{"id":1018,"date":"2013-04-05t21:37:19","date_gmt":"2013-04-05t21:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/?p=1018"},"modified":"2015-04-15t22:54:02","modified_gmt":"2015-04-15t22:54:02","slug":"5-tips-to-writing-the-perfect-college-application-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-tips-to-writing-the-perfect-college-application-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"5 tips to writing the perfect college application essay"},"content":{"rendered":"

a guest post from our friends at grammarly.com–enjoy! \ud83d\ude42<\/strong><\/p>\n

for those of you studying for your sats, all the best, and remember, if you are not satisfied with your scores the first time round, you can take the test again. hurray for second (and third) chances, i say.<\/p>\n

what you don\u2019t get a second chance at though, is your college application essay. put yourself in the admissions officer\u2019s shoes, sitting at a desk, sifting through application after application, looking for something that is interesting and original. their job is to select students who will be the right fit for their college. your job is to write an essay that will convince them that that person is you.<\/p>\n

so how do you do that?<\/p>\n

as part of my work at automated online proofreader grammarly<\/a>, i spend a significant chunk of my time researching – both offline and online – how people write. one thing i\u2019ve noticed is that good writers understand who their target audience is. they write for a specific person or group of persons, and do some research before writing.<\/p>\n

here are five tips that will help your college application essay get noticed (in a good way), and boost your chances of getting accepted into the college of your choice.<\/p>\n

1. research, research, research.<\/h2>\n

find out more about the school you are applying to, not just through official channels – like the campus newspaper and the college\u2019s website – but also through informal means, like online student forums or student blogs. get a sense of what the college\u2019s culture is like, and what its student community cares about. this will be very useful background information to have when writing your essay.<\/p>\n

2. celebrate difference, embrace flaws.<\/h2>\n

playwright oscar wilde once said, \u201cbe yourself; everyone else is already taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

wise words indeed. of course, being yourself in a college essay setting isn\u2019t always easy. so think about showcasing who you are, not who you think the admissions officer wants you to be. ask yourself, what makes you different from your friends, your peers, your classmates? i\u2019m not suggesting you focus on your weak points in your essay, but that you highlight the things – your views, values, passions, interests – that make you unique.<\/p>\n

3. think like a movie director and story board your essay.<\/h2>\n

think of some of your favorite movies. now, imagine your essay is made up of a series of scenes in a movie. what scene should you begin with? the one where you first got off the plane to south africa as a high school exchange student? or the scene where, two months into your overseas study stint, you contracted malaria? your choice, but the sequence in which you tell your story is as important as the content of the story itself.<\/p>\n

4. be original, but avoid gimmicks.<\/h2>\n

while it\u2019s tempting to try to be inventive and creative in your college application essay, make sure you don\u2019t go overboard. you may love the idea of writing your essay as a series of tweets, but chances are, the person reading it may find it gimmicky and off-putting. so remember, don\u2019t let the form of your essay distract from the content.<\/p>\n

5. thoroughly proofread.<\/h2>\n

and regardless of what you choose to include in your admissions essay, remember that good grammar and error-free, accurate writing will give your essay an edge over shoddier pieces of work. make sure you thoroughly proofread your essay before sending it out. better still, get a relative or a friend to cast their eyes over your essay to offer a fresh perspective. or run your essay through proofreading software like grammarly<\/a> to help with those blind spots.<\/p>\n

all the best, and may you enjoy the journey ahead!<\/p>\n

by nikolas baron<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a guest post from our friends at grammarly.com–enjoy! \ud83d\ude42 for those of you studying for your sats, all the best, and remember, if you are not satisfied with your scores the first time round, you can take the test again. hurray for second (and third) chances, i say. what you don\u2019t get a second chance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[24880],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n5 tips to writing the perfect college application essay - magoosh blog | high school<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-tips-to-writing-the-perfect-college-application-essay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 tips to writing the perfect college application essay\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"a guest post from our friends at grammarly.com–enjoy! \ud83d\ude42 for those of you studying for your sats, all the best, and remember, if you are not satisfied with your scores the first time round, you can take the test again. hurray for second (and third) chances, i say. what you don\u2019t get a second chance […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-tips-to-writing-the-perfect-college-application-essay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"magoosh blog | high school\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/magooshsat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-05t21:37:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-15t22:54:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"guest author\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@magooshsat_act\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@magooshsat_act\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"guest author\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"article\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-tips-to-writing-the-perfect-college-application-essay\/#article\",\"ispartof\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-tips-to-writing-the-perfect-college-application-essay\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"guest author\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#\/schema\/person\/b7e6143cd1e3cc496347b662b343f0e4\"},\"headline\":\"5 tips to writing the perfect college application essay\",\"datepublished\":\"2013-04-05t21:37:19+00:00\",\"datemodified\":\"2015-04-15t22:54:02+00:00\",\"mainentityofpage\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-tips-to-writing-the-perfect-college-application-essay\/\"},\"wordcount\":639,\"commentcount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#organization\"},\"articlesection\":[\"college admissions\"],\"inlanguage\":\"en-us\",\"potentialaction\":[{\"@type\":\"commentaction\",\"name\":\"comment\",\"target\":[\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-tips-to-writing-the-perfect-college-application-essay\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"webpage\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-tips-to-writing-the-perfect-college-application-essay\/\",\"url\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-tips-to-writing-the-perfect-college-application-essay\/\",\"name\":\"5 tips to writing the perfect college application essay - 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