An admissions officer will read many application essays from candidates all over the world each day. How will you sell yourself? How will you make yourself an exceptional candidate?  Impressive and unforgettable essays will be the final stage for you to present yourself and stand out in the applicant pool. On this page we discuss:

Tips for writing successful application essays

Common mistakes when writing application essays.

• Choosing a topic: The college application gives students a choice of essay topics. There is no magic topic for college application essays, but the topic you choose should present your personality, passion, and commitment. To choose a topic, you should start by thinking about how you spent your free time, what is most important to you, what has impacted you the most, and turning points in your life.  Do not pick an easy topic that does not demonstrate who you are. You should choose a topic that provides you the best opportunity to discuss your past experiences and achievements and gives the admissions officer a full picture of you.

• Answer the question directly and clearly: Analyze the questions carefully and pay particular attention to key words such as "impact on you," and "importance." The admissions officer is looking for an insight into your character, passion, and reasoning. Answer the questions clearly, directly, and sincerely.

• Be personable: Some of our students try to submit a book report as their essay.  Yes, you do have the right to write on "a topic of your choice," but it won't illustrate your personality and won't tell anything about you to an admissions officer. Admissions officers like to see who you are and what unique contributions you can make to their school.

• Be specific: Some application essays ask "Why would you like to attend this school?" Before you write the essay, you need to do some research on the particular school and its academic departments in order to ensure that your essay demonstrates your interest in that specific school.  Make sure your essay addresses the particular features of the school that appeal to you and explain why. Don't write an essay which can fit all schools.

• Positive tone: In your essay, your tone must be positive and mature. Your essay should discuss how unfortunate experiences shaped your personality, how you faced significant obstacles and overcame them, and how your experiences helped you discover your stamina, perseverance, and intelligence. If you write an essay full of complaints, or sound sarcastic, lazy, or spoiled, you may be rejected.

• Use humor only if it works: When some students try to write interesting essays,  they use too much humor. A little well-placed humor is okay, but if you are not a funny person, don't pretend to be one.

• Use simple language: It's necessary to use different sentence structures to make your essay interesting, but don't twist the sentence structure and make your essay unintelligible. Try to use the simplest language possible to explain your meaning precisely. Don't use large, pretentious words to impress the committee– admissions officers won't pick up a dictionary to understand your essay.

• Use an active voice: Keep your verbs simple and active. Nothing is more tedious than trying to read an essay written in a cold, detached, passive voice.

• Create a strong opening: Admissions officers read many essays every day.  You need to catch their attention to stand out, and the first step is to create a strong and interesting opening. A boring opening may cause admissions officers to merely skim through the rest of the essay, or even stop reading altogether.

• Be specific and focused: Give a full description and extensive details of one experience or event.  This makes the essay deeper and more personal.

• Explain events appropriately: Many applicants show their interest in an activity by discussing why they joined the activity, what they thought about the activity, and what they learned. More importantly, you have to illuminate the reasoning behind your decisions and how your life changed as a result of the experience.

• Make your essay the right length:  Many prompts ask that you limit your essay to 500 or 1000 words; don't write more than the suggested limit. Also, many online applications will not accept the essay if it is longer than the limit.

• Do not rely on your computer's spell checker: Just because everything is spelled properly doesn’t mean the meaning and grammar are correct. Read your essay slowly and carefully to find mistakes, and ask your English teacher and other people to also read it and offer advice.

• Proofread carefully: After you have finished a draft, ask others to review your draft and offer comments and suggestions. Take their comments and suggestions seriously; they are reading from a third person's point of view, like the admissions officers.  Their advice can help you clarify your writing and catch something important that you might have missed or presented improperly.

• Get extra help: Please feel free to discuss your essay with your teacher, school guidance counselor, or even a professional consultant. But don't ask someone to write your essay for you, or buy one from the Internet. If your essay is at a much higher level than what would be expected from your English grades and SAT or ACT scores, admissions officers will suspect that the essay is not your own work.

• Start early: Showing yourself is not an easy task. It requires a lot of practice and work. Write-Read-Edit-Consult-Rewrite.  You need to repeat this process many times until you have written an excellent essay.