When writing college admission essays, the most important thing is for you to let your personality shine through. As the blogCollege Preparation Suite 101 mentions in the following excerpt, your admission essay is more than just an essay, but it is your way of introducing yourself and setting yourself apart from other applicants:
Colleges use statements of purpose or admission essays tounderstand the applicant. Writing a powerful admission essay is essential to stand out among the competition.
As more and more students apply for admission to multiple colleges using the Internet and common applications, colleges are inundated with more applications than ever before. Some colleges see as many as twenty-thousand applicants for as few as two-thousand seats. Although grades and SAT scores help colleges to sort students in a general manner, the college admissions essay, sometimes called apersonal statement, is critical in admissions decisions.
As mentioned, the admission essay is often referred to as a personal statement because your goal is to give the reader an idea of what your personality, ideals, goals, and character traits are.
How your topic can convey your personality
Your choice of topic is extremely important if you want to convey certain personality or character traits through your essay. As mentioned in the following passage, your topic can be guided by the questions and guidelines of the school that you are applying to:
Admission essay topics are specifically designed to reveal aspects of the applicant’s character or experience to differentiate her from the masses. The topics are often very general in nature, but College Board reveals some trends that recur in application essay topics, including “you” questions and “creative” questions. “You” questions tend to focus on the applicant and their personal experience in a standard essay format, while “creative” questions invite the applicant to tell a specific story that reflects their experience using a narrative essay.Knowing the general idea of the essay question is important in developing a strategy to answer the question.
Sharing personal experiences
Here are some advice from a college blog on sharing your personal experiences:
It is very important to be really focused on the topic of the essay and not include all the incidents of your life in the essay. It will unnecessarily lengthen the essay and confuse the reader. So, it is very important to write your essay in a way that it will leave a long lasting impression on the reader.
The important thing here is that you stay on track with the essay topic and avoid getting carried away. Your goal is to share your personal experiences, but not to the extent that you share unnecessary or unrelated experiences that will just work against the quality of your essay. Instead of enumerating experiences or simply telling about the things you have experienced, show them through narratives, illustrations, and descriptions.
Just remember this tip:
It is very important to be really focused on the topic of the essay and not include all the incidents of your life in the essay. It will unnecessarily lengthen the essay and confuse the reader. So, it is very important to write your essay in a way that it will leave a long lasting impression on the reader.
Remember, the purpose of your college admission essay is to share why you make a good addition to the university or academic institution because of who you are, what you have done, and what your future plans are. You want to show the admissions committee that you, with your unique personality and individual flair, will enrich the college and help make it a better place.