<p>In the past few weeks, I've had the chance to look over and critique 15-20 essays written by College Confidential posters. Though each essay was unique in its own way, I saw the same issues repeated over and over in most of them. Perhaps you'll find the suggestions below helpful for your own essay.</p>
<p>1: Don't make your paragraphs too long! If any one of them is above 125 words, consider splitting it into two (or even three) different sections. </p>
<p>2: Watch your adverb usage. Though words like "suddenly," "quickly" and "very" can be tempting to use, you'd do much better to replace them with detailed, specific terms that add more to the essay. (For example: instead of saying, "it was very hot," you could say "sweat dripped down my arms and onto the boardwalk.") </p>
<p>3: If any sections of your essay are vague, replace them with specific, concrete details. Instead of just saying "I liked my college visit," or "I do a number of things after school," explain just WHY you liked the visit, or elaborate on your extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>4: Stuffing SAT vocabulary words into your essay isn't going to impress the admissions reader, nor is a sentence like "the egregious fallacy of Hamlet captivated my sublime passion for sound boards" going to add to the essay. Focus on clarity, not vocabulary words. </p>
<p>5: Avoid repetition. Find synonyms for words you tend to overuse. </p>
<p>6 (and most important): Continually ask yourself: "What is the meaning? What point am I trying to make here?" If your essay doesn't have a message to it, or if you just ramble on without a reason for choosing that topic, the admissions reader is going to be bored, confused and irritated with you.</p>
<p>As I say at the end of all my critiques: hope this helped!</p>