How to Write a College Application Essay

Applying for colleges is a tedious, stressful, not-fun job that most students dread. College application essays are designed to give the review board the opportunity to not only see what sort of writing style you have and if it will be effective in a college setting, but also a chance to get to know you outside of the standard name, address and social security number questions on most applications.

How to Choose a Topic for Your Essay

Most colleges and universities will provide you with a list of generic topics that you will be able to choose from. These topics are usually extremely broad such as “describe your learning style” or “How has music changed your life”. The important thing to remember when picking a topic is to first find something that you can write about.

Choose a topic that sparks some sort of interest in you. The topics are intentionally broad to force the student to show that they are able to organize a written paper in a manner that makes sense to the reader. During your college career and beyond, you will often be asked to take large topics and organize them into smaller papers so it is very important that you show the admissions board how capable you are.

How to Pre-Write Your College Essay

Hopefully high school English teachers have been drilling the prewriting process into the heads of their students for years but if not, this is what needs to be done. The first step is an outline. Outlines may seem silly, but once again, your admissions board is looking for college level organization.

Remember to include a thesis statement. The thesis is an overview of what you will be writing about. If someone were to only read the thesis of your paper, they should be able to give a fairly detailed summary with no other information. When you write your thesis, be sure that the statement matches the format of your paper. For example, “Over the years my musical tastes have developed as my education has continued from oldies, to pop and rock, to classical music.” If this were the thesis being used, the format of the paper should be oldies, pop and rock, and finally classical.

How to stay within the guidelines

Most schools will give specific instructions about the length of admission essays. These guidelines are not only developed to make sure that you are able to organize your thoughts effectively, but also to help the admissions staff in reviewing essays. Give yourself enough time that you can write the essay and then format it to fit within the given guidelines. Stick to only the important, need to know facts but make yourself stand out a little bit. Remember, 4-6 pages means at least 4.5 pages and no more than 6.

Easy Step By Step Instructions For Writing a College Application Essay

• Choose a topic that will challenge you a little and sparks your interest
• Use prewriting to make all the difference in the organization of your paper and will make writing ten times faster.
• Follow given guidelines to meet all criteria
• Add elements to make yourself stand out a bit from the competition.

Warnings, Advice, and Suggestions When Writing a College Application

Be sure to give yourself enough time to write and edit. The best writing comes when you are able to give the paper a look with a set of fresh eyes.

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...