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College Essay Do's and Don't's
College Essay Do’s:
1. Pretend like you’re writing to your new best friend, not your English teacher! Excessively formal language
will ring false with admissions pros.
2. Show, don’t tell. Use concrete examples and details.
3. Write about what you know.
4. Try to be interesting and/or take a risk. However, err on the side of risky, versus risque.
5. Sound like yourself – parents, editors, consultants can ruin an essay! Again, admissions pros can detect
shifts in language, tone, and style, and they have a pretty good idea of what an 18-year-old high schooler sounds
like versus a parent or consultant.
College Essay Don’ts:
1. Be cliche. Even if you don't have the world's most original essay idea, you can avoid the cliche trap by being specific
and grounding your essay in concrete examples.
2. Repeat information from other parts of your application. Your essay is the place to be creative, to show
admissions offices that you're more than the numbers on your application, so don't waste space repeating stuff
they've already learned about you.
3. Be fake (or let your parents touch your essay). Admissions officers can smell BS from a mile away. Don't give
them so much as a whiff of insincerity.
4. Roget your essay. Please put down the thesaurus; it will make your essay sound ridiculous.
5. Get feedback until later in the process. Let's be honest- drafts often look like, well, drafts! Parents and teachers
can be overly concerned with the unpolished aspects of drafts, and can unintentionally interfere with the natural writing
process. Give yourself time to be you, and to find your stories.
1. Pretend like you’re writing to your new best friend, not your English teacher! Excessively formal language
will ring false with admissions pros.
2. Show, don’t tell. Use concrete examples and details.
3. Write about what you know.
4. Try to be interesting and/or take a risk. However, err on the side of risky, versus risque.
5. Sound like yourself – parents, editors, consultants can ruin an essay! Again, admissions pros can detect
shifts in language, tone, and style, and they have a pretty good idea of what an 18-year-old high schooler sounds
like versus a parent or consultant.
College Essay Don’ts:
1. Be cliche. Even if you don't have the world's most original essay idea, you can avoid the cliche trap by being specific
and grounding your essay in concrete examples.
2. Repeat information from other parts of your application. Your essay is the place to be creative, to show
admissions offices that you're more than the numbers on your application, so don't waste space repeating stuff
they've already learned about you.
3. Be fake (or let your parents touch your essay). Admissions officers can smell BS from a mile away. Don't give
them so much as a whiff of insincerity.
4. Roget your essay. Please put down the thesaurus; it will make your essay sound ridiculous.
5. Get feedback until later in the process. Let's be honest- drafts often look like, well, drafts! Parents and teachers
can be overly concerned with the unpolished aspects of drafts, and can unintentionally interfere with the natural writing
process. Give yourself time to be you, and to find your stories.
rrkona06 |
Latest page update: made by rrkona06
, Aug 7 2009, 12:08 PM EDT
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