From College Essay Guy: Three Mistakes Even Excellent Students Make on Their College Essays

Continuing from last week’s post about colleges with rolling admissions, College Essay Guy presents this week’s topic: Three Mistakes Even Excellent Students Make on Their College Essay. Without further ado, here is his post.

These are the things to avoid doing on your college essays next fall:

1. USING TOO MANY BIG WORDS.

Using the perfect big word in context is awesome. Here’s an example:

“Essentially, I chose to struggle through a problem if the solution involved speaking out against it. My diffidence was frustrating. My parents relied on me, the only one able to speak English, to guide them, and always anticipated the best from me.” (Nice. Subtle.)

But using big words just to impress the reader is not awesome. Example:

“My ignominious reticence persisted in obstructing me from attaining my foremost inclination.” (Say what? #tryingtoohard)

2. APPROACHING THE PERSONAL STATEMENT LIKE AN AP ENGLISH PAPER.

They’re different, both in aim and style. An AP English paper is a formal piece of analysis; a personal statement is a first-person piece of creative non-fiction. So make it personal. Use the word “I.”

3. FOCUSING ON WHAT “THEY” (THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS OFFICERS) WANT.

Who is this imaginary “they"? You can’t know. Trying to guess not only stresses you out, it shifts your focus away from your authentic experience (something you know) and onto what you imagine someone else might think of your experience (something you can never know). So don’t waste time guessing. Instead, write from the only perspective you really know: your own.

Click here for a free step by step process.

And if you’ve got more questions, feel free to contact me.

 NOTE: Part 2 of this post will be featured next week.