writing essay for college applications

Many colleges and universities require a college admission essay as part of their admission application, and scholarship applications often include one or more essays in addition to such objective information as grades and test scores. The typical question asks you to share personal information—allowing the selection committee to get to know you—such as your plans or goals, an important event in your life, your philosophy and/or beliefs, or your financial situation. Writing this college admission essay is an opportunity for you to stand out among the applicants and to prove you’re the most deserving candidate. Be sure to keep certain things in mind as you write this essay: Consider exactly what the question asks. Then list some relevant main ideas; use this list as an informal outline for your essay. Don’t write a “generic” essay that could pass for one that any other applicant could have written. Everything in the essay should reveal something about YOU and your unique situation. Any reader of your essay should feel as if he or she knows you personally. Remember that committee members are seeking the applicant who fits the mission of their institution and is worthy of their award. Tailor your college admission essay topic with their perspective in mind, and work to convince them that you’re the right candidate. If you have trouble thinking of ideas, be resourceful. Ask people who know you well what they would say about you. If someone has written a letter of recommendation for you, re-read it. Which accomplishments listed on your résumé might interest the committee? Don’t simply repeat information that is already on your application form or in your résumé. Your essay should include specific incidents and concrete examples. Don’t use long words and obscure vocabulary simply to impress the committee; doing so will come across as artificial and showy. Follow guidelines.
Listen: writing well is hard. It is hard for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes it is hard because you don't know your audience and have to guess. Sometimes it is hard because you have a lot of stories tripping over each other to get onto the page. Sometimes it is hard because, no matter how smoothly you try to form your sentences, they invariably tumble out of you, all stiff and angular like a box of bent pipes. But being able to write well is important. You will never encounter a situation in which obfuscation is to your advantage. You will frequently encounter situations where crisp, compelling writing can express your feelings, make your case, even save lives: Edward Tufte argues that the Challenger disaster could have been prevented if only the case against launching had been made more clearly. While (hopefully) no lives are riding on your college application essays, this is a great time to revisit some of the rules of writing well. George Orwell's Politics and the English Language is my personal guide to thinking about writing. The theoretical foundation he lays in this piece - about the importance of language, including writing, in shaping how we are capable of thinking - he later built upon in 1984. Read this essay. Read it closely, read it carefully. It will change the way you think about writing. I keep Orwell's rules for writing next to my desk always: Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. Now, in this essay Orwell took issue primarily with contemporary.
Page Content​Start early. The more time you have, the less stress you'll have. You'll have plenty of time to give the essay your best effort. 
 Be yourself. Take a moment to think about what interests you, what you love to talk about, what makes you sit up and take notice if it's mentioned in class or on TV. Then write about it. One of the biggest mistakes students make is writing what they think others want to hear, rather than about an issue, event, or person that really had significance for them, says an admission and financial aid officiat at a New York college. An essay like that is not just boring to write, it's boring to read. Be honest. You're running late (see 1), you can't think of what to write, and someone e-mails you a heartwarming story. With just a tweak here and there, it could be a great essay, you think. It's what you would have written if you'd just had enough time. Don't be fooled! College admission officers have read hundreds, even thousands of essays. They are masters at discovering any form of plagiarism. Adapting an e-mail story, buying an essay from some Internet site, getting someone else to write your essay, admission people have seen it all. Don't risk your college career by taking the easy way out. 
Take a risk. On the other hand, some risks can pay off. Don't settle for the essay that everyone else is writing. Imagine an admission officer up late, reading the fiftieth essay of the day, yours. Do you want that person to nod off because he or she has already read ten essays on that topic?  The danger lies not in writing bad essays but in writing common essays, the one that admission officers are going to read dozens of, says an associate director at a Pennsylvania high school. My advice? Ask your friends what they are writing, and then don't write about that! Keep in focus. This is your chance to tell admission officers exactly why they.