Prestigious universities are widely recognized for the high quality of education and the unique environment created for students. At the best universities, students receive valuable practical skills and comprehensive personal development. But universities in Europe and the United States are no less well known for their rigorous admission procedures. Admissions committees strive to consider an applicant’s personality, talents, and ambitions. Academic grades and teacher recommendations sometimes fall by the wayside. And the most significant and valuable document of the applicant becomes the essay.
How to write a good essay: 4 rules
The admission essay is the most memorable and unique part that tells much more about you than the rest of the documents. A well-written introductory composition will reflect your skills, level of education, upbringing, literacy, and intentions. Therefore, it is important to approach its writing inspired by ideas and with a good understanding of what is required of you. Here is an example of college essays that worked.
Finding interesting college application essay topics from life
Imagine that writing is a journey, a free voyage through memory, memorable events, and experiences that made you exactly who you are. This is what leads you to to the university of your dreams. The challenge at this stage – to gather important themes, life examples that you would like to share.
Develop a list of topics
Choose non-trivial college admissions essay topics. Applicants often write about travel, sports, parents. Use good stories, examples that will make the story unique. Avoid superficial ideas – dig deeper, think about important things. Such a story will spark interest and make someone think. The commission employs people who do not have special knowledge in all areas of science, so it is better to avoid complex specific terms.
- Does the composition reflect your personality?
- Is the central theme meaningful?
- Are there life examples?
Introduction and Narrative
The introduction is an important part of any admission essay that is not written in one go. Think about how to make it original and improve on it later. In the introduction, you can share your fears, your experiences, and write the whole story based on them.
Don’t be afraid to share your feelings, use original language. But it is better not to make the writing entirely in a humorous vein. Humor is difficult to use competently, admissions committees rarely rate it highly.
A few rules:
- The introduction should be short.
- Use vivid words, grammatical structures.
- Reflect growth, changes, what challenges you have overcome.
- Provide clear examples.
- Come up with a vivid conclusion.
Proofreading and Editing
It is necessary to reread the thesis many times, find all the mistakes, logical inaccuracies, ask for help from friends, parents, tutors.
How to bring the study to perfection
Your admission essay should be free of mistakes and typos! Read it from the end to concentrate on word mistakes. Note:
- Do not exceed the recommended written work length. If the article is 500 words, do not write more than 510-520 words.
- All ingenious is simple, and it works in paper writing, too. Take a simple college application essay topic that you understand. Don’t try to show off by choosing complex issues that are hard to understand.
- Avoid clichés – they show that you are not good at presenting ideas on your own.
- Too many quotes will lead to the idea that you don’t have your own point of view.
- Don’t look for outside help. Admissions officers are very experienced and will sense falsity quickly.
Read college essay examples of applicants from top universities – they will help to orient yourself.
An awesome story should reveal your personality, show your skill to develop, and show your ability to assess yourself. Regardless of the topic, you need to keep your readers (admissions committee) and your purpose in mind. Prove that you have an active life position and that you consider any events as an opportunity for growth.
How to improve chances of getting in with a college application essay?
Writing an essay is one of the basic requirements for admission to undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate programs at universities. Moreover, you may need to write several papers on different topics. Each of them will help the admissions committee to learn more about you and your motivation. In such circumstances, it is the best college essay that will help you make the right impression and show your best side. What does it consist of and what are the specifics of writing for different educational and scientific levels?
Bachelor’s degree: emphasis on personal growth
Since not everyone can boast of having practical experience in a particular field after graduation, you need to focus on your personal qualities in this type of paper. As a rule, you should not do it literally, directly naming your positive qualities. The main task here is to tell such a story, after reading which the admissions committee itself will make the necessary conclusions for you.
This should be a story about a turning point in life that dramatically changed your views and beliefs. By going through this stage, you have become a completely different person. It doesn’t have to be a tragic story. It can be a story about some difficulties in life and the way to overcome them. Another option for a paper is to write about a hobby that helped you overcome life’s difficulties and acquire new values. It would be great if this hobby of yours is related to your chosen faculty and future profession.
The main difficulty of this work is to create a literary work from which it would be impossible to delete a single word. That is, each word should be in its place and solve some problems. In the text, you talk about yourself between the lines, so it’s important to avoid double interpretations. Encourage the reader to go to the very end and find out how it all ended. Therefore, try to make your college admission essay exciting with all sorts of literary techniques.
Master’s degree: why me and this particular program
The graduate school composition is dryer and less passionate than the previous one. You need to describe your background (theory and practice) and how you justify your interest in this particular program. Study in detail all points of the program description and try to connect them to a specific goal that you want to eventually achieve.
It is important to emphasize that only this university’s program will help you get to the level you want after you graduate. Although the use of artistic techniques is not necessary for this type of work, write the introduction to engage the reader and arouse his sincere interest. So you can start again with a short story from your life experience. Then, transform it into an explanation of the motivation to study at the chosen institution.
Graduate school: why this particular faculty member
At this stage, you cannot do without prior research and analysis of information. Find out what programs are available at the university you are interested in, and which professors work there. Each faculty member will usually have in-depth expertise in a particular subject. Do not be shy to contact professors directly, expressing your interest and asking them more about the program. This way, you will know the instructor’s preferences and can reflect that in your story. This is done to make the right impression on a particular person, as it is the program supervisor who will decide on your admission.
After all the above points, you may feel that writing an introductory essay is not easy. This can really be a significant obstacle to your dream of studying at the university of your city or other educational institution. Therefore, you should prepare in advance. If you have a clear outline of the written work, it will become much easier to cope with this task. And it will be no more difficult than choosing the Best Bitcoin Loans for earning money during your student years.