In this video, James Maroney of AdmissionHook.com interviews Matt Beirne, Director of Admission at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, about the college admission essay. The cover tips on how to write the essay as well as some examples of Matt’s favorite essays over the past couple of years.
10 percent of Nichols College graduates are either the CEO or President of a business or owns their own business. Win a $1,000 bonus scholarship to Nichols College from CollegeTreasure.com.
You have everything that you need: clean notepads, pencils, pens, and your computer. You’re ready to write yourcollege application essay. Just open Microsoft Word and let your ideas flow.
It’s too bad that writing a college application essay isn’t actually that easy. However, with a few tips, you’ll be able to pick a good topic and smooth-out the process.
Have you ever felt egocentric? If not, you soon will. Your college admission essay should focus on only one person: you. It can, and probably should, include other characters, but the core of the essay must describe you – your feelings, what you’ve learned, how you view yourself, how you see yourself fitting in the world. Three primary sorts of you-based topics exist: events, routines, and descriptions. Events constitute life-altering experiences. When listing events, don’t think of things that happened during your life; think of those that happened in your life. They should be things that affected you and your future. Routines and descriptions are a bit more complicated. In a routine-type essay, the author writes about a routine or aspect thereof in the same way as he or she would write about an event, describing his or her qualities and values in the process. In a description-type essay, the writer describes an important person or object and uses metaphor to relate it to him or her self.
After you’ve thought about the significant events, relevant routines, and important figures in your life, you can begin to narrow your list of potential topics. First, think about your best qualities, the ones that you want to feature in your application, and select the topics that would best feature them. Next, consider the uniqueness of your topics. Each college admissions officer will read hundreds of essays throughout the spring and will only be able to remember the most interesting few (if you think that it’s easy to remember essays, try to read every entry on this page then summarize them, in order, without peeking). Make especially sure to avoid cliché topics and those conducive to platitudes. Of course, you should stay away from potentially controversial issues unless they truly intersect with your core values. Finally, remember that colleges don’t admit students retroactively. That is, they don’t really want to read about your past unless it has some bearing on the present or future.
If you still have a long list of potential topics, simply begin to write. Finish a few rough drafts, read through them, and figure out which one best represents your qualities and values. Sometimes you just can’t determine how good a topic is until you actually write a draft of the essay.
Wading through the plethora of potential essay topics may seem impossible; however, with a few pointers, anyone can pick a good one.
This article was contributed by Dakota Meyers, who just completed his freshman year at Yale University and is a regular contributor to the CollegeTreasure.comandAdmissionHook.com blogs. He is a 2009 graduate of Hoisington High School in Hoisington, KS. At Hoisington High, he won varsity letters in debate, speech, scholars’ bowl, and band. He won the 2009 3A Kansas State Championship in extemporaneous speech.
At Yale, Dakota intends to major in Economics and Mathematics. He writes for the campus publication Business Sphere and is an active member of the Yale chapter of Nourish International. He also participates in the Yale Political Union as a member of the Independent Party.
As a current college student, Dakota has recent first-hand experience with the college admission process.
Win a Bonus Scholarships from the University of New Haven at CollegeTreasure.com
The essay is the most difficult part of a scholarship application, and it’s often the only thing that separates winners from the rest of the applicant pool. Even the best writers struggle with the scholarship essay because it differs so greatly from academic essays. Scholarship evaluators generally don’t read essays from a technical standpoint (unless, of course, the paper
is riddled with simple, lazy errors); rather, they read in order to get a better idea of the applicant’s personal history, qualities, and aspirations. The essay is meant to give applicants a chance to convey ideas that cannot be expressed in SAT scores or lists of accomplishments. Everyone has unique characteristics, and with a few simple tips anyone can write a successful scholarship essay that showcases these qualities.
The first step in beginning the writing process is, quite simply, to begin the writing process. Gather information and construct a rough draft several weeks, maybe a month… or two, before you intend to submit the application. To make choosing a topic easier, write down a list of the personal qualities and goals that you want to emphasize to the scholarship’s evaluators then choose something (probably a personal story) that clearly displays these characteristics. Don’t just write empty, aimless prose and try to fill it in with useful information. It’s usually best to make an outline before starting the rough draft, but this is not absolutely necessary. Some find it easier to just begin writing, especially when recounting a true story. However, if you choose the latter method, make sure that you have a specific story and well-defined points of emphasis in mind; again, don’t write aimlessly. Work on the essay a little bit each day. This gives you a chance to review the essay with a clear mind (if you write and revise it all at once, your ideas tend to blend together). After you’ve written a rough draft, begin to revise with an eye toward content. Don’t worry about grammar or prose quality until the final weeks because these errors are easily correctable. Finally, make sure to use your resources throughout the process; these could include English teachers, tutors, your family, and your friends.
Essays can make the scholarship application process difficult. However, no scholarship that’s worth having comes easily, and if you follow the advice above any scholarship essay is doable.
Congratulations! The fact that you are looking up tips on college essays indicates your desire to write a successful essay. Research is always the best way to start when it comes to targeting your audience. Just think about people in sales jobs – what better way to make that sale than to know what your potential customer wants? It is no different for you as a college applicant. You need to sell your college admissions audience on your potential as a member of their academic community. One of the best ways to do this is to write an interesting and convincing essay.
Five Important Tips for Writing Your College Essay
Choosing the Right College
College Life
While most students are focused on what they hope to do in the new semester, Brett J Callahan presents Five Back-to-School Do NOT’s posted at 2East: The College Living Blog. Also, back on campus many students are feeling a financial pinch and might be tempted to look for credit cards. For these students, Jim presents Best Student Credit Cards posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. In order to save money, many students are considering moving off campus. Across the country, many new students are just tussling with their first college exams and term papers. Don’t worry freshman,Carolyn Friedman gives you useful web tools that will help you earn the grades your parent’s will be proud of while you are secretly having the time of your life as a freshman at 75 + Useful Web Tools for Your First Year of College posted at Online Christian Colleges, Tom Tessin gives tips you can use if you’re looking to find an apartment around the college campus in Apartments for College Students ? Finding One posted at FCC Student Blog. With the recession, many non-traditional students are heading back to school as well. Read about going back to school at age 40 when softmelon presents Back to School posted at The Den of Psychosis.
Financial Aid
Need-based financial aid deadlines are just around the corner, but there is no time like the present to start researching scholarships. Chris presents All About the Tylenol Scholarship posted at MJJ Party. One of the keys to financing a college education is to start saving early. Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents Open New Ohio 529 Account to Get $200 in Bonuses posted at Cash Money Life, saying, “The Ohio 529 College Savings Plan, CollegeAdvantage, is offering a generous sign up bonus for new accounts. You can easily earn a couple hundred dollars to go toward your college savings.”
Getting Admitted
To ED or not to ED, that is the question. Mark Montgomery tackles this question in his post Early Decision or Regular Decision in College Admission–Which is Better? posted at Great College Advice, saying, “Students and parents are often confused about whether to use early decision as a strategy for admission. This post clears up that confusion.” There is a lot of talk about the growing gender gap at America’s college campuses. Andrew Syrios tackles this issue in Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics: The Female-Male College Gap | SwiftEconomics.com posted at SwiftEconomics.com.
Graduate SchoolsUnfortunately, not every application has a happy ending. Adam Markus presents A Happy Story of HBS Rejection posted at Adam Markus: Graduate Admissions Guru, saying, “A MBA admissions consultant reflects on The Snowball by Alice Schroeder”
Other Cool StuffCandice Arnold presents AIESEC Internships Foster Understanding and Improve Students’ Marketability : CollegeRecruiter.com Insights by Internship Experts Blog posted at CollegeRecruiter.com. Lynn Mattoon presents Gearing Up for the Careers of Tomorrow posted at My College Admissions Blog – MyCollegeCalendar.org, saying, “Today’s college students may be preparing for jobs that don’t exist yet!”
Diane Steward presents 25 Excellent “Dot Gov” Tools to Research Any Online School posted at Online University Data, saying, “From search tools to financial aid resources and more, these 25 Web resources from the government will help you in your quest to earn any degree.” Kathy Wilson presents 10 U.S. Presidents Who Got Their Start in Teaching posted at Online Schools.
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
carnival of college admission
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our
blog carnival index page.
Technorati tags: