The admission process isn't the easy one neither for students nor for the committee, which consists of admission officers looking for the outstanding youth for their institutions. The work of both sides is equally hard and responsible. Students as applicants have to put enough efforts to demonstrate their uniqueness and persuade an officer in their aptitudes. While, an officer has to be enough attentive and comprehensive in order to reveal and understand the genuineness and peculiarities of each student. For this very reason, the question “how to write college application essay in a way it will bring success for an applicant” has become the most urgent and requested one. Our aim is to give you an exhaustive answer, so in the end, you can impress any officer with a stellar application essay.
To begin with, let's define the steps you'll follow while working on your college application essay:
- what is the purpose of the college application essay;
- discover two common “types” of an application essay;
- how to start a college application essay;
- create and stick to the outline of your college application essay;
- spend time on proofreading and making corrections.
To come up with an application essay that would make a positive impression on an admission officer, you need to distinctly understand its purpose, or better to say purposes, as there is more than one. First of all, an applicant's essay has to showcase his/her impeccable writing abilities in sense all the expressed thoughts are coherent, clear, well-structured, organized, and don't make an officer feel confused. A college application essay serves as evidence of student's life goals and expectations from the studying process. It is preferable to convey reasons why and how exactly this institution will help you to achieve certain objectives in your upcoming future. An application essay is also meant to reveal an applicant's unique traits, portray his/her individuality, and emphasize his/her ability to contribute to a college campus. Finally, let your application essay introduce yourself, form a connection with an admission officer, and leave a good impression of your personality.
As soon as you get acquainted with the main objectives of a college application essay, pay attention to frequently used types of application essays, which are the humorous and the personal hardship essay. To cut a long story short, the humorous kind of essay provides interesting funny stories and anecdotes that come along with reflections and analysis. Whereas, the personal hardship essay helps a student to show what he/she has learnt through the prism of sharing his/her hard personal experience. However, be careful with this college application essay format! Instead of vying for the sympathy and complaining about the problems of your life, demonstrate the effect you've undergone and what has made you a better person.
To start working on your application essay, you need to go through the pre-writing stage, which involves the brainstorming, picking a topic, gathering information, and narrowing the subject of your future essay. When looking for a perfect topic, focus on your life goals, on your passions, on your features of character, on periods of self-development and personal growth, on valuable experiences and transformations that influenced your life the most. On this stage, your duty as an applicant is to help an admission officer understand how interesting and special you are regardless your GPA, test scores, recommendations, etc. Your college application letters help you to draw a self-portrait from the scratch. The only difficulty implies using the right words and providing worthy examples that would tell a reader a gripping story of how great and unique you are and make an officer believe you're a perfect match for his/her institution. And remember, in order to persuade you have to always stay real, true, simply stay yourself.
Next step after choosing a topic is narrowing it down and deciding on which points to reveal, while it is important to structure your ideas in certain logical order. Why is organizing your thoughts so crucial for any kind of essay including a college application essay? Because in such a way, you'll be directed and guided, you won't get easily distracted, there won't be illogical transitions from one topic to another. Moreover, a well-structured essay will help you lead your reader. A well-elaborated outline of an essay will help both a student, who is writing a paper, and an officer, who will read it after its finished, follow the key points without efforts. Apart from such integral elements as a hook sentence and thesis statement, make sure that you have a summing up conclusion. Summing up means making the end of your essay as clear and explanatory as possible, once more highlighting your goals, passions, your experiences, or any other things that you've exposed in previous paragraphs and emphasizing the relationship between you, the purpose of your application essay, and the missions of an institution you apply for.
Use your constructive criticism and a constructive criticism of people who can help you to proofread your essay and make appropriate remarks. In order to notice all the strong and weak sides of your college application essay, it is necessary not only to reread your paper, but to diligently work on its first, second and, if needed, third drafts. Your task isn't only to pay attention to major grammar or spelling mistakes but recognize and catch errors connected with the coherency of content in general. Are there any missing words or even phrases or maybe your introduction is too vague? Read all the written text out loud, put it away for a while, and read again or better ask your parents, teachers, or friends to share their point of view with you regarding the style and tone, the used facts and statements in your essay. Be open to making corrections and never get offended if your friend suggests you changing some parts of a paper. Take into consideration all the pieces of advice in order to craft a perfect paper.
Realizing the importance of writing a stellar college application essay, as well as treating this task with a huge level of responsibility, it won't be as hard to impress an admission officer as it might have seemed. Stay persistent and diligent! And remember, there's nothing impossible! Follow your dreams!