How to Write a Successful College Admissions Essay

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How to Write a Successful College Admissions
Essay
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What the Colleges want

• Colleges want you to show them why they should
  accept you. Your essay, along with your other
  application elements, should accomplish that
  task.

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Judging Essays on Levels

• At the lowest level, your words are read to see
  how well you write.
• At the second level, the admissions committee
  will consider the content of your response.
• At the final and most important level, the reader
  is hoping to see something original and creative.

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General Tips

• Plan Ahead Choose the colleges youre interested
  in and do your research. By reviewing the
  requirements for colleges of your choice, you can
  minimize the number of essays youll write for
  admissions, scholarships, etc.
• Take Your Time Spend plenty of time writing and
  revising your essays. Ask for feedback from
  people you trust.
• Quality Matters Your goal to share important
  things about you while skillfully expressing
  yourself in writing.
• Successful admissions essays have
• Correct grammar
• Clear organization
• Vivid details that support/illuminate the subject
• Unique style

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Starting the Essay Step 1

• Brainstorm
• Choose your own topic, Pick one from the list or
  Find one required by your goal college.
• Think and make a list of your accomplishments, of
  tough/happy times in your life, of your
  relationships, etc. This will help you see what
  is important to you and may help guide your
  brainstorming efforts.
• Write about something you are passionate
  aboutsomething of interest to you.

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Step 1 Continued

• Consider these brainstorming questions
• For each slide-pick one to address--
• What are you like?
• Strongest personality trait? Does any attribute,
  quality, or skill distinguish you from others?
• How would your friends characterize you?
• Consider your fave books, movies, art, lyrics.
  Have these had any influence on your life?
• Have you experienced a moment of epiphanya
  moment you suddenly realized the essence or
  meaning of something?

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Step 1 Continued

• What have you done?
• Accomplishments?
• What have you done outside of the classroom that
  demonstrates your character qualities?
• Have you struggled for something and succeeded?
  Failed? What did you learn from the experience?
  How did you respond?
• What has been the most difficult time in your
  life? Why? How did your perspective on life
  change as a result?

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Step 1 Continued

• Where do you want to go?
• Of everything in the world, what would you most
  like to be doing right now? Where would you like
  to be and with whom?
• What are your dreams of the future?
• When you look back on your life in 30 yrs, what
  would it take for you to consider your life a
  success?
• How do these particular universities fit into
  your future plans? Why do you want to spend 2-6
  yrs of your life there?

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• Preparation is the key to success!
• If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to
  fail.

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Step 2 Selecting an Essay Topic

• Required Prompts
• Some colleges will not let you choose any topic
  you want. They will either give you a specific
  prompt, or they may give you a choice between 1-5
  prompts.
• Tonight, find out the requirements for the
  schools you wish to attend

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Step 2 Selecting an Essay Topic

• Your Choice Topic
• If you have the opportunity to write about
  anything you want, you will have a difficult time
  choosing just the right prompt.
• Consider the following
• The essay should showcase what qualities you have
  as a person and studentthe various elements of
  your personality.
• Make sure your topic is not too broad or too
  specific.
• Avoid writing about grades and test scores in
  your essay.
• Avoid writing about your sports records.
• Remember you are writing a persuasive essayone
  that needs to capture the readers attention, not
  offend the readerand present a clear picture of
  you.

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Step 3 Writing the Essay

• Answer the question
• Start with a creative lead
• Use detail and concrete experiences
• Be concise
• Pay attention to transition sentence variety
• Use active voice verbs
• Conclude effectively
• Give your draft to others
• Revise, revise, revise

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Start with a Creative Lead

• The 1st two lines of your essay MUST engage the
  reader. If these lines are boring, your essay
  will likely be skimmed and tossed in the No
  Admittance pile.
• A I volunteer as a Big Brother to a little boy.
  He lost his parents in a car accident a few
  months ago. From this experience, I hope to help
  him cope with his loss and open up his
  personality by spending time with him after
  school on certain days.
• B While the other children played outside,
  eleven-year old Dannys sad eyes focused on the
  white wall in front of him. He sat alone in
  silencea silence that had imprisoned him since
  his mother and father died in a tragic accident.
• Which beginning is better? Why?

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Use Detail Concrete Experiences

• Tell meI forget.
• Show meI remember.
• Involve meI understand. Chinese
  Proverb
• A I developed a new compassion for the disabled.
• B The next time that Mrs. Cooper asked me to
  help her across the street, I smiled and
  immediately took her arm.
• Which sentence is engaging? Why?

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Be Concise

• Do not exceed word limits. (Average of 1 ½-2
  pages)
• Make sure you omit irrelevant details, clichés,
  and under-developed ideas.
• Use formal language
• Use I or me
• NEVER use you
• Avoid repetition and extra words (those that you
  dont need to make a point.)
• OBVIOUSLYwhen you only have 2 pages to make
  someone youve never met think you are fabulous,
  every word must count
• A After Mike left, his loss hit me like a ton of
  bricks, out of which, when I was finally able to
  crawl, I had to come to terms with the difficult
  fact that best friends may come along only once
  in a lifetime, and it was unlikely I would find
  another friend like him since lightening doesnt
  strike twice.
• B When Mike left, I lost the best friend I ever
  had, and I lost him forever.
• What is the problem with sentence A?

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Pay Attention to Transition Sentence Variety

• The best essays contain a variety of sentence
  lengths mixed within any given paragraph.
• Transitions are not limited to words like
  however, furthermore, thereforein fact, these
  transitions are overused.
• Good transition flows from the natural thought
  progression of your argument.
• A I started playing piano when I was eight. I
  worked hard to learn difficult pieces. I began to
  love music.
• B I started playing the piano at the age of
  eight. As I learned to play more difficult
  pieces, my appreciation for music deepened.
• What is the difference between these sentences?

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Use Active Voice Verbs

• Passive voice is the use of verb-phrases in which
  the subject receives the action expressed by the
  verb instead of performing the action.
• Passive voice employs a form of the verb to be
  such as is, am, are, was or were.
• Overuse of passive voice makes a paper flat and
  uninteresting.
• Passive Voice The ball was thrown to Cooper.
• Active Voice James threw the ball to Cooper.
• PV The young basketball star is tall.
• AV The young basketball star towers over the
  other players.
• A The lessons that prepared me for college were
  taught to me by my mother.
• B My mother taught me lessons that will prepare
  me for college.

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Conclude Effectively

• The conclusion is your last chance to persuade or
  impress upon the admissions officers your
  qualifications.
• Avoid summary do NOT use common phrases like in
  conclusion, finally, in summary
• Consider the following for writing your
  conclusion
• Expand upon the broader implications of your
  discussion.
• Link your conclusion to your intro to establish a
  sense of balance
• Redefine a term used in previous body paragraph.
• Frame your discussion within a larger context to
  show that your topic has widespread appeal.

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Give Your Draft to Others

• PROOFREAD!
• Proofreading needs to be done by other people,
  not just yourself.
• Inform the proofreader of your purpose and goal
  of the essay as they are reading it, they can be
  looking for the following
• Has she answered the question?
• Does the intro engage the reader? Conclusion
  provide closure?
• Is the sentence structure varied is active voice
  present?
• Cut the clichés.
• What parts are unclear or need more development?
• Is the essay written in a SHOW ME/INVOLVE ME not
  a tell me manner?

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REVISE

• Revision is up to you.
• Help from friends, parents, teachers can
  improve weak areas in the essay.
• But it boils down to your committing the time and
  energy it will take to make your essay
  memorableyour main goal.

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Top Ten Donts
Dear College, My name is

• Don't include information that doesn't support
  your thesis.
• Don't start your essay with "I was born in...,"
  or "My parents came from..."
• Don't write an autobiography, itinerary, or
  résumé in prose.
• Don't try to be a clown (but gentle humor is OK).
  
• Don't be afraid to start over if the essay just
  isn't working or doesn't answer the essay
  question.
• Don't try to impress your reader with your
  vocabulary dont thesaurasize, dont use
  clichés.
• Don't rely exclusively on your computer to check
  your spelling.
• Don't provide a collection of generic statements
  and platitudes.
• Don't give mealy-mouthed, weak excuses for your
  GPA or SAT scores.
• Don't make things up.

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Lets Review

• Choose your topic, brainstorm, do your
  pre-writing.
• Start your essay with an attention-grabbing
  lead--an anecdote, quote, or engaging description
  of a scene, reference to a novel
• 3. Unite your essay and give it direction with
  a theme or thesismake sure you answer the
  question.
• 4. Use concrete examples from your life
  experience to support your thesis and distinguish
  yourself from other applicantsits details that
  make an essay great.
• Be concise.
• Use different sentence beginnings/types of
  sentences.
• Use strong verbs adjectives.
• 8. End your essay with a conclusion that refers
  back to the lead and relates to your thesis --
  but never restates it.
• 9. Revise your essay at least three times ask
  someone else to critique your essay.
• 10. Write clearly, succinctly.

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Dont be confused
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Lets tie it all together

• Emphasize what you have learned, e.g. provide
  more than a narration when recounting an
  experience.
• Write about something you know, something only
  you could write.
• Make certain you understand the question or the
  topic. Your essay should answer the question or
  speak directly to the given topic.
• Sort through ideas and prioritize. You cannot
  tell them everything be selective.
• Choose information and ideas which are not
  reflected in other parts of your application.
  This is your chance to supplement your
  application with information you want them to
  know.
• Be persuasive in showing the reader you are
  deserving of admission. Remember your audience.

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Letters of Recommendation

• Whom To Ask
• Teachers Think about which teachers might
  respond most positively and who might write the
  best letter. If you know what you'll study in
  college, ask teachers in related subjects.
• Additional References Some schools allow
  supplemental references from coaches, employers,
  club advisors, supervisors of your volunteer
  service, etc. Others schools discourage them. If
  a school states that a reference is "optional,"
  consider it a requirement and send one.
• When To Ask
• A month before the first deadline is not too
  early to ask a teacher a week is too late.

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Letters of Recommendation

• When To Ask
• Find a quiet time when the teacher can talk
  one-on-one and consider your request
  thoughtfully. Don't walk in with forms in hand,
  assuming he will say yes. Ask first.
• Once You've Asked
• Have all information from your personal data
  sheet, forms, stamped envelopes, etc. organized
  in a folder
• Afterwards
• Dont forget to send a thank-you card. The
  teacher just gave you something of value and
  demonstrating your appreciation is appropriate.

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Top 5 Clues that you should NOT ask THIS teacher
for a Letter of Recommendation

• The teacher knows your parents names and email
  addresses by heart.
• 4. You left an indelible drool mark on your
  desk.
• 3. The teacher affectionately refers to you as
  Twiddle Dumb.
• 2. The deadline for the recommendation was
  yesterday.
• 1. You were in ISS during the teachers class
  much of the school year.

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Resources

• Black Issues in Higher Education 20.14, 28 August
  2003. Student Resource Center-Gold. Thomson Gale.
• Essay Edge. http//www.essayedge.com
• National Association of College Admissions
  Counseling.
• http//www.nacacnet.org
• The Next Level What Colleges Expect from Your
  Writing
• A publication of the Association of Texas
  Colleges and Universities
• Rolison, Mandy. Mabank High School.
• Texas A M University. http//admissions.tamu.ed
  u/freshmen/Hints.aspx
• University of Texas at Austin. http//bealonghorn.
  utexas.edu/freshmen/admission/essays/index.html
• Warnock, Kathleen. Writing the College
  Application Essay. Literary Cavalcade. V 49.1.
  September 1996.