Every year, college admission committees review lots of college applications from intelligent students. With lots of candidates competing for the same position, it can be quite difficult to stay ahead of the crowd. Fortunately, writing a good college admission essay can easily make your dreams come true.
Writing a college admission essay is not a walk in the park. Apart from dealing with the stress of getting an opportunity to study in the college of your dreams, you might have a hard time choosing the right prompt or narrowing down your ideas.
Before you start writing, it’s important to read several well-written essay samples to have a clear idea of what’s expected of you. Here are seven simple tips that you can use to write a college admission essay.
1. Learn from other people
Before you start writing your essay, you should spare some time to read well-written samples. Most learning institutions publish well-written essays on their sites. You can also find college application essay samples with a simple Google search.
When you read these samples, you’ll know what to do or what you need to avoid for your essay to stand out. The essay needs to reveal your personality and your perspective about important things that are happening around the world. While reading essay samples, you need to pay attention to the things that made them exceptional. If you get new ideas while reading these samples, jot them down.
2. Start writing early
You need to start writing your essay early to have ample time to revise and edit before the deadline. Time management can make or break you in college. Time is one precious resource that you’ll never recover. Therefore, you have to use it wisely. Don’t wait till the last minute to start working on your essay. Otherwise, you’ll end up submitting an essay full of spelling and grammatical errors.
No one enjoys reading such a piece. Remember, people will be sacrificing their time to read your piece. Therefore, you need to ensure that your essay is clear and direct from the intro to the conclusion. The only way to increase your chances of success is by starting early. If you have lots of commitments, don’t be afraid to seek AustralianWritings help.
3. Answer the prompt clearly
Most colleges will send essay prompts to prospective students. When you are responding to a prompt, you need to stay on topic. One of the common mistakes that most applicants make is failing to answer the essay prompt adequately. Before drafting a response, go through the prompt a couple of times to understand what’s required of you. Underline the keywords and create an outline to stay on track.
4. Use your original voice
Some applicants load their essays with obscure vocabulary to impress the committee. However, they end up failing terribly. Using plain simple words instead of jargon pays off in spades. The committee is likely to judge you as an intelligent student. Avoid excessive informality and be authentic. Never use emojis or acronyms in your essay. Also, avoid profanity.
5. Start with an anecdote
Everyone enjoys reading an essay that starts with a story because it hooks them. The purpose of the anecdote is to grab the reader’s attention. You have to establish momentum from the moment you start writing for the admission officer to be interested in reading your work. You need to avoid catchy lines when starting your essay because it’s usually a turn-off. The secret of success is analyzing the prompt carefully. To write a compelling essay, you have to invest a lot of time and energy. There’s nothing good that comes free. Don’t write your essay in a rush only to fail in the end.
6. Edit your work
When writing your college admission essay. It’s easy to feel tired and overwhelmed due to pressure. However, you should keep in mind that experienced authors write poorly too. Your first draft will never be in the best shape. However, you can polish it by editing and proofreading. Never expect your first draft to be perfect.
Allowing yourself to make mistakes will enable you to relax while writing. After completing your first draft, don’t rush to submit it because it will have lots of spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors. Always give yourself time to go through the whole piece. If you cannot proofread and edit your work, you should consider hiring a professional proofreader online or requesting a friend to help you out. Go through your paper at least three times before submitting it to the committee.
7. Be concise
The University of Oregon reports that admission officers spend three to five minutes every day reading a college application essay. While the minimum word limit is 250 words, you can always write more words. However, you don’t have to write more than seven hundred words as this won’t compel the reader to keep going. Always think like an admission officer. Since there are lots of potential candidates applying, the admission officer has to read all these applications. Therefore, time is a precious resource. Summarizing an area of your life won’t be easy. However, it’s worth it. You have to be concise to increase your chances of success.
Bonus Tip: Seek help
If you don’t have enough time to write a college admission essay or have poor writing skills, you should seek help to have a chance of winning. There are lots of writing services online that will deliver high-quality essays on time. By seeking help from reputable services, you’ll get to learn a lot from professional essay writers and gradually improve your writing skills. The best part about hiring a professional writer is that they offer affordable services. Money management is important, especially in college. You won’t have to pay a fortune to get help. Most of the essay writing services have websites that are easy to navigate. You don’t have to suffer alone when writing an essay.
Conclusion
Writing a college application essay is not an easy task. However, with determination and practice, you can achieve the biggest goals easily. If you get stuck, don’t struggle alone. You can always ask your family and friends for help or hire a professional essay writer to assist you. With these tips, you’ll have an easy time writing your essay.
Thomas Jackson a professional freelance content writer and also an active member of several writing clubs in New York. He has written several songs since he was a child. He gets inspiration from the live concerts he does in front of close friends and family members.
