What Makes A Great College Essay?

What Makes A Great College Essay? Writing about hiking the Appalachian Trail or obsessively reading “To Kill A Mocking Bird” is noble but not memorable. Simply recanting facts will not distinguish you from other candidates with equal class rank, grades and test scores. For instance, if you’re applying to Cornell’s School of Hotel Management, you might describe how you’ve been collecting hotel brochures since you were a child in the hope of one day opening your own. That, combined with your desire to be on a large, rural campus with deep ties to the surrounding town â€" and work every job possible in a student run hotel â€" made you know Cornell was the school for you. This essay is about your relationship with the school, not solely the school itself. In fact, it’s really more about you than the college â€" how and why you will thrive there. Have them give you comments and encourage them to be honest. Your essay may be the ultimate product, but before you start worrying about the final edition you’ll send off to colleges, take some time to work on the process. Free-writing will help you hone your skills and practice for the real thing. Combining your larger reasons with the specific details paints a clear picture of why this is the right college for you. Use the details to ground the bigger-picture aspects of your story. Colleges look for students who have dealt with adversity, have overcome challenges and continue to grow from their experience. Admitting shortcomings is a sign of maturity and intelligence, so there is no need to portray yourself as a superhero; they will see through it. Focus on ways you have internalized and personalized academic research and demonstrate how this will enhance the university’s academic community. To that end, use the space to explore why you’re a mutual fit. It can be especially helpful to use a story or anecdote (just not, “I’ve had a Yale sweatshirt since I was 10”). Admissions officers can have a sense of humor too, and, when used appropriately, humor can make you stand out. However, don't make being funny one of your top goals in your college essay. Be thoughtful in both your topic choice and the tone of your writing. They will write the essay themselves, but the workshop will help them come closer to a finished product about which they will feel proud. Once you have a revised draft of your college essay, call in your friends and family to take a look. Choose something you care about and it will flow more naturally. I know this sounds absurdly simple, but it really does make a difference to be as relaxed as possible when you sit down to write. It’s all about the delivery, the reflection, the conversational tone, showing not telling that will make for a winning essay. The essay is one of the few things that you’ve got complete control over in the application process, especially by the time you’re in your senior year. Also, I know that procrastination and writing fatigue are real obstacles in this process. You guys aren’t essay robots able to churn out quality drafts on a strict schedule. This timeline wasn’t meant to be followed exactly. Making your scholarly endeavors personal will pique curiosity and demonstrate your potential to contribute to an academic community. If you can make the reader laugh, say “I get that” or “me too”, you are on your way to a strong application. In addition, you are sharing something about yourself that is not anywhere else in your application. Finding a cure for cancer, saving the whales singlehandedly, or traveling abroad to build homes for orphans does not automatically make a great essay. She has 14 years of high school teaching experience, both at private and public high schools. In addition to teaching teenagers, Sarah has run writing workshops for both adults and children. Before teaching, Sarah worked as a freelance writer, newspaper reporter, fact-checker, and an assistant to a literary agent. These workshops will help them fine-tune their writing and come away with a strong personal essay.