Application Essay

Application Essay What are the two or three things you, personally, MOST need from a college? This, by the way, is ALSO the reason nobody can do this work for you. And like the list of extra-curricular activities, it needs to be clear in the first sentence or two. I know many readers who read the first and last paragraphs and only go back if those are compelling. Otherwise, it’s a dime a dozen and the ratings are accordingly average. My point is that your energy should not be spent on selecting the topic. Ultimately, you’re the one who really knows your priorities and the things you most need in order to grow. Start by creating a ‘headline’ for each of your target schools. Summarize, in 1 or 2 sentences, what you think the unique fit is between yourself and the school. First, freewriting is cherished by almost all writers as one of the best ways to become unstuck and make discoveries, and also to force yourself to JUST WRITE SOMETHING. It doesn’t have to be good, like, at all. Your child doesn’t have to rescue a child from a house fire, get a million downloads for an app they developed or train seeing-eye dogs to impress admission officers. To check out her drafts and writing notes, click here. The idea I settled on was my Asian-American identity, but how I wrote about this broad idea really evolved through my drafts. I chose to write about it because it was so integral to my identity through my extracurriculars and my experiences growing up as an Asian immigrant in the American South. If you have to, you can even freewrite while you’re on the toilet . Free-writing is what it sounds like, writing freelyâ€"or “automatically.” Some people call it “stream of conscious” writing. Discover unusual topics, ideas and connections between events in your life. You may produce an essay or many, even against your will. You might start to really like writing and want to not stop doing it. From my 30-year career in higher education, I’ve compiled these tips to share with your student. The $2,000 “No Essay” Scholarship is an easy scholarship with no essay required! The scholarship can be used to cover tuition, housing, books, or any education-related expenses. The monthly winner will be determined by random drawing and then contacted directly and announced in Niche's e-newsletter and on the Scholarship Winners page. You can apply once each month, with a new winner selected every month. Beyond the hook, you will want a successful thesis statement that you work into your introduction to establish your main idea which will run throughout the essay. Specificity, clarity, and brevity are your keys. George Orwell’s Politics and the English Languageis my personal guide to thinking about writing. The theoretical foundation he lays in this piece â€" about the importance of language, including writing, in shaping how we are capable of thinking â€" he later built upon in 1984. Knowing the topic won’t differentiate you, it has to be something else, right? Since I don’t work for the schools he’s applying to, I told him to research their websites, social media, and literature and pay attention to themes, key messages, and mission statements. At Tech we focus on our motto of Progress and Service and improving the human condition. Action taken, related it back to your own experience. This is what I’d consider “bare minimum” for making a solid point as to why you and a school are a good fit. Instead, make a few well chosen points and back them up. Once you figure out which question you want to answer, meaning you really have something to say or you’re somewhat excited to respond, start writing. Students applying to us will see questions along those lines, or should be astute enough to find opportunities to provide connections to those concepts. Every school has these, you just have to dig deeper at some places. Then we talked about his supplemental responses. My poem told my story, beginning with rosy-cheeked five-year-old me landing in America on a snowy night and rubbing my eyes in awe of the whiteness covering the new world. Then, as an excited six-year-old starting school, I became self-conscious of how different I was when an intrepid boy welcomed me, “Ni Hao,” his butchered pronunciation tinged with contempt. When I was eleven and received a 100 on a math test, my pride and hard work were stomped on by my classmates exclaiming, “It’s because you’re Asian! ” At thirteen, I was caught between my Peranakan roots and American upbringing, unable to understand the idea of being both Asian and American. After a decade of living in America, I don’t understand why I’m still a foreigner.