Read These Top College Essay Examples

Read These Top College Essay Examples works as a high school English teacher at a school for students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. She graduated from The George Washington University with a Master’s Degree in Secondary Special Education and Transition Services in 2013. Talk to at least one adult about disclosing your disability in your college essay. Make a list of the keys to a good college essay, then list why they are important. A strongly written essay about a fight you had with your parent and how you solved the problem will be much better than a made-up story. All colleges take integrity and honesty very seriously. Any uncovered dishonesty would have serious consequences on your future. Anyway, writing about something due to of personal experience will be much easier than writing about something you have had to make-up. Whether writing is a strength of yours or a struggle, it is imperative that you start early on the process of writing your essay. It can be especially helpful to use a story or anecdote (just not, “I’ve had a Yale sweatshirt since I was 10”). If I had to assign the MVP of the college application essay, it would be the very first sentence. In addition, you are sharing something about yourself that is not anywhere else in your application. Finding a cure for cancer, saving the whales singlehandedly, or traveling abroad to build homes for orphans does not automatically make a great essay. That, combined with your desire to be on a large, rural campus with deep ties to the surrounding town â€" and work every job possible in a student run hotel â€" made you know Cornell was the school for you. This essay is about your relationship with the school, not solely the school itself. In fact, it’s really more about you than the college â€" how and why you will thrive there. To that end, use the space to explore why you’re a mutual fit. Do not focus on the things you cannot do or highlight your weaknesses. Acceptance into college is dependent on your strengths and academic abilities. Focus on your strengths for your college essay. Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. College essays, though not the most important thing, are very important in the application process. Trust that you are interesting and have powerful stories to tell. Do not make things up or use things that have happened to other people. To identify key ingredients of a good college essay. People think that students who get accepted into top colleges have to be extremely well-rounded and accomplished in multiple areas. There are supplementary essays for some schools, in addition to the common app essay, that are just 300 words or less. If you think about it, that’s only sentences or so. Admission committees will have just read through your application; the last thing they want to do is read another form of your information, achievements and extracurricular involvement. It’s all about the delivery, the reflection, the conversational tone, showing not telling that will make for a winning essay. The essay is one of the few things that you’ve got complete control over in the application process, especially by the time you’re in your senior year. Combining your larger reasons with the specific details paints a clear picture of why this is the right college for you. Use the details to ground the bigger-picture aspects of your story. For instance, if you’re applying to Cornell’s School of Hotel Management, you might describe how you’ve been collecting hotel brochures since you were a child in the hope of one day opening your own. Writing a good essay can take a long time and require several drafts. No one ever gets a piece of writing perfect on his or her first draft. You will need to be patient with yourself and give yourself plenty of time to take breaks, ask advice, and edit your essay. You may not always have a choice of your essay topic. However, you will always have a choice on exactly what you write about within the topic guidelines. Your passion about the topic will show through your writing and make your essay stronger. Your motivation to write will become stronger if you are excited about the topic. Discuss how your disability has made you the person you are today. Emphasize how it has made you stronger, think outside the box, or overcome adversity.