Fall is in the air and college application season has begun! Here are a few tips on writing a killer essay guaranteed to get you into the college of your dreams.
1. Understanding your prompt.
An important part of planning your essay is understanding exactly what is needs to be written about. A thorough understanding of the prompt will allow you to not only address it completely in your essay, but will give you room to mess with the format of your essay. Since colleges look at applications so briefly and pick out only the vital info, making your essay interesting and unique to the thousands of others submitted will help you stand out and better your chances of being accepted.
2. Organization.
There’s a good reason we were taught to brainstorm! Writing your thoughts down on paper, whether they’re just thoughts on the prompt or complex ideas on how to write certain sentences or illustrate a concept, is an essential part in writing a fantastic essay. Going into it knowing exactly how you want to split your writing up, what you want to emphasize and even what sentence structure you’ll use to get the effect you want makes the entire process easier.
3. Effective use of space.
Although the open ended questions colleges ask may inspire you to write a novel, you probably don’t have the space. It’s good to include stories and anecdotes but remember that colleges are more interested in you than they are in what happened - make sure to leave room for analysis and self-reflection in your essay if you’re including something of the sort. Additionally, this is the time to plan out the length of certain things: how long you’d like each paragraph to be, what ideas you’d like to develop and how to weave everything together nicely and efficaciously.
4. Vocabulary.
Your choice in words is another thing colleges consider when evaluating your essay. A dull paper reflects a dull student, making your shot at acceptance smaller with each word. Your paper shouldn’t be too full of long, descriptive words for clarity’s sake, but it shouldn’t be lacking in them either. A sophisticated vocabulary indicates an educated, well-rounded student and there’s nothing colleges want more than someone who knows how to write.
5. Editing.
This step in your essay writing process may be the most crucial of them all. After everything has been hashed out and (roughly) edited to fit the basic word requirements/limits and adhere to the prompt, it’s time to really dig in and analyze your writing. Everything you’ve been taught about sentence structure, oddly specific vocabulary words and the anatomy of a paragraph or essay needs to be applied. Focus on keeping things concise but still flowy and vivid. Again, the real purpose of this essay is to separate you from everyone else applying, so make it count. Your test scores may say enough about your intellect, but this is your shot at expressing your intelligence.
6. Feedback.
The stressful part is over. It’s time to sit back, relax and stop thinking about your essay for a little while. Instead, ask other people to think about it! Ask your parents, close friends, teachers or anyone who offers read your essay and critique it. You don’t have to change what they say you should but the more perspective you have, the better. Most of the people you ask actually got into college, so they might know a thing or two about what it takes to get accepted.
At the end of the day, there’s nothing you can do besides offer your best self. Getting into college shouldn’t dictate your self-worth, but if it’s something you intend on doing, then use these tools to write the best essay possible. Good luck!
