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 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.

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.