College Applications

The College Essay: Best Advice

by Aimee Weinstein*

Most seniors feel a huge amount of pressure when sitting down to write that college essay and staring at a blank screen.  While this is true for any writing assignment, it is particularly painful for students since the topic of the essay is very close to home: YOU.

Your job, in writing the essays for the college application – be it the Common App, a supplement for a school, or a school that has its own application – is to make your personality and ideas come alive on the page.  The admissions people are not going to read your essays unless the numbers on your GPA and test scores meet their minimums, so at the point they are looking at your written work, you have to make your application file stand out from the next kid’s file who most likely has similar numbers.  Why should they take you instead of the other guy? (more…)