Heres What Admissions Officers Look For In A College Entrance Essay

Here's What Admissions Officers Look For In A College Entrance Essay After reading links on the things that interest you, you’ll understand it almost as well as someone at the school! Statistical websites like College Factual are tremendously helpful here as well, as are blogs from current and former students, Vlogs, Instagram feeds â€" anything and everything is fair game. Cite a wide range of sources in your essay to show the depth of your research. This essay doesn’t share many life-defining revelations; we learn, as a brief aside, that the author often cared for her younger siblings, but little beyond that. While St. Johns College may ask for more in-depth answers, other schools value brevity, challenging students to write concisely. One such example, shared by Tufts, takes the reader from the student’s love of origami to a passion for science in less than 250 words. Additionally, incredible “wow factors” can sometimes lead to unexpected admissions . But with a wow essay, you’re likely just getting in to Harvard when your grades/scores/activities are on par. Visit our Writing Lab for more writing tips, pertaining both to your college essay, and to the array of other writing challenges you’ll face in college or graduate school. The Common Application also gives you the option of responding to one of 7 different essay prompts. DEEP WEB RESEARCH. This should be the heart of your essay, as well as the meat and potatoes. Reading the school’s website is not a bad start, as it will give you a basic overview of what’s on offer. Keep an eye peeled for course listings, recent news events, maps and descriptions of important campus buildings, student run organizations, and other key terms. Then take those terms and plug them right into Google, Youtube and Linkedin! â€" and showed the reader a lot about who he is as a person. The essay is a joy to read, sharing a detailed glimpse of the student’s personality without feeling like it’s trying to list positive personal qualities. Yet despite its relative lack of major information, it reveals a lot about who the author is. We learn that the author knows how to turn a phrase, the author is a warm and caring person, the author has a sense of humor, and the author will bring us cookies if we admit her to our imaginary college. All in all, we see a student who is a skilled writer with a warm heart â€" positive traits, to be sure. This essay is an example of how to tell the story of moving to America in a unique way. This student focused on a single question â€" where is home? But here, wouldn’t colleges wonder whether she could handle “traditional” college? To be clear, a “wow essay” is not the same as a “wow factor.” But they are related. A “wow factor” is an activity or accomplishment that you achieve before sitting down to type that first draft. A “wow essay” is a piece of writing that arrests the reader with its ideas and narrative. Often the material for a “wow essay” comes from a “wow factor.” Still, you can write an amazingly engaging essay, even if your activities don’t place you among the modern gods of extracurriculars. Some colleges require a supplemental essay in addition to the personal essay. Typically, admissions pros note, these essays are shorter and focus on answering a specific question posed by the college. “You can think of the essay as the soul of the application. In our College Essay Clichés to Avoid post, we advised students against writing about moving to America from a foreign country. Still another essay I had a student complaining about how she didn’t like traditional school so switched to homeschooling. Inzer also encourages students not to stress too much over the essay and put unnecessary weight on it as part of their college application. While a strong essay may elevate a candidate in a crowded field, she says it doesn’t make or break an application. “The essay really needs to be the student’s work. I encourage students to ask people close to them to read the essay and ask ‘would you know this essay is about me? But make sure it’s still your voice,” Richardson says.