Common Requirements For College Admission Essays And How To Address Them In The Best Way
One of the requirements for admission to most US universities is to write an essay – a short essay describing the purpose of admission to the university.
Together with letters of recommendation, essays help the admissions committee distinguish you from other applicants. The essay also demonstrates your skills in expressing your thoughts logically and convincingly in writing, which is an important fact for the success of education.
Thus, if the essay is written well, it is practically the key factor for a positive decision of the selection committee.
What admission essays should look like
Who is to write my admission essay better than the writing service? Making an order from a shiny essays admission service is going to turn it into a brilliant buy.
The main purpose of the essay is to get to know you as a person, so whatever the topics are, all of them can be divided into three groups:
The themes of the first group can be summarized as the theme “Tell us about yourself”.
For example: “Tell us about yourself, about your plans for the future”; or “Tell us about your favorite book as a child”;
The themes of the second group can be summed up under one question: “Why us?”
For example: “What in our university prompted you to apply here?”; or “Why do you think that our university is the best for you?”
Themes of the third group determine the level of your creativity and non-standard thinking.
For example: “A person cannot be too careful in choosing his enemies (Oscar Wilde).
Tell us about the relationship between you and your eternal enemies (either real or imaginary)”; or “Why did you do this?”
Essay writing tips
When writing an essay, focus on yourself, not what you think, educational institutions won`t buy it, they want to hear who you are, what you want them to know about you.
Think about the qualities you would like to share. Then think about how to represent these qualities by answering the question.
Ideally, to be brilliant, your essay should illustrate your strengths by example, rather than just state them.
A good essay is a story
Many good essays are essentially stories based on personal experience.
It is very important to make it lively and interesting to read.
The reader should have a thought: “I would like to meet this person” or “Looks like she will be fun to study and work with.”
Threadbare themes
Very often, applicants write about famous people, books or events.
There is nothing wrong with that if you use some original approach.
If not, it is advisable to write about something or someone less known than Shakespeare or the Bible.
You can even think I will write my essay about taking a walk every Sunday with my grandfather, or preparing dinner for a special friend.
Remember, there are no bad topics! The main thing is that your essay shows that you are a unique and interesting person.
Unwelcome topics
Certain topics should still be avoided, despite the originality of your vision.
You cannot write about your sexual experience, rape, incest, abortion or mental illness.
If you decide to express your opinion about a political or social event, do not be categorical.
The reader should see that you also take into account the opposite opinion, and are not a theorist divorced from life, whose opinion is the only true one.
If you are unsure of your objectivity, such topics are best avoided.
Question/answer
While all questions are directly or indirectly related to your personality, their format is different.
Therefore, be careful and answer the question in the way it was asked.
In addition, the same essay may be suitable for several universities, but it needs to be slightly redone so that it takes into account the characteristics of a particular educational institution.
This is especially true for essays that belong to the second group of topics “Why us?”
Indeed, although you have chosen the specialty “Biology”, one university is suitable for you because it is located near the sea, and the second – because it is in the forest.
Writing help
Undoubtedly, the essay should be your independent work.
But this does not mean that you cannot discuss topics to write with your family and teachers, or give them your drafts for review and take into account their comments or ask a special writing service to help you. There is nothing wrong about making such an order.
Moreover, it is even desirable to do so. Many professional writers do this.
The main condition is that this composition should be yours, it should feel that it is you who are its author, and not someone two or three times older than you.
Pay attention to short essays
A standard application includes one or two essays ranging from 500 to 650 words, and several questions that also require answers. Many students devote all their efforts to writing large essays, leaving shorter ones without much attention. In fact, shorter questions are also important. After all, both small and large essays give the reader an understanding of who you are.
Keep limits
In most cases, an essay should be 250-650 words long. This is approximately 2-2.5 pages of typed text in 14 letters with one and a half spacing. Try not to go beyond this.
Passive voice and morality
Try to avoid passive voice. Also, do not write at the end of conclusions or morals, for example: “What I learned was …”. The essay is too short for that. You are not writing Aesop’s fable. Think about how to make it easy and fun to read, not just how to express yourself.
What not to do when you write an essay
- Do not write an essay that any other of the thousands of applicants can write, because they are most likely to write it (and, most likely, they are doing it at this very moment).
- Do not write about anything that may confuse or annoy the reader. Of course, in order for an essay to be special, you must put a piece of yourself into it, but this should not embarrass the reader.
- Don’t try to sell yourself. Instead of convincing the university of how wonderful you are, it is better to just show them who you are, what is important to you, and which moments in your life are key.
- Don’t try to write an “important” essay — a landmark statement on the Middle East, American race relations, or climate change. These essays tend to be much more faceless than the author would like. Think for yourself, what can you tell about the Middle East or climate change that they have not heard before? But if your relative served in the army in Iraq, or you are the leader of an environmental club at your school, that’s another matter!
- Don’t try to write the perfect essay, one that will have a huge impact and open the door to any university for you. Instead, think about how to convey a piece of yourself to the reader, how to “take a picture in words”. Remember, too, that you cannot fit your entire life into 500 words. You must choose the most important thing, the qualities that you like and that you would really like to talk about.
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