Nervous About College Essay Writing?

Nervous About College Essay Writing? Colleges get suspicious when they receive an essay that sounds like a PhD wrote it. I have seen too many essays where parents “helped” and as result, the essay lost the student’s voice. One way to do that is to work step-by-step, piece-by-piece. The end result should be a carefully designed, insightful essay that makes you proud. Take advantage of being able to share something with an audience who knows nothing about you and is excited to learn what you have to offer. One of the most common struggles students encounter is resisting the urge to squeeze everything they’ve seen, done, and heard into their essay. Too many words had been added that just did not reflect the student’s vocabulary or mode of writing. College admissions readers are bright and intuitive and can tell when an essay has been “helped” too much. I see no problem with parents doing a grammar/spelling check as well as offering suggestions on how an essay could be improved. Just be sure that it still reads like it was written by a 17 year old and it shares the story that is important to them and not just an important sounding topic that a parent thinks would be more impressive . Graduating from high school and thinking about heading off to college can be a scary time. If you had the opportunity to stand in front of an admission committee to share a significant story or important information about yourself, what would you say? The college application essay is your chance to share your personality, goals, influences, challenges, triumphs, life experiences, or lessons learned. Not to mention why you're a good fit for the college or universityâ€"and why it's a good fit for you. These are the stories behind the list of activities and leadership roles on your application. Interested in learning more about college essays? These tips are the results of our experience of writing numerous college essays. Our writers are professionals and they know what the college admission committee is looking for in the candidates. Admission officers realize that writing doesn’t come easily to everyone, but with some time and planning, anyone can write a college application essay that stands out. However, true editing starts to move into the substantive writing process and in the end the writer of the college essay should be the applicant. Too much assistanceâ€"even from parentsâ€" however well intentioned, serves to undermine the process and raise questions about the legitimacy and integrity of the whole application. But your application essay isn’t your life story in 650 words. Instead, pick one moment in time and focus on telling the story behind it. These are the qualities of successful college students, who will be able to navigate the independence college classes require and the responsibility and quasi-adulthood of college life. Below you’ll find selected examples of essays that “worked,” as nominated by our admissions committee. In each of these essays, students were able to share stories from their everyday lives to reveal something about their character, values, and life that aligned with the culture and values at Hopkins. Having someone else proofread an applicant’s essay is fineâ€"any writer can benefit from another set of eyes that might pick up a typo or a minor grammar mistake. Take a minute and think about the college or university admission officers who will be reading your essay. How will your essay convey your background and what makes you unique? Yes, the stakes can seem high, but it is ultimately the applicant’s record and work that is being evaluated and it should be theirs that is submitted as well. If possible, mom and dad should stay out of the essay writing business. However, some parents are able to understand that over-editing essays is not a good thing. Everything should be spelled correctly, with correct grammar and punctuation, but the essay should sound like a high school student wrote it. Most of the time I see that parents get into an essay and take away the student voice…they make it too polished for a high school student. Check out our detailed breakdown of exactly how personal statements work in an application, some suggestions on what to avoid when writing your essay, and our guide to writing about your extracurricular activities. This connection of past experience to current maturity and self-knowledge is a key element in all successful personal essays. Colleges are very much looking for mature, self-aware applicants.