How to Help Your Rising Senior with College Admission Essays

Tips for Common App & Personal Insight Essays

Here are 5 tips to help college applicants write brief yet compelling narrative reflections. 

• Replace anxiety with enthusiasm. You’re an interesting young adult with hundreds of life stories to tell. Let the writing prompt choose you. If you have a particular story of mental or moral strength, these reflections make the reader sit up and take notice. 

• Understand ALL components of the prompt. Admission readers want to read unique perspectives on life and an informed self-awareness. Through "before-and-after" narrative moments, demonstrate a significant shift in awareness by illustrating how your mindset has evolved.

• Stay on topic and follow through. Highlight and use key phrases from the writing prompt as topic headings to organize your paragraphs— this way, when you veer off-topic, you’ll know it sooner and course correct, answering only what the prompt asks for.

• Make your writing personal and academic.  Use a brief but fitting quote from someone you admire-- a wise relative or favorite author in the conclusion, as if all the previous paragraphs are aiming toward this quote as the finale of your essay. A confident yet sincere tone is the key to connecting with your admissions reader.

• Revise. Revise. Revise. Have a trusted mentor or teacher read it and provide feedback.
  

Stress Less!

I founded Effective Admission Essay and designed our College Launchpad Program to nurture young adults with proactive mindsets. My academic strategies enable students to tackle complex learning tasks in manageable increments. With practical routines in place, student writing muscles and organizational skills are better conditioned to sustain collegiate coursework.  

EAE's Remote Edits help you get there!