10 College Application Essay Dos And Donts

10 College Application Essay Dos And Don'ts Each year he helps thousands of students and counselors through his online courses, workshops, articles, products, and books, and works privately with a small number of students. Writing your college essay can be a daunting task. These 650 words or less â€" your personal statement to colleges â€" will be one of the most important pieces of writing you’ve done in your life up until this point. The team at Marks Education was very helpful to my college application process. The planning of my high school class selection, provided by Nina Marks and Ian Perez was especially helpful. Students have no clue what to write that will wow admissions staff and faculty members from hundreds of other essays they will read. It’s important to get a good chunk of regular decision essays done in November, otherwise December is going to be a mess. People often ask me about the value of the application essay. ” I assure you, at my university and in admissions offices across the country, we do. Many of these essays will also be reused for other prompts later on. This is a great tool for demonstrating interest and learning details about your intended programs that you can’t find on the website. In addition, conversations with faculty at your early schools can give great tidbits that you can use for a “Why Us? Writing a compelling essay is not an easy task given the high-stakes nature of college admissionâ€"nor should it be. In fact, few practiced writers are able to do it on demand. Make sure to get feedback from not too many and not too few people. Too much feedback will give you a lot of contradicting opinions while too little feedback could miss some glaring problems if that person isn’t experienced in college essay writing. Students applying to a number of top 20 reach schools for regular decision will have the majority of their essay work ahead of them and not a lot of time to ensure they’re writing their best possible essays. Getting your early application essay work done this early helps you to space out all the regular decision application work later on. These essays are usually for some of your top choice schools, so make sure to spend a lot of time polishing these essays and getting feedback, similar to your Common App personal statement process. My essay advisor, Hugh McIntosh, worked with me to refine broad ideas to concise, strong personal statements and supplemental questions. The fall of senior year is inevitably a difficult time, but Mark's Education made it clear and painless. Often the best college essays develop out of a moment or idea that at first seems small, but then grows, develops, and takes on a life of its own. The true evidence of your character, personality and sense of compassion, however, lies within you. The power of a good essay is often found in its ability to give the reader this insight. If you find yourself in this situation, you’re not alone. This is a really important decision for your application. Your personal statement essay is the face of your application and one of the only ways to show your personality. That said, if you can pull it offâ€"if you can produce essays that complement your other credentialsâ€"you will be able to introduce an effective “hook” into your applications. Let’s take a look, then, at why colleges require essays in the first place. Here are some college application essay dos and don’ts for students to keep in mind as they complete their applications this fall. Ethan Sawyer is a nationally recognized college essay expert and sought-after speaker.