How Long Should Your College Application Essay Be?

How Long Should Your College Application Essay Be? If those three adjectives reflect the message or self-portrait you intended to depict in your draft, then you are on the right track; if not, then you need to rethink your content. mentallyâ€"from your first effort, you might come back to find that those wonderful turns of phrase don’t really fit the content or tone of the rest of the piece. You’ll be better able to catch those inconsistencies and revise them if you’ve given yourself distance from the essay. Only after you’ve had a chance to review your essay carefully and put the finishing touches on it should you click the submit button. But unlike a story, an essay needs a main point that’s stated explicitly, so beyond describing the event or person, be sure to explain how that event or person changed you. Did you learn a skill you’ve used or would like to continue honing as an undergraduate? Did you learn an important lesson that has shaped how you think or behave in some way? Furthermore, avoid humor unless you are absolutely sure of it. What is funny to you may not be funny to someone else. A college admission essay doesn’t typically require a title unless it has been specifically mentioned in the instructions. Even after confirming that your essay is as close to perfect as it can get, you need to get it closer still. After rewriting the essay several times, keep it away. Both applications include essay prompts for your personal essay. In addition to the personal essay, we also require the Stanford Questions, which you can access in either application once you add Stanford University to your list of colleges. That’s fine in academic work when you’re being asked to argue in support of a position, but in a personal essay, you want to express more nuanced thinking and explore your own clashing emotions. Writing an admissions essay is a chance to break off the standard five-paragraph essay as this gives you a little room to wiggle around. However, just like a five-paragraph essay, you need to wrap it up using a neat conclusion. The language used in the writing of an application essay should be formal and professional. Avoid cutesy and colloquial formatting choices as they are unprofessional and immature. desire to go to a particular school all within just a few hundred words feels overwhelming. Or maybe you’re stressed because you know a lot rides on this part of your application but you don’t consider yourself a strong writer. When you apply to Stanford, you apply to the university as a whole, not to a particular major, department or school. We encourage you to indicate prospective majors and career interests in the application, but please know you are not bound by these selections in any way. Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, organization, or anything else. For help getting started, see our handout on brainstorming. THE EPIGRAPH Many essays start with a quote from another writer. When you have a limited amount of space, you don’t want to give precious real estate to someone else’s words. In school, you were probably encouraged to write papers that took a side. At the end of the essay, the question that was asked should have been answered fully and in detail. Afterward, take the time to think about it before brainstorming on the different ways to answer it. Another great trick is to ask your two reviewers to read your essay and then, considering the story you have shared, think of three adjectives to describe you. As you are telling your story, be honest, be yourself and do it in the most concise way you can. Before penning down a word of your admission essay, it is important that you understand the question and what it expects from you. You must submit the Stanford Questions online through the Coalition or Common Application. Our elite team of editing experts has helped thousands of academics, researchers, students, and business professionals improve their writing and achieve their goals. While revising and reworking the drafts is more of a “global” process, this step also includes changing phrases and fixing grammar, punctuation, and style errors in the work. Not everyone is a born writerâ€"in fact, pretty much no one is. Let it sit for a couple of hours untouched or even a whole day where the deadline isn’t close. After catching the new episode of that TV show you love or going a few chapters of the book you have been reading, go through your essay one more time. Correct any mistakes you find, but be sure not to rely on grammar and spelling checkers as they cannot put your words into context. Be sure to keep the focus of the essay narrow and personal. Don’t tell your whole life story, but tell enough of it to answer the question.