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WRITING A COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY
Your college application essay:
- will make you or break you!
- is scrutinized by every member of the admissions committee and savagely analyzed by each of them!
- doesn¡¯t really matter that much!
- is impossible to write!
- can help YOU become a more irresistible applicant!
Know which is the correct answer?
It's not A. While an application essay does sometimes serve as a "tipper" - tipping a borderline
applicant one way or the other? it probably won't "make you or break you." An extremely well-written
essay will certainly help you out, but at the same time it won't make up for a terrible high school
record. By the same token, unless you write an essay that the admissions committee absolutely can't
stand (which is easily avoidable if you let your English teacher and a couple of other people proofread
it), your essay probably won't be cause for a big black X on a basically great application.
B certainly isn't the answer, unless you're going to an extraordinarily small college (and even then,
they won't be savage). The admissions committee members are going to be way too tired, rushed, and busy
to ponder over every word in your essay, and they aren't going to be savage monsters. Theyll just be
trying to get an idea of who you are as a real person underneath all that paperwork.
C is definitely not true. While some of the biggest universities may not ask for essays, if the
college to which you are applying requires an essay, it's going to count for as much or almost as much
as the rest of the criteria do. As we've already mentioned, it's the one of the only ways that the
committee can really get to know you. (And you should always do your best on anything that's required of
you by the college - you'll obviously make a bad impression if you blow off any part of the application
as unimportant.)
If you thought D was the correct answer from your own personal experience, we are here to prove you
wrong and help you out, because...
... we believe E is the correct answer! No matter how great your grades, test scores, and
recommendation letters, no matter how numerous your awards and leadership positions, a well-written
essay can help you out by separating you from all the other applicants who can boast similar
qualifications. And if grades and scores don't happen to be your forte? Then the personal essay is your
chance to show the admissions board why you still deserve a place on their campus, despite a not-so-hot
resume.
So let's get started.
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