Writing Tips And Techniques For Your College Essay

Writing Tips And Techniques For Your College Essay Schools like Stanford require answers to 6 short answer questions , an extracurricular essay , and 3 short essay questions . Although they are all quite short, that’s 10 questions to answer in a thoughtful, efficient manner. If you’re serious about getting into a school like Stanford, those essays will also have to be quite excellent. For less competitive schools, there might not even be any supplemental essays to write. Remember, in the grand scheme of the college admissions process, the application essay is a unique opportunity â€" and an opportunity to be unique. While the Common App only requires one essay, we do suggest that you draft at least two different essays with different topics so that you have some options later on. Unused essays can easily be used for other essay prompts down the line. Most students are in the middle of AP exams throughout this month, so they usually don’t have time to do much more than this. Every college applicant will have varying essay workloads, depending on their college list. Students with high aspirations for top colleges should be prepared to write A LOT of essays. Your essay may be your own ideas, words, and writing. Ask people to read your drafts to provide you corrections and advice on your essay. Your teachers, family, friends, school counselors, and community members are all people you might ask to help you create your essay. Yield factors into rankings in sources like U.S. News and World Report and contribute to the overall reputation of the school. This essay is one way for them to gauge how likely you are to attend and help them attain a high yield. If you seem genuinely passionate about the college, then they can assume you’re more likely to matriculate if offered a spot in the freshman class. There are several tutoring services available across the nation; with a little research you should be able to locate an agency near you that may be able to assist you with writing. You should also feel free to use any assistive technology that you are using in school to help write your essay. It’s important to get a good chunk of regular decision essays done in November, otherwise December is going to be a mess. Students applying to a number of top 20 reach schools for regular decision will have the majority of their essay work ahead of them and not a lot of time to ensure they’re writing their best possible essays. UC application deadlines are at the end of November, so they should be your next priority if you haven’t worked on them already. There are eight prompts to choose from, and you pick four. It doesn’t matter too much which prompts you choose, so try to choose prompts that you can reuse other essays to answer. In particular, the Common App personal statement essay is something that the UC schools don’t see, so try to reuse it for one of these essays. The main challenge here will be to reduce the word count . This is a great tool for demonstrating interest and learning details about your intended programs that you can’t find on the website. In addition, conversations with faculty at your early schools can give great tidbits that you can use for a “Why Us? Decide on schools to apply to for early admissions. The same applies to wanting to be in a city or town or being part of a small, medium, or large student body. While you may prefer certain settings or sizes, the fact is, you can easily find those qualities anywhere. A more concrete reason for this prompt is that colleges want to have a high yield, the ratio of accepted students who end up attending. An admissions committee doesn’t want to hear that you’re attracted to the warm weather â€" you can just as easily find that at another college in the South. Emory even calls out the commonality of that response in its prompt. College essays can seem overwhelming, but you are sharing who you are as an individual. Do not get overwhelmed and stressed by the essay. Use this module as an opportunity to develop your essay step by step. Always ask for help and stay focused on your topic. Remember that the college application is important, but not as important as your grades. Often the best college essays develop out of a moment or idea that at first seems small, but then grows, develops, and takes on a life of its own. A thoughtfully crafted essay and a clean, clear application can make a tremendous difference in the college admissions process. Here are 5 essential traits of a compelling college essay.