Writing a College Application essay

The prospect of writing a college admission essay is  fraught  with anxiety. This is
beca use this single  activity can make or  break your chances of making it to a
college of  your choice.  The  following tips are sugge sted  to ease the pain. 3 steps
are recommended:

1. Brainstorming

This step is a journey of self discovery whose aim is to bring to the fore your
accomplishments, strengths, struggles, victory over challenges, passions, adhering
philosophy and dreams. These are to be synthesized into distinguishing
attributes that can be presented in your essay to set you apart from the
hundreds of applicants. Below are some questions to guide you:
Are there some notable accomplishments in your life? These need not to
be  just  the  ones you’ve  been  recognized  for  but  even commonplace
stuff can be important if placed in the context of your life.

• Do you have any unique attribute
• Is there some challenging moments in your life that shaped your perspective?
• Consider struggles, victories and defeats. What was your response?
• What are your favorite books, movies and how have they influenced your life?
• What are you passionate about?
• What activities have you participated  in  that espouse values  sought out by the institution?
• What is your guiding principle?
• What are your long-term goals and how does the college fit into these?

Du ring this process,  you can  se ek in put  from  family, friend s and people who  know
you as  well as   reading sample admission essays.

2. Drafting your essay

Having gone through the brainstorming stage, you now have a better idea
of the elements you want to incorporate into your essay. Here are some
things to focus on and others to avoid

Focus on:

• Strength of personality and not on things you have done
• Finding patterns and connections; for example does your election as the editor for the high school magazine and your achievement at the state essay writing competition reflect on your passion for 
• Selec ting  a  topic  that  allows  you  to  combine  your  prominent personal  attributes and  qualities  into  a  sound   paper  while  addressing your aspiration  to be admitted into the particular institution.
• Provide evidence how you will fit into the institution’s environment. Avoid
• Repeating information provided elsewhere in your application 
• Jokes and being funny unless you must.
• Listing weaknesses unless you are willing to explain how they make you better suited for admission.
• Controversial topics unless you acknowledge counter arguments
• Topics that will turn off people
• Lying or trying to carve the image of supermanIt is prudent to allocate sufficient time for the 2 processes above.