Successful College Essay Examples From Top

Successful College Essay Examples From Top The goal of the essay is to provide admission professionals an opportunity to see you, beyond your GPA and test scores, as an individual person with your own unique experiences. We have found that students write better college essays in less time with feedback and editing from someone who is experienced in offering guidance. The personal statement might just be the hardest part of your college application. Mostly this is because it has the least guidance and is the most open-ended. This year's early admissions include Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, as well as UChicago and CalTech. I attribute most of my students' success to their academic prowess and non-academic endeavors. My contribution is understanding the college context and showing students how to write essays that will engage and intrigue admissions officers. There is no definitive answer to disclosing your disability in your college essay. It is a personal decision that will depend on your own disability and how it has affected your life. As a former high school teacher, I have worked with hundreds of students on their college essays. Later, as a private college essay consultant, I worked with students and parents at some top private schools before I became an admissions counselor for a small liberal arts college. Every year dozens of College Essay Mentor students are accepted to elite schools, including the Ivy League, Stanford, and MIT. There is no requirement to disclose your disability anywhere in the college application. In fact, usually the essay is the only way you would be able to disclose your disability. Nearly all colleges and universities require students to write an essay to supplement their application to attend the institution. Applicants are usually given an essay prompt and a word limit within which to express themselves. The essays usually cover topics relating to the student’s experiences and opinions. This is a personal decision for you to make on your own. It might help the admissions team to understand you holistically or explain a gap in performance. You may decide that it will not benefit you in anyway to disclose before you are accepted to the university or college. You should discuss the pros and cons of disclosing your disability with your family, friends, and school counselors to decide the right decision for you. However, selective colleges receive applications from many worthy students with similar scores and gradesâ€"too many to admit. So they use your essay, along with your letters of recommendation and extracurricular activities , to find out what sets you apart from the other talented candidates. Students have keen powers of energetic observation about themselves and the world around them, but ask them to share any of those ideas in a college essay, and the silence speaks volumes. Writing an essay is something students learn to do in school from a fairly young age, but it is a skill that must be perfected over a number of years. The college application essay is the true test of those skills and of your ability to present an accurate picture of who you are. According to an article published on Time.com, college application essays aren’t as important as they are cracked up to be. “aerial view of graduates wearing hats” by Good Free Photos on UnsplashEarly admissions applications are due next month so high school seniors all over the country are writing their college essays. My niece is working on hers and that got me thinking about the college essay I wrote 33 years ago. While it’s important to put considerable effort into all college application components, essays are often the finishing touch and should be treated with great care and consideration. The essay is supposed to be reflective of the STUDENT, not the parent, and admissions reps are hoping to get a better picture of the applicant’s individuality and unique attributes. It is very easy for a rep to recognize an essay that has been coached someone other than the student. Unfortunately, too many cooks spoil the pot, so to speak…and kids easily get confused when parents, English teachers, their counselor, and their friends all have different advice. Students should familiarize themselves with the campuses to which they are applying , understand the prompt, and answer from the heart. One way to understand what colleges are looking for when they ask you to write an essay is to check out the essays of students who already got inâ€"college essays that actually worked. After all, they must be among the most successful of this weird literary genre. It may sound like a chore, and it will certainly take a substantial amount of work. But it's also a unique opportunity that can make a difference at decision time. Admissions committees put the most weight on your high school grades and your test scores .