Imagine a world where people marry only based on the number of qualification certificates they hold. You get to choose your partner through an application form, with an insight into only their professional lives. None of you can disclose any extra information, and a wedding is the only door for communication. Insane, right?
Examinations too cannot be the only criteria to assess an application. Colleges believe that an individual is more than just standardised scores and previous coursework. Therefore, many institutions have introduced college admission essays to get to know the students from a better curve. As important as the value of prior certifications, college essays have proved to be a remarkable way of finalising their decision over student admission.
Students say that starting the essay is the most challenging part, but with the correct technique and guidance, you can ace that too. Following are some tips to prepare an excellent college application essay
HOW SHOULD I PLAN MY ESSAY?
1. Studying the Psychology of Admission Board
To impress your admissions officers, you need to understand what they are looking for in a student’s essay. What they are most interested in is
- Can you write?
- Will you make valuable contributions to the university?
Supplement these answers with specific prompts about yourself. Describe the world you come from and how it has influenced your dreams and aspirations. Show them that you are determined, ambitious and how your presence can contribute to the honor and prestige of the university.
2. Determining Essay Goals
Your college essay will talk a lot about your student personality, i.e. what kind of a student you are! So, this will be a tool to help them recognize you better. The board must view you as an asset. Your grades are already there to mirror your intellectual personality. Therefore, highlight other features that showcase how responsible, dependable, and enthusiastic you are about joining their force.
3. Distinguish yourself from others
The college gets to read tons of essays from applicants every year, but only a few of them skyrocket their attention. How? A few lines about your creativity, background, language, hobbies, and other extracurricular strengths are enough to ensure the board’s attention.
4. Utilising Essay Prompts
The three tips mentioned above can give you ideas that will run out of pages. But this is where you have to limit yourself. The college often provides essay prompts to help applicants fit in. Answering the prompt is the most obvious technique that many ignore, and you should avoid this mistake. These prompts are designed not to trick you like in an exam, but to help you construct a perfect essay.
HOW SHOULD I WRITE MY ESSAY?
Once you have produced a list of the goals and ideas, narrow it down to four to five essential ideas to get you into the desired college or university. Follow these tips while you pen down your essay
1. Add Specific Details
The clarity of your essay comes from the fine details in the body. If you are trying to portray yourself as a dedicated scholar, mention an incident supporting the assertion. It must not sound like you are bragging about it.
2. Maintain a college-level diction
Unlike “vocabulary”, the choice of your words will reveal your personality, education, and intellect to the readers. Having excellent command of English will reassure your admission to the institution. Try to replace lower-level words like good, sad, thing, chance, with high-level words like appalling, disheartened, phenomena, opportunity.
3. Get your essay proofread by someone.
What reads straightforward and unadorned to you may look complicated to others’ eyes. Moreover, there are higher chances of errors getting neglected by you. To avoid such blunders, ask someone to read and check your essay for grammatical errors, diction, and organization.
A college essay is an excellent opportunity to characterize your distinctiveness to the admission board. It will allow you to stand out amongst other competing applicants and show off the person who is behind the statistics.
Whether you are interested in Reed College or one of the other 3,000 four-year colleges and universities in the United States, your mission is to hone in on why that school is a great fit for you and why you are a great fit for it. If, after reviewing your composition, you can check both of those boxes, and you’ve avoided the common pitfalls highlighted previously, then you can rest assured that you have mastered the “Why Us?” essay.