Writing a College Admissions Essay

ownyourownfuture.com || Texas GEAR UP Writting A College Admissions Essay

Taking It Up a Notch: College Essay Checklist

Use this checklist to proof the excerpts from the essays that follow. Then use it to edit your own essays. You can also give the checklist to a friend and ask them to use it to proof your essay using these criteria.

1. _____The essay answers the prompt.

2. _____The essay is interesting, but not so personal that it makes the reader uncomfortable.

3. _____Spelling errors, grammar and slang terms have been corrected.

4. _____The tone of the essay is sincere, not flowery and self-promoting.

5. _____The essay is interesting and unique. It is not a formulaic essay.

6. _____The essay tells the reader about you, as an individual.

7. _____The essay shows what attributes you will bring to the college experience.

8. _____The essay states what you hope to learn from your college experience.

9. _____The essay uses various sentence structures and conventions.

10. _____The essay has a strong opening and conclusion. Transitions are smooth.

ownyourownfuture.com || Texas GEAR UP Writting A College Admissions Essay

Writing a College Admissions Essay

Worksheet - College Essay ImprovementS

Here are sample excerpts from college essays. Use the Taking It Up a Notch Checklist and give advice about how to improve each one. If the excerpt is already a good one, tell reasons why it should not be changed.

1. I was a superior, talented cheerleader all four years of high school. I spent a lot of time practicing and thinking about how to get out of the house anyway.

2. When I was in middle school, I wanted to be a vet, but now I’m not so sure. I know I’m interested in a scientific field, but I’m not sure which area I want to study. I hope I will find the answers in college.

3. When I go to college, I want to steady accounting and rad stuff like that. I’m pretty good at math and I want to make a lot of money.

4. I’m not going to say it was easy, I tried to run away severl times from an abusive family situation. Sometimes I sleep in cars and that makes it hard to study, but I am determined to better myself.

5. I pretty much have all the answers, and I plan to come to college to tell everyone about them.

6. What is a stupendous person like me doing to better myself and show everyone that I can be a scholarly, important, significant person in a world that badly needs to ameliorate poverty? I have been volunteering at the Food Pantry in our town for 5 years. I can see first-hand the problems that arise from poverty. I want to save the world from this.

7. My high school years have been an experience in “self-discovery”, and I suspect the next four will be a well. I want to know more about myself and I realize I don’t have all the answers. I’m 17 years old, and I have time to learn. College is another step in that process. It’s a step I’m ready to take on my life journey.

8. In my AP classes we have lots of discussions and I enjoy that. I like to think about ideas that other students submit and pose new ones. I always walk away with many thoughts racing in my head. I find it helps to organize my thoughts in graphic representations. It seems to be my learning style.

9. Every night I stare at the stars from my bedroom window and wonder what lies beyond the tiny world of my town. I want to travel and explore different places and meet people who are different from me. I’d like to learn another lan-guage and discover a culture that is vastly different from mine. I’m not sure where my wandering will take me, but I know that college will open many doors to my future.

10. Please please accept me at this college. I want o go there because my friends are there and they say it is a wild place to be. Of course I plan to study and get a degree, but I hope that won’t take all my time. I’m interested in living in an apartment and being independent from my family. Even if they are paying for my college, I want to be able to make my own decisions.