How to write PERFECT US college

admissions essay
If you’re one of the thousands of students that have decided to study in the US this
year, you may be aware that unfortunately you cannot escape the dreaded piece of
personal writing, even as an international student. In the admissions process,
US colleges and universities generally use three criteria for
determining which students to accept and which to reject:
1. Previous coursework – your college preparatory work and grade point average (GPA)
2. Standardized test scores – SAT and ACT are the two most respected.
3. Admission/Entrance essays

Of the three criteria, the college entrance essay provides you with the greatest opportunity to distinguish yourself from
Although every aspect of your
your competition and show off the person behind the statistics. 
college application is important, a strong college admission essay is one
of the most important elements of the application. It is one of the final
pieces of information that can influence admissions decisions, and it’s the
only part of your application that is totally within your control. Your essay
is also the only part of your application that is guaranteed to be unique;
many other students may have the same GPA, nearly identical
transcripts, or the same extracurricular activities as you, but none will
have an essay like yours. Beyond helping you get in to school, well-
written college admission essays can help students gain scholarships,
grants and other financial aid. Investing the time to learn how to create a
memorable essay can pay rich dividends.

The purpose of the admission essay

Your college application essay needs to breathe life into your application. It should
capture your genuine personality, explaining who you are beyond a series of grades,
test scores, and after-school activities. But that’s not nearly as scary as it seems,
because you get to choose what to share and how to share it.

Take a minute and think about the college or university admission officers who will be
reading your essay. How will your essay convey your background and what makes you
unique? If you had the opportunity to stand in front of an admission committee to share
a significant story or important information about yourself, what would you say? The
college application essay is your chance to share your personality, goals, influences,
challenges, triumphs, life experiences, or lessons learned. Not to mention why you're a
good fit for the college or university—and why it's a good fit for you. These are the
stories behind the list of activities and leadership roles on your application.

One of the most common struggles students encounter is resisting the urge to squeeze
everything they’ve seen, done, and heard into their essay. But your application essay isn’t
your life story in 650 words. Instead, pick one moment in time and focus on telling the
story behind it.
Admission officers realize that writing doesn’t come easily to everyone, but with some
time and planning, anyone can write a college application essay that stands out. One way
to do that is to work step-by-step, piece-by-piece. The end result should be a carefully
designed, insightful essay that makes you proud. Take advantage of being able to share
something with an audience who knows nothing about you and is excited to learn what
you have to offer. Brag (without being overly boastful). Write the story no one else can
tell.
Get to know your prompt
Ease yourself into the essay-writing process. Take time to understand the question or prompt being
asked.
The single most important part of your essay preparation may be simply making sure
you truly understand the question or essay prompt. When you're finished writing, you
need to make sure that your essay still adheres to the prompt.
College essay questions often suggest one or two main ideas or topics of focus. These can
vary from personal to trivial, but all seek to challenge you and spark your creativity and
insight.

 Read the essay questions and/or prompts. Read them again. Then read them one more
time.
 Take some time to think about what is being asked and let it really sink in before you
let the ideas flow.
 Before you can even start brainstorming, define what it is you’re trying to accomplish. Is
this essay prompt asking you to inform? Defend? Support? Expand upon?
 If it doesn’t already, relate the question back yourself by asking, “How does this—or
how could this—apply to me?”
 Avoid sorting through your existing English class essays to see if the topics fit the bill.
These pieces rarely showcase who you are as an applicant.
Brainstorm
Get your creative juices flowing by brainstorming all the possible ideas you can think of to address your
college essay question.
Believe it or not, the brainstorming stage may be more tedious than writing the actual
application essay. The purpose is to flesh out all of your possible ideas so when you
begin writing, you know and understand where you're going with the topic.

 Reflect. Youhave years to draw from, so set aside time to mentally collect relevant
experiences or events that serve as strong, specific examples. This is also time for self-
reflection. “What are my strengths?” “How would my friends describe me?” “What
sets me apart from other applicants?”
 Write any and all ideas down. There’s no technique that works best, but you’ll be
thankful when you're able to come back to ideas you otherwise may have forgotten.
 Narrow down the options. Choose three concepts you think fit the college application
essay prompt best and weigh the potential of each. Which idea can you develop further
and not lose the reader? Which captures more of who you really are?
 Choose your story to tell. From the thoughts you’ve narrowed down, pick one. You
should have enough supporting details to rely on this as an excellent demonstration of
your abilities, characteristics, perseverance, or beliefs.

Create an outline
Map out what you’re going to write by making an outline.
Architects use a blue print. A web page is comprised of code. Cooks rely on recipes.
What do they all have in common? They have a plan. The rules for writing a good essay
are no different. After you brainstorm, you’ll know what you want to say, but you must
decide how you’re going to say it. Create an outline that breaks down the essay into
sections.

 All good stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end, so shape your story so that it
has an introduction, body, and conclusion. Following this natural progression will make
your essay coherent and easy to read.
 Strategize. How are you going to open your essay? With an anecdote? A question?
Dialogue? Use of humor? Try to identify what the tone of your essay is going to be
based on your ideas.
 Stick to your writing style and voice. It’s
particularly important when writing a piece
about yourself that you write naturally. Put the words in your own voice. By planning
the layout of your essay ahead of time, you’ll avoid changing your writing style mid-
story.

Write the essay
Once you're satisfied with your essay in outline format, start writing!
By now you know exactly what you'll write about and how you want to tell the story. So
hop on a computer and get to it. Try to just let yourself bang out a rough draft without
going back to change anything. Then go back and revise, revise, revise. Before you know
it, you'll have told the story you outlined—and will have reached the necessary word
count—and you'll be happy you spent all that time preparing!
 Keep your essay’s focus narrow and personal. Don’t lose your reader. Start with your
main idea and follow it from beginning to end.
 Be specific. Avoid using clichéd, predictable, or generic phrases by developing your
main idea with vivid and detailed facts, events, quotations, examples, and reasons.
 Be yourself. Admission officers read plenty of application essays and know the
difference between a student’s original story and a recycled academic essay, or—
worse—a piece written by your mom or dad or even plagiarized. Bring something new
to the table, not just what you think they want to hear. Use humor if appropriate.
 Be concise. Don’t use 50 words if five will do. Try to only include the information
that is absolutely necessary.

Proofread
The last step is editing and proofreading your finished essay.
You've worked so hard up until this point, and while you might be relieved, remember:
your essay is only as good as your editing. Grammatical errors or typos could indicate
carelessness—not a trait you want to convey to a college admission officer.

 Give yourself some time. Letyour essay sit for a while (at least an hour or two) before
you proofread it. Approaching the essay with a fresh perspective gives your mind a
chance to focus on the actual words rather than seeing what you think you wrote.
 Don’t rely solely on the computer spelling and grammar check. Computers can't detect the
context in which you're using words, so be sure to review carefully. Don’t abbreviate
 or use acronyms or slang. They might be fine in a text message, but not in your college
essay.
 Have another person (or several!) read your essay, whether it’s a teacher, guidance
counselor, parent, or trusted friend. You know what you meant to say, but is it clear to
someone else reading your work? Have these people review your application essay to
make sure your message is on target and clear to any audience.
 Read your essay backwards. This may sound a bit silly, but when reading in sequential
order, your brain has a tendency to piece together missing information, or fill in the
blanks, for you. Reading each sentence on its own and backwards can help you realize
not only typos and mistakes in grammar but also any forgotten articles such as “a” or
“the.”
 Read your essay out loud. This forces you to read each word individually and
increases your chances of finding a typo. Reading aloud will also help you ensure your
punctuation is correct, and it’s often easier to hear awkward sentences than see them.
 Check for consistency. Avoid switching back and forth from different tenses. Also, if
you refer to a particular college in the essay, make sure it is the correct name and is
consistent throughout the piece. You don’t want to reference two different schools in
the same paper!

Tie up loose ends

Celebrate finishing what you started.
Writing the college essay takes time and effort, and you should feel accomplished. When
you submit your essay, remember to include your name, contact information, and ID
number if your college provided one, especially if you send it to a general admission
email account. Nothing is worse than trying to match an application essay with no name
(or, worse, an email address such as donutsarelife@domain.com) to a file. Make sure to
keep copies of what you sent to which schools and when—and follow up on them! Be
certain the college or university you're applying to received your essay. You don’t want
all that hard work to go to waste.

Brainstorm

Before you begin to write, brainstorm some ideas. Most likely, the university gave you a
prompt or a choice of prompts to write about. Take your time to carefully consider each
prompt. If you feel yourself drawn to a particular prompt, think about why you’re being drawn
to it. Reflect on your life to find any personal anecdotes that work well with that prompt.

Even if one prompt draws your attention, however, spend some time thinking about at least a
few of the other choices. Sometimes, deeper reflection can help you find an even better
subject to write about than your first impulse. Use outlines, word clouds or free association to
help you come up with material for each of the different prompts.

Show Your Personality

Unlike the rest of your application, which consists largely of objective facts like grades and
test scores, your application essay allows you to truly showcase what makes you unique as a
student and a person. Use your own voice and your own stories to illustrate why you would
be an asset to the school. Don’t fall into the trap of sanitizing your speech and your opinions
for risk of offending an admissions officer. Although you do need to use proper spelling and
grammar, your college essay is a perfect place for creative metaphors, witty turns of phrase
and humor.

Stay Away from the Thesaurus

Using words in your essay that you don’t typically use in your daily conversations can sound
awkward and forced. Words have nuance to them, and simply inserting a word from the
thesaurus is a great way to destroy that nuance. Thesaurus abuse is a lazy and easily
spotted trick, and seasoned admissions officers will see right through it. If you feel that you’re
overusing a particular word, think of alternatives on your own without consulting a thesaurus;
using words that you’re familiar with will help you avoid misusing them.

Brush Up Your Grammar and Spelling

Your college essay should reflect your authentic speaking voice, but that doesn’t mean that
you can write it like a lengthy text message. There’s simply no excuse for any major
grammatical or spelling errors on your essay. After you’ve completed your essay, go over it
with a fine-toothed comb to look for any technical errors. A second pair of eyes can be
essential; sometimes, writers are blind to their own mistakes. If you and your helper can’t
agree on the proper grammar for a particular phrase, rewrite the phrase to avoid the thorny
issue. Also take the time to read your essay aloud; certain phrases may sound fine in your
head, but hearing them spoken can highlight awkward phrasing or unclear wording.
Share a Personal Story

Sharing a personal story that’s relevant to the prompt is an excellent way to make your essay
stand out from the crowd. You don’t have to pick a strictly academic story for your essay;
college admissions boards care about your complete persona, not simply your academic
history. However, remember that your story exists to serve your prompt; avoid telling a story
for its own sake. Leave out elements that aren’t relevant to the essay, and resist the urge to
include every single juicy detail. When searching for stories from your history, choose
incidents that allowed you to learn and grown. Don’t be afraid to use a failure in your story;
colleges know that students are humans and that failure is a natural part of life.

Use Specific Examples

Writers are supposed to show, not tell. Simply asserting that you have what the university is
looking for is not convincing; anyone could make the same claim as plausibly as you if you
don’t back up your claims with evidence. Stating that you believe in integrity, for example, is
an easy claim that’s made by thousands of politicians and used car salespeople every year.
If you want to demonstrate your integrity, share a story that illustrates how you passed up an
opportunity to exploit an advantage that was unfairly gained. Claiming that you have good
study habits is another empty claim. Detailing the exact study habits that have helped you
succeed in school, backed up with the GPA on your application, carries much more weight.

Be Honest

Although you need to be creative while writing your essay, resist the urge to get creative with
the facts. Don’t exaggerate your own accomplishments to make yourself look better. You
don’t need to lay out a long list of all your shortcomings, but acknowledging weaknesses and
misjudgments can demonstrate authenticity and give your legitimate accomplishments
greater credibility. Admissions officers don’t expect you to be perfect, so don’t make your
essay unbelievable by trying to pretend that you are.

Let it Sit and Rewrite

No matter how well you write your first draft, there’s probably room for improvement. After
your initial draft is complete, let it sit for at least a day. With some space between yourself
and your initial writing, you’ll be able to view your essay objectively and have better luck
finding the flaws. After polishing it up, let it sit again and give it another coat of polish before
showing it to your proofreaders. The best college admission essays go through several drafts
before they’re finished, so don’t be afraid to rewrite your essay as many times as needed.
Take a Break

If you’re starting to feel frustrated or overwhelmed by your essay, take a break and do
something else. A short walk around your neighborhood can help clear your mind and help
you brainstorm new ideas for your composition. If you’re still feeling overwhelmed, do
something completely unrelated to your essay and forget about it completely for a while. If
you try to work through the stress, you may end up producing subpar work.

Read Other Essays for Inspiration

Reading the essays of other students who successfully got into the college of their choice is a
good way to find inspiration for your own writing. Look for common patterns in college
admission essay samples, such as personal stories and a touch of humor. You might also
find some good ideas for structuring your essay to give it a breath of fresh air.

Ask for College Essay Help

Having a few extra pairs of eyes to read your essay is one of the best forms of college
admission essay help. Ask your proofreaders to specifically look for grammar and spelling
errors. Your assistants can also make suggestions on the content, such as identifying areas
that need more detail or pointing out where you’ve written too much. Parents and teachers
are good candidates for this task, but you can also make use of a college consultant for an
experienced proofreader with specialized knowledge of the admissions process.

Don’t Let Anyone Else Write It

Your essay is a unique reflection of who you are as a person. Even if your parent or friend is
a gifted writer who would be happy to help you write your essay, do not let them write your
essay. Your own words are the best way to convey who you are as a student and a person;
using someone else’s words won’t give your essay an authentic voice. Additionally, if you’re
caught letting someone else write your essay, you may be automatically disqualified from
admission. That’s exactly the kind of college application help you don’t need.

In a sea of otherwise identical college applications, your college application essay gives you
a chance to show why you deserve a coveted spot at your preferred university. Giving
yourself plenty of time, focusing on the specific details of your life, and showcasing your
unique personality can help you craft the perfect college application essay. A strong essay
can give you the best chance to get into the school of your dreams.