{"id":576,"date":"2019-08-15T13:08:17","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T18:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/?p=576"},"modified":"2021-10-20T08:58:49","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T13:58:49","slug":"dont-write-a-college-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/dont-write-a-college-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t write a college essay&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"536\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/142\/2019\/08\/dont-write-a-college-essay-1024x536.jpg\" alt=\"writing a college essay\" class=\"wp-image-580\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/142\/2019\/08\/dont-write-a-college-essay-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/142\/2019\/08\/dont-write-a-college-essay-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/142\/2019\/08\/dont-write-a-college-essay-768x402.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/142\/2019\/08\/dont-write-a-college-essay-500x262.jpg 500w, https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/142\/2019\/08\/dont-write-a-college-essay.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2026tell a story. Or, if telling stories isn&#8217;t your thing, use your college essay to lay out a case for why you should be admitted. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This blog post is part of a series that will help you as you\napply to colleges. <strong>Today, I\u2019m giving you\nsome pointers on how to write a college essay that wows.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you late to the party and want to know what\u2019s going on? <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/helpful-advice-applying-to-college\/\">Start here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This post is relevant to you if it is the summer before your senior year or if you are currently in your senior year of high school. <\/strong>I don\u2019t recommend that juniors worry about their college essay yet, but if you&#8217;re a junior and want to get a head start, this will help with self-reflection and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/juniors-tips-to-know-before-applying\/\">get you in the right mindset to complete this essay<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Let&#8217;s write this college essay.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The trick to doing that is to reframe how you think about the college essay. Get in the mindset that this isn\u2019t the usual five-paragraph-essay you write in class. It\u2019ll be easier to write if you think of it as you telling a story or making a case for yourself instead.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2>1. Be strategic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The point of a\ncollege&nbsp;essay&nbsp;isn\u2019t to talk about your influential grandma or that\nawesome person you admire. You can include these people, but your focus should\nbe on giving admissions counselors a glimpse of who&nbsp;*<em>you*<\/em>&nbsp;are.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>**This is your only chance to use your authentic voice to tell us something about yourself that we can\u2019t read in your application materials. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>2. Set the scene<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If you\u2019re going the story route in your essay, be sure to include little details about the event, day or topic. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>What was the weather like? <\/li><li>Describe the smells, sounds and sights. <\/li><li>Were you scared, nervous or elated? <\/li><li>Talk about the people, place and things. For example, if there is a man in your story, tell us what he was wearing, if he was grumpy or pleasant or what age he appeared to be.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If\nstorytelling isn\u2019t your strong suit, and you decide to make the case for why\nyou should be admitted, you\u2019ll want to frame it as a persuasive essay.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Set the stage for the argument that you should be accepted right away in your first paragraph. Don\u2019t waste time beating around the bush.<\/li><li>Gather and lay out the facts and details that support why you should be accepted.<\/li><li>What do you bring to the table that admissions counselors can\u2019t see through the application materials you already submitted?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>**Regardless of what style or topic you choose, make this essay something that would make someone want to argue for admission on your behalf. What can you say that would inspire an admissions counselor to make the case that you should be admitted?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>3. Don\u2019t tell the story you think they want to hear <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Be honest. Be yourself. Be excited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Admissions counselors read hundreds of&nbsp;essays about volunteer work, athletics and extracurricular activities. After reading hundreds of similar&nbsp;essays over and over again, it can be tough not to glaze over. That\u2019s not to say that you can\u2019t write about these things as long as your personality shines through. But don\u2019t be afraid to move away from these common topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>4. Ditch the thesaurus<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t fall into the trap of trying to sound smart and \u201cacademic.\u201d You\u2019ll only end up losing your personality and the spark that makes you stand out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of your\nwriting as a conversation (one that avoids adverbs and slang). How often do you\ndrop a five-syllable word in conversation? What do you think of the people who\ndrop five-syllable words in conversations? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t be that person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>5. Make your point\nand reflect<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The story you tell or the case you\npresent has to have a purpose. If someone\nelse reads your essay, and then says, \u201cso, what?\u201d you\u2019ve missed the mark and\nyou need to add in some reflection. Be clear about the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>What did you learn?<\/li><li>How did you grow?<\/li><li>Why does this matter?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep these tips\nin mind as you write, and you\u2019ll have a college&nbsp;essay&nbsp;that stands out\nfrom all the rest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the next post in this series, we\u2019ll tackle some ways you can <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/tricks-to-help-manage-stress-and-stay-positive\/\">manage your own feelings of stress<\/a> and share some ways to keep positive throughout the college application process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2026tell a story. Or, if telling stories isn&#8217;t your thing, use your college essay to lay out a case for why you should be admitted. This blog post is part of a series that will help you as you apply &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/dont-write-a-college-essay\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[52,53],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1168,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions\/1168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}