Not only is a college essay a task to be accomplished, but it is an opportunity for you to directly address the college admissions board with a voice that transcends your transcripts and activities. A good college essay can be the highlight of a great file, but a poor essay can be the demise of a brilliant profile.
Often, students struggle not in spite of having great stories, but as a result of errors made in the process of composing their essays. To assist you in presenting your best foot forward, below are the first 10 errors you should avoid in your college essay composition and some advice on how to accomplish it.
1. Writing What You Think Admissions Officers Want to Hear
Mistakes are common in attempting to sound “perfect” or guessing what the officers wish to read. Students sometimes write on grand achievements or noble ideas, but the outcome turns out to feel unnatural or read like generic text.
Admissions officers are not after perfection but authenticity: how one thinks, what one values, and how one has grown. It is sometimes those little incidents that may be authentically described in an essay. A sincere and thoughtful essay is always more noticeable than a refined essay lacking sincerity.
2. Choosing an Overused or Cliche Topic
Subjects like winning the big game, overseas volunteer work, or what sports can teach about teaming together are very generic. These are not bad experiences, but the essays about these kinds of subjects tend to be very repetitive unless a very different perspective is taken.
However, the issue isn’t with the subject but with not bringing something new into the mix. This is because the number of applications that the admissions officer gets to read is in the thousands every year.
3. Turning the Essay into a Resume
The achievement list in your essay is no venue to replicate what you’ve already listed in your application document(s). Such repetition is unnecessary and results in inefficient use of space in your essay.
In other words, admissions officials already know what a candidate has done, and what they want to know is who that candidate is. It is not a rehashing of a candidate’s credentials but rather a reflection of his/her own characteristics.
4. Ignoring the Prompt
Sometimes, the student becomes so involved in the story that they forget the question that has been posed in the essay. This becomes a mammoth problem, especially when the student that has submitted their work to various schools has some special or supplementary questions that need to be answered. A beautifully written essay will fail if in any way the essay does not answer the question that has been posed.
5. Trying to Impress with Big Words
Using big words or a very formal tone merely for the sake of it can end up turning an intelligent essay into quite the reverse. It can make the essay sound unnatural or confused because of the forced sophistication.
6. Lacking a Clear Structure
An effective college essay must have a beginning, an end, and it must have a body. College students are known to write their essays in such a manner that they jump everywhere but indicate nothing. Your essay is to guide the reader through a story or an argument.
7. Focusing Too Much on Others
There is nothing wrong with mentioning the people who may have influenced you in one way or the other. One can cite parents, teachers, or even friends. The problem may arise when one realizes that the essay may entirely focus on other people. The problem may also arise since admission officers want your ideas and actions.
8. Being Too Vague or General
This experience has changed my life” or “I have come to understand the value of hard work” are very generic statements and mean nothing specific. Vague essays are not very impressing. This will become your story because your specifics create feelings for your reader. Remember, your story has to come alive because of the experiences you can share because of what the reader shares with you when you are going through a similar situation.
9. Skipping the Editing and Proofreading Process
It will never be perfect, but too often students do not adequately review their own work on the essay. Mistakes in your work like grammar and spelling will really annoy the person reading it. The person reading your work will think that you are not very smart if your writing is hard to understand. Your reader will get frustrated with your writing if it has a lot of errors and things that are not expressed clearly. This is because mistakes, in writing make the reader think that you are not a person. Grammatical errors and spelling problems are a part of this.
10. Waiting Until the Last Minute
Procrastination can end up being one of the most damaging factors that can act against the success of a well-composed college essay. If you end up procrastinating on your essay, it may result in your writing unorganized and full of errors. The best part about a well-composed college essay is that it takes time for its composition and reflection. If you are unable to compose one by yourself, the best essay writing service by Hooman Writers is ready to assist you.
Final Thoughts
Again, your college essay is a wonderful opportunity for you to tell your own personal story as yourself. The trick to ensuring there is nothing different about yours is to simply not make these mistakes in college essays:
Just remember that there is no such thing as a “perfect” college essay, but there can definitely be an honest and authentic college essay that really is you.
Good luck, you got this.