Are you committing any of these college essay sins? Our friends at University Language Services are here to make sure you know what NOT to do when writing your college essays. Enjoy!
Most students can agree that the college admission essay is one of the more stressful aspects of the college application process.
It’s the one part of the application where you can really show your personal self, your goals and your creativity. A good college admission essay topic creates an amazing opportunity to stand out – but it also makes the pressure to write something great that much higher.
There are some mistakes that consistently show up in college admission essays that should be avoided at all costs.
Overusing SAT Words
While it’s fantastic that you scored in the 90th percentile on the SAT verbal, that doesn’t mean you need to showcase your high-caliber vocabulary in your essay.
First of all, make sure you fully understand and are correctly using any fancy SAT words you throw into your essays. Second, remember that a complicated vocabulary won’t necessarily make for a better essay. Too many long smart-sounding words will make an essay look clunky (and like you’re trying too hard). Sometimes simplicity is best and makes for a more powerful essay.
Overselling Yourself
Being too obviously aggressive in your essay can backfire. While you should definitely convey your enthusiasm, you don’t want the admissions committee to read the subtext of your essay as a really basic sales pitch. You want your essay to stand out for other reasons than its bare-faced “ADMIT ME!!!!” intensity. Anyone can convey the “admit me!” attitude, but your essay has to actually interest and engage the admissions committee to make them want to admit you.
Using Clichés
You probably already know not to use clichés in your college admission essay, but it’s important to realize that we sometimes slip into clichés in our writing without even realizing it. Also, by clichés I mean not only clichéd phrases, but also clichéd topics.
Overly cheesy or overly sentimental college admission essays can be read as cliché and over the top. While a personal admission essay topic is often expected, make sure your essay doesn’t read like a sob story, which might be interpreted as the “admit me!” oversell described above.
Losing Sight of the Prompt
When your creativity is sparked and your writing for a college admission essay seems to simply flow out of you, it’s a great feeling (and often makes for the best essays). Unfortunately, this also leads to the danger of getting off topic.
Always keep the prompt in mind and make sure your essay as a whole consistently works toward addressing the prompt. You don’t want to lose points because you lost focus and neglected to answer what the prompt asked of you.
Forgetting to Edit – and Edit and Edit …
Editing college admission essays is obviously a must and seems like a “duh” tip, but it is definitely one worth repeating. Your college admission essay is very important, so you don’t want to let any typos slip through.
Since you may use one essay for multiple schools, proofreading also ensures that you don’t mix up college’s names in your essay! It has actually happened that a student applying to college sends “University X” an essay saying how much they want to go to “University Y” – oops! Editing – at least twice – will help you avoid embarrassing mistakes like these in your college admission essay.
This post was written by Alison at University Language.
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