{"id":1754,"date":"2014-05-21t09:00:16","date_gmt":"2014-05-21t09:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/?p=1754"},"modified":"2015-04-14t21:56:32","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14t21:56:32","slug":"5-college-admission-essay-mistakes-to-avoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-college-admission-essay-mistakes-to-avoid\/","title":{"rendered":"5 college admission essay mistakes to avoid"},"content":{"rendered":"

are you committing any of these college essay sins? our friends at university language services<\/a> are here to make sure you know what not to do when writing your college essays. enjoy!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

most students can agree that the college admission essay is one of the more stressful aspects of the college application process.<\/p>\n

it\u2019s the one part of the application where you can really show your personal self, your goals and your creativity. a good college admission essay topic<\/a> creates an amazing opportunity to stand out \u2013 but it also makes the pressure to write something great that much higher.<\/p>\n

there are some mistakes that consistently show up in college admission essays that should be avoided at all costs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

overusing sat words<\/h2>\n

while it\u2019s fantastic that you scored in the 90th percentile on the sat verbal, that doesn\u2019t mean you need to showcase your high-caliber vocabulary in your essay.<\/p>\n

first of all, make sure you fully understand and are correctly using any fancy sat words you throw into your essays. second, remember that a complicated vocabulary won\u2019t necessarily make for a better essay. too many long smart-sounding words will make an essay look clunky (and like you\u2019re trying too hard). sometimes simplicity is best and makes for a more powerful essay.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

overselling yourself<\/h2>\n

being too obviously aggressive in your essay can backfire. while you should definitely convey your enthusiasm, you don\u2019t want the admissions committee to read the subtext of your essay as a really basic sales pitch. you want your essay to stand out for other reasons than its bare-faced \u201cadmit me!!!!\u201d intensity. anyone can convey the \u201cadmit me!\u201d attitude, but your essay has to actually interest and engage the admissions committee to make them want to admit you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

using clich\u00e9s<\/h2>\n

you probably already know not to use clich\u00e9s in your college admission essay, but it\u2019s important to realize that we sometimes slip into clich\u00e9s in our writing without even realizing it. also, by clich\u00e9s i mean not only clich\u00e9d phrases, but also clich\u00e9d topics.<\/p>\n

overly cheesy or overly sentimental college admission essays can be read as clich\u00e9 and over the top. while a personal admission essay topic<\/a> is often expected, make sure your essay doesn\u2019t read like a sob story, which might be interpreted as the \u201cadmit me!\u201d oversell described above.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

losing sight of the prompt<\/h2>\n

when your creativity is sparked and your writing for a college admission essay<\/a> seems to simply flow out of you, it\u2019s a great feeling (and often makes for the best essays). unfortunately, this also leads to the danger of getting off topic.<\/p>\n

always keep the prompt in mind and make sure your essay as a whole consistently works toward addressing the prompt. you don\u2019t want to lose points because you lost focus and neglected to answer what the prompt asked of you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

forgetting to edit – and edit and edit …<\/h2>\n

editing college admission essays is obviously a must and seems like a \u201cduh\u201d tip, but it is definitely one worth repeating. your college admission essay is very important, so you don\u2019t want to let any typos slip through.<\/p>\n

since you may use one essay for multiple schools, proofreading also ensures that you don\u2019t mix up college\u2019s names in your essay! it has actually happened that a student applying to college sends \u201cuniversity x\u201d an essay saying how much they want to go to \u201cuniversity y\u201d \u2013 oops! editing \u2013 at least twice \u2013 will help you avoid embarrassing mistakes like these in your college admission essay.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

this post was written by alison at university language<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

are you committing any of these college essay sins? our friends at university language services are here to make sure you know what not to do when writing your college essays. enjoy! most students can agree that the college admission essay is one of the more stressful aspects of the college application process. it\u2019s the […]<\/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":[96],"ppma_author":[24880],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n5 college admission essay mistakes to avoid - 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-college-admission-essay-mistakes-to-avoid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 college admission essay mistakes to avoid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"are you committing any of these college essay sins? our friends at university language services are here to make sure you know what not to do when writing your college essays. enjoy! most students can agree that the college admission essay is one of the more stressful aspects of the college application process. it\u2019s the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-college-admission-essay-mistakes-to-avoid\/\" \/>\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=\"2014-05-21t09:00:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-14t21:56:32+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-college-admission-essay-mistakes-to-avoid\/#article\",\"ispartof\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-college-admission-essay-mistakes-to-avoid\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"guest author\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#\/schema\/person\/b7e6143cd1e3cc496347b662b343f0e4\"},\"headline\":\"5 college admission essay mistakes to avoid\",\"datepublished\":\"2014-05-21t09:00:16+00:00\",\"datemodified\":\"2015-04-14t21:56:32+00:00\",\"mainentityofpage\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-college-admission-essay-mistakes-to-avoid\/\"},\"wordcount\":620,\"commentcount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"admissions essay\"],\"articlesection\":[\"college admissions\"],\"inlanguage\":\"en-us\",\"potentialaction\":[{\"@type\":\"commentaction\",\"name\":\"comment\",\"target\":[\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-college-admission-essay-mistakes-to-avoid\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"webpage\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-college-admission-essay-mistakes-to-avoid\/\",\"url\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/college-admissions\/5-college-admission-essay-mistakes-to-avoid\/\",\"name\":\"5 college admission essay mistakes to avoid - 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