The Task of Writing an Excellent Admission Essay: not a Problem!

The college application process has become much simpler with Internet capabilities. The future student only needs to upload the documents. There is the standard list: the information about your school grades, achievements, certificates, and so on. Besides, one of the binding documents is the admission essay.

What Is the Admission Essay for Your College Application?

This type of essay is a specific paper to provide your statement and persuade the admission board that you are a worthy candidate. It is usually a short essay of about 500-600 words, but you have to demonstrate your personality and motivation in it. The competition is high, and your admission essay can be your main advantage. Some experts consider that it builds a quarter of your success.

Colleges require such essays for a reason. They get loads of requests, and many students have similar test results and achievements. Hence, such pieces give them an understanding of people who wish to become their students. This way, the admission committees can define if the candidates would match their rules and if they can contribute to the success of the college. Your excellent academic records and achievements might not be enough. However, an excellent admission essay can be the ultimate argument in your favor.

That’s why different guidelines on how to write admission essays are so popular among the candidates. We’ve also gathered some useful recommendations for you. Our goal is to help you with this crucial task.

The Structure of the Admission Essay

Such essays that you compose to apply to the college are demanding when it comes to the structure. Like we mentioned earlier, an admission essay is of moderate size, so you need to make it super-concise. The admission committee will judge you, and you have to demonstrate both your personal qualities and writing skills.

An admission essay meets the essay structure of three sections: the Introduction, the Body, and the Conclusion.

Introduction

Should that be a traditional essay on some college subjects, you would need to present your topic in it and try to interest your audience. In the admission essay, the goal is the same. The only difference is that your subject is your personality.

In the introduction part, you have to introduce yourself and present the theme of your essay. In most cases, you share some personal stories that would describe your best qualities and do you justice. Note that the Introduction is relatively short; it should not take more than 15% of your entire essay. 

Body

It is the central part of your admission essay, and you need to care about it. It should present your theme, and the story you will tell must prove your best thoughts and capabilities. Like in other essays, you should offer statements and relevant arguments. In this case, these arguments are some facts of your life or your considerations.

The main risk is that many candidates tend to refer to many such facts to stress that they are great people. However, you need to analyze the information and select those arguments only that would work for your goal exclusively.

Pay your special attention to the logical connections and how your life facts relate to the chosen topic. The most dangerous thing for an admission essay is when the subject and your examples are not connected. It ruins the whole piece and your application.

Conclusion

It is more important than in any other essay type. You have to make the Conclusion part strong, as it is your last chance to persuade the admission board to invite you on campus. Stress your best qualities once again and note how the college can benefit from getting you among its students.

Some Helpful Tips on Writing the Admission Essay

Unlike other essays where you have enough external sources to learn the subject, the admission essay won’t offer such support. The only source of information is your experience and understanding. On the other hand, some traditional approaches to essay writing would work here as well. You will also need to define the topic, run a sort of research, analyze the data, and outline the essay.

The choice of the topic as the vital condition for the success

It is always easier to work with subjects that are interesting to you. It helps you to get the data and to explain the things you love to other people. Your genuine interest is excellent support if you can share it with the admission committee.

If you use the Common Application or Coalition Application, you may use the essay prompts they offer. These prompts are general, but they offer you space for research and presentation. Many colleges accept essays based on them. There are also specific essay topics in some colleges/universities, and the “creative” topics where you can choose yourself what to tell.

• Choose an appealing topic that you can explore thoroughly.
• Consider the audience – it is crucial. Your audience is the admission board, and your essay must assure that you are the best candidate to become their student. Colleges want students that would succeed in studies and other activities for the more prestige of the institution. Thus, your essay must prove that you are capable of bringing them honor.
• Get familiar with samples of admission essays on such topics. You must not use those essays as they are, of course. But it will be useful to check their structure and the ways the students present themselves.

State yourself as a worthy candidate and person

All candidates applying for this college. Think of some personal achievements or skills that can distinguish you.

• Be sincere. The unforgivable error is to try to lie or present yourself as a different person, not what you are. Let the college learn about both your strong and weak sides. Admit them honestly, and explain how you work on self-development.
• Show yourself as an open-minded and creative person. Choose the most vivid samples from your memories to illustrate that. Prove that you can cope with problems and support it with facts.
• Explain why you chose that college. Consider how you can contribute to the college reputation, which of your achievements might help you in that. Mention them in your essay.
• Explain any additional circumstances that might affect your school records. For instance, if there were any gaps in the process, you can’t hide that information. It is present in your documents. The admission essay allows explaining the reasons for any such issues and does yourself justice by that.
• Be very specific. Even if you choose your favorite topic and you can talk hours about it, you have to be laconic. Evade general words and focus on the specific life events and lessons you got from them.

Show your writing skills

The text you compose for the admission essay will tell about your personality and education. Besides, the way you write will show the way you think. The board will analyze how you express your thoughts and judge you from that. You need to take care of the word choice and sentence structure.

The college won’t expect you being a Pulitzer Prize level author (though, it will help if you are). But you must be very clear in your text.

• Don’t use over-complicated words that you understand vaguely. At the same time, your language can’t be banal. Get rid of any slang or colloquialisms. Use more exact and emotionally colored words that would describe your ideas and feelings.
• Use figurative language means like metaphor and tropes. Proper usage of such words makes your admission essay exciting and catchy. It will increase your chances for sure. Again, you need to tell a story and show your personality – it won’t be possible without emotions. You might need to get some creative writing training for that, do it if you can. It will help you greatly in the future.
• Take care of grammar. You need to track and correct all the possible issues, errors, and misspellings. Use the reliable online checkers, and also ask someone to proofread your paper. Get yourself some time after completion of an essay, at least one day. Then refer to your article and read it aloud. You will most likely note issues you omitted at first, and reading aloud lets you evaluate the “sound” of an essay. Remove or alter all the awkward phrases and polish the style.
• Always start to write the admission essay as early as possible. It will pass several checks and edits, and you need to have enough time to adjust the text before submitting it.

Some Admission Essay Topics for College Application

The leading online application platforms offer general prompts for such essays. They give you enough opportunities for interpretation to choose the most appealing subject. At the same time, these prompts are targeted towards several essential aspects. You should explore them to prove yourself a decent candidate.

1. Tell some backstory of your life that influenced your personality.
2. Write about one of your failures and how it affected you.
3. Write about some severe challenges to your beliefs.
4. Tell about a problem in the past that you needed to solve – successfully or unsuccessfully.
5. Describe that moment when you felt you became an adult person and not a child anymore.
6. Describe the most significant change in your judgments.
7. Tell about the biggest embarrassment you had in your life and how it influenced you.
8. Tell if you ever had to act when you did not want that, and how you coped with that.
9. Describe any case from your experience when you had to risk and if it was paid off.
10. Write about the best advice of your life and if you followed it. What were the consequences of your decision?
11. Tell if you ever had any insights, and what was the best idea that came to you.
12. Tell about the things you are passionate about and what made you love them.
13. Tell about the things you hate and why.
14. Explain the role of your most significant non-educational activities.
15. What are your plans for the future?
16. Tell about your most significant accomplishments not connected with your school education.
17. Describe the person who influenced your personality most of all.
18. Explain the reasons for choosing this college/university.
19. Which advice would you want to get from the older and more experienced students?
20. Would you change anything in your life, and what?

Get Prepared for College Life!

Writing the admission essay is only a part of preparations. Should they all be successful, you will join the rest of the students on campus and start a new life. It will not be easy – college is a severe test for your will and dedication. There will be enough challenges. Still, you will fight them all. And we will gladly support you on your way to the degree.