College Essay Mistakes

College Essay Mistakes Each school, professor and student body is different. Colleges must adapt their rules and discipline efforts to reflect the current needs of their students. Eliminating cell phones in college classrooms is an overstretch, but there are ways to balance students’ rights and instructors’ rights. With the right amount of control and flexibility, colleges can create a pleasant learning environment with maximum safety and minimal interruptions. While there is no magic topic that will automatically ensure admission at the college of your dreams, there are experiences everyone has that you can use to find your strongest possible application essays. Your college application essay should be both highly personal and thoughtful. Not only should your essay reflect well-constructed writing, but it's your opportunity to tell your unique story. Be creative and present yourself in such a way that embodies the real you. High achieving students should take on a challenging high school curriculum consisting of at least five core courses per semester. In fact, many colleges will recalculate GPA based only on core subjects alone, such as math, science, English, social studies, foreign languages, etc. She clearly wasn’t prepared for the writing section, so she just took it again and scored a bit lower on her composite but the same on the essay. Then we went to a college fair and spoke to a Michigan Admissions Officer who said Michigan has decided NOT to require writing. She wants to apply to both as Early Action, but doesn’t have time to retake ACT without writing for that deadline. Do you think reporting her 33 ACT with the poor writing score will hurt her at UNC or Michigan, even though they say it is not required, and UNC says it is discouraged? OR should we send her 1450 SAT without a writing score? Most colleges hire readers during the application season. How many people read each essay varies by institution with two being somewhat standard. A well-written application essay that offers insight into your personality, values, and goals can go a long way in helping you stand out during the admissions process. Having at least one essay score is helpful in case a student decides to apply to a Required college, but it is unlikely to play a role at Optional colleges. My daughter is trying to get in as an out of state student to University of North Carolina and University of Michigan as her top 2 choices. She scored a 33 on ACT with a 6 writing, which she took because Michigan said it was required. Many schools have a strong commitment to a holistic review of each application and sometimes have two or three readers for each file. A really good essay can be a strong addition to the application file. Other schools might be so overwhelmed by the sheer number of applications that they make their admit decisions based strictly on statistical requirements. You can often find out how a file is reviewed by attending an information session at the schools on your college list. It should be consistent with the rest of the application and showcase an aspect of the student not highlighted in the rest of the application. It is also well written and grammatically correct. In the college essay, you need to contextualize your examples for the reader. If you are writing a good complex essay, even your topic sentence will require more explanation than just one sentence. Some colleges will ask for different prompts, in which case you’ll just have to write another essay to submit. You want to make sure each essay you submitâ€"even if you’re reusing itâ€"is tailor-made for the college you’re applying to. That might mean just a few edits here and there, or it may mean overhauling your essay, or simply writing a new one. Yes it would save time, and can save time, but only under certain circumstances. They are so different that they can’t really be compared. Also, we know that the 25th-75th percentiles scores at the most competitive colleges are 8-10, so your essay score should not be a concern. As much as I rail against the essay, I still recommend that students take it â€" at least once. It's also recommended to take AP and honors classes, as an advanced curriculum is preferred to straight A’s in less challenging courses. Keep in mind that every college is different and individual admission officers may be influenced by different factors. With that said, the Essay is dying a quick death. Most schools fall in the “just don’t care” box at this point. See, many colleges will ask for similar questions or essay prompts to include with your application. If you’ve already written an essay that happens to fit with another college’s similar prompt, then it should take you no time at all to spruce it up and submit it.