What to write in college essay

The college entrance essay provides you with the greatest opportunity to distinguish yourself from your competition. And to show off the person behind the statistics. This student was admitted to Stanford University. In most conventional classrooms, we are taught to memorize material.

“Never use this word in any of your essays. It’s one of those words that nobody uses in conversation—ever—and yet it always seems to find its way into college essays.” I sent the comment to my colleagues and asked them to guess the word my student had used.

The first part of keeping your voice is writing like you talk. You’re going to have to fight the urge to “impress” your admission reader with the big words you’ve learned from your SAT practice. We’ve seen ‘em all, and we know both how they are commonly used and how they are commonly misused.

If certain words or phrases send the wrong message, you’ll want to change them before they get into the hands of an admission officer. When it comes to essay writing, your words are all you have. As with everything else in your application, make sure they represent you. That is, after all, what colleges are really looking for.