It is important to distinguish yourself from thousands upon thousands of other applicants when applying to college. The right college admissions essay can do that for you. With the right focus, a strong plan, and a little bit of effort on your part, you can create an admissions essay that will stand out from the rest.
Getting into the college of your choice is a major milestone. Each year, hundreds of thousands of students embark on the task of completing a college application. The competition is fierce; therefore, it’s essential to distinguish yourself from the other applicants especially those who may have a similar transcript. How do you do that? You can stand out from the crowd by writing an exceptional college essay.
The fact is, the admissions team spends most of its time reviewing the essay portion of the college application. They look at the essay as a sort of test to see if you can convey your ideas and experiences in a coherent and organized manner. At the same time, they’ll be evaluating your knowledge of basic writing skills such as grammar and spelling. And perhaps most importantly, they will view the college essay as an introduction to your unique personality. Based on what you write, the admissions team will decide if you will be a valuable asset to their community. It stands to reason, therefore, that your writing be as outstanding as possible.
But before you begin writing your college essay, you should come up with a plan. This is called pre-writing.
Pre-Writing
The very first thing to do is to let your thoughts run wild. In other words, brainstorm. This should not be a pressured activity – don’t worry about writing in complete sentences or even concern yourself with spelling. The point is to get concepts down on paper that you’ll eventually turn into the body of your essay.
Try and come up with topics that reveal who you are. If you have grades that weren’t so hot for one semester or even a year (while the rest were good) maybe you’d like to talk a little bit about what happened to you that year that affected your work. If you had bad grades throughout, your time will be better spent on something more personal, something about your family, a role model who influenced your field of intended study, your ethnicity or heritage. Anything that elevates you in their eyes as an applicant who will do them proud out in the world.
Write out the topic for your essay (use just a few words).
Come up with three distinct words or phrases that relate to your topic (these should be specific and in support of your topic)
Now play devil’s advocate and come up with three words or phrases that argue against your topic.