How To Start Your College Essay
It all begins with an idea.
I was 165 feet underwater in frigid currents when I ran out of air. OK, not really, but it is a good example of how you want to hook your admissions officer with the first line of your essay. They frequently spend only a few minutes on each essay so you want to draw them into your world as quickly as possible.
“My parachute won’t open!” Dialogue can also be an effective opener for your essay, allowing you to dive right into the middle of an interesting story that draws out your personality and highlights your strengths.
Another trick is to look at your rough draft and find the most engaging sentence. Try starting with that sentence and then weave that into your narrative.
College Essay Topics To Avoid
It all begins with an idea.
No one cares about your dead turtle. Or the spelling bee you won in second grade. Or that life-changing experience you had while backpacking through Europe. Or that time you led your team to victory on the Quidditch fields. So let’s look at why some essays have become cliche. Tragedies are universal and tricky to write about because it is tempting to focus on the tragedy and not how it has shaped who you have become. Learning about another culture falls into this same trap of telling a predicable story without revealing who you really are. Sports themes generally fall into the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat without much room to tell your story. But every rule has an exception. If you can tell a truly revelatory story about how your dead turtle transformed your way of thinking, causing you to backpack even stronger in Europe and make your team’s winning touchdown, give it a shot.
How To Brainstorm A College Essay
It all begins with an idea.
There is nothing scarier than a blinking computer cursor on a blank screen. So fill that screen up with terrible ideas.You have permission. Just give yourself a topic and write freely for at least 5 minutes. Go ahead and set a timer. You may surprise yourself with a spark of an idea. If nothing else, you’ve skipped right over that annoying writer’s block. And here’s the real secret. All college essays start off terrible. You have to carve something beautiful out of the terrible by re-writing and revising. This is where sleep comes in. Let your ugly duckling essay alone for a day or two, then come back to it with fresh eyes and start polishing it up. It helps to read it aloud. If you are stumbling over saying something, the reader is probably stumbling over reading it.
College Admission Essay Red Flags
It all begins with an idea.
There’s a reason a red flag makes a bull snort and charge. Don’t make your admissions officer react in the same way and toss your essay into the reject pile. The first red flag to avoid is sloppiness. Watch for typos, and poor grammar, and don’t be afraid to put your essay in front of as many people as it takes to catch every stray comma. The next red flag flying is TMI. Too much overly personal information may not be appropriate. You’ve overcome your compulsion to light your homework on fire? Great. You wake up screaming every night? Could be a problem for your new roommate. Just make sure you come off in the best possible light. Another red flag to consider in being too generic. If your can plug any name into your answer about choosing a specific college, it is not going to impress the reader. Does your volunteer work come across as condescending? Do you criticize others who do not meet your standards? Just make sure you sound authentic and like someone they could put into any dorm room.