When a student applies for college, most of the time they are asked to write a college application essay, also known as the admission application. This application will include so much information about the applicant such as name, email address, grades in previous subjects, etc.
This entire process can be a little intimidating. To save yourself a spot in the school of your dreams, you need to write an essay that will leave a great impression on the readers. Therefore, applicants must put in a lot of effort to get this essay done properly.
However, in the process, sometimes many applicants make mistakes that no matter how small they are, can heavily impact their chances of getting accepted.
In this article, Just For College has collected the most common mistakes made by applicants and how to avoid them. Keep reading to find out more.
1. Selecting the Wrong Topic
The topic you choose to write about is very important. It is the center of your entire story and choosing the wrong topic can cost you admission.
While choosing a topic, try not to choose a topic that is too broad. Such as “Anorexia”, or too narrow, such as “Instagram Influence on Girls’ Confidence”.
If you choose a topic that broad, then you get the chance to speak about a hundred different aspects, but you will not dig deep into any of its concepts. This could make your essay sound superficial and shallow. Your essay should be intriguing, the board of admission should want to discuss it after hours.
Sometimes, applicants do the opposite of choosing a topic that is too broad: choosing a topic that is too narrow!
Choosing a narrow topic is also a problem as it limits your resources and makes it very difficult to find information good enough to support your view.
How to Select the Right Topic:
To avoid this, choose any broad topic you want to talk about and then narrow it down to one aspect and start diving into it.
For example, if you are going to talk about “Anorexia”, you can add “ and its impact on the younger generation”. This way, you have a broad topic with a specific aspect that you will tackle and explain.
If you decide to go for a specific topic, then the first thing you should do is look online and check if you can find sufficient information to write a convincing argument. And if you find that the resources are too little, then you can try widening your scope a little.
For example, instead of writing about “Instagram”, write about “Social Media”. This will give you a little more space to write and include more aspects and arguments.
One thing that you should take into consideration is that you might need to write a 3,000-word essay, therefore you should choose a subject that interests you instead of something irrelevant.
2. Doing Insufficient Research
While doing your research, you might find yourself spacing out or getting distracted with anything irrelevant. This causes you to lose focus on details and the important information that you should keep track of.
Doing insufficient research also leads to writing down incorrect information, which can cost you the admission altogether.
How to Do Sufficient Research:
The first thing you should know about research, it is not only done online. There are plenty of other resources that you can use that can help you even more than online articles or videos. You can find reliable and sufficient information in magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias, and research magazines.
One other fatal mistake that you might make while researching: not organizing. You should always organize your research.
Here is the simplest way from Just For College : keep a notebook by your side. Write down the title of your essay and all the headlines you want to talk about underneath.
Then, do your research and when you come across an interesting point, write it down as well to add it to your research. By the end of the essay, read it to make sure you have all the information you need and that nothing is missing.
3. Writing Mistakes
Most of the mistakes that are made in essays are made during this last stage. The first thing that can go wrong is the introduction. While there is a lot that you want to talk about in your essay, the introduction is considered the hook of the essay.
When it is too boring or not engaging enough, the readers get bored and uninterested, you want to keep the readers excited to read more and more. Therefore, a hook in the intro is very important.
Writing vague thesis statements is also something that can cost you a few points. Your essay should be very clear, engaging, and thorough. This means that you need to leave some space for argument.
How to Avoid Writing Mistakes?
Your thesis statement should be clear on what you want to discuss and achieve through the essay, this means your essay cannot be too wordy or too complicated. Additionally, make sure to state your point of view as well as the points you will go through and explain throughout the essay.
While we are on the topic of making your thesis look awesome, you should always use an outline before you go ahead and start writing. Creating the outline gives you a sense of how the essay will look once it’s done.
It is recommended to always follow the structure of introduction > body > conclusion. In addition to using headlines to contour the general view of the essay.
Another fatal mistake you should avoid is summarizing your essay in the conclusion paragraph. The point of this paragraph is to leave the reader with a good impression and a small hint of what you have achieved in your essay. It does not need to be very long, it only needs to be simple and full of highlights from your essay.
4. Post-Writing Mistakes
A few things can go wrong after writing your essay. Therefore, ensure to leave some time for the work you need to do after you finish.
Some students cite their resources incorrectly, others forget to proofread and edit their grammatical and spelling mistakes. Any of those mistakes can heavily impact the applicants.
How to Avoid Post-Writing Mistakes
While citing the resources is considered a very simple part of the task, you should be very careful while reciting them, if you add the wrong resource, it can cause plagiarism allegations. On the other hand, proofreading the essay is essential.
So many great applicants lost points because of typos and wrong grammar. Therefore, proofreading your work once or twice after you are done is crucial, asking a professional to proofread and edit your essay is also a great option.
Pre-Submitting Checklist
Before you submit your application, here is a list of a few pointers you need to check to make sure you have fully covered everything:
- Thoroughly read the application directions and guidelines
- Proofread grammar and spelling mistakes
- Check plagiarism
- Make sure that you have a serious writing tone
- Check your curriculum requirements
- Check application due date
- Check the address you are sending the application to
Writing your college application essay could feel like a heavy burden sometimes, but it is something that you can do perfectly by following a few steps, taking your time, and having your whole plan ready before you start.
