The College Essay

The College Essay Emphasize how it has made you stronger, think outside the box, or overcome adversity. Do not focus on the things you cannot do or highlight your weaknesses. Acceptance into college is dependent on your strengths and academic abilities. You may not always have a choice of your essay topic. However, you will always have a choice on exactly what you write about within the topic guidelines. Your passion about the topic will show through your writing and make your essay stronger. Your motivation to write will become stronger if you are excited about the topic. Discuss how your disability has made you the person you are today. To identify key ingredients of a good college essay. However, do be careful with slang, colloquialism, and inappropriate language. You need to remember that you have no idea who will be reading your essay â€" it could be an admissions counselor in her early 20s, or a part-time admissions reader in his mid-70s. Don’t use words that aren’t consistent with the overall language and tone of the essay. Don’t use a thesaurus to find other words that you wouldn’t normally use. Writing a good essay can take a long time and require several drafts. No one ever gets a piece of writing perfect on his or her first draft. You will need to be patient with yourself and give yourself plenty of time to take breaks, ask advice, and edit your essay. Some applications may require one or more essays to be completed, while others make essays optional or supplementary. Essay topics range from very specific to open-ended. College essays, though not the most important thing, are very important in the application process. Trust that you are interesting and have powerful stories to tell. Do not make things up or use things that have happened to other people. A strongly written essay about a fight you had with your parent and how you solved the problem will be much better than a made-up story. All colleges take integrity and honesty very seriously. On the whole the admissions committee wants to hear your voice. If I had to assign the MVP of the college application essay, it would be the very first sentence. The college application process is stressful, and the essay can seem like an insurmountable hurdle. Once you’ve proofread and edited the essay till you’re sick of it, let a few people you trust look over it. Any uncovered dishonesty would have serious consequences on your future. Anyway, writing about something due to of personal experience will be much easier than writing about something you have had to make-up. Whether writing is a strength of yours or a struggle, it is imperative that you start early on the process of writing your essay. works as a high school English teacher at a school for students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. She graduated from The George Washington University with a Master’s Degree in Secondary Special Education and Transition Services in 2013. Talk to at least one adult about disclosing your disability in your college essay. Make a list of the keys to a good college essay, then list why they are important. If you can make the reader laugh, say “I get that” or “me too”, you are on your way to a strong application. In addition, you are sharing something about yourself that is not anywhere else in your application. Finding a cure for cancer, saving the whales singlehandedly, or traveling abroad to build homes for orphans does not automatically make a great essay. It’s all about the delivery, the reflection, the conversational tone, showing not telling that will make for a winning essay. Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.