Common App Essays Summary

Common App  Essays Summary

 The common app essay is one   of the best opportunities the student has to give  an admissions officer a look into his mind..


 Now that we have discussed  all five common app essay prompts, Here is a brief summary of Dos and Dont's  for this.

Dos:

•  Be honest-  this  s not a creative writing assignment
•  Focus on your academic and intellectual aspirations 
• 
  
• Write simply  -  try to keep your  essay meaning ful and to the point. You have a 650 word limit, avoid unecessary descriptive  paragraphs
•   use the active voice
•   proofread - a single error gives the impression that you are not serious and  don't care - not the kind of student you want 
•  One idea is  to   phrase it as if you are writing for an  relative  who has not met you in a while
•  Keep your essay general. Don't write with just one university in mind as your audience. The same essay will  go to all the universities you apply to through the common app:  A good policy to   stick to your  interests and ambitions. You can  make your case for a particular school in their supplementary essays or interview.
•  Many of the prompts  have multiple parts. Usually the first is descriptive sand the subsequent parts are analytic.   Dont  omit to address the analytic  aspect in clarity.   When writing its a good idea to keep track of the word count  periodically 
•  eyeballs-   get other people to read your essay and  make sure it is a good representation  of you.

Some Don'ts:

• Use cliches- nothing loses a readers interest faster than a cliched story, Try to avoid these:
• family - every student has a family that  had a big influence on who they are.Chances are  Yours are not that special.
•  Asian students  often have a cliched "immigrant story - of generations of sacrifice so that 
•  the "hero" story.   Winning a big game or  delivering a great performance may have been an important event in your life but its unlike that  it impacted you intellectually or shaped your academic  mindset  which is what an admissions officer is looking for.write
• Don't try to copy  someone else's style.  This is both difficult and pretentious.
•  Loose track of the word count. 650 words is not a lot but its enough 

 The next   few sets of posts will focus on the and t supplementary essays. Iwill look at the options from several prominent schools  including the ivy league universities

 I  am also going to go through the list of  programs outside the common app that you may want to consider- the mos prominent being the University of Californis system.