The College Admission Essay Format
Admission essays are important for all applicants. They should be brief, and highlight the writer’s personality within their desired field of study. In other words, you have to write a perfect essay that is personal, strong, and focused. You should write about your future plans and how the institution you are applying to will help you to get there. Write about what you studied in high school, your extracurricular activities, and how the college you’re applying to can help you to reach your future goals.
The Mechanics of the College Admission Essay
This essay should incorporate both formal and informal language. Basically, it shouldn’t sound like you cracked open the thesaurus to make your college admissions essay sound smarter. It should also adhere to formal MLA writing style. Your message is important but it’s also important that your essay is presented and delivered properly.
The Admission Essay
Your admission essay should be succinct and focused NOT long-winded and tedious. Five paragraphs are usually enough for a complete college admissions essay. The purpose has to be introduced, the argument supported, and the purpose restated and summarized nicely at the end.
Page Formatting
Along the bottom, top, and sides of the page, you should have 1-inch margins. Additionally, each paragraph should be indented 5 spaces, which is equivalent to one TAB button hit. The font style and size should be Times New Roman and size 12 while your text should be double-spaced. Adhering to all these guidelines will help your admissions essay look polished and give the committee the impression that you’re a serious candidate for their college or university.
Style
An admissions essay should be written in the first-person since you are writing about yourself and your goals. Check your essay to make sure that you have used first-person consistently throughout the text. Not having a consistent perspective will make your essay look sloppy and will not leave a good, lasting impression on your admissions committee. Additionally, you should also use active voice as much as possible throughout your text since it speaks more firmly and confidently about who you are as a candidate than passive voice.
Don’t Forget About Grammar
The perfect paper is never accomplished by spellcheck alone. You should reread your admissions essay several times as well as invite others to do so as well. Even if you’re a great editor, another set of eyes can help you to see errors that you otherwise would have overlooked. Grammar help aids can also help you to remember punctuation use and simple rules. Your essay should positively represent you so don’t let careless grammar errors ruin your chances of being accepted into your college of choice.
In conclusion, it’s important to stay focused at all times on what you are trying to say. Your paper has to respect MLA guidelines while paying close attention to presentation. Don’t let avoidable writing or grammar mistakes get in the way of being admitted to your dream college and carefully comb through your college admissions essay several times.