College Essay Dos & Donts

College Essay Dos & Don’ts When we think of tragedy, most people think of a disastrous moment or an epic life event. However, tragedies can be small-scale and the type of experience that may have only affected your family or yourself. Either way, there is a way to write about these moments that can help a college understand you more. Everyone has strengths, qualities that somewhere someone probably will fall in love withâ€" and your goal is to help the admissions team love you. Or at least see you through the lens that someone who adores you would. Remember that your research will be more effective if you do early research into ALL your schools at once, or at least all the ones that have Why School essays. Don’t they already know what is great about their school? A licensed counselor and published researcher, Andrew’s experience in the field of college admissions and transition spans more than one decade. He has previously served as a high school counselor, consultant and author for Kaplan Test Prep, and advisor to U.S. Congress, reporting on issues related to college admissions and financial aid. If, after reviewing your composition, you can check both of those boxes, and you’ve avoided the common pitfalls highlighted previously, then you can rest assured that you have mastered the “Why Us? Now that you’ve done strong research and extracted some key facts as well as the ethos of the school, it’s time to show why you belong there. From this vantage point, Lombardi shared some awesome expert-level college essay tips. We also enlisted the help of a qualified expert in the field. Meredith Lombardi, Associate Director of Outreach and Education at the Common Application, offers a few tips on exactly what admissions officers are seeking from a great application essay. By the time I finish your essay, I should get to know you. Similarly, if I handed your essay to a parent or a friend, they would instantly recognize this personality on the page as yours. Your essay should show the unique person you are. Are you a natural-born writer or is it literally the last thing you want to do? DI correllates to yield, and yield boosts rankings â€" and everybody likes high rankings. Do's and Don'ts for your College Application Essay What are the worst mistakes you can make on your college application essay? They’re asking because of something called demonstrated interest. Demonstrated interest is a fancy way of saying, how much do you really want to go to OUR school? Did you pick us just because we’ve got a good ranking, or do you actually know something about how we work? Cultural reputation, IE, what the students behave like and what they value? You value substantive and constructive feedback over chasing A’s. You plan on getting a graduate degree and want to immerse yourself in research throughout your undergraduate years. You spent your high school years independently pursuing an area of passionâ€"creating your own reading list, seeking out adult mentors, etc. Now, you have gotten the admission officer’s attention. And if the topic is weird, feel free to write a weird essay. Some colleges and universities are actually notorious for their unusual â€" and in some cases, genuinely strange â€" college application essay prompts. According to Business Insider, Tufts University and the University of Chicago have both earned reputations for their out-of-left-field essay questions. In other words, you’d run a triathlon to get out of writing an essay? Whichever way you lean, let’s talk a little bit about strategy, implementation, and getting ‘er done.