application essay tips

application essay tips

Mastering the Art of Writing a Standout Application Essay

1. Introduction to Application Essays

Writing a standout college essay requires knowing how to showcase yourself. Find out how to write a college application that will open the doors to the best colleges and universities. Professional essay writer Lily Taylor explains how to produce an application essay that can master the admissions process. After reading thousands of application essays, she’s seen what works and—just as important—what doesn’t. If you follow her advice, your essay will be like no other. Learn how to express both your background and your innermost thoughts, and use that personal insight to tell a powerful story. Even if the schools you’re applying to accept the Common Application, Taylor’s instructions will apply to most other essays and personal statements, so this is a practical guide for students who are staring down any number of applications.

2. Understanding the Purpose and Audience

Keep in mind also that the personal statement has to be an articulation of you. You can have all the advice in the world, but if you don’t put it in your own words, it isn’t going to show your creativity or originality. It is in your best interest to ask for advice, from your professor, from clear thinking family members and from people you admire, about what you’ve written both for its content and its style. Ultimately, however, only you can turn a good piece of advice into an excellent piece of writing. Take your time in getting to know what questions any of the essays may inspire and what you wish to express about yourself in an essay. Okay, you’re thinking, I’ve heard this, but how do I write a personal statement? Great question!

Every aspect of your application, including your personal statement, presents an opportunity for you to set yourself apart from other candidates. You should view your personal statement as an excellent opportunity to sell yourself in ways that cannot be expressed through transcripts, test scores, work histories, or letters of recommendation. It is important, then, for you to take the personal statement seriously. Some people are able to write extraordinarily powerful personal statements that immediately capture the attention of the admissions committee. However, they are the exception and certainly not the rule. Most people find it difficult to write exemplary application essays. This does not mean, however, that they are not capable of doing so. It does mean that most people need assistance and encouragement.

3. Crafting a Compelling Narrative

Show how having the reader engaged with your community of meaning either cured your problem or changed you or both. Not how much you’ve devoured English rehashes, but how much you’ve lived through and hopefully learned from your life experiences you’ve expressed. Make them see that you’ve thought deeper and wider than the obvious assumptions about your subject. These paragraphs should connect your community’s world to a part of the college campus. If you have other ways to create this connection, then do so—the point here is to have the college join your narrative.

The conclusion will do three things:

From your own base, join the topic to a specific community to which you belong. You’re almost certainly hoping to enter a college that’s rooted in that community. It might be your church, school, or local government, or it might be another community completely—thematic communities like 4-H or B’nai B’rith Youth Organization. Deliver the audience to a specific problem facing that community. It could be a crisis, a need, or a dominant cultural or political view within that particular community that you find troubling. Take us on a side trip to your personal experience that reflects this problem. Then transition back to your application essay narrative, and tell why that community is important.

4. Showcasing Your Unique Qualities and Experiences

One approach to developing your personal essay is to plunge in. Write from your heart and mind, using your personal experiences. Discovering a significant topic or event, and the meaning that it adds to your own life can help you write thoughtfully and from the heart. The way you approach writing about yourself will determine the stories that you tell and the impression of yourself that you convey to your reading audience. It’s fun; once you begin, often a compelling topic will emerge that you can’t wait to write about. Writing is a lifelong tool and a gift worth mastering to ensure you will be prepared to share your perspectives with those you encounter throughout your future.

Showcasing elements of you – defined broadly – is one of the key components of a standout essay. Remember, your grades and test scores are already recorded on your application. This is an opportunity to reveal your very unique personality, gifts, and experiences. It’s also an opportunity to weave a web of connections – between your background, skills, interests, and life goals – with a few well-chosen words.

5. Polishing and Perfecting Your Essay

Clean up, Rephrase, and Polish Up: Use word thesaurus to search for fresher word choices and alternate phrases for similar concepts. Use the thesaurus to avoid repeating the same words or phrase over and over. Add, delete, or rearrange information to refine meaning and sentence structure. Don’t forget: precise and style matter. Let your unique voice and personality shine. No matter how good the grammar and content are, admissions officers note the performance and quality of your essay.

Brush Up Your Resume: Request an updated and improvement recommendation for the students’ resume to get a current perspective on your project, activities, and academic ability.

Avoid Weasel Words: Words like almost, mostly, just, nearly, and somewhat don’t inspire much confidence. They undermine your ideas and weaken arguments. Try to find stronger language.

Watch for overuse of first person, me, and I. During revisions, look for phrasing that acknowledges others and shifts the emphasis to we or us.

Check for Any Misspoken Words, Misused Statements, or Terminology: You don’t want your essay to say how you enjoy the artistic acceptance of others, when what you mean is the artistic expression. Likewise, it doesn’t feel so good to profess you’re excited about a new renaissance influx when you mean a new cultural and political upsurge. Otherwise, your reader will get a little chuckle, and you’ll get a demerit.

Be Thorough: Use spell-check and look for all grammar, punctuation, and typos. Read your essay both backward and out loud. Reading backward will force you to slow down and focus. Scan the paper backward, sentence by sentence, and read each sentence separately. Checking out loud will help you catch rough and awkward sentences or any words that don’t flow or sound right. It’ll also help reveal words or phrases that suck. Finally, reading your material out loud allows you the opportunity to examine your word choice, tone, overuse of passive voice, and any other issues that might have sneaked past you before.

Think It Over Once More: Checking your work one more time helps to ensure you’re proud of what’s going out and you haven’t missed any important content. Check for any additional or new insights and reflect that revised sentence style.

Today’s final step involves rereading and polishing your final essay. This is not a simple last glance. Spend an hour or two fine-tuning. Review your essay with these final tips in mind. Here’s a quick list of things to look out for in those final rereads: