<p>"The best college essays I've ever read are well-written, light-hearted, inadvertently self-descriptive, and about quirky things (fears, experiences, etc). You want to show your personality in your writing instead of outright TELLING them what you're like."</p>
<p>^ exactly............</p>
<p>Many things go into making an essay brilliant( these points are not in any order of importance:)):
1. grammar - simple and oft repeated grammatical mistakes in an essay will make your essay a horrible read.
2. choice of words - right words should be used at the right places, synonyms wont do.
3. writing style - no fixed rule. Whatever comes naturally to you. However, forced writes SUCK.
4. topic - if you want to write a "safe" essay, then a "typical" essay works out just fine. Some "typical" essays that I've read were BRILLIANT. It all depends on how you present your topic, and the above 3 points.</p>
<p>When I wrote my essays, I flipped through Harry Bauld's book. My school's college counselor recommended it. I thought it gave me a pretty good feel of what college app essays should be like.
Any topic is okay, really! As long as you were able to show a lot about yourself.
Write about topics that would represent you. You have to put feeling into it to make it unique, make it something that only you can write. The essays don't have to be fancy nor have a lot of hard vocab. Just be yourself.
I got into all the colleges I applied to, even my super reaches. I mainly wrote about my experience .
Sometimes it good to have your friends read it, and ask them if they feel the essay represents you well.</p>
<p>Normally, it's best to focus more on you than anyone else.</p>
<p>Oh yeah. trying to make sure you don't have typos or glaring grammar errors in your essays.</p>
<p>It's certainly true that what you do with your topic is most important, and that a great essay can be written, with wonderful, telling, individual spin, on any of the overused topics mentioned above.</p>
<p>Just bear in mind that the first reader for your essay is still likely to experience at least a moment of "oh, no, not another grandma essay," when she or he first starts reading. It takes a really gifted writer to win an audience back - be sure you're that writer, if you're going to take that path.</p>
<p>"Why I like diversity"...I mean, what college would want someone who's a white supremacist? Of course you like diversity. Don't write about that unless you can make the essay really interesting/unique, or if that's actually the college's prompt lol.</p>
<p>I've heard "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Atticus Finch are overused to a great degree (according to adcom at UNC).</p>
<p>LOL. I wrote a small widget about how my grandpa died of cancer, and got into UCLA haha. Not saying you should do that, because after reading this thread, I realize it may not have been a good idea. (I didn't know at the time)</p>
<p>But I think it was my second essay that set me apart. I'm pretty sure that no one would have imagined writing anything like it. It was, IMO, two common topics, merged into one essay in a pretty cool way.</p>
<p>A couple of years ago, Reed College shared several college application essays from their incoming freshman class in their quarterly magazine. They also included a brief essay by Harry Bauld entitled "What to say in a College Admission Essay". As the magazine editors state, these essays touch on a variety of subjects. But they have this much in common: they are all intensely personal. Here is the link: Reed</a> Magazine: My Essay</p>
<p>do u always have to abide by wat the college app's ask for?</p>
<p>it's simple: don't write about something that you think lots of other people will write about.</p>
<p>this is easier than you think. use experiences that are completely unique to you.</p>
<p>the ones you always hear not to write about are:
-death of a loved one
-sports
-travel
-community service
-why someone is an inspiration to you</p>
<p>i used mine to tell something about myself that didn't have to place to come through in the rest of the app. the essay is basically a chance to let them know something about you that they otherwise wouldn't. think of it that way.</p>
<p>ps. read this, it helped me a lot!</p>
<p>It's not the topic, it's what you do with the topic.</p>
<p>Virtually any topic can make for a personal, detailed, honest, and revealing college essay.</p>
<p>I've read personal, detailed, honest and revealing essays on pretty much every supposedly cliched topic listed in this and other threads.</p>
<p>It's not the topic, it's what you do with the topic.</p>
<p>I agree with all those (such as the poster above) who are saying "it's not the topic, it's what you do with the topic." I have a personal bone to pick with the vendetta against "cliched" essays because my primary essay was about a supposedly "cliche" topic, butI still got in to MIT (where I now go) and Stanford, among other schools. </p>
<p>To be specific, my primary essay was about what I learned from my dad suffering a life-threatening illness - a cliche in almost anyone's book. However, it did show that I was a good writer...and I think that was very important, given how elite schools emphasize communication. In retrospect, I'm not sure what it revealed about me besides my deep love for my family (a valuable trait, for sure, but not that relevant for college admissions I'd think), but apparently it didn't matter much in the long run.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, though, my other essays were more serious and (perhaps) more revealing about myself: my passion for bioengineering, why I founded a political club in my senior year, etc.</p>
<p>"I've heard "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Atticus Finch are overused to a great degree (according to adcom at UNC)."</p>
<p>oops. And we thought my daughter's essay was original! Well, I still think her take on it was - she wrote about when she was 9 and playing the role of Scout in the stage version of the show - and how hard it was to have to say the "n" word, which of course went against everything she'd been taught.</p>
<p>Sometimes essays are found in the most random places. I know a guy who wrote about a camping trip he had and he and his friends were saving a mango for themselves to eat when they got to the top. He ended up reflecting on how things can be so much better when you wait for them. He goes to Brown, so i guess that all worked out.
I know someone else who wrote about taking a walk through the city we live in and how cathartic it is...I know another girl who wrote about being an acrobat, another about swimming across an ocean.</p>
<p>All of these essays turned out to be stellar (All the people who wrote the essays I mentioned ended up going to Ivy league schools). Anyways, I just thought it would be a good illustration that you should look for essays in places you may not think of at first. The payoff will be spectacular.</p>
<p>i wrote about one of the most cliche things.. a sports injury. but i think i made it really reflective of myself by showing how rediuclous it was (i got the injury tripped over a curb). and yes i did the whole even though i couldnt walk i went on anyway and we got first. but instead of just doing that i went through my passion and involvement with cheerleading during HS. how we founded the competition squad ourselves without the schools funding or support and stuff like that. things that the adcoms wouldnt have known if i hadnt written about it.</p>
<p>"but instead of just doing that i went through my passion and involvement with cheerleading during HS"</p>
<p>Huh--I don't think talking about my "involvement" with high school cheerleaders would had made for good college application essays. </p>
<hr>
<p>Unfortunately, there is no magic formula as to what makes a good college application essay. Just apply the same rules as you would for any piece of writing. An essay is only typical if you make it sound typical. Trying to be too outlandish with your essay topic is a risk; it could certainly cost you.</p>
<p>What</a> You Don't Know Can Keep You Out of College - Don Dunbar - Penguin Group (USA)</p>
<p>This book (What you don't know can keep you out of college- by Don Dunbar) was incredibly helpful. Some of it's common sense, some of it's not. And it's a fast, easy read.</p>
<p>Write something you're passionate about, and write honestly. I wrote about my great-grandmothers death as part of my essay, because it was part of a particularly remarkable week during the summer of my Junior year. I think if you can write well about it, it isn't necessarily hands off.</p>
<p>The clothes you wear.</p>
<p>Not even kidding.</p>
<p>Rules of thumbs to follow:</p>
<h1>1) Do NOT write about religion (this goes for both sides). I've already seen a few cases of students with great grades, SAT's, and recs getting rejected from all their target schools because they wrote about religion.</h1>
<h1>2) Do NOT write about anything that is illegal. Even if it's a tiny thing, you will never know the reactions of the adcom readiing it.</h1>
<h1>3) Do not write about controvertial issues (abortion, gay marriage, etc,). Some can pull this one off, but it's very difficult to write and not offend some one on the opposite side of the spectrum (and the people who read your essay may be on that opposite side)</h1>
<p>There are THOUSANDS of other topics out there. Don't be stupid and take a chance that you may offend an admissions office rep.</p>