Admissions Essay

Admissions Essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument â€" but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have traditionally been sub-classified as formal and informal. Take a look at some of these opening lines from college entrance essays submitted to Stanford University. Connect with our featured colleges to find schools that both match your interests and are looking for students like you. A student who can make an admissions officer laugh never gets lost in the shuffle. What you think is funny and what an adult working in a college thinks is funny are probably different. We caution against one-liners, limericks and anything offâ€"color. If you ask a teacher or parent to proofread your essay, they will be able not only to catch mistakes, but also to check if the writing sounds like you. Remember that there are thousands of others students applying to your desired university, and you need to distinguish yourself. Re-read your essay, delete all the sentences that sound like a cliché, and try to find a more original angle. The application essay is your opportunity to impress an admissions officer with your determination and existing knowledge of your chosen subject. Learning how to write an essay is crucial to admissions and scholarship decisions. Warn students not to write about high-minded topics or exotic locales simply to impress the reader. It’s important to draw your reader in from the very first sentence. A short essay can often prove to be more difficult to write than a longer essay. While in longer essays, you have ample space to explain and clarify all your points, in a shorter essay you might feel like you do not have enough space to make a strong argument. The key to writing a short essay is including only the most pertinent information necessary to make your point. You don’t want to write an entire essay only to find out you were completely off topic. After reading so many examples and following all those instructions, it’s hard to tell if what you just wrote is a statement of who you really are or not. Enlist the help of others to make sure that your essay is immaculate. Creativity is an aspect very much appreciated in writing, but don’t assume that a creative essay is not also an organized one. Obviously, you don't want to write a bunch of words without meaning, so make sure you write about just one subject at a time. The number of reviewers reading the essays vary from school to school. I cannot make that claim, but I do believe that most of them are read. In smaller to mid size colleges they are certainly read, at least by two readers, and all Honors College essays are read. Most colleges hire readers during the application season. How many people read each essay varies by institution with two being somewhat standard. Now that you have developed your thesis and the overall body of your essay, you must write an introduction. The introduction should attract the reader’s attention and show the focus of your essay. You can use shocking information, dialogue, a story, a quote, or a simple summary of your topic. Whichever angle you choose, make sure that it ties in with your thesis statement, which will be included as the last sentence of your introduction.6. For standardized tests, students usually have to write a five paragraph essay, which should be 500 to 800 words long and include an introductory paragraph, three supporting paragraphs and a concluding paragraph. When you begin to write your essay for a standardized test, you must first decide what type of essay you are being asked to write. There are many different types of essays, including narrative, expository, argumentative, persuasive, comparative, literary, and so on. The type of essay will determine your topic and thesis. Essays for standardized tests are typically either persuasive, in which you will answer a question, or literary, in which you will write about something you read. Each school, professor and student body is different. Colleges must adapt their rules and discipline efforts to reflect the current needs of their students. Eliminating cell phones in college classrooms is an overstretch, but there are ways to balance students’ rights and instructors’ rights. With the right amount of control and flexibility, colleges can create a pleasant learning environment with maximum safety and minimal interruptions. Admissions officers tell us they read every essay.