College Essay Examples

College Essay Examples If a university finds out you lied on an application or essay you will get rejected, almost guaranteed. Plagiarism is always wrong, and schools are getting better at detecting it. The admissions committee is looking to learn about youâ€"your achievements, your obstacles, your goals, your passions, your personality, your values, and your character. If you are asked to write about an influential person, the college wants to know his or her influence on you. Whatever topic you choose to center your essay around, make sure you shine through. More than the introductions, the opening sentences. It wakes the reader up, it draws them in, and it highlights something truly interesting and unique. Don’t stress if you think that your essay isn’t THAT interestingâ€"it can be. So even if all the revising and nitpicking on the college essay may not help your kid get into college, it will almost certainly make him or her a better writer. Many of the supplemental essay questions from colleges will ask the student why they are choosing to apply to that college in particular. That question can generate a lot of generic responses from students, said Sawyer of “College Essay Guy.” Don’t be generic, he said. Enlist a friend or family member to read over it, too. It always helps to have someone else give you their feedback before your essay lands in the inboxes of admissions counselors. To get the ball rolling on writing your essay, start with something a bit easierâ€"make a list of what matters to you. In order to write a great college essay, you don't need a committee. Besides, trying to get all the members on the same page is a lot like herding cats. For example, we had a student last year write about his height. Not a trip he took, not his extracurricular activities, not a totally transformative conversation. He’s tall, and it has affected how he experiences the world. But humans take risks every day, and finding a space to reveal your own risk-taking, in your own words, will keep your application impactful and honest. English teachers often don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to college essays. And if you’re wondering why Queen Elizabeth appears, it’s because you shouldn’t be formal in college essays. Good admissions essays take risks, but ones that remain in the control of their authors. A perceptive admissions counselor can always sense when something is bold, and when something is just plain reckless, or worse, made up. This is why a two-word essay is a poor choice, much like an essay on genuinely dangerous or illegal conduct. These experiences might include taking care of younger siblings every day after school, for example, or picking up groceries for a grandparent, or working an after-school job to help the family cover rent. Such experiences demonstrate qualities that colleges are looking for, including courage, grit, responsibility, leadership, and resilience. The essay can â€" and should â€" help kids “come alive” for admissions officers, he says, and be more than a GPA and SAT score. You pore over the rest of the essay and absolutely eat it up. A lot of the admissions reader’s attitude about your essay is affected by the opening sentence and introduction. Because your essay is a story, think of the introduction as the beginning of your story. We believe that the best essays start right in the middle of some action . You’ve finished writing your essay, and you want to immediately submit it and be done with it. Before you check that box, read over what you wrote, and read over it slowly. Notice any lines that might sound confusing to someone who doesn’t know you and rewrite them. If a writer shares “a time” she or he faced some type of problem (challenge, obstacle, change, mistake, etc.), the essay naturally will highlight the writers raw determination . This is a highly prized quality by most colleges. Colleen works with a student to craft the perfect college essay. Read through some of our favorite personal statements ever here, and take note of the introductions.