Crafting An Unforgettable College Essay

Crafting An Unforgettable College Essay Sign up now and we guarantee you'll finish all of your essays by mid-September so you can focus on academics and activities during senior year. Once you’ve hooked the reader, switch gears a little to set up the essay in a way appropriate for an introduction. The introduction needs to set up the whole essay. This is the opportunity to show admissions officers who you are, how you express yourself, and what distinctive qualities you’ll add to the student body. Writing an effective persuasive essay requires research, organization, and passion. Our quick tips will help you make a convincing case for your readers. 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. We asked the admission staff to select some of their favorite essays. We hope they will provide inspiration as you craft your stories. Since 2016, I have worked as a high school English tutor, theatre educator, and freelance journalist. Prompt connects students with a team of professional playwrights, authors, journalists, and educators who are only available through our network. Students applying to highly competitive universities (Ivy and Ivy-equivalent) face tough competition. Compelling essays will help you distinguish yourself. Students sign up with Prompt and start with a strategy session to figure out what they can still do to improve their experiences for their essays. Essays that become travelogues or resume narratives have little value to the reader and are wasted space. Admissions officers are seeking students who are purposeful in their pursuits when choosing among highly talented students. They see a ton of candidates who are drawn by the fame or prestige of their institutionsâ€"who are simply applying to see if they can get in. Such candidates, regardless of their credentials, are not very compelling and are easily dismissed. I graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern University's theatre and creative writing programs. I'm a playwright, editor, and writing teacher with a focus on arts education. I got my MFA at UT Austin as a Michener Fellow, a program for young writers that accepts less than one percent of applicants. 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? An essay that is presented in a few long paragraphs is not only hard to readâ€"the resulting word “blocks” can be overwhelming to tired eyesâ€"it effectively obscures the author’s key messages. Admission officers want to get past the facts of your application to better understand how you think. How do you process information about yourself and the world around you? Your essay should reveal how and why have they shaped you. College professors don’t want to have to teach you how to write. From a technical point of view, then, your essay should reveal that you have good command of the language, understand the rules of grammar and can convey ideas concisely. College essays, however, are arguably the most challengingâ€"and, potentially paralyzingâ€"assignments you will face during your senior year. It should establish for the reader a sense of expectation for what’s to come without giving it all away. 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? Let this exercise be the compass that points you in the direction of your topic. And rememberâ€"a one line, one sentence paragraph can be more impactful than a 3-4 sentence paragraph. Don’t restate information that can be found elsewhere in your application. This is your opportunity to provide insight and interpretation.