Tips For Writing Your College Application Essay

Tips For Writing Your College Application Essay Avoid using slang, scientific phrases, uncommon foreign phrases, other hard-to-decipher language and profanity. If you speak from the heart, it will show, and your essay will flow more easily. Choosing something you’ve experienced will also give you the vivid and specific details needed in your essay. Admissions committees are looking for an in-depth essay. When you go on to analyze and evaluate what you learned in the process, you will showcase what you care about and value, as well as your ability to learn and grow. And you will make sure your essay is engaging at the start by using an anecdote. From my 30-year career in higher education, I’ve compiled these tips to share with your student. Try to be in a place where you will not be interrupted. Many a great piece of writing has begun behind a locked bathroom door. Pick a time you’ll stick to â€" maybe a on a commute, maybe first thing when you wake up, even if you think your brain is not really functioning . Write about a play that helped shape who you are. Write about how you love to explore certain museum exhibits on the weekend if indeed that is your pastime and write why you like to visit these exhibits. For example, the word “completed” has many good synonyms including “concluded” and “ended.” However, don’t use words that are super fancy either, just for the sake of using them. It’s best to write in your own voice and be conversational. You will ensure it’s personal by including a real-life story and sharing your feelings. As long as your anecdote or personal story includes some type of problem, you will show your grit. Now, you can either get cranking and learn how to crank out all these steps, or read on to see exactly how and why this approach works. Weave in other examples from your life where you have applied what your learned. To learn how to develop each stepâ€"and flesh it out into cohesive ideas and paragraphsâ€"click on the underscored links to find and read related posts on each topic. Ye Luo became withdrawn and discouraged, and he was failing in school. Many first-to-college kids don't realize they have stories that colleges want to hear. So rather than say you love learning, write about a character in a book who made you think differently. Write about a science research project that changed how you view science. Cover too many topics in your essay, and you’ll end up with a list. Gray Matters David Nathan, Nick Accrocco, for the Houston Chronicle There are many good colleges. These are the kinds of things colleges want to know,'” says Urrutia Gedney. As a Chinese person in Panama, he never felt that he fit in. “Kids made fun of me because I was a Chinese kid who could only speak Spanish,” he says. His family was very poor and lived in a cramped, one-room apartment. They shared a bathroom and kitchen with other tenants. On one area, however, Sklarow agreed with the essay coaches -- there is a great danger of all the problems with essay coaches taking place with parents and family friends. Narrow your focus so that all of the examples you include support your answer to the prompt. Content or stories that do not do this run the risk of distracting the reader and lessening the impact of your central theme. Concrete examples and active descriptions also “show” your story rather than just “telling” it. Cabrini University is a Catholic, liberal-arts university dedicated to academic excellence, leadership development, and a commitment to social justice. Each step makes sure that you share information about yourself that will make your essayeffective and help you stand out from the competition. “It allowed me to understand the student on a wholly different level,” she said. “We listen to their experiences and give them feedback,” says Urrutia Gedney. If you express how you intend to use what you learned in your future goals and dreams, you will present yourself as someone who is forward-thinking, ambitious and idealistic. If you include Step Two in your essay, you will make sure to reveal how you think and reason and what you value when you share what you thought about and how you handled your problem.

College Essay Essentials

College Essay Essentials A storyteller sizes up an audience and bends her/his story to the attentions of those present. A storyteller never tells the same story the same way. Or better yet, a storyteller never tells the same story. Don’t just write about what you’re comfortable with, but don’t take a risk that might swallow the essay whole. CollegeandSeminary.com is dedicated to helping you find the right school, get accepted and create a life and career you love. If you include Step Three in your essay, you will reveal how you are able to take a life lesson beyond how it affected you, as well as your ability to think critically and reflectively. If you include Step Two in your essay, you will make sure to reveal how you think and reason and what you value when you share what you thought about and how you handled your problem. Framing your essay around this setup will help you make a strong first impression, and one that is organic, personal, and authentic. An admissions essay is not an opening statement in a debate tournament, nor is it a litany of personal accomplishments. Colleges are bargaining like never before, as they scramble to entice qualified students to enroll in order to replace lost revenue from (full-paying) international students. There is an important distinction between telling a story and being a storyteller. Anyone can tell a story, but only a true storyteller can pull a captivating narrative out of the most mundane parts of life. A storyteller is equal parts collector and sharer, observer and raconteur. A storyteller absorbs the sensations and the happenings of life, and then shapes them into narrative objects of various sizesâ€"here a tall-tale, there a parable, here a quip and there an epic. The best way to approach the admissions essay is to see it as a first conversation. To make a great impression, what would you talk about? What about yourself would you be willing to share honestly? What kind of language are you most comfortable using? The Residential College System and undergraduate life is heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural tradition each student brings. What life perspectives would you contribute to the Rice community? Students enrolled in concurrent high school and college courses are considered first-year candidates. Application and qualifying information can be found at QuestBridge.org. When you go on to analyze and evaluate what you learned in the process, you will showcase what you care about and value, as well as your ability to learn and grow. Last week, the Department of Justice charged 50 people in schemes to pay for positions for their children at top universities across the country. It was called the, “largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted,” but it doesn’t paint the whole picture. Share your thoughts on how you’ve changed or grown.Be introspective, but don’t equate going “deep” with sharing your most depressing stories about being lonely or left out or not fitting in. You don’t want to present yourself as a mental health risk to a college admissions person. David was accepted at his first-choice school and we did indeed receive a very generous aid award, with no student loans required first year. While we should have listened to your advice regarding early decision, we were pleased with the increase in financial aid afforded to us. We look forward to your counsel in the years ahead for all three of our college bound children. I would like to thank Andy and his staff, and provide affirmation that Andy’s program works and is proven to be successful. Entering into our journey regarding how we will possibly be able to fund an annual expense of $30K plus is an overwhelming mental experience. And most importantly, what do you want to know about your interlocutor? Where can there be space in the conversation not only for your own curiosity, but also for the curiosity of the other speaker? That knowledge, coupled with his excellent programs for test prep, essay workshops, etc. were invaluable and made the entire process bearable. Hopefully we will be as successful with our youngest. Transcripts will not be accepted by fax or email. Rice is lauded for creating a collaborative atmosphere that enhances the quality of life for all members of our campus community.

College Admissions Guide

College Admissions Guide For instance, if you’ve climbed Mt. Everest or visited space or helped cure a rare disease, then yeah, you should probably mention that at some point. I’m not sure how else to put this, but there are some things best left unshared in your college app. In fact, the common appsuggested essay word limit is actually just 650 words. These applications are due Nov. 30th but try to get them submitted a week or two early. Remember, the UC applications are a separate system than the Common Application. From there, get out a piece of paper and start brainstorming ideas for each. Put down anything you can think of that might work as an essay. The more ideas, the better, as you often find your best ideas only after getting the obvious ones out of the way. It’s great to be engaged in activist work, but show yourself doing the work rather than using your essay as a platform to make your case. “That was the day I learned how important it is to be kind to everyone.” You just stabbed me in the heart with stupor. As I mentioned before, it’s best to start with brainstorming. Once you’ve followed the process I described and have a list of, say, topics, I recommend doing a bit of free writing for each. Now, it’s certainlypossiblethat you happen to be that guy, and I definitely encourage you to highlight any uncommon experience you’ve had on your essay. You only have 650 words for the Common App essay. You may “love” the words, but you need to be ruthless as an editor. I will help you craft an essay that is unique, well-written, and true to who you are. On Christmas 2010, the one person I was working hardest for disappeared from my life. Imagine this is the most important day of your life. My life is a series of intense fascinations, which I dive into headfirst. “â€"ington, party of thirty, your tables are ready,” announced the hostess. Success Built to Last, by Jerry Porras, for its great pieces of life wisdom that encourage me to follow my passions in a way that serves the world and me. Do not ever tell other people what they should think. Furthermore, they likely know nothing about the subject of your essay. Even if they do, they certainly don’t have the same knowledge and perspective that you have. To close this gap, you need to be as specific as possible. I believe the main cause of the problem is that there’s a disconnect between what we know in our heads and what we put down on paper. Reach out to professors/administrators at the school and department of your early schools with questions about the program you expect to apply to. Like mentioned above, you should fully complete your essay idea before getting feedback. Meet with Alex one-on-one via video chat to talk about your son/daughter’s admissions plan. Afterwards, receive a no-obligation Customized College Roadmap with advice on courses, extracurricular activities, standardized tests, and Admissions Angle strategy. We remain dedicated to serving you during these challenging times of COVID-19. If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. icons new College Packing List Show up to your next semester ready for anything. Listen icons new The College Info Geek Podcast Learn how to be a more effective student, even while you're doing your laundry.

Examples Of Good College Essay Titles

Examples Of Good College Essay Titles There are various semesters where, due to this demand, I attended school less than full time. Despite taking a long time and the difficulty in carving separate time for school with such occupational requirements, I remained persistent aiming towards attending school as my schedule would allow. This course revealed a direct correlation between what I had studied in the classroom with the real world. After spending several weeks studying the EU, its history and present movement towards integration, the class flew to Brussels where we met with officials and proceeded to learn firsthand how the EU functioned. Start your essay keeping in mind the main focus and shape your essay around it. Is it explicitly stating what the application demanded? Essays with topics related to essay prompt work best. To make your application get accepted, they put all their heart and soul to keep the essay specific and focused on your personality. I want to scale real mountains, close my eyes and sit cross-legged on their tops while the whole world around me spins wildly into the future. At some point in everyone’s life, a promise stops being forever. But no matter how many times a promise is broken, I’ve always wanted to believe that someone will keep one to me. Thanks to that first morning on Fall Creek, I’ve found a calling that consumes my free time, compels me to teach fly fishing to others, and drives what I want to study in college. Stellar Results We help 95% our students get into at least one of their top 3 choices. The admission officer and the committee want to meet you before actually seeing you. The essay is the source through which you tell everything about yourself. However, the writing should not be very personal, like including information about family members. Our experts talk to you about your life experiences and events to add them in your essay. The 24 hours of availability of experts help you keep in touch with them easily. Reading sample papers and examples is a great help to create a good essay. People dream and save for getting into prestigious and reputable colleges and universities. I am developing self-awareness, but I still have so much to learn. I want to travel to actual countries and take pictures on a bunch of disposable cameras because there is something magic about those blurry images that develop in the dark. Choosing essay prompts by keeping in mind your personal life experiences is a good thing. Considering your past life events, evaluating them, and stating what you learned from the experiences, is all there in the essay prompt. Brainstorming is the first step in writing anything. You think of ideas and how you are going to portray them in your work. My military commitment ends this July and will no longer complicate my academic pursuits. I come from a small, economically depressed town in Northern Wisconson. Many people in this former mining town do not graduate high school and for them college is an idealistic concept, not a reality. Feelings of being trapped in a stagnant environment permeated my mind, and yet I knew I had to graduate high school; I had to get out. Although most of my friends and family did not understand my ambitions, I knew I wanted to make a difference and used their doubt as motivation to press through. This fall I will embark on writing an additional honors thesis in political science. While the precise topic of my thesis is undecided, I am particularly interested in Mexico and its development towards a more democratic government. Minoring in Spanish, I have read various pieces of literature from Mexico and have come to respect Mexico and Latin American culture and society. I look forward to conducting this research as it will have a more qualitative tilt than my thesis in psychology, therefore granting an additional understanding of research methodology. As an undergraduate, I was privileged to gain extensive research experience working in a research lab with Dr. Carol. Participating in such a large study from start to finish has validated my interest in academic research as a profession. In order to pay for school and continue being active in the community, I enlisted in the Texas Army National Guard as a Medic. Due to the increased deployment schedule and demands placed on all branches of the military after September 11, my attendance in school has necessarily come second to my commitment to the military. Four days after I graduated high school, I joined the U.S. Start your essay in the most interesting way possible. Initial details will bore your audience and they will definitely lose interest in reading your entire essay. The best way of doing it is to start the essay from the middle of the story. It could be an anecdote, life event, incident, or just a life experience.

How To Write A College Essay That Will Get You Noticed

How To Write A College Essay That Will Get You Noticed Or built a school brick by brick, with your bare hands. We read essays about the most mundane things - solving a crossword puzzle, taking a walk with a sibling, collecting zany socks - but the way the applicant writes the piece makes it effective. When we begin evaluating your application, everything can seem pretty standard - grades, test scores, activities, lists of AP classes. Yes, your letters of recommendation tell us about you, but they’re written from someone else’s perspective. Thus, the college essay is an invaluable component of your application because you're able to speak to us directly. Though you can certainly demonstrate passion and fervor for your argument, it’s vital you don’t come across as dogmatic. You want to reveal that you can think logically and objectively; the reader shouldn’t come away thinking you’re myopic. Your essay should read like a short English paper about yourself. Start with a main idea and cite specific evidence to support your statement about yourself. Describe your feelings when you found your career or major goals. The admissions department at UC Berkeley will read about 20,000 application essays and Stanford will read about 16,000. Choose a topic that recounts “that moment when”…The most impactful and memorable college essays focus on an ordinary topic that resulted in deep self-reflection and increased self-insight. In your own voice, tell a story that reveals a defining moment that helped to shape who you are today and influences who you’ll be tomorrow. In other words, your college essay should give the reader a real sense of your unique personality, characteristics, and qualities. Good editors help students describe what makes them different and special. Applicants should realize that most admissions counselors are young and have a sense of what a teenage voice sounds like, Jager-Hyman says. in Exeter offers both group classes and one-on-one writing coaching sessions to help students through this process. Meeting times will vary, depending on each individual. You and I and your teenager will come up with a schedule that works best for everyone. The Word Barn is a great space for writing and sharing ideas. It’s okay if you haven’t won the Nobel Peace Prize. You have the space tell us what you’re thinking about and how you’re thinking about it. The college essay may be your only opportunity to show your personality to the admission office. If you are witty, show the reader your sense of humor (But be cautious. What you think is funny, someone else may not.). Ms. Then has presented her work for local, regional, and national organizations, including the National School Counselors Association and the National College Access Network . She holds a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from Boston University and a master’s degree from Bridgewater State College in School Counseling. Practicing your writing skills in advance can help you prepare for college essays. Here are some college application essay dos and don’ts for students to keep in mind as they complete their applications this fall. If you are more thoughtful, take on a slightly more serious tone. Rachel chooses her favorite book, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. If she writes 500 wordsâ€"well under the limit for GMU, but fine for a tightly written essayâ€"it will be easier to shorten the same essay for UVA. She digs out a paper she wrote on this book, but she’s aware that most colleges do not welcome academic writing, so the paper will mostly serve as inspiration. Emily guided me through the revision process of my writing and helped clarify my drafts for a supplemental college essay. She provided thoughtful feedback and kept prompt communication to meet my deadline. I highly recommend Emily if you need assistance for your college essay. one-on-one meetings, I help students explore their personal values, identify meaningful themes, and compelling essays. As a guide for every draft of every essay, I create a process that is manageable, calm, and even fun. Jodi Then is the High School Counselor at Boston Green Academy. Before joining BGA, Ms. Then spent 15 years working at a non-profit organization that specialized in college access and financial aid. She also worked as a consultant for the Boston Public Schools District and the Department of College Counseling. Additionally, you must remember that, ultimately, admissions officers are using these essays to gain insight into you. You should relate your opinions and arguments to your own life and experiences.

Elite College Essay Consultant

Elite College Essay Consultant This essay is going to convey who you are as a person, so you should start by jotting down ideas, examples and fragments that might form an essay. Don’t stress out if you don’t really have a hook. My friend Alex has a second-degree black belt in judo. She was thinking about doing an essay on her beloved Calvin and Hobbes. It’s acceptable to look at someone else’s essay as a sample and a creative tool. From the perspective that you have gained in life, discover the message or story line that is unique to you. You shouldn’t sit down and try to write the essay straight away. You want your essay to appeal to a broad range of readers, so picking one side or another of a controversial issue is not a good idea. Have a couple other people read the essay for typos and coherence. They give you enough information to get a sense of what the essay will be about, but not enough to really understand what is going on. This is a great strategy because it grabs your reader’s attention and compels them to continue in order to find out what is going on and fill in the gaps in their understanding. These are the parts that make your essay come alive. The first paragraph is mostly summary â€" it tells the reader facts about who you are, things you’ve done, tendencies you have, etc. (e.g. I never saw myself as a cat person). Summaries can be useful for bridging the gap between in-scene moments, or reflecting back on an experience and what it meant to you. However, an essay consisting entirely of summary is going to be dry and boring to read. Applerouth is open, and our tutors are eager to help you.Click here for more about how we have adapted to meet our students' current needs. Confirm that your tutor has received your essays or important messages. Flexible messaging on every device allows for efficient, organized communication between tutors, students and administrators. All drafts will be read, edited, and returned with track changes and detailed feedback within a week of submitting. It is not OK to copy it or to excerpt anything without proper credit. And don’t even think about having someone else - parent, friend, tutor or writing service â€" create your essay for you. Big Future, run by the College Board, has sample essays and tips. Many colleges, including Johns Hopkins University and the University of Connecticut post “essays that worked” going back several years. Ask someone to help you proofread for spelling and grammar. And pay close attention to your transitions from one section to the next. Transitions should give information, not just be links. And be you follow the essay guidelines as far as word count and topic are concerned. The college wants to know if you can follow directions and how creative you can be within set limitations. Try to imagine the impression the reader will have of you. Develop the arc of your essay with an introduction, body and conclusion. Provide some details to help the reader see the setting and understand you better as a person. Your tutor will help you to submit the essay that best represents you by offering suggestions on several aspects. This is the one caveat to the last sentence above. Some of you are passionate about politics or social issues, but this is NOT the place to explore those beliefs.

5 College Essay Topics You Should Never, Ever Write About

5 College Essay Topics You Should Never, Ever Write About I’m fairly certain that Dartmouth does not require Writing. In fact, they no longer even talk of recommending it. So the good news is that you don’t need to worry about your 32 or your essay. I would not recommend that your daughter retest just to improve her 8. Pick the topic that is most interesting and that has enough clear and convincing examples to prove your point. List the criteria of the essay on a separate sheet of paper. Make note of anything that confuses you and ask your professor for clarification. Use your 650 words to tell a focused story and help the admissions folks get to know you. Your essay needs to be between 250 and 650 words long. There is a very strong chance that the UCs will have dropped the essay by next year. Given the strength of your son’s other scores â€" especially for UCSD â€" I would not worry about his 7. The list could go on, but as you can see from the above points, it seems that the college system seems to be having a bit of an existential crisis. One would think that the college system had learned from its history and created the ultimate Swiss army knife that serves multiple purposes; however, many recent trends suggest otherwise. Instead of building a system that is one size fits all, it appears to be trending in the direction of one size fits none. Or to put it another way, the purpose of college has never seemed as watered down as it does now. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United StatesBy 1950, the traditional 4-year college program had officially become mainstream. By riding the wave of government support, the college system had grown from something that was a nice-to-have into something that was now a need-to-have. The GI Bill was even nicknamed the “magic carpet to the Middle Class,” which permanently linked higher education and the American dream. Despite the Morrill Land-Grant Act leading to an increase in the amount of vocational education present at universities, a college degree wasn’t considered necessary for most people. However, college attendance continued to grow for other reasons. The introduction states what’s at stake, and the body presents the evidence. Below are the five components of a college paragraph. They follow the order in which they are most commonly found in a paragraph; however, this is not the only possible or even successful order. The information provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. It is intended to provide opinions and educational information. It is not intended as individual advice and should not be taken as substitute for professional advice. We assume no responsibility for errors or mistakes. We reserve the right to make deletions, additions, or modifications to the content at any given time without prior notice. In some cases we may be compensated on an affiliate basis when users take certain actions. In order to comply with FTC guidelines we want to be transparent that ScholarshipOwl may get compensated by companies and/or partners based on an affiliate or advertiser partnership. We might get compensated for example for mentioning partners, by you, the user, making a clicking, purchasing, or signing up for a product or service through a tracking link. In no way are we responsible for the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any information on these external websites. Once you have a clearer vision for your central idea or argument, it’s time to organize your info-dump. Prune out anything irrelevant and organize your outline into the classic structure. Print a copy of the essay, and use a pen to go through and correct any grammar or mechanical errors that you find. Write the first draft from start to finish, even if you know your thoughts are out of order. You can re-arrange them at a later time, but the initial run through will be as fluid as possible. If you have a chance to show your essay to your English instructor or academic adviser, do so. In the case of an argumentative essay, the evidence might be research. In a more personal essay, it might be made up of the author’s own experiences. Your thesis statement comes at the end of your introduction. Here’s the thesis statement from the Skyline College example above. It states the main point of the essay, which the author intends to make a case for.

Why Are College Essays So Hard To Complete?

Why Are College Essays So Hard To Complete? Don’t they already know what is great about their school? They’re asking because of something called demonstrated interest. Demonstrated interest is a fancy way of saying, how much do you really want to go to OUR school? You may be surprised how quickly an essay can stray from the prompt. I’ve read for several institutions, two testing agencies, and various scholarship competitions. From the perspective that you have gained in life, discover the message or story line that is unique to you. She works directly with students, and trains school counselors, English teachers and independent educational consultants. Did you pick us just because we’ve got a good ranking, or do you actually know something about how we work? Cultural reputation, IE, what the students behave like and what they value? Last week I talked to a high school senior as a favor to a friend. The student is not applying to Georgia Tech, so I was giving him general application advice. Remember that your research will be more effective if you do early research into ALL your schools at once, or at least all the ones that have Why School essays. A college application essay is all about reflection; it’s an opportunity for applicants to share something meaningful about themselves. Some essays work well chronologically, where the events are presented in the same sequence that they happened in time. Argumentative essays are often emphatic, where the least important points are presented first and build up to the most important. Letters of recommendation give admissions officers a chance to hear an adult’s perspective of you. A counselor may provide insights into your personal life, and a teacher’s recommendation will detail how you’re viewed in the classroom. However, we don’t ask you to stay in front of your PC or laptop all the time. You’re welcome to download our applications and simplify our collaboration. Once your essay is complete, have someone who doesn't know the prompt read your application essay. Afterwards, see if the reader felt the essay answered the prompt. Understanding the purpose of the college application essay will help you to understand how to tailor it to appeal to your audience. You can’t be sure about the exact moment when the writer finishes your order or its part. We highly recommend you to stay online in order to check the text as soon as it appears. DI correllates to yield, and yield boosts rankings â€" and everybody likes high rankings. “Origami isn’t a typical topic for a college essay, but, beyond that, she showed us rather than told us about her process of making objects that didn’t always turn out how she expected or wanted. It helps us to see her as someone who would be willing to jump into new experiences on our campus. What also stands out here is the imagery she uses to get her point across â€" I could picture the crumpled pieces of paper on her floor and the frustration that she felt. In the end, she was able to tie her creative process making origami to her academic interests,” Richardson wrote in an email. Conservatively, I’d say I’ve looked at more than 10,000 essays by now. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more, and I know plenty of people on my staff and around the country who put that number to shame.

Writing Essays

Writing Essays The writing must adhere to a specific format, APA format for example. A student is usually away from home when going to college, and loves the taste of freedom. Being tied down for hours each day for days on end doing research and writing an essay is not their idea of freedom. Terrified by the mere thought of writing your college paper? Essentially you have to be one of the best “soccer” essays or “mission trip” essays among the hundreds the admission officer has likely read. If you’re writing a “Why I want to be an engineer” essay, for example, what 3-5 common “engineering” values might other students have mentioned in connection with engineering? Unfortunately, mental health challenges have become so common these days that many students write personal statements about them and so it can be difficult to stand out. If you are feeling compelled to write about a mental health challenge, consider brainstorming some uncommon connections. Feel the joy of submitting an interesting, thoroughly researched essay with our expert academic writing help. Low-income students already face an uphill battle when it comes to higher education. Costs associated with standardized testing, applications fees create a barrier to entry in the first place, and that is before those students are hit with a steep bill for tuition each semester. Use interesting descriptions, stay away from clichés, include your own offbeat observationsâ€"anything that makes this essay sounds like you and not like anyone else. Rocio’s essay uses the tortilla-making story to introduce us to her sense of multiculturalism, an identity that is clearly important to her. By utilizing the example of struggling to cook well in the kitchen, the writer is able to effectively relate to readers of all ages and backgrounds. We believe that Rocio’s sense of perseverance will translate to her college experience as well. While I won’t say you should never write about these topics, if you do decide to write about one of these topics, the degree of difficulty goes way up. There is nothing worse than work that has been plagiarised. And since universities, colleges, schools and businesses have taken a big interest in this area, is it very easy to get caught out! 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. Be careful of using abbreviated words too, in many essays this will be unacceptable. 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. If a student is still very much struggling through the challenges they describe, the admissions reader may wonder if the student is ready for college. Many schools will automatically reject a student’s application, even if they merely suspect plagiarism. The thesis is a clear outline of what your essay is about. It lets the reader know the main topic, point of the essay and the ideas you'd like to discuss. Often in creative writing, using non Standard English is perfectly acceptable depending on what you're writing. However, free style writing is often unacceptable in academic papers and can damage the overall impression of your essay. Plagiarism is academic fraud and it can cause your application to be thrown out of consideration. In most academic essays, you will be required to produce a thesis statement. Accidental plagiarism is another important thing to try and avoid. Some students may have plagiarism in there paper which could be down to mistakes such as citation confusion, confusion over paraphrasing and not knowing the difference between common knowledge and original work. Guidelines for essay writing are much stricter in college than high school.

How I Know You Wrote Your Kids College Essay

How I Know You Wrote Your Kid’s College Essay All admitted students will be sent this online link. Limited-access programs have separate admissions processes and selection criteria. Not all students who meet the selection criteria are admitted into the limited-access majors. The selection process is very competitive and space is limited in each incoming class. Your expertise, feedback and project management guidance made a big difference. Abby Power’s approach was the perfect balance of holding my son accountable for his role in the process, while ensuring that he felt supported throughout. We believe that approach made all the difference in terms of successfully targeting the schools that were right for him, while preparing him for the responsibilities of college life. Initial residency classification is determined by the Office of Admissions after applicants have been admitted to the university. All applicants are considered non-Florida residents until they provide proof otherwise. Research agrees; the College Board reviewed dozens of studies to find the factors that most predict success. After grades and test scores, the factor that most predicts college success is follow-throughâ€"that is, students’ sustained effort and growth in one or two extracurricular activities while in high school. Students who devote themselves to an activity are more likely to succeed later in areas such as campus leadership and independent accomplishment. Her offer gave me a confidence in my step, as if her hand were behind me. With the client’s needs in mind, each essay is written by real professionals and penned on time. Many students don’t have the time to work on their academic papers due to balancing with other responsibilities, for example, part-time work. We are a freelance platform, which connects talented writers with students who need extra help on their assignments. We are all about assisting college students and helping them make the best of these years. I worked daily for my teachersâ€"looking forward to the next conversation, usually in class, sometimes in office hours, where I seldom saw another classmate. All these students who had fought so hard to pry open the doors of college didn’t know to knock on their teachers’ doors. Even for students who confront far fewer challenges, seeking out and finding the right teachers pays enormous rewards. In my high school in New York City, there was a tough and engaging teacher named Mrs. Grist. I asked whether I could take her government class, and I went on to study psychology with her as well. Mrs. Grist was among the most forbidding people I had ever met, yet she made the subjects she taught intense and urgent. I was stunned when she asked me whether I needed a recommendation for college. Our years of experience in working with students applying to in-state and out-of-state colleges give us a clear advantage in providing you with the most current and accurate college application requirements. Sorry for the long, overdue thank you for helping our son through the college application process. Needless to say, the outcome for him was excellent and he is excited to attend CMU and to be swimming on their team next fall. As parents we are proud of his many accomplishments and appreciate you helping to put these in the best possible light. His applications were compelling in a very competitive environment. In effect, I was attending a very different college from that of so many of my classmates. They carried around piles of books that they might at best skim before class; I was kept up at night by the handful of old books on my shelf. Failure to provide all relevant information and required documentation in a timely manner could result in a non-Florida resident classification for tuition purposes. An online Florida Residency Declaration For Tuition Purposes form is available to provide the necessary documentation as described below. The typical application for college today has eight to 10 spaces for students’ activities outside class, and parents and students have become convinced that the more spaces filled, the better. Long lists cultivate busy mediocrity rather than sustained excellence. To get into college or to earn scholarships, it is much more effective to be very good at a small set of things than to check off a long list. Religious tradition testifies that immersion changes lives. Freshmen do not need to submit supplemental applications; applications are due in the sophomore year or when program prerequisite requirements have been completed. A limited-access program is one where both program admission and registration in program classes are restricted to a certain number of students meeting pre-determined criteria. This means that you are initially accepted into the university as a pre-major AND then you must submit a supplemental application for consideration for acceptance into a limited-access undergraduate major. Nationally 33% of students leave the college they started at before their second year, and only 39% of students graduate from their original college in 4 years, with 59% graduating in 6 years. Those are costly statistics as it lengthens the graduation cycle and many students never graduate.

Private Tutoring And College Test Prep Center In Coral Springs

Private Tutoring And College Test Prep Center In Coral Springs In fact, we suggest that you create a list of all your essay topics from all your college applications, so you can see if you'll be able to use the same, or a similar, essay for more than one application. Delegates who are just starting their Model UN careers can find themselves wondering if it will really help them in the future, or if it’s just another activity. While it’s true that most high school MUNers won’t find themselves forming resolution blocs in their future careers, there are still tons of practical benefits that Model UN can bring. Speaking from your heart and mind instead of listing some vague ideas brings your writing to the next level and makes a great effect on your reader. So, the next time you’re stumped for ideas to write about for a book or blog post, try this writing approach and see what comes up. What you write in your application essay or personal statement should not contradict any other part of your applicationâ€"nor should it repeat it. This isn't the place to list your awards or discuss your grades or test scores. A student who can make an admissions officer laugh never gets lost in the shuffle. What you think is funny and what an adult working in a college thinks is funny are probably different. We caution against one-liners, limericks and anything offâ€"color. Most selective colleges require you to submit an essay or personal statement as part of your application. If the parent re-writes or writes the essay the answer is no. Yes, it is perfectly okay to have your parents edit your essays. This way it is much more difficult for the writer to “game the system” by using large fonts and excessive spacing to meet the writing criteria. Make sure you choose the essay topic that is important for you. Choosing the correct essay topic makes your cause and effect essay more successful. There should be some consistency between the essays and interviews. The emphasis must be on “help” and not, “take over.” Parents, with only the best intentions, will often offer lots of input and comments, which their child will gratefully accept. The danger there is that the essay starts sounding more like a forty something adult, instead of a high school senior. There is a certain “voice” that defines a young person about to start college and if it is lacking in an essay, Admissions Directors will quickly pick it up. But resist the urge to rewrite everything in the way you might express it. More than any other element of the application, the essay gives insight into who a student really is. So it should “sound” like the applicant, revealing personality, interests, quirks, personal style, and voice. However, the key is to edit, not to write them for you. They can help with typos, grammatical errors, and help you to be clear, concise and compelling. They know you best, sometimes more than you know yourself so they may have good suggestions. However, you do want the essays to sound like you; it should be your voice. Some parents can act as a sounding board without taking over the project, while others cannot. The reasons why you should go to college go beyond getting a solid education. That’s because the opportunities available inside and outside the classroom will help you take the important next steps into adulthood and your future career. CFNC.org has great tools to help parents and students explore college options. There are also resources to help you apply and pay for higher education. Joining MUN as a freshman could easily pay off a few years down the road, when it’s time to apply for college. Ethan Sawyer, the College Essay Guy, has been helping students tell their stories for more than ten years. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, received an MFA from UC Irvine, and received two counseling certifications, one from UC Irvine and another from the Interchange Counseling Institute. They’re the last thing you can actually do something about. I think it is always best for a student to have an impartial person do the proofing. It is difficult for parents to remain unbiased and often it can cause a lot of added tension between the student and parent. It is, however, a good idea for the parents to help the student brainstorm ideas for the essay prior to writing it. If they read through and make light edits, grammatical and typos, yes.

College Application Essay

College Application Essay Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution. Word and character counts can be paralyzing if you allow them to dictate your approach to an essay topic. Then, take a step back in order to gain perspective. As you begin to edit and refine the idea, challenge your word choices. Are they essential to conveying the key messages? Doing so is unnecessarily redundant and can limit your ability to take a more expansive approach with your essay. The resulting essay will not reflect you and thus will not accomplish its goal, no matter how “good” it seems to be. DON’T be pretentious or overly formal â€"this is not the time to play the role of Albert Einstein or Mother Teresa if that’s not who you are. Resist the temptation to portray yourself as a saint with a 4.0â€"you’re better off presenting the real you. DO be yourself â€" your essay should sound as if it could have been written by no one else. We remain dedicated to serving you during these challenging times of COVID-19. According to Common Application’s own reporting, the application year saw 23.6% of respondents selecting Topic #5 and 22.5% selecting Topic #1. The Common App is also a great way to save time and money. For lots more information on applying to college, see the links on the next page. Did you know that Babson has a Writing Center on campus? Staffed by professors and peer consultants, it offers a supportive environment to practice and refine your writing. Risa C. Doherty is a copy editor and education and parenting writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Working Mother and Boston Parents Paper, among others. In a 2007 Boston magazine article, Harry Lewis, former dean of Harvard College, drew a parallel between professional essay editing and hiring an imposter to sit for the SAT. “All this scribbling has almost nothing to do with whether the student gets in,” he wrote. Finally, when you think you are finished with your essay, dare to make it great! First, attempt to reduce your word count by 10%. You don’t need to remind the reader at the start of each sentence. Demonstrate the synergy between yourself and the institution in response to the “Why do you want to come here? Find creative solutions to conveying ownership of your thoughts. Don’t use the word “I” to start sentences any more than is necessary. We’ll make sure you get the right guidance at the right time. Students use their grades and test scores to select where they apply. Doing so will force you to examine every word, thought and article of punctuation. Even if you are not able to reduce by 10%, making an honest attempt at it will make your essay better. Don’t worry about the word count until you have developed a complete draft. Reveal an awareness of instructional style and independent learning opportunities. Risk-taking is an interesting element of creative writing. Done well, it can lift your presentation from the mundane and safe to the provocative and insightful. Discover schools with the programs and courses you’re interested in, and start learning today.

Conquer The College Essay

Conquer The College Essay These additional eyes are also critical when it comes to proofing your work, catching typos you might have missed, and helping to refine writing that is unclear or off-topic. And if the topic is weird, feel free to write a weird essay. Some colleges and universities are actually notorious for their unusual â€" and in some cases, genuinely strange â€" college application essay prompts. According to Business Insider, Tufts University and the University of Chicago have both earned reputations for their out-of-left-field essay questions. So you've got a list of college essay questions. See what you should do with them on the next page. When they ask the “why do you want to come here” question, they are not interested in knowing whether you can recite their institutional superlatives. Rather, they want to see if you have made the conscious connection between your sense of purpose and the opportunities that exist within their educational environment. The manner in which you like to engage in learning. We don’t all process the same information the same wayâ€"and colleges don’t all deliver it in the same manner! And hopefully, this is an illuminating part of the process, one that not only helps you get into the college of your choice, but one that also helps prepare you for success once you get there. Speaking of future drafts, one of the best things you can do is run your essay by a trusted family member, educator, advisor, or friend. Get feedback from somebody whose opinion you respect. This feedback will give you a sense of how well your ideas are coming across to the reader, how compelling your story is, and how you might be able to improve your essay. This is especially true if you are an experiential, hands-on learner who values testing ideas. Be prepared to provide evidence of this learning style in your supplemental essays. Selective institutions often employ supplemental essay prompts to sort the whimsically submitted applications from those that are more intentional. They can clearly demonstrate the synergy that exists between themselves and the institutions in question. Colleges value diversity of thought in their classrooms. The essay is your opportunity to reveal that element of diversity that can be found uniquely within you. You’ll hear a lot from “experts” about taboo topics (sports, death, disease, divorce, pets, etc.) and generic essays on related topics are not a good idea. On the other hand, if you have experienced something intensely personal and profoundly meaningful within such a topic, help the reader to know how the experience affected you. It is best not to recite the facts of your life. Instead, take the reader between the lines to better understand you, as a thinking person. From this vantage point, Lombardi shared some awesome expert-level college essay tips. We also enlisted the help of a qualified expert in the field. Meredith Lombardi, Associate Director of Outreach and Education at the Common Application, offers a few tips on exactly what admissions officers are seeking from a great application essay. You need to remember that you have no idea who will be reading your essay â€" it could be an admissions counselor in her early 20s, or a part-time admissions reader in his mid-70s. Don’t use words that aren’t consistent with the overall language and tone of the essay. Don’t use a thesaurus to find other words that you wouldn’t normally use. On the whole the admissions committee wants to hear your voice. The examples, tips, topics and prompts outlined above should help you rock your college application essay. All are historical elements of your college applications. Well established over time, they determine your general competitiveness in the selective admission process. When you construct an essay that satisfies you, ask a trusted teacher to proofread and critique it. Make any changes required, and type the essay into a word processor or text editor so that you can copy and paste it onto the electronic college application. This will help prevent errors and typos that might occur if you retype the essay into the essay window when you're filling out the application form. Too often students get stuck on the choice of a prompt and never get to the essay itself. The Common App essay prompts are not requirements; they are ideas designed to stimulate a creative thought process. Focus instead on the key messages you want to convey and develop a storyline that illustrates them well. There is a very good chance an essay developed in this manner will meet at least one of the listed essay prompts. Selective colleges are most interested in students whose sense of purpose is illustrated in their recognition of compatible learning opportunities on their campuses.

How Not To Start Your College Essay

How Not To Start Your College Essay However, colleges will generally understand that your talents lie elsewhere. However, you should still aim to write a strong essay, especially if your dream colleges are highly-selective. It is certainly okay for parents to help edit their child’s essay â€" with the key word in that sentence being EDIT. They can help catch spelling or punctuation mistakes or help a student better clarify an idea that isn’t fully fleshed out in the early draft. The reason that teachers don’t assign a number of pages anymore is because it’s too easy to manipulate pages. When students used to write on typewriters, it was common for teachers to assign essays in number of pages. With the adoption of computers in the classroom, teachers switched from pages to work count because it was too easy for the computers to manipulate the font size and page size. By assigning a word count, teachers get a more accurate length of essay than they would if they assigned homework by pages. And then they are pleasantly surprised when admissions officers write acceptance letters with personal notes about their child’s fabulous essays. Editing is a part of the writing process, like development and revision, where another person can be helpful. In fact, if you’re reading this blog post as a junior or senior and you have a college essay to write, you can do something about that right now. Join thousands of students and parents getting exclusive high school, test prep, and college admissions information. You still need to present a well-written and carefully-considered essay, of course. If you know writing is somewhat of a weakness, have teachers, guidance counselors, friends, and family members read it and offer feedback. Many students do need help selecting a topic and organizing the essay. They should seek guidance from their counselors or teachers for this. The essay should be in the student’s voice and parent’s are not always the best advisors for this part of the application. The college is learning about you from what you write. Not what anyone else writes including your parent. Parents can become emotionally involved and/or try to influence the content of the essay, which is something you DON’T want. No matter who helps to edit and proof your work, it’s essential that your writing remain your own. Parents can help their child brainstorm topics, encourage them to write multiple drafts, and help him or her meet deadlines. Some parents should not even read their kid’s essays as they want to change too many elements that make the essays lose their unique adolescent voice. I know this is the touchiest of topics, but I always beg parents to believe in their child. They are okay with thoughts and phrasing that sounds like it’s come from a teenager; they understand that not all of the ideas will be fully formed. But the main idea behind any essay is that it should reveal something of the writer’s (in this case, the student’s) character and parents can easily hinder that process if they edit too much. You absolutely should have a second and even third set of eyes help you edit and proofread your essay. Be sure to pick readers who have strong skills in grammar and usage. If your parents fit the bill, there’s no reason they shouldn’t help you polish your essay, but students often find it easier to work with a teacher, counselor or other adult. This would be an ideal time to use a descriptive essay. But structure here, is just as important as any other essay because you are still in charge of leading the reader into, through and then back out of your world of description without waffling on too much. So, similar to an expository essay, you will require an introduction, body and a conclusion. It is NOT okay for parents to WRITE their child’s essay or influence it unduly, however. He or she isn’t a full-fledged literary genius and the admission officers who read the essays are well aware of this. There is nothing theoretically wrong with that person being a parent if they are skilled and sensitive to helping while allowing the student’s own voice to remain dominant. Many times however, when a parent tries to help, they do more harm than good. It is very easy to spot an essay that has been overly edited by a parent and that is not good for the students chances of admission. However, they should not write or re-write the essay. Essay’s should always been seen by someone else to look for grammatical and spelling errors. But, if they start writing the essay know that the college may very well determine that the work was not yours. Is your parent going to write your essays that are assigned by professors while you are in college? The college cares how you write not how your parent writes unless they are also applying to the same college as you. Some students cannot begin writing the body of the essay until they feel they have the perfect introduction. Be aware of the dangers of sinking too much time into the introduction.

How Not To Start Your College Essay

How Not To Start Your College Essay However, colleges will generally understand that your talents lie elsewhere. However, you should still aim to write a strong essay, especially if your dream colleges are highly-selective. It is certainly okay for parents to help edit their child’s essay â€" with the key word in that sentence being EDIT. They can help catch spelling or punctuation mistakes or help a student better clarify an idea that isn’t fully fleshed out in the early draft. The reason that teachers don’t assign a number of pages anymore is because it’s too easy to manipulate pages. When students used to write on typewriters, it was common for teachers to assign essays in number of pages. With the adoption of computers in the classroom, teachers switched from pages to work count because it was too easy for the computers to manipulate the font size and page size. By assigning a word count, teachers get a more accurate length of essay than they would if they assigned homework by pages. And then they are pleasantly surprised when admissions officers write acceptance letters with personal notes about their child’s fabulous essays. Editing is a part of the writing process, like development and revision, where another person can be helpful. In fact, if you’re reading this blog post as a junior or senior and you have a college essay to write, you can do something about that right now. Join thousands of students and parents getting exclusive high school, test prep, and college admissions information. You still need to present a well-written and carefully-considered essay, of course. If you know writing is somewhat of a weakness, have teachers, guidance counselors, friends, and family members read it and offer feedback. Many students do need help selecting a topic and organizing the essay. They should seek guidance from their counselors or teachers for this. The essay should be in the student’s voice and parent’s are not always the best advisors for this part of the application. The college is learning about you from what you write. Not what anyone else writes including your parent. Parents can become emotionally involved and/or try to influence the content of the essay, which is something you DON’T want. No matter who helps to edit and proof your work, it’s essential that your writing remain your own. Parents can help their child brainstorm topics, encourage them to write multiple drafts, and help him or her meet deadlines. Some parents should not even read their kid’s essays as they want to change too many elements that make the essays lose their unique adolescent voice. I know this is the touchiest of topics, but I always beg parents to believe in their child. They are okay with thoughts and phrasing that sounds like it’s come from a teenager; they understand that not all of the ideas will be fully formed. But the main idea behind any essay is that it should reveal something of the writer’s (in this case, the student’s) character and parents can easily hinder that process if they edit too much. You absolutely should have a second and even third set of eyes help you edit and proofread your essay. Be sure to pick readers who have strong skills in grammar and usage. If your parents fit the bill, there’s no reason they shouldn’t help you polish your essay, but students often find it easier to work with a teacher, counselor or other adult. This would be an ideal time to use a descriptive essay. But structure here, is just as important as any other essay because you are still in charge of leading the reader into, through and then back out of your world of description without waffling on too much. So, similar to an expository essay, you will require an introduction, body and a conclusion. It is NOT okay for parents to WRITE their child’s essay or influence it unduly, however. He or she isn’t a full-fledged literary genius and the admission officers who read the essays are well aware of this. There is nothing theoretically wrong with that person being a parent if they are skilled and sensitive to helping while allowing the student’s own voice to remain dominant. Many times however, when a parent tries to help, they do more harm than good. It is very easy to spot an essay that has been overly edited by a parent and that is not good for the students chances of admission. However, they should not write or re-write the essay. Essay’s should always been seen by someone else to look for grammatical and spelling errors. But, if they start writing the essay know that the college may very well determine that the work was not yours. Is your parent going to write your essays that are assigned by professors while you are in college? The college cares how you write not how your parent writes unless they are also applying to the same college as you. Some students cannot begin writing the body of the essay until they feel they have the perfect introduction. Be aware of the dangers of sinking too much time into the introduction.

The Only Four College Essay Writing Tips Youll Ever Need

The Only Four College Essay Writing Tips You'll Ever Need If you look at things a little differently from others you stand out. In answering an essay prompt, you need not always do it the most normal way. If there are a lot of mistakes in your essay, it can not be pretty. I look around my room, dimly lit by an orange light. On a desk in the left corner, a framed picture of an Asian family is beaming their smiles, buried among US history textbooks and The Great Gatsby. If you have to copy-paste it into a text box, your essay might get cut off and you'll have to trim down anyways. College essay prompts usually provide the word limit right in the prompt or in the instructions. As much as you wish to shine, the shine will be lost if your sentences and thoughts do not string together logically. Perhaps you can create a little mystery by not answering the prompt immediately. Maybe you could reveal that in the last sentence of your prompt after telling about all the little things that have some relevance to your area of study. A Korean ballad streams from a pair of tiny computer speakers. Pamphlets of American colleges are scattered about on the floor. A cold December wind wafts a strange infusion of ramen and leftover pizza. On the wall in the far back, a Korean flag hangs besides a Led Zeppelin poster. As with rock-paper-scissors, we often cut our narratives short to make the games we play easier, ignoring the intricate assumptions that keep the game running smoothly. Like rock-paper-scissors, we tend to accept something not because it’s true, but because it’s the convenient route to getting things accomplished. Frozen in disbelief, the chicken tries to make sense of her harsh words. “All the food, the nice soft hay, the flawless red barn--maybe all of this isn’t worth giving up. She just wants to protect me from losing it all.” The chicken replays the incident again. A fissure in the chicken’s unawareness, a plan begins to hatch. We accept incomplete narratives when they serve us well, overlooking their logical gaps. Other times, we exaggerate even the smallest defects and uncertainties in narratives we don’t want to deal with. Sometimes even a single word that stands as a paragraph can make the reader wonder and read on. Put the reader in medias res, that is, in the middle of things. Place the reader in the middle of something happening or in the middle of a conversation. I have learned to accept my “ambiguity” as “diversity,” as a third-culture student embracing both identities in this diverse community that I am blessed to be a part of. For example, you might describe many natural flora, observe fauna, then list feelings you have about nature to lead up to writing that you want to study biology. What if you were to take the negative approach to answer the prompt? Maybe you can tell what your hopes are by writing what you do not hope for. If you are on a date, you would naturally want to be smart, funny, nice, caring, unique, not boring. You also want to have an opinion, not step back like an unthinking geek. Write your essay as though you would be a great second date. That means you should write with voice, that is, you need to write with your own personality. Honesty, humor, talking the way you talk, showing the way you think, all help to create voice. In a world where we know very little about the nature of “Truth,” it’s very easyâ€"and temptingâ€"to construct stories around truth claims that unfairly legitimize or delegitimize the games we play. I analyze why I think this essay works in The Complete Guide, Session 6.

Admissions And Aid

Admissions And Aid I became desperately devoted to my education because I saw knowledge as the key to freeing myself from the chains of ignorance. While learning about cancer in school I promised myself that I would memorize every fact and absorb every detail in textbooks and online medical journals. For the first time in years, the smell of garlic filled the air and the rattling of the silver bowl resonated throughout the house. The world I come from consists of underwear, nuclear bombs, and punk rockers. My world is inherently complex, mysterious, and anti-nihilist. I am David Phan, somebody who spends his weekends debating in a three piece suit, other days immersed within the punk rock culture, and some days writing opinionated blogs about underwear. Cancer, as powerful and invincible as it may seem, is a mere fraction of a person’s life. One day, my mom brought home fresh cabbages and red pepper sauce. She brought out the old silver bowl and poured out the cabbages, smothering them with garlic and salt and pepper. Gingerly, my grandma stood up from the couch in the living room, and as if lured by the smell, sat by the silver bowl and dug her hands into the spiced cabbages. And as I began to consider my future, I realized that what I learned in school would allow me to silence that which had silenced my grandmother. However, I was focused not with learning itself, but with good grades and high test scores. I started to believe that academic perfection would be the only way to redeem myself in her eyes--to make up for what I had not done as a granddaughter. When my parents finally revealed to me that my grandmother had been battling liver cancer, I was twelve and I was angry--mostly with myself. Over the years, everything--even honoring my grandmother--had become second to school and grades. Before I could resolve my guilt, I had to broaden my perspective of the world as well as my responsibilities to my fellow humans. I refused to let go of my grandmother, to accept a death I had not seen coming, to believe that an illness could not only interrupt, but steal a beloved life. They had wanted to protect me--only six years old at the time--from the complex and morose concept of death. Hurt that my parents had deceived me and resentful of my own oblivion, I committed myself to preventing such blindness from resurfacing. They covered the precious mahogany coffin with a brown amalgam of rocks, decomposed organisms, and weeds. It was my turn to take the shovel, but I felt too ashamed to dutifully send her off when I had not properly said goodbye. It’s easy to forget when one’s mind and body are so weak and vulnerable. I want to be there as an oncologist to remind them to take a walk once in a while, to remember that there’s so much more to life than a disease. While I physically treat their cancer, I want to lend patients emotional support and mental strength to escape the interruption and continue living. This essay could work for prompt’s 1, 2 and 7 for the Common App. I had been typing an English essay when I heard my cat's loud meows and the flutter of wings. I had turned slightly at the noise and had found the barely breathing bird in front of me. But the best dimension that language brought to my life is interpersonal connection. When I speak with people in their native language, I find I can connect with them on a more intimate level. As her bony hands shredded the green lips, a look of determination grew on her face. Though her withered hands no longer displayed the swiftness and precision they once did, her face showed the aged rigor of a professional. Through my work, I can accept the shovel without burying my grandmother’s memory. However, a simple walk on a hiking trail behind my house made me open my own eyes to the truth.