacts of global warming on agriculture.

The admissions officers are expecting you to celebrate yourself, to underline your strengths and personality, so they can make a quick, accurate judgment about you. Diction word choice is the fundamental structure of writing.

Your word choice reveals a great deal about your personality, education and intellect. Furthermore, as an international student, you want to reassure the college admissions board that you have an excellent command of the English language remember: they want you to succeed; they need to know that you can actively participate in English-only instruction.

With this in mind, you should replace lower-level words bad, sad, thing, nice, chance with higher-level words appalling, despondent, phenomena, comforting, opportunity.

You should also remove any slang or casual diction; the university is not interested in casual language in their admissions essays. In this instance, you want to show that you already have college-level writing skills.

So, in writing your college application essays, you should write with the following features in mind:. As with tip 7 , this serves two functions: 1 it distinguishes your essay from those that are poorly written; and 2 it reassures the admissions board of your excellent command of written English.

This is one of the most important tips on this list. For this reason, you should ask a friend or a relative or an English teacher to look over your essay and check your:. College admissions essays require a tremendous amount of work. Edit your essay to make it truly stand out. College essays are not typically required to have a title, but opting for one can be a powerful tool to make your essay stand out right away — which is why Benjamin Caldarelli, co-founder of Princeton College Consulting , recommends adding one.

He says a strong, simple title is perfectly effective, though you may be able to make a positive impact with a well-chosen cultural reference. You know how people often judge whether to read a book by its first sentence or two? Well, the college essay is no different. Her recommendation? Write your first draft and then chop off the first paragraph to see how it reads.

Lindsey Conger, an independent college counselor at MoonPrep. A little laugh can be a relief to admissions associates who are knee-deep in earnest essays. To pull in the reader, Brian Galvin, chief academic officer for Varsity Tutors , recommends using humor or a semi-sensational statement. His example of an intriguing line?

My life has never been the same. And this is the perfect amount of humor — two sentences. Remember, the essay is meant as a tool to communicate the fullest and most compelling version of yourself. After a quick bit of humor, Galvin suggests transitioning into your interests.