Professional Essays

Professional Essays If Rachel has established a relationship with a college admissions representative, she will ask if supplemental essay prompts for next season will change. If she hasn’t been in touch with a rep, she will use this year’s prompts as a guide. Her counselor also suggests the University of Mary Washington, another Virginia public school, because it’s close to D.C. Right now, halfway around the globe, an American high school junior is gearing up for the U.S. college admissions process. Choose one that focuses on a specific anecdote rather than the three asking for your whole life story. It makes it easier for your essay to make an impact on your admissions if you carefully pick a prompt, unlike the majority of applicants. By the time someone is considering your essay, they have reviewed your grades, your scores, two teacher recommendations and a guidance report, and your activity list. They know you in most ways that are relevant to admit you to a school. Let’s figure out what helps you get in instead. Not all ideas translate into strong essays, even if the ideas are important and life-changing. Writing about staying home this spring and struggling with online learning presents an experience that could apply to thousands of other applicants. Will you write the essay to say something different? Writing about how you spent time at home developing specific hobbies could be unique. If you choose a sensitive or controversial issue, be sure you can write your essay in a professional and academic tone. You’ll see THREE winning essays that were part of accepted applications. Write a story with a setting, a beginning, a middle and an end. In drafting your essay, focus on the content of the narrative. Do not “write” seven paragraphs of conclusion and your thoughts; content is writer’s craft. Introductions and conclusions are editor’s craft. Let’s give her the way-too-peppy name of Rachel Resilient. No generic essays come out of this process, because this is real essay writing, not essay shopping. She plans to write each morning and see her friends in the afternoon only if she has made real progress on her essays that day. Rachel decides to write about her local and global communities of Third Culture Kids. To be able to tweak this essay for several colleges, Rachel will write about her most meaningful community in the first half of the essay, and then gear the second half to each college. Because UVA and Michigan request similar word counts, she will not have to adjust these for length. Rachel has won numerous awards and intends to play at the intramural level in college. She decides that would make a better topic for Michigan’s “extracurricular activity” essay. Rachel takes a few days to relax after completing 11th grade before creating a spreadsheet listing her colleges. She then uses both the Common App and individual colleges’ websites to find guidelines, deadlines and essay prompts. She doesn’t even start the basketball essay for Michigan now. But she does complete very rough drafts of the Catch-22 essays for UVA and George Mason. After returning from vacation, Rachel finds herself jet-lagged, distracted by friends and uninspired. Finally, she checks the Common App to make sure supplemental essay prompts have not changed, then gets to work. Not to diminish significant insights, but we’ve all known the person who decides something, but never follows through. They resolve to get into shape for New Years, but after three days at the gym in January, they are done. They say they are going to get better grades this year, but by the end of September, they are back to their old habits. You don’t want your college essay to sound like a hopeful resolution lacking in action. Make sure that if your work is read by someone with a different point of view, it is not offensive. I can read an essay written by someone who doesn’t share my religious beliefs and still appreciate that writer’s faith and observance of his or her religious practices. However, I don’t want to read an angry essay that condemns me for not sharing the writer’s beliefs. However, do be careful with slang, colloquialism, and inappropriate language. What will get you into college is writing an essay that will be distinguished from the rest. The purpose of the college essay is to get into college. Every piece of advice you have ever received on the purpose of the college essay is wrong. Get the college essay help you need, right when you need it with the convenience of online lessons. Your actions can become part of your essay, but your thoughts and changed mindset, while significant, are not enough for a strong college essay.