Decoding The College Essay

Decoding The College Essay It gives the reader a sense of expectation and excitement, without giving too much away from the beginning. Writers live by the rule of “in medias res,” or starting in the middle. The conclusion finishes off the whole essay by nodding towards what came before without being repetitive and summarizing the takeaway. The body is for your main points and narrative. She has a BA in English from Skidmore College and an MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers, where she studied poetry. Before earning her graduate degree, she attended the New York Summer Writers Institute, The Breadloaf Writers Conference, and the Five Powers of Poetry Conference for Teachers. The outline is not for writing perfect sentences but rather for putting your ideas in the right sequence. Make sure you arrange your thoughts so that they make sense and lead one into the other. Take a notebook and write a page or two on each of your possible subjects. Where were the ideas pouring out and where were they feeling stuck? Let this exercise be the compass that points you in the direction of your topic. Don’t use the word “I” to start sentences any more than is necessary. You don’t need to remind the reader at the start of each sentence. Demonstrate the synergy between yourself and the institution in response to the “Why do you want to come here? Reveal an awareness of instructional style and independent learning opportunities. In a 2007 Boston magazine article, Harry Lewis, former dean of Harvard College, drew a parallel between professional essay editing and hiring an imposter to sit for the SAT. “All this scribbling has almost nothing to do with whether the student gets in,” he wrote. For lots more information on applying to college, see the links on the next page. Did you know that Babson has a Writing Center on campus? Staffed by professors and peer consultants, it offers a supportive environment to practice and refine your writing. Discover schools with the programs and courses you’re interested in, and start learning today. According to Common Application’s own reporting, the application year saw 23.6% of respondents selecting Topic #5 and 22.5% selecting Topic #1. The Common App is also a great way to save time and money. Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution. Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it. Risa C. Doherty is a copy editor and education and parenting writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Working Mother and Boston Parents Paper, among others. Risk-taking is an interesting element of creative writing. Done well, it can lift your presentation from the mundane and safe to the provocative and insightful. We remain dedicated to serving you during these challenging times of COVID-19. is a published poet and a high school English teacher. Don’t worry about the word count until you have developed a complete draft. Word and character counts can be paralyzing if you allow them to dictate your approach to an essay topic. Then, take a step back in order to gain perspective. As you begin to edit and refine the idea, challenge your word choices. Are they essential to conveying the key messages? Doing so is unnecessarily redundant and can limit your ability to take a more expansive approach with your essay. Find creative solutions to conveying ownership of your thoughts. We’ll make sure you get the right guidance at the right time. Students use their grades and test scores to select where they apply. That means every college has a pool of applicants with similar grades and test scores. You don’t have to make changes based on everyone’s comments, but give them all some careful thought and try to imagine how the essay would look if you made each change. An introduction like this is colorful and intriguing.