College Application Essays – Why They Are Crucial

Students who achieve high SAT scores and good grades tend to become complacent. They are convinced that these guarantee them admission into the college of their choice and pay scant attention to college application essays. Unfortunately fifty percent of the times they are proved wrong.  There are two reasons for this. High SAT scores and good grades seem to be entry level requirements. Hundreds, even thousands of students achieve these distinctions.

When an application is rejected both candidates and parents are shocked. They are confused as to why. Even admissions officers are at times in a quandary. They are faced with an application that qualifies is most respects. Unfortunately numerous applications qualify on a majority of counts.

In these situations the admissions officers fall back on something that distinguishes itself from others. Most often this distinguishing attribute is the applications essay. An excellent essay becomes the clinching factor.

Fortunately writing excellent essays is something that can be acquired. Here we give a few tips that will help you write application essays that will tip the odds in your favor.

Admissions officers are busy people. Do not force them to use a dictionary to try and understand what you have written. Try not to use words that are more than four characters long. This is not always possible. But when there is a smaller, simpler word avoid ones that are not used in daily speech. Use simple language.

Your paper should stand out in a crowd of essays. Make your paper appealing. If you want the admissions officer to sit up and take notice it has to be different. Use your creativity. And keep the interest going right through the paper.The admissions officer wants to know more about you. So write a little about yourself. Let the essay reveal your character and your personality. But be subtle while doing this. You should not be saying what an altruistic person you are. The reader should understand this about you from an experience that you narrate.

Be brief. In trying to be brief you consciously cut out the fluff. This way an admissions officer will not have to read through a sheaf of literature before your personality comes through. Do not use slang. The use of slang can be quite inappropriate.

Always write in the active voice. You could use passive voice verbs where absolutely necessary. But unrestrained use of passive voice verbs could make your admissions paper boring. Be critical of what you have written. It would be a good idea to ask others to read your essay. Tell them in advance what they should look for in the paper and what it that should come out easily and clearly.

Read your essay as many times as required. If required revise. While revising focus not just on simplicity and shortness of sentences, also focus of paragraph and sentence constructions. Make sure there is consistency between the paragraphs.

Make sure that your conclusion is well-built. If it is not an effective summary of all that you have said before rewrite it till it comes out as something that will make it outstanding and leave a positive impression with the reader.

There are hundreds of good application treatises. Go through a few to familiarize yourself with what an exceptional essay is. Prepare and practice sufficiently. That is the secret of winning application.