The short answer is, yes, it is permissible to have others read and edit your college admission essay for you.  With that being said, the ideas must be your own, and the voice must remain unmistakably yours.  While admissions officers differ on whether or not they are able to determine if a student has actually written the essay, there is no question that a 30 or 40 year old writes with a much different voice than a 17 or 18 year old writes with.

That being said, a college admissions essay should represent a students best work.  The best writers are those who rewrite and carefully hone their message.  The essay cannot possibly be the best work of a student unless it has moved through a few drafts with steady improvement.  Often times, when we write something we become too connected to the writing to be able to objectively edit.  Unfortunately, I see this in my own writing, where I will edit a letter and send it out only to realize later that it still had a mistake.  However, when I pick up writing for one of my coworkers, I can easily identify the mistakes.  Having someone who has no emotional connection to the writing helps to eliminate some common mistakes such as having a word spelled correctly, but it not being the right word and sending the wrong essay to a college (think of an essay finishing with, “…and that is why I want to go to your biggest competitor.).

It is important that you have two different types of people edit your essay: those who know you well and those who don’t know you well.  Why is that important?  You want someone who knows you to read your essay and finish it and think that the essay accurately portrays you.  Further, you want someone who doesn’t know you to finish reading the essay and get the feeling that they do know you.  This means you need to start your essay early enough to allow time to have people review your essay for you.

AdmissionHook.com Advice on How To Write The Best College Admission Essay

In this video James Maroney and Guy Milone discuss what makes a good college admission essay. Guy gives tips on telling the story and some examples of essays he has read in the past that truly resonated with him.

In addition to the short answer, many colleges have supplements with additional essays. A number of colleges have some variation of the question “Why us?” on their supplement. Make sure you take the time to research the school and show appropriate interest. Do not just submit a generic response that you use for all the colleges to which you are applying. Many schools use demonstrated interest in their admission decision, so you may want to mention how the school felt right on a campus visit, if you were actually on campus. You may also want to mention specific programs or clubs you research on the school’s website.

On their supplement, schools might also ask a number of different questions. In fact, it has become more popular for schools to ask a series of short response questions, which almost seem like tweets, as many are limited to less than 200 characters. Wake Forest is one college who asks these questions as a way to better learn about a student’s personality to determine if the student is a fit for their culture. Here are some of their sample questions:

· What outrages you? What are you doing about it?
· This year our Wake Forest Student Union invited expert students to become teachers of non-credit classes in the Wake Forest Experimental college. Provide us with the title of a course that you could teach your peers.
· Make a rational argument for a position you do not personally support. For clarity, please state your true opinion first and then argue the opposite position.
· You may invite any three individuals from history to join you for a cup of coffee at our university coffee house, Campus Grounds. Whom would you invite? What is your icebreaker question to start conversation? and where might the conversation go from there?
· Give us your top ten list.

Just like with the main essay, it is critical to give yourself enough time to respond to the additional writing samples. Brevity is critical, as the character limit is strictly enforced by the online applications. This is a test of getting your point across in a concise manner, which can prove to be difficult. However, if you do take your time to plan out your responses, you should be able to use these short writing samples to your advantage.

In this video topic, James Maroney founder of AdmissionHook.com discusses good admissions essay topics and how to carefully choose your topic in order to write the best college application essay.

In this video, James Maroney of www.admissionhook.com interviews Paul Brower, Associate Director of Admission at Nichols College, about the personal statement.  Paul gives examples of his favorite essays as well as some advice on what not to do when writing the college essay.

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.

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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.

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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.

Here are a few tips:
1. Don’t start reading sample essays yet! First, brainstorm about the personal qualities that you want to emphasize to admission officials. Think of your best characteristics, those that make you stand out from the droves of other applicants. These should be deep personal traits, not generalities like “I am nice” or “I play sports.” Next, move on to brainstorming about past personal experiences, and pick one that both showcases your qualities and fits the essay prompt. The best experiences are those in which you learned a lesson or faced a deep personal challenge and prevailed.

2. Now you should peruse through a few sample essays. Don’t let these examples change the story that you picked! Simply use them to get a feel for proper organization; also, take note of how the authors cast themselves, not too flamboyantly (“I am the most qualified applicant you will ever see”) and not too modestly (“I’ll probably don’t deserve to get into this school”).

3. You’re finally ready to write a rough draft of your essay. Make sure to write entirely in your own voice; don’t go out of your way to write like you think admission officers will want you to write. Your essay should be fluid, interesting, and easy to read. SAT and ACT scores will show admission officers how well you can write academic papers. The application essay is a chance for you to catch their attention with your story.

4. Revise this essay multiple times and then compare it to more sample works, taking note of organization and how you portray yourself. Learn from these examples, but do not just copy their style or format.

5. Now you’re in the home stretch. At this point, you should stop and reevaluate the personal characteristics featured in your essay. Do you want to add anything else to the piece? Does it showcase your best, most unique qualities? Set the essay aside, and brainstorm about your personal characteristics again. Are the things that you brainstormed featured in your essay? If not, make necessary changes.

6. Revise the essay several more times (set aside a month or more to do this), enlisting the help of English teachers and counselors. Finally, submit your application.

By following the steps listed above, you can effectively use sample college admission essays to improve your own work.

Five Important Tips for Writing Your College Essay

1. Give Them What They’re Asking For – Be sure to answer the essay question given. It’s pretty basic but stick to the topic, develop it, and support it. In addition, be sure to write your essay specifically for that school. Don’t recycle your essays.
2. Be Original – Imagine reading essay after essay. It’s no different from employers scouring resume after resume. Think about what is really significant and powerful to you and about you. If you write from the heart it will immediately draw in your audience. Use your natural style; don’t be overly formal and stilted. The essay reader wants to know what kind of person you are. Take a stand and support your information. A fearful, “trying-to-hard-to-say-what-you-want-to-hear” essay isn’t going to fool anyone. Remember, they read these en masse every year.
3. Make it Easy to Read – Your content doesn’t have to be simplistic, but all readers desire content to be easy to read. No one wants to struggle through your essay. If your structure is poorly planned and executed, your reader may not even make it through to the end. Organization is very important. Always have a thesis and don’t stray from your topic. Support your thesis with interesting and solid information. Again, stick to the topic and don’t run-on, ramble, or take on an idea too wide to cover. Transition smoothly between supporting points and use a pleasing, neat format. Appearances are the first thing that will invite or turn-off your reader.
4. Focus on the Future – Often you’ll have to provide background, like what you’ve learned and where you’ve come from in your essay. It’s all part of who you are. Yet, students often make the mistake of focusing too much on the past. Show that you are a forward-thinker. Discuss your intentions if possible – what you strive to accomplish and why. Admissions really needs to have more confidence about where you are going than where you have been.
5. Prove Your Value – The role of a college’s admissions staff is to select the best from its pool of applicants. You must give your readers a reason to feel you’ll be an asset to the college. Your accomplishments, challenges, and attitudes will all show what kind of potential you have as a student and member of the campus, not to mention what kind of alumnus you will be. The college’s reputation is affected by the students they turn out and the successes they have. The value you bring has a lot to do with the value of the college itself. Don’t leave information up to interpretation, answer your essay with specific information that proves something (or many things) that are positive about you.

Successfully implementing these five steps in your college essay will make your essay one that stands out among the rest. Your original, future-focused, easy-to-read, specific, value-proving essay will need only one more thing – proofreading! After all this hard work, don’t let careless errors ruin your well-crafted essay!

Lynn Mattoon is a Content Editor & Career Writer for CollegeJobBank.com and SalesHeads.com, Beyond.com career communities. You can follow her on Twitter at BeyondCareers.