College Expert Advice

College Expert Advice Some students cannot begin writing the body of the essay until they feel they have the perfect introduction. Be aware of the dangers of sinking too much time into the introduction. Some of that time can be more usefully channeled into planning and writing. The Common App asks students to submit one long essay, no more than 650 words. Some Common App schools will require additional supplemental writing. Many students do need help selecting a topic and organizing the essay. They should seek guidance from their counselors or teachers for this. The essay should be in the student’s voice and parent’s are not always the best advisors for this part of the application. While some colleges provide page limits for their college essays, most use a word limit instead. This makes sure there's a standard length for all the essays that a college receives, regardless of formatting or font. The college is learning about you from what you write. Not what anyone else writes including your parent. But, if they start writing the essay know that the college may very well determine that the work was not yours. Did you separate dialogue correctly from the rest of your text? Check out our article on the most common mistakes in college essays for more tips to ensure your essay reads well. Sometimes students pick the hardest challenge they’ve been through and try to make it sound worse than it actually was. Tons of students write doctor/lawyer/engineer essays; if you want to stand out you need to say a few things that others don’t tend to say. In my opinion, one of the best ways to write a successful college essay for your college application is by learning from real college essay examples that worked. Many schools have a strong commitment to a holistic review of each application and sometimes have two or three readers for each file. A really good essay can be a strong addition to the application file. Your encouragement, ideas and overall support can go a long way in helping your students write their essays. Emphasize to students the importance of writing an informed essay. In the college essay, you need to contextualize your examples for the reader. If you are writing a good complex essay, even your topic sentence will require more explanation than just one sentence. While there is no magic topic that will automatically ensure admission at the college of your dreams, there are experiences everyone has that you can use to find your strongest possible application essays. I cannot make that claim, but I do believe that most of them are read. In smaller to mid size colleges they are certainly read, at least by two readers, and all Honors College essays are read. Other schools might be so overwhelmed by the sheer number of applications that they make their admit decisions based strictly on statistical requirements. You can often find out how a file is reviewed by attending an information session at the schools on your college list. Usually one to two admissions officers read an essay. Some colleges will choose only to look at your GPA, Course Rigor and SAT/ACT scores. If you GPA and Test Scores are high enough, they may not feel that and essay is necessary. For example, they should not write about a fantasy meeting with a famous artist and get the titles of the artist’s paintings wrong. You might be used to turning in your writing assignments on a page-limit basis. Is your parent going to write your essays that are assigned by professors while you are in college? The college cares how you write not how your parent writes unless they are also applying to the same college as you.