120 College Essay Examples For 14 Schools + Expert Analysis

120 College Essay Examples For 14 Schools + Expert Analysis Doing so is unnecessarily redundant and can limit your ability to take a more expansive approach with your essay. Find creative solutions to conveying ownership of your thoughts. Don’t use the word “I” to start sentences any more than is necessary. You don’t need to remind the reader at the start of each sentence. Demonstrate the synergy between yourself and the institution in response to the “Why do you want to come here? You don’t have to make changes based on everyone’s comments, but give them all some careful thought and try to imagine how the essay would look if you made each change. An introduction like this is colorful and intriguing. It gives the reader a sense of expectation and excitement, without giving too much away from the beginning. Writers live by the rule of “in medias res,” or starting in the middle. Take a notebook and write a page or two on each of your possible subjects. Where were the ideas pouring out and where were they feeling stuck? The conclusion finishes off the whole essay by nodding towards what came before without being repetitive and summarizing the takeaway. The outline is not for writing perfect sentences but rather for putting your ideas in the right sequence. Make sure you arrange your thoughts so that they make sense and lead one into the other. Reveal an awareness of instructional style and independent learning opportunities. Risk-taking is an interesting element of creative writing. Done well, it can lift your presentation from the mundane and safe to the provocative and insightful. As I mentioned before, it’s best to start with brainstorming. Once you’ve followed the process I described and have a list of, say, topics, I recommend doing a bit of free writing for each. Now, it’s certainlypossiblethat you happen to be that guy, and I definitely encourage you to highlight any uncommon experience you’ve had on your essay. For instance, if you’ve climbed Mt. Everest or visited space or helped cure a rare disease, then yeah, you should probably mention that at some point. Finally, when you think you are finished with your essay, dare to make it great! First, attempt to reduce your word count by 10%. Doing so will force you to examine every word, thought and article of punctuation. Even if you are not able to reduce by 10%, making an honest attempt at it will make your essay better. icons new College Packing List Show up to your next semester ready for anything. Listen icons new The College Info Geek Podcast Learn how to be a more effective student, even while you're doing your laundry. Let this exercise be the compass that points you in the direction of your topic. I don’t think that originality should come at the expense of honesty. I’m not sure how else to put this, but there are some things best left unshared in your college app. From there, get out a piece of paper and start brainstorming ideas for each. Put down anything you can think of that might work as an essay. The more ideas, the better, as you often find your best ideas only after getting the obvious ones out of the way. If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Don’t worry about the word count until you have developed a complete draft. Word and character counts can be paralyzing if you allow them to dictate your approach to an essay topic. Then, take a step back in order to gain perspective. As you begin to edit and refine the idea, challenge your word choices. Are they essential to conveying the key messages?