Writing Your Way into College
Find tips on the do's and don'ts of writing the perfect college essay.
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Don't be careless. Roughly 300 schools, almost all private, now let students apply for college by filling out just one standardized form that's called the Common Application (www.commonapp.org). Obviously, completing one application for multiple schools cuts down on the hassle factor. Even better, a student can use one essay to satisfy the writing requirement for all these schools.
The one-stop application process, however, can cause students to make embarrassing mistakes. Admissions officers everywhere can tell you about kids who express their deep desire to attend a competing school in their essay. These applicants forgot to swap out the name of one school for another before sending the application electronically.Common application essay questions. These are the recent essay topics posed by schools that rely on the Common Application:
- Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
- Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
- Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
- Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, and so on) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
- A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
- Topic of your choice.