Sunday, September 23, 2007

Tips to Writing Your College Essay

One of the most critical determining factors of whether or not you will get into the college which you have always dreamed of is the college essay that you write. While some colleges may not even care if you send a college essay, there are some colleges which mainly look at your college essay. Here, we will take a closer look at five things that you can do in order to write the best college essay.


1. Use your own style of writing. Your college essay is supposed to come from within your heart. Changing your own style of writing to another style of writing is not something which is going to look good. Chances are that it will probably sound really fake if you are trying to write in a style of writing that is not your own. One of the best ways to find out whether or not the style that you are writing in is your own is by reading your essay to yourself out loud once you have finished it. If something does not sound like it is the way that you would normally say it, then change it. Using your own writing style is one of the main keys to the most successful college essay.

2. Personalize your essay as much as possible. Share any experiences or feelings that you have which are related to the college essay that you are writing. You will want to make sure that your college essay stands out as your own. If there is another person who has the same exact qualifications that you do, you will want to make sure that your essay stands out more than his or hers. You want to make sure that it will grab the attention of the person reviewing your essay, and leave them with the memory of it even after they have read it. Personalizing your college essay, in order to make it your own, is one of the most important things that needs to be done to ensure that the college essay which you are writing is personal enough.


3. Stay focused on the topic your essay is about. Do not jump from topic to topic. You would not do it in an essay for a high school class, so you shouldn't do it for your college essay either. Staying on topic is often one of the pieces of criteria which is used in order to judge whether or not your college essay is good enough for you to even be considered for acceptance.

4. Get descriptive as possible. Once again, one of the most important things is to make sure that your college essay stands out from all of the other applicants'. One of the best ways to do this is through the use of descriptive language, especially in order to tell about the way that you felt. Being as descriptive throughout your entire college essay will make it stand out more than essays other applicants have written.

5. Do not provide too much useless information. Although it may be nice to add a little bit of background information here and there, your college essay is supposed to be an essay. This means that it should be personal, and not completely based on factual information. It is more important for you to put personal thoughts and feelings into your essay, rather than facts and statistics.

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