Essay Examples

Essay Examples If your reader is one paragraph in and thinking, “I don’t have a clue what this student is talking about,” you’ve moved from arousing interest to creating confusion. It’s certainly possible and often effective to begin your essay with a description that piques interest without necessarily revealing exactly what the description is about. But while enticing and intriguing are good, bewildering and unintelligible are not. Another very simple tip, but many of the less compelling essays we read each year fail to focus. He has appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, PBS, Fox Business and Lifetime. Over 70 percent of students choose just three of the seven Common Application prompts . That is because three of them work well if you write your essay first and pick the prompt second. Finally, you’ll need to be able to strike a balance between being self-effacing and being a braggart. Some students try so hard to be creative, or to entice the reader with a sense of intrigue, that they sacrifice clarity. Before you begin to tackle this essay prompt, there are a few points of which you should be aware. First off, don’t reiterate information that can be found in other parts of your application. Instead, use this opportunity to showcase an additional side/aspect of yourself. Secondly, you must recognize that schools don’t only view “big” achievements as a viable topic. You don’t need to have worked on a cure for AIDS or helped send a rocket into space to write a compelling essay. She provided thoughtful feedback and kept prompt communication to meet my deadline. I highly recommend Emily if you need assistance for your college essay. Admissions writing truly requires a new set of skills which most high school applicants don’t frequently get to practice or cultivate. However, avoiding some of these pitfalls will help you as you refine your CommonApp, supplemental and scholarship essays. Your admissions essay must be fundamentally reader-friendly. While your essay should convey your best qualities, you want to avoid bragging too much. If you write about an activity or an experience, focus not on how good you are or what you have accomplished, but instead on what the experience/activity means to you. My College Options ® is an online college planning program that connects millions of high school students with colleges and universities. Don’t just say that volunteering in a soup kitchen allowed you to see the importance of helping others. Admissions committees really want you to speak to the experience and really explain the impact it had. You are writing a personal narrative, not a parable, so don’t feel compelled to conclude with a lesson learned or a happy ending. We serve students who have not yet begun the college application process, students who may already have a draft they want to polish, and students who are anywhere in-between. Keith Berman is the President of Options for College (), which he founded in Harvard Square right after working in the Harvard Admissions Office. The college essay is a page-long assignment given to you by a school, to be completed by a certain date. My 17-year-old is working with Russell on a college essay. He is thorough, highly knowledgeable and patient. Think about the special nugget of information you want the reader to know about you at the end of your essay and write with that central theme in mind. Finally, colleges can use the essay to begin picturing how you’ll connect with and make the most of resources within their specific campus communities. Admissions officers read thousands of essays every year. Yours doesn’t have to be the most creative; it just has to be a good read. The moral to the college essay is that there need not be a moral. He has so many tips about writing a solid college essay. Emily guided me through the revision process of my writing and helped clarify my drafts for a supplemental college essay.