The most important point of a college application essay is to boost the interest of the reader and make them want to know more.
Step 1: Things to consider before you start
Writing a college application essay is a bit different than writing an academic essay. Here, you are not asked to analyze other people’s opinions or compose yours by getting help from them. You’re not supposed to use references here.
Do's and don'ts of a college application essay
- Avoid complex sentences and complicated structures
- Look out for plagiarism, grammar mistakes, and typos
- Don't use an overly casual language and don't overstate the college
- Keep it simple and brief, and be specific
- Advertise your strenghts and rationalize your aim
- Proofread your paper and ask for opinion
Understanding the instructions
- 12-point font (preferably Times New Roman)
- 1 inch (2.54 cm margins on all sides)
- 1.5 lines spacing
College application essay best practices
- Read several examples of college application essays. Analyze their good and bad.
- Don’t rush into your essay and give yourself time to think about it.
- Prepare an outline before you start.
- Write multiple introductions and continue with the best one adter reading them all.
Pro tip
Be sincere, conclusive, and exact. Don’t understate or overstate yourself.Once again, you don’t need to use any references. Simply focus on the best practices above.
Step 2: Create a flow and tell a story
Therefore, make sure to structure your essay either in a form from specific to general or vice versa. This way, your essay will be much easier to read and understand.
Step 3: Use your time wisely
Remember writing multiple introduction paragraphs, maybe even the whole essay. Following the tips below will definitely help you out:
- Write multiple intros, take a break, self-evaluate your written intros and pick up the best one
- Write several essays with different storylines to the same intro that you’ve picked
- Re-read, evaluate, and compare your essays with successful examples
- Ask for opinions and let others help if you need
Step 4: Analyze introduction, body, and conclusion samples
College application essay introduction
The first paragraph of your essay should be the introduction. In this part, you are expected to introduce yourself, your educational background and professional experiences.
College application essay introduction example
As a mechanical engineering student candidate, other than my time in class, I had my most productive hours during my extracurricular work in the school’s mechanical laboratory. Introduction: Introduce yourself in a subtle way by talking about your potential major etc. After my junior year, I participated in extracurricular activities for three years until I was graduated and mostly practiced 3D design by CAD. Background: State your educational background. Honestly, I owe a good part of my good grades in mathematics and physics classes to my 3D design practices. Experiences: Lastly, state your professional experiences related to your field.
College application essay introduction example 2
Engineering is a concept that covers a quite wide range of topics such as chemistry, mechanical, electric, and nano-technology. Hook: Intrigue the reader with a general concept without giving personal information. Being an engineer does not only mean successfully completing a set of courses. Instead, an engineer should be passionate about science, mathematics, optimization, and so on. Personal opinion: Present your insight about the field which is you are also related. In my case, I have always liked to design and build basic machinery out of different parts that were available to me. Personal experience: Talk about your experiences in the field.
These two examples of an introduction explain the reader the structure of your story and essay. In this case, it should be either from general to specific or specific to general.
College application essay body paragraphs
In the body paragraph of your essay, you’re expected to open your story up and give some details such as your educational background and/or professional experiences.
College application essay body example
As a result of my interest in design and inventions, I discovered my engineering interest while I was in high school. Topic sentence: This will define the topic of your paragraph. I had extensive engineering research and actually completed a term-project on engineering branches. At the same time, I was a freshman in high school. After I researched engineering branches, I decided to become a mechanical engineer and started to concentrate on science classes. Experiences: You state your academic and professional experiences and continue further.
Pro tip
This essay is neither a resume nor a user guide for you. Therefore, instead of just listing the courses you succeeded in, talk about your experiences while you succeed in your academic and professional career.College application essay conclusion
As you’d easily guess, the conclusion is the part where you wrap up your story. The most important thing to keep in mind here is not to fall into repetition.
College application essay conclusion example
After all, by studying mechanical engineering, I have accomplished one of the goals in my life. I discovered my talent and interest early, which helped me create a dream and pursue it. My hard work brought success, and I studied in the top-ranking college of the state. Details of my success in my college studies could be found in my attached transcript. Summary: Summarize the main points of your application essay, emphasize your success once again. I believe that my success distinguishes me from other applicants and makes me a strong candidate for the applied position. I look forward to studying in your college in the mechanical engineering department and further proving myself and providing benefit for the future of the earth. Final sentences:Finish the conclusion by stating your motivation and with a memorable line.
Rule of thumb
Paraphrasing your statements and briefly talking about your future plans is a good idea for the conclusion paragraph.Step 5: Proofread and revise
A typo or a grammatical mistake like wrong tenses, capitalization, heading structure, English consistency, etc. would not be wanted after all this effort, right?
- Re-read your statement a couple of times
- Use a grammar checking software
- Ask for opinion and help from the others
Frequently Asked Questions
Thank you for reading. If you need further information, feel free to have a look at our essay samples or contact us at live chat.
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