College Application Essay Examples Admission Essay Topics

College Application Essay Examples Admission Essay Topics “Swings are everywhere,” she says, so it was a relatable topic while still being unique to her own personality. Additionally, using swings as her favorite place gave her a lot of imagery to work with in her essay, because she could describe what being on the swings felt like. The important lesson to take away here is that if you are truthful and genuine in your essay, it will be easy to write about. Show them a time in your life where maybe everything didn’t go so perfectly. And read about other grave mistakes like plagiarizing your college essay. There should be some consistency between the essays and interviews. The emphasis must be on “help” and not, “take over.” Parents, with only the best intentions, will often offer lots of input and comments, which their child will gratefully accept. The danger there is that the essay starts sounding more like a forty something adult, instead of a high school senior. There is a certain “voice” that defines a young person about to start college and if it is lacking in an essay, Admissions Directors will quickly pick it up. But resist the urge to rewrite everything in the way you might express it. However, the key is to edit, not to write them for you. They can help with typos, grammatical errors, and help you to be clear, concise and compelling. They know you best, sometimes more than you know yourself so they may have good suggestions. However, you do want the essays to sound like you; it should be your voice. Students should elaborate on campus organizations or programs that fit certain goals, and specific aspects of the campus community that make it a good social and academic fit. Be as detailed as possible, but be sure to relate these details to specific goals and interests. But if the sub-headers are interesting, and seem to tell me there’s something worth learning, I’ll read the whole piece. The most common format required for essays is double-spaced, font type Times New Roman, and font size 12pt. With that in mind,1,000 typed words is about four pages.The average person types40 words per minute, so it would take about 30 minutes to finish 1,000 words of writing. Put some virtual blinders on and write your little heart out. My preference (and admissions officers’) would be that parents are minimally involved in the essay. Believe me, those admissions officers are experienced and they can definitely spot the difference between a 50 year-old businessperson’s phraseology and a 17-year-old senior’s own voice and manner of expression. When answering this essay question, use specific details. Don’t just rattle off some course names and expect to wow the admissions committee. Carolineâ€"who was accepted to schools such as George Mason University, Wittenberg University, and Seattle Universityâ€"wrote about how her interest in exploration started as a child. As a child, Caroline always rode her bike just a little bit farther than her parents allowed her to. Eventually she ended up riding all the way into the forest and exploring nature, where she developed her passion for saving the environment. By writing about how her interests, tendencies, and passions came from her childhood, Caroline was able to give admission officers a more complete picture of who she is. It is, however, a good idea for the parents to help the student brainstorm ideas for the essay prior to writing it. If they read through and make light edits, grammatical and typos, yes. If the parent re-writes or writes the essay the answer is no. Yes, it is perfectly okay to have your parents edit your essays. Correcting an existing essay is MUCH easier than writing a perfect essay from the gecko. As a humanities student, I know what it’s like to struggle with the daunting task of writing a 500-word essay. You don’t know where to start, your thesis is nonexistent, you’re dreading the inevitable late-night ahead, and you’re struggling just to turn thoughts into words. Parents should always help their child in a positive way as long as they are not writing the ideas for the student. Editing is vastly different from original writing so this needs to be clarified first, as it has to be the voice and personal memories of the applicant not the parent. The sooner the family treats this as a team effort it will be much easier for the 12th grader to feel as though they are not alone in this process. I think it is always best for a student to have an impartial person do the proofing. It is difficult for parents to remain unbiased and often it can cause a lot of added tension between the student and parent. As expressed in an article of “The Daily Beast,” don’t use profanities in your college essays. In most cases, your essay isn’t the factor that determines your admission to college. However, an offensive, off-putting, or forgettable essay can hurt your chances. By avoiding the topics listed above, you’ll ensure that your essay helps â€" instead of hurts â€" your chances of admission. Make sure that your essay is more than a recitation of the accomplishments, activities, and experiences already hashed out in the application.