Seven Ways To Make Your College Essay Stand Out

Seven Ways To Make Your College Essay Stand Out She uses Ms. Cleary as an example to show that she doesn’t back down â€" she’ll make the best darn lemonade our of any sour lemons she gets dealt in life. Our counselors are accustomed to tutoring over the phone and reviewing drafts by email. They can work with students from anywhere in the world, at any time. Finally, she checks the Common App to make sure supplemental essay prompts have not changed, then gets to work. She plans to write each morning and see her friends in the afternoon only if she has made real progress on her essays that day. Rachel decides to write about her local and global communities of Third Culture Kids. Katie’s essay is very well written, but cutting down some lengthy sentences and varying the paragraphs lengths would’ve helped to keep the captivate the reader more, and keep his interests longer. The only piece of feedback I’d offer is to cut down some of the sentences â€" her essay could’ve been shortened by a paragraph or so, which would’ve been easier to read for an admissions officer. But, the purpose of ANY application essay is to tell a story with a clear message that showcases who you are to admissions committee. The introduction captivates us from the get-go â€" we start to wonder how he’s going to pull off an application essay by writing about hipsters. She considers dropping her application to Barnard but has a flash of inspiration during a study hall, envisioning herself sitting at a Jerusalem café asking Golda Meir questions about the call of leadership. She now has a short draft of the “Why This College? ” essay for Barnard and a Community essay for UVA; if she has time, she’ll tweak them later for Michigan. Because the college admission process is pretty obscure, it’s extremely important to make sure that every piece of the admissions puzzle for your application package is the absolute best it can be. Ms. Cleary simply represents another obstacle in Cristen’s life that made her high school years tough. If Rachel has established a relationship with a college admissions representative, she will ask if supplemental essay prompts for next season will change. If she hasn’t been in touch with a rep, she will use this year’s prompts as a guide. Her counselor also suggests the University of Mary Washington, another Virginia public school, because it’s close to D.C. Right now, halfway around the globe, an American high school junior is gearing up for the U.S. college admissions process. Let’s give her the way-too-peppy name of Rachel Resilient. To be able to tweak this essay for several colleges, Rachel will write about her most meaningful community in the first half of the essay, and then gear the second half to each college. Because UVA and Michigan request similar word counts, she will not have to adjust these for length. Rachel has won numerous awards and intends to play at the intramural level in college. She decides that would make a better topic for Michigan’s “extracurricular activity” essay. Rachel takes a few days to relax after completing 11th grade before creating a spreadsheet listing her colleges. She then uses both the Common App and individual colleges’ websites to find guidelines, deadlines and essay prompts. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when tasked with writing a succinct statement about yourself. But if you enjoy or are genuinely interested in what you are talking about, chances are the admissions committee will enjoy reading your work, too. This hardly requires a complicated subject matter. It’s a good idea to sprinkle in paragraphs of varying lengths to break up the flow and keep the writing interesting. She doesn’t even start the basketball essay for Michigan now. But she does complete very rough drafts of the Catch-22 essays for UVA and George Mason. After returning from vacation, Rachel finds herself jet-lagged, distracted by friends and uninspired.