Read These Top College Essay Examples

Read These Top College Essay Examples For similar categories of essays, Rachel plans to write one rough essay, then tweak it for different colleges. Now Rachel goes through her colleges’ essay prompts and groups similar essays together to come up with a list of what she has to write. Right now, halfway around the globe, an American high school junior is gearing up for the U.S. college admissions process. I’ll travel; I’ll teaching memoir writing and I’ll hear stories including ones by students living in a homeless shelter. I’ll realize how people struggle and suffer and that all these years later I still have no idea what it feels like to be a minority. The moral to the college essay is that there need not be a moral. You are writing a personal narrative, not a parable, so don’t feel compelled to conclude with a lesson learned or a happy ending. Well, first of all, you can presume that some admissions officers are just bored of essays about challenges you’ve overcome or experiences that have changed you. They want to see how you function when removed from the safe confines of formula and expectation. Many selective colleges and universities have their own essay prompts. Other colleges may simply offer you free writing space to provide a personal statement. Let’s give her the way-too-peppy name of Rachel Resilient. The examples, tips, topics and prompts outlined above should help you rock your college application essay. And hopefully, this is an illuminating part of the process, one that not only helps you get into the college of your choice, but one that also helps prepare you for success once you get there. Putting your ideas into the right words may take time. Don’t procrastinate on this part of your application. Regardless of the topic about which you choose to write, be sure the essay reveals more about you than the other characters or places in the story. The paradox of the overzealous editing of the college essay by many helicopter parents is that they don’t know what a college essay is really about. Unlike the other parts of the application, where high grade point averages and SAT scores reign supreme, the essay is less about being impressive than it is about being authentic. It was right there in the last sentence of the first paragraph of Mikey’s college essay. I was supposed to believe this typical high school senior, who had inhabited this planet for a slight 17 years, chose to use the word “henceforth.” Mikey was a good kid. This topic is too broad and too loaded, whether you want to write about God, your mom or best friend. The college essay provides a good opportunity to leave a long-lasting impression on the reader, apart from the interview and an efficient way to let the people in the admission know you closely. However, the Common Application is perhaps the best starting point for anticipating likely college essay prompts. Cited a few real-world examples of college essays that actually worked. Membership includes a 10% discount on all editing orders. The college application process is stressful, and the essay can seem like an insurmountable hurdle. But please, please, please do not not procrastinate on your admissions essay. I won’t know exactly when I’ll snap out of my idiotic insensitivity, but at some point I’ll learn the difference between flat tires and gas showers. They say the brain matures at 24, but even after 24, it will be a slow progression from self-centered kid to empathetic adult. It will take a combination of reading stories about survival â€" Nightand The Diary of Anne Frank â€" and growing up. I was skeptical that even the most appealing humanities class, AP Literature, would be anything but anticlimactic by comparison. I’d become so accustomed to reading the function-focused writings of Locke, Rousseau, Madison, Thoreau, that I found it difficult to see “literature” as anything more than mere stories. I wanted substance that I could actually do something with, and I didn’t expect to find it in AP Lit. Some colleges require a supplemental essay in addition to the personal essay. Typically, admissions pros note, these essays are shorter and focus on answering a specific question posed by the college. Once you zero in on your topic, it’s time to organize your ideas. You might want to use an outline, laying out your main points, developing supporting ideas, and sequencing your thoughts logically. This should help you to organize a clear rough draft. If you begin taking these steps well ahead of your deadline, you should have plenty of time to read through your own work, make revisions, share your essay with others, and incorporate feedback into future drafts. So what’s the takeaway from this array of unexpected, possibly even bizarre essay questions? A person they like and remember through the college essay is most likely to be selected. Do not allow your essays to descend into an impenetrable bulk of buzzwords and banality. This is best described in How to Write a Great Statement of Purpose, by Vince Gotera of the University of Northern Iowa, which was my guide to writing my essays when I applied to graduate school. Still another essay I had a student complaining about how she didn’t like traditional school so switched to homeschooling. But here, wouldn’t colleges wonder whether she could handle “traditional” college?