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.

I realize that it is a very intimidating task to sit down and try to wrap up your life in a nice little bow and between 250 and 500 words. Don’t worry, they aren’t expecting you too. However, you do need to give them a reason to accept you, and just as importantly, do not give them any reasons to reject you. Recently, there was a great guest post on The Choice, a college admissions Blog. I highly recommend reading it. Martha Merrill, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at Connecticut College wrote about what she was looking for in an essay and gave some general tips. One of the most important tips she gave was that there is no formula for a good essay. In fact, since it needs to be your voice coming through, it should be an essay that only you could have written. Another piece of good advice she gave was to pick a mundane topic and bring it to life. Read the full text of her post here.

If you are having trouble getting started, view some of our previous articles on brainstorming the essay and our big list of questions. You will also want to view advice from a former director of admissions and possibly read some sample essays and his comments. Remember, when you are reading the sample essays you are just trying to learn how an admission officer views those essays and not use them as a template for your own essay, since the best essays are intensely personal and you could not just copy the form of another essay. Most importantly, just get started. You need to write something, and then you can revise it and make it in to a good essay. Your first attempt should not be your final attempt. You may want to write a few different essays, and then pick the one that you like the best. Most likely you will need to write a few different essays anyway, as many colleges have supplements where they ask you specific questions or for an additional writing sample.

When you are done with the essay, put it down for a couple of days and then reread it with fresh eyes. Also, be sure to have someone else read it. Do they get a good sense of what you are like as a person? If one of your friends read it, would they say, “Yeah, that’s you.” While it is important to have others help you edit the essay and give you suggestions, ultimately, it is your essay and needs to be in your voice. Accept constructive criticism, but don’t let others rewrite your essay. This fall is going to be a very stressful time. Get started on your essay now. When September and October roll around, you will be glad you did.

In this interview James Maroney of AdmissionHook.com gets great tips from Bryan Gross, Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Admission at the University of Bridgeport, on how to write the college essay or personal statement.  They go over some essay topics to avoid and talk about how the essay fits in to the overall admission process.