How To Write A Great College Admissions Essay

How To Write A Great College Admissions Essay A “wow essay” is a piece of writing that arrests the reader with its ideas and narrative. Often the material for a “wow essay” comes from a “wow factor.” Still, you can write an amazingly engaging essay, even if your activities don’t place you among the modern gods of extracurriculars. Students write about the diversity of their schools or their city, but not enough about who they are. Experts say supplemental essays tend to be short, but St. John’s College bucks that trend, requiring a minimum of 400 words. The other subject to handle delicately is loss or tragedy. Colleges want to admit students who are ready to be successful members of their community. Many local students want to write about growing up in a diverse environment and how they have been enriched by that environment. While celebrating diversity is great, the problem is that these essays risk falling into truisms. In fact, the more people who read your essay, the better. Ask your readers whether the essay provides an accurate depiction of who you are and ask whether it is clear, concise, and easy to read. If you were given a prompt by a certain school, make sure that your essay actually addresses the prompt. Even if you don’t have anyone else who can read your essay, you can review it yourself â€" just take a day or two off after writing it before you read it back so you can view it with fresh eyes. That’s because the school is interested in seeing students write at length on a chosen topic. Some colleges require a supplemental essay in addition to the personal essay. Typically, admissions pros note, these essays are shorter and focus on answering a specific question posed by the college. “You can think of the essay as the soul of the application. The college essay is not a test to see if you can read minds or anticipate what the admission office wants to hear. Plain and simple, they want to know about you, how well you write and how self-aware you are. Although juniors may feel like they have a lot of free time right now, the reality is that most high school students are still taking classes â€" they've just shifted into an online format. Therefore, Sawyer says, this may not necessarily be the right time to start working on essays. I hope that after reading this post you feel a bit more confident in your ability to write your college admissions essay. It may feel scary and impossible, but with right approach , you can write an essay that showcases your unique personality and impresses admissions officers. Vagueness isn’t a problem unique to admissions essays. It’s something all writers struggle with â€" including myself; I struggled with it while writing this very article. While no lives are riding on your college application essays, this is a great time to revisit some of the rules of writing well. Another kind of essay that I’ve seen wow admissions offices is an essay that taps into the current societal debate in a meaningful way. If a story in your life resonates with the stories populating news feeds, and you can draw that personal connection with a more societal level context, your story can resonate with readers more. To be clear, a “wow essay” is not the same as a “wow factor.” But they are related. A “wow factor” is an activity or accomplishment that you achieve before sitting down to type that first draft. The best way to move forward is to see a college essay as a conversation. If they could, colleges would welcome you to campus and ask you questions for hoursâ€"but if they did that, no one would be admitted to college until they were 43. To accelerate the process, they want you to talk on paper; let them get to know you by giving them a guided tour of your heart, your brain, and your life. If you succeed, they will look up from reading your essay, and be surprised you aren’t in the room; indeed, they will swear the chair next to them is warm from your having sat in it since Tuesday. Additionally, incredible “wow factors” can sometimes lead to unexpected admissions . But with a wow essay, you’re likely just getting in to Harvard when your grades/scores/activities are on par. Once you have written your college application essay, your job isn’t done â€" you need to keep working on it to improve it until you can improve it no further. It is a great idea to have someone else read your essay to provide feedback. No college application is complete without the personal essay, which can be daunting for many students to write. Essays on negative life events can be very tricky. Unless enough time has passed since the experience, the essay can be too personal, too much of a rant, or just too hard to read. One rep said the general rule of thumb was no essays on the Four Dsâ€"Drugs, dating, death, and divorceâ€"but you get the idea. If you want to write about a personal challenge, emphasize what you learned and how you grewâ€"if you dwell on the details, the essay will not achieve its purpose.