<p>Hi everyone!I am still a year away from writing those vital essays for my applications.I have been practicing,but I am still feeling uncertain of some of my writing.If anyone would be able to submit essays that have gotten them admitted to any college , I would highly appreciate it.My dream school is Georgetown so in the case that any of you are Hoyas it would be great to read your essays!:)None the less advice or tips that have given you success in your essay applications are things I would be very grateful to receive!
Thank you!</p>
<p>While I don’t feel quite comfortable enough sending out my exact essays, I can give you a few tips that helped me get into Stanford, UPenn, and NYU (and the like)…</p>
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<li><p>Think outside the box!!
Most students simply answer the question at hand, without thinking about how it comes across to the admissions officer. For example, one question Stanford asked this year was about an event that gave you great “intellectual vitality.” Most essays of my friends and others that I was fortunate enough to read were about special internships they were in or a class they took in high school that really stimulated them. I on the other hand decided to talk about how I created a mashup of Lady Gaga singles and tied it in to how it contributed to my intellectual vitality. I was the only student from my school who got into Stanford this year, and when I got a chance to talk to my admission officer, she said she LOVED my essay because it was so different, yet well written in a way that answered the prompt differently. That’s what admissions officers like to see, essays that aren’t just the run of the mill, but make them say “wow, I never thought of it that way.”</p></li>
<li><p>Make sure your essay sounds like you, not the dictionary.
Another thing a lot of students do is grab a thesaurus and pack their essay with as many million-dollar words as they can find. While you do come off as sounding like an educated, well-read student (which is good, don’t get me wrong), the admissions officers don’t really get a sense of who YOU are and what your voice is. When you write your essay you really want to make sure that you can hear yourself in your essay. Try reading your essay out loud to a friend or family member and see if it sounds like you’re talking to them about a personal experience or giving the State of the Union address. </p></li>
<li><p>Proofread. 1000 Times.
This is your one shot on impressing the college of your choice, so you want to make sure your presentation is flawless. Don’t just rely on Word’s spellcheck, read your essay through again and again looking at every word carefully to make sure things are correct. Once you’ve read through it enough, have someone else read it, usually there’s something that you’ve been constantly missing that they’ll pick up on in a heartbeat. It’s perfectly fine if one typo slips through or you accidentally use one of the wrong forms of “there,” the admissions officers understand that humans make mistakes, but they also understand that students who don’t care make more mistakes than students who do care.</p></li>
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