Freshman Admissions

Freshman Admissions Then a small group of admissions officers will review each application, looking over the scores and coursework and reading the college application essays. Overly cheesy or overly sentimental college admission essays can be read as cliché and over the top. While a personal admission essay topic is often expected, make sure your essay doesn’t read like a sob story, which might be interpreted as the “admit me! A common mistake that students make when tackling their college essays is to pick the wrong topics. It's a huge turn off, for instance, when applicants write about their sports exploits or their pets. For students who are applying for college, one of the scariest parts of the admission process is writing the dreaded essay. This handout provides examples of college application essays and shows what admissions officers are looking for in an applicant. It may sound like a chore, and it will certainly take a substantial amount of work. But it's also a unique opportunity that can make a difference at decision time. Admissions committees put the most weight on your high school grades and your test scores . However, selective colleges receive applications from many worthy students with similar scores and gradesâ€"too many to admit. It’s 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 creates an amazing opportunity to stand out â€" but it also makes the pressure to write something great that much higher. Most students can agree that the college admission essay is one of the more stressful aspects of the college application process. But if you’re looking for someone to tell you that your essay is great as is and those six spelling errors are perfectly fine, well, you’ve come to the wrong place. We’d be mortified if a student of ours submitted essays with grammatical errors to college. In these times of cut-throat competition just good grades are not enough to get you into a valuable program in a prestigious college. What many undergrad school aspirants tend to ignore is the college admission essay component which could actually mean make-or-break situation as far as admissions to HBCU institutions go. So they use your essay, along with your letters of recommendation and extracurricular activities , to find out what sets you apart from the other talented candidates. The admissions officers are expecting you to celebrate yourself, to underline your strengths and personality, so they can make a quick, accurate judgment about you. At this stage in the college admissions essay writing process, you have considered the goals and psychology of the college admissions board. You have produced a list of ideas/attributes/details about yourself that colleges will find appealing. You have narrowed that list to the three or four most important ideas â€" the ones that will get you into your preferred college/university. However, you must demonstrate that you can read and follow directions. The admissions officers are looking for a reason to disregard candidates. Don’t let them reject you because you hastily overlooked a sentence in the essay prompt. Most students want the college admissions board to view them as responsible, dependable, and academically ambitious. These are excellent essay goals, but you should also consider the essay in relation to your classwork. If your classwork already shows that you are studious and determined , then you may want to highlight another feature of your personality. When you have compiled all the pieces of your application and sent it to the college/university of your dreams, all of your hard work gets placed in a pile with hundreds of other applications. Reading and answering the prompt may seem a bit obvious, but it’s often the obvious that people ignore. You should take the time to read and re-read the essay prompt, so you can answer it fully. Don’t be intimidated; unlike some college exams, the college application essay prompt is not designed to trick you. Secondly, it is preposterous to suggest that an independent college counselor should not address (and fix!) poor grammar or word choice. If a student makes a grammatical error, you bet we’re going to fix it. We would never allow a student to apply to colleges with grammatical errors in their admissions essays and any independent college counselor that did allow a student to do so, well, we’d argue they’re not any good. Now that doesn’t mean our students can’t submit fragments. It doesn’t mean our students can’t start sentences with “and” or “but.” We love it when our students write in a colloquial tone. We strongly suggest you not listen to this particular advice of Mark Sklarow, a man who has openly defied the very bylaws of the organization he leads. Well, for starters, who uses paper and pen these days?