Seven Ways To Make Your College Essay Stand Out

Seven Ways To Make Your College Essay Stand Out It just depends on how you want to build your personal narrative, and what serves you best. College admissions boards want to see that you can compose a compelling, well-crafted essay. After four years of high school, you’re expected to be able to craft a clear and concise piece of writing that addresses a specific subject. I think the five paragraphs for an essay is more of a rule-of-thumb number that is easy to teach students when they are first learning to write. But I have a super-ninja, judo-mind trick I like to use to help motivate myself. However, toward the end of my time as a student, I made a breakthrough. I figured out how to not only write a great essay, I learned how to have fun while doing it. I know personally how boring writing an essay can be, and also, how hard it can be to write a good one. Honestly, throughout most of high school and college, I was a mediocre essay writer. Your teacher was just trying to make sure you understood how to write, not give you a rule you had to always obey. If you’re applying for a scholarship, research the scholarship provider. Many students will try to include complicated sentences and long words to make their paper sound more academic. The reader should never have to go through a sentence more than twice to find out its meaning. Yes â€" always use the appropriate terminology as this will get you marks, but before you use a term always be sure you know its meaning and how to use it correctly! But grades and scores are verifiable by having students submit final transcripts and test scores once the student enrolls. How can colleges be trusting without being naïve? You might want to reference those products in your essay. Don’t be afraid to let your strengths, challenges, and personal stories shine through in your essay! Scholarship and admissions committees love to see that you’re self-aware how you can improve as a person, or how you’ve grown because of your experiences. The answer is one page single spaced or two pages double spaced. Some students forget that proofreading work is essential! Proofreading your work allows you to get a feel of whether your essay reads well. Allowing others to take a look at your work gives them a chance to spot any areas which cause confusion. And most importantly, proofreading lets you check for any clumsy mistakes in your spelling, punctuation and grammar. You want the reader to gain a good overall impression of your essay, but this won't happen if you've left silly mistakes in. Model United Nations, often referred to as Model UN or MUN, is an extracurricular most commonly for high school students, but also available to college and middle school students. The distinction between information that is verified and verifiable is more subtle, but more important. There are more colleges that extend trust to applicants by allowing them to self-report grades and test scores rather than requiring an official transcript and score reports when they apply. Asking someone to read your finished essay will allow them to point out any confusions, inappropriate words or sentences that they feel could be made shorter. Model UN is a club for middle school, high school, or college students whose members simulate UN committees. If you're still unsure, drop by a meeting at your school to get a sense of what joining the club would be like. While this is a great way to get more information, it usually isn’t a very interactive experience. Now, depending on how you've setup your document your page count may vary slightly, but with Arial or Times New Roman 12 point font and conventional margins you should see similar results. 500 word essays are very common throughout middle and high school English curriculums, especially as book reports, or summaries of current events. You can easily check page count in word processors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs, but for a quick reference use our table below. It’s normal to feel unmotivated when writing an essay. I’m a writer, and honestly, I feel unmotivated to write all the time. If you’re applying to college, research the school. Understanding what makes the provider/college unique and what their motivations are, will allow you to incorporate that information in your essay. For example, many scholarships are funded by private companies that sell products.