The College Essay

The College Essay Look for things like consistency of tone, style, and form. If you need some help, check out this guide from Purdue. Sadly, one of the easiest ways to stand out is to have correct spelling and grammar. Don’t let stupid mistakes pull down the quality of your essay. Proofread this thing more than any essay you’ve ever written. Focus on one event, one activity, or one “most influential person.” Tackling too much tends to make your essay too watered down or disjointed. Especially if you’re recounting an event, take it beyond the chronological storytelling. To succeed in the long-term, you need to think strategically. Everyone’s life is full of story, narrative, and it’s up to you to tell these stories in compelling ways. Internet slang for “quarantine”, originating from the many times people misspelled that word on social media during the COVID-19 or coronavirus crisis. For instance, let’s say you spent a summer during your high school years doing a homestay in another country while learning a new language. Remember, you’re not Sergeant Joe Friday writing up a police report. And you’re certainly not telling your story just for the heck of it. Feel free to tell us about a time you stumbled, and what happened next. Don’t be afraid to reveal yourself in your writing. These are just filler words that we lean on for convenience. To craft an outstanding essay you have to get past these overused descriptions. When writing about an experience like this, it can be really easy to get wrapped up in all the cool things that happened. You need to talk about what you learned, about how this experience changed you, and how it helped form who you are today. To do this, you need to get away from simply summarizing events. Prestige and rankings are another topic to avoid. Yes, Yale is very prestigious and consistently ranks among the top three universities in U.S. Your familial connections may also factor in, but they shouldn’t be your sole reason for applying. Finally, if you can find pretty much all the reasons you give through a cursory look at the website or brochure, that’s a sign that it’s time to dive a little deeper. The “Why this college” or “Why us” prompts are fairly common. Often used in posts expressing boredom or frustration related to self-quarantine or 'social distancing' measures. Even if you didn’t visit, you can still establish a strong connection to the school. In that case, you might share a story about why you’re interested in studying a certain program that you can only find there â€" grounding it in an anecdote from your past â€" or a professor you want to study with. You don’t have to solely focus on academics, although you should make them a main point of your essay. You can also include traditions, extracurricular activities, and the campus itself. This article explores concrete ways to apply strategic thinking in your life. Here's a list of 42 awesome college tips to make the most of freshman year and beyond. After you’ve checked for mechanical errors, you need to go back through your essay and edit it. You’re trying to show who you are and what you’re about. Furthermore, they likely know nothing about the subject of your essay. Even if they do, they certainly don’t have the same knowledge and perspective that you have. Formatting and presentation cannot replace substance, but they can certainly enhance the value of an already well-written essay. Tell us something different from what we’ll read on your list of extracurricular activities or transcript. Essays should have a thesis that is clear to you and to the reader. Your thesis should indicate where you’re going and what you’re trying to communicate from the outset.