Everyone has a degree they dream to pursue after graduating from a high school. As a college-bound student, you must look for a course that will help you grow and mold you to become a professional in the future. However, even if you choose a technical specialization and Math is your language of choice, you must be good with words – at least enough to impress admission officers with your essay.
Writing an admission essay is not as difficult as it might seem. Just be genuine and follow the tips below.
1. Check the Basic Requirements
Before you start writing, make sure you took in all the requirements. How many words should an admission essay contain? What are the dos and don’ts? Usually, the standard word count is 650 or less for an essay. However, you should still confirm the upper limit allowed, unless you want your brilliant but lengthy opus to be rejected on a technicality.
In case, you need some clarifications to make, be sure to approach the admission officers – it’s their job to answer your queries. If you know someone who has already submitted an admission essay to the same school, you may also seek help from this person and ask for some tips. Another place to look for examples might be a trusted . They are familiar with all standards and requirements and often have free samples from which you can learn.
2. Read the Prompt Carefully
Usually, there will be three to five options to choose from yet sometimes it’s a single question for every applicant. In any case, read the prompts very carefully. They might be deceivingly simple or have seemingly nothing to do with your degree or your qualities as a perfect candidate. This is the first test – you must be able to figure out how this casual question can be approached in a way that highlights your personality at its best without sounding arrogant and boasting.
One of the most popular questions is “Do you have a role model? Who is it and why?” This one works well because it shows what character traits applicant values highly and what he or she does to build them. This is a possibility to show your moral code (values), resolution (decision to follow a certain example), consistency (you’ve followed it for years), determination (you’ve overcome difficulties on this way), your ability to think critically about yourself (you admit it’s a work in progress), etc.
This can be done with every prompt if you read them carefully enough. Unravel them and see which one suits you the best.
3. Start Brainstorming
You may already have some ideas, but don’t stop at that and keep exploring. Brainstorming can help you to come up with some original ideas and perspectives leading to a truly unique essay. Don’t forget to include any past events, experiences, or lessons learned related to the course you wish to take or to your love for STEM in general.
Take time to recall as many relevant things as you can. It may seem a lot to share in your essay, but you should only pick one or two, so they’d better be good ones. That means you must have plenty to choose from.
4. Draft an Outline as Your Guide
Since you are aiming to get into a tech school, I assume planning is one of your strong sides and you appreciate the helpfulness of an outline. An outline is a blueprint for your future essay. Creating it will give you a sense of direction and general idea of how the finished work should look like.
Also, the outline is a way to ensure that you won’t forget to include important details. When you start writing, some things may slip your mind and good outline tackles this problem.
5. Start Writing the Essay
Once you have everything in place, start writing. It is advisable to write in the first person to keep your writing natural and personal. In admission essay, other forms could be used for effect, but you risk sounding melodramatic – after all, your essay is not a novel. If you want to add some drama better start with an anecdote, a flashback, or an unexpected humorous statement.
Keep your writing as natural as possible and stick as much as possible to your experiences – admission essay is about you, there’s no need to get too metaphysical. You should focus on the main topic and keep your essay straightforward.
6. Proofread and Revise if Needed
Naturally, you should always proofread your work before submitting it but with an admission essay, it’s all the more important. Do several rounds of edits: you can use grammar and spellchecker tools to assess the overall quality of your writing and then do manual proofreading. After that, you may want to ask a parent or a friend for their opinion. Does the essay sound like you? Does it highlight your best traits?
If you write an essay in your second language, you may also want to hire a native speaker to assess your admission essay.