Things To Include In Your College Application Essay

Things To Include In Your College Application Essay The classic essay starts with an introductory statement that hooks the reader and continues with a strong topic sentence. It ends with a strong closing paragraph or summation. The body of the essay is where you make the sale that your thesis is true. And pay close attention to your transitions from one section to the next. Transitions should give information, not just be links. Beware of words like “but” or “meanwhile” as transitions. Many colleges, including Johns Hopkins University and the University of Connecticut post “essays that worked” going back several years. Ask someone to help you proofread for spelling and grammar. And be you follow the essay guidelines as far as word count and topic are concerned. The college wants to know if you can follow directions and how creative you can be within set limitations. This is a great strategy because it grabs your reader’s attention and compels them to continue in order to find out what is going on and fill in the gaps in their understanding. They are often enigmatic, surprising, or even confusing. For example, check out these 10 opening lines from Stanford admission essays. You shouldn’t stumble over words or phrases when you read your essay out loud. Reading your essay with fresh eyes will help you be more objective about your writing. It is not OK to copy it or to excerpt anything without proper credit. And don’t even think about having someone else - parent, friend, tutor or writing service â€" create your essay for you. Big Future, run by the College Board, has sample essays and tips. Be your wonderful, amazing self â€" idiosyncrasies, quirks, and all. The more real you are, the more intriguing you will be…and the more the admissions officers will love you. Ask them whether or not they learned those things from your essay. This may be acceptable for athletes and movie stars who pay for assistance with their memoirs, but should not be commonplace when competing for collegiate acceptance. With more perspective, parents and students alike can take a deep breath and calm down a bit. Do you notice how each of these opening lines raises more questions than it answers? They give you enough information to get a sense of what the essay will be about, but not enough to really understand what is going on. These are the parts that make your essay come alive. The first paragraph is mostly summary â€" it tells the reader facts about who you are, things you’ve done, tendencies you have, etc. (e.g. I never saw myself as a cat person). Summaries can be useful for bridging the gap between in-scene moments, or reflecting back on an experience and what it meant to you. However, an essay consisting entirely of summary is going to be dry and boring to read. When you’re writing, open up and let your voice come through loud and clear. Some college traditions are no longer applicable in today’s society. Let’s come up with a new solution that allows all children fair access to academic institutions. And let’s keep the personal in the essay by not allowing third parties to ghostwrite our children’s future. Students are essentially paying a third party to ghost-write their story in an essay which is supposed to be a culmination of their skill set, not a professional’s. Letters of recommendation give admissions officers a chance to hear an adult’s perspective of you. A counselor may provide insights into your personal life, and a teacher’s recommendation will detail how you’re viewed in the classroom. This information will help them make distinctions between you and other students who have similar scores. Colleges are not necessarily only looking for students who perform well academically. It’s acceptable to look at someone else’s essay as a sample and a creative tool.