College Essay Tips – The Magic 7 Tips

College Essay Tip #1 Topic: what you know best.
For example, you had a tough time getting a summer job because of your young age. But because of your persistence, you got the job. Who knows better how you got the job than you do? Who knows more about what to say and how to act to get a job? Who knows more about what you learned from this experience than you do? (Answer: Persistence pays!) You're the expert, which is why it'll be a whole lot easier for you to communicate what you want to say. Read: your essay can be the easiest essay you write! By contrast, here’s a 2-minute video on the topics you should avoid, which is one of the most highly viewed videos on YouTube for college essay writing.

College Essay Tip #2 Keep your outlook simple. Let's say you're on a street corner and you witnessed a car crash; you were the only one who witnessed it, and a police officer asked you to write a description of what you saw. Why you? Because you are the expert in what you experienced in that brief moment of the car crash. So write about a brief moment in your life that had some positive impact on you; you are the expert on how that experience affected you. Using simple words also keeps it simple, so trash your thesaurus. And watch this video on the five most annoying college essay mistakes.

College Essay Tip #3 Your first sentence should be the most attention-grabbing. It’s assumed that 80% of all college application essays are a waste of time. Make your first sentence a "hook" - a surprise that gets the reader’s attention from the start. Here are some examples from my own students: "To succeed I needed to be in constant pain." (theme: dancing/ballet) "I was suddenly a spotted animal." (theme: paintball) "I was completely cut off from life as I knew it.” (theme: wilderness hiking) "I had nowhere to go but up." (theme: underachieving)

College Essay Tip #4 Read out loud what you write. Use your ears to hear what you're writing. Reading out loud gives you another sense of how the essay is moving, and you'll be able to tell if it sounds right or needs improvement immediately. Then get two teachers with a good reputation for writing to read your essay. Ask for comments and suggestions.

College Essay Tip #5 Length: not more than 500 words. The admissions reader will love you if you keep the essay under 500 words. The Common App now allows you to write more than 500 words. But with short attention spans in an admissions office, do you think colleges are excited that the Common App allows you to write more than they want to read? Less is more, or better stated, quality beats quantity every time. In this video contains what you need to make a great essay.

College Essay Tip #6 Be positive. My favorite college essay requirement comes from the College of William & Mary in Virginia where they suggest: "Surprise us!" What they're asking you to do is write something that's positive. Why? Like most colleges they're so used to reading the seven deadly topics they don't like. Not to write about these topics would be a huge surprise.

College Essay Tip #7 Write your college application essay early. Pick the topic about which you are an expert, jot down all the points in bullet format without any particular order, and let ‘er rip! Get it drafted, corrected and written before September 1 of the senior year. Awesome! About Paul Lloyd Hemphill Having once owned his own advertising agency, his twenty-five years of ad design and marketing experience qualifies him to use proven stealth strategies and techniques to get college-bound students into the right-fit colleges. His expertise shows you how to reposition your assets to qualify for the maximum in financial aid without using the cookie-cutter approach of refinancing your home.

College Essay Tips from Paul Lloyd Hemphill at PreCollegePrep

© 2009 Paul Hemphill