Admission Essay Writing Rules

Career

Despite the potential student loan and enormous debt, many students dream about the day they will go to college, and even more – about the day that will graduate. However, there is one little thing standing between you and your graduation cap: first, you need to get accepted to the college or university of your choice. While there may be some differences, the can safely say that generally, the admission process for most colleges and universities utilizes three main criteria of the exceptions process:
  1. Test scores, preferably some standardized test like SAT or ACT;
  2. GPA and preparatory work (as well as extracurricular activities);
  3. Entrance (admission) essay.

Admission Essay Writing Plan

While by the end of the high school there is very little you can do about the first two factors, you can definitely succeed in writing an essay for admissions to college. If you like to learn how to write a college application essay in order to separate yourself from the crowd and raise the chance of your personal folder hitting the ‘accepted’ list, let us tell you how to prepare a powerful paper.

Step 1 Plan your essay

The first phase focuses more on the preparation and initial research to help you choose the best prompt, create a plan and outline for further writing. You will have to check the website of the school(s) you are going to apply to in order to define the requirements for these year’s acceptance papers, including the word limit and prompts.

Tip 1: Understand the expectations

There is one simple thing you need to remember about admission essay writing rules: your essay will be read by a group of admission officers who have seen many other students similar to yourself, so you will have to intrigue them and make them want to meet you in person. If you understand what they are looking for, it will be much easier to write a perfect essay. Some things that can help a candidate become a student:
  • Desire to succeed and ability to overcome obstacles and failure;
  • Aspiration to contribute to educational experience of others (being helpful and resourceful to both school and students);
  • Devotion to the prestige and glory of the college or university.
So the idea is to help them see you can actually combine these three features and become the student they have dreamt about. Take your time to answer the following questions to help you plan your writing:
  1. How can I show that I can be a successful student?
  2. How can I present my ambitions and determination in a healthy way?
  3. In what ways can I enrich the learning experience of other students?
  4. How can my personal success raise the prestige of the school?
  5. How can my lifetime goals be interesting to the school I am applying for?
Once you have answered these questions, it will be easier to pinpoint things admission officers are generally looking for.

Tip 2: Determine your intentions

Some people say it takes an admission officer less than 10 minutes to make up their mind about the candidate and form some sort of portrayal. Think about the impression you would like to create and plan your behavior and self-presentation accordingly. While many students want to present themselves as ambitious, responsible and reliable, you may need a little more than that. If you have good GPA score and advanced variety of classes taken, you can definitely bring the focus on some other features of yourself. Think about any other activities you have participated in, jobs you had or any extracurricular activities you were smart enough to take part in. You may also want to add some of the community work you have done.

Tip 3: Separate yourself from the crowd

Every person has their unique life story and experience, however, the question is whether you can present yourself properly. Take your time and think what makes you unique and what life-changing events you may have experienced. You need to understand that there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of other students boasting about their achievements, so find something that makes you stand out. Do not forget to enlist your special skills (playing an instrument, sports, foreign languages) to add up to your profile. Judging from where we stand, the volunteer experience and community responsibilities work as well.

Tip 4: Contribute to university

Many students do not think about the fact that admission officers do not just cast new students, they also recruit representative of their educational establishment as well as look for someone who can contribute both to school and the local community. It is not enough to simply list your achievements and hope it will win the commission down. You need to persuade them you can use these skills to broaden the learning experience of other students. Have you ever:
  • led a study group or any other form of student collaboration?
  • participated in student government or club?
  • write anything for your school’s newspaper?
If there is any way you can contribute, make sure to include this in your goals and essay.

Tip 5: Answer the essay prompt correctly

Up to this point, you are most likely to have more material than you can fit into one admission essay, so the time has come to cross things out. Focus on three to four major things to attract the attention of an admission board. It is always better to go with fewer ideas presented successfully, rather than numerous things staged poorly. Take your time and read an essay prompt carefully. Pay attention to even the smallest things and do not let these little details run your admission essay. Unlike many exam questions, admission essay prompts are designed not to trick you, but to test your ability to read and interpret question carefully, as well as provide you with a chance to present yourself.

Step 2 Essay Writing Process

Moving forward with writing your admission essay, you already have a basic understanding of the expectation and your own goals. You have a list of ideas, facts and things you would love to include about yourself in order to impress the college admission board. You may have also narrowed this list to the three basic ideas you will include in your paper. So, now is the time to work on the next aspect.

Tip 6: Provide specific details

The key to your success lies in the bailey to illustrate basic ideas and concepts with vivid and memorable examples. Instead of writing about your family values in an arrogant manner like, ‘The last five generations of the Brown family have visited this school’, choose something more human and touching, like: ‘I was five when my grandpa brought be my first shirt with a college mascot on it, and believe it or not, I can still fit into it many years later and my grandfather still smiles when he sees me wearing that old shirt’. It will help you create a stronger impression while making your story easier to believe. While working on this part, take every point from you qualities list and check whether you have an example to illustrate it and if your examples are interesting and emblematic enough. While being arrogant and haughty is not helpful in an admission process, being too humble will not cut it either. Try to strike the healthy balance between presenting your record and staying amiable.

Tip 7: Indicate College-Level Eloquence

Having a college appropriate diction (word choice) is an essential part of successful writing, as it helps you create an impression of a well-educated and thoughtful person. You may need to work more on your paper, replacing some lower-level simple words like thing, good, and chance with more graceful and higher level synonyms, like concept or object, excellent or satisfactory, and opportunity or prospect, depending on the context. Make sure to consult dictionaries for appropriate use of these words.

Tip 8: Apply College Appropriate Writing Style

Students often forget about the fact they are applying for college and their writing style should match the expectations for a college-level writing, not the high school. So while working on your college application essay, keep in mind the following:
  • avoid to simple or too complicated sentences, using preferably complex sentences;
  • incorporate stylistic devices, such as metaphors and simile to enrich your language;
  • include (if possible) literary allusions to bring your examples to life and augment the fantasy of the reader.
Similar to the previous two, the purpose of this is to reassure the committee will remember you from the pile of other applicants and will appreciate your effort in writing a strong piece.

Tip 9: Have a professional proofreading, if needed

Let’s be honest, we all experience troubles with editing and noticing silly mistakes every once in a while. Your high school teacher may have laughed at your typos, there is no place for them in your admission paper. While you are writing the things you that sound logical and related in your mind, it may sound completely different from someone else. To make sure the paper you have written has both cohesive structure and perfect grammar, as well as impeccable spelling and style, you may need someone else to have a look at your essay. If you have great relationships with your English teacher, you can definitely benefit from their proofreading.

Tip 10: Pay Attention to Details

The requirements for college admissions essay format may vary depending on the school, you have to pay as much attention to the final step of your essay as possible. Define the submission deadline and set yourself a deadline few days before it. This way you will have enough time to pay attention to all the details and double-check all the requirements.  Break your work into the smaller tasks and set specific deadlines for small amounts of work. This way you will not feel overwhelmed with all the things you have to complete and you will have enough time to prepare for the last step of writing an essay for admissions to college.

Step 3 Submission

Save yourself some time and create a separate table with the name of each school, submission deadline and contact info, as well as basic requirements. It may seem like an obvious idea, but double check the submission requirements for each school separately and note them so you can cross them out while submitting your essay. Do not simply assume that if one school accepts college admissions essays in MS word, every other school will have to. You may need to prepare a PDF file for some college admission boards to review. Send your admission essay and hope for the best outcome, knowing that you have everything you could. So, this is pretty much everything you need to keep in mind while preparing one of the most important essays in your life. In simple words, you need to write an essay that sells your story, makes an admission committee wanting to meet you and presenting the skies and potential you have. It has to be perfectly written and formatted properly in order to impress the admission officers. If everything listed above seems like too much pressure, it may be a good idea to use professional college admissions essay writing service. You do not want to risk the most important writing of your life, do you? Place your order, add your essay prompt, tell us your story and just watch Writer-Elite.com creating your dream admission essay. If you have written an essay in your own, we can help you with editing, proofreading or formatting of your paper, should you decide you need an expert help.
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