How to Start an Application Essay without Any Delay

Definition of Application Essay

So, what is an admission essay? Essentially, it is a written document that helps you get admitted to a college or university. Regardless of whether you want to apply for a graduate or undergraduate course, the majority of institutions ask candidates to include an admission essay with their applications (these essays are also known as statements of purpose or personal statements). As higher education institutions grow ever more competitive and selective, acceptance to a college of choice gets more difficult. Because of this, personal essays carry a lot of weight when it comes to setting you apart from other candidates in terms of your abilities and achievements.

The primary purpose of an admission essay is to provide the reader – or selection committee – with a picture of the applicant and who they are. It is an applicant’s opportunity to let readers know about their aspirations, values, goals, and dreams. However, its aim is not to recount the full story of the writer’s life. Instead, it should show readers why they should choose to accept you into their institution. More than anything else, an admission essay is a type of personal statement or essay so you need to write it in a personal tone.

Before You Start Writing an Admission Essay

Prior to beginning to write an admission essay or a personal statement, there is some homework you need to do. In the event you have not done so already, you will need to do thorough research of the college or university you hope to be admitted to. And, more particularly, you need to find out as much as you can about the course or program you would like to enroll on. You should be able to find each institution’s objectives or mission statement, their primary interests, and similar information. When you are writing your essay, you should then relate your goals, experiences, interests, etc. to the objectives or mission statement of the program or institution you are aiming your application at as well as to the field you hope to forge a future career in.

But, how to start an admission essay? Before you start to write an admission essay, you should read any instructions you were given a few times. These should explain the information you need to include, and usually, the format that is required for your essay. Even in the event, the exact format is not stated explicitly in the provided instructions, you will benefit by knowing what key points you should include. This will help you to organize your admission essay or personal statement in an effective manner. Sometimes, the instructions provided are quite exact and explain in detail what should be included. At other times, instructions are not entirely specific. In either case, there are some questions you should ask yourself before you start on your first draft. For example, the following questions should help to guide you as you write:

What relevant experiences do you have (e.g., any achievements or challenges that you or your family have personally faced)? How have these helped to shape who you are and how can they help distinguish you from other candidates?
Do you possess any particular personal characteristics or traits that have already helped you or can help you succeed in the future (e.g., characteristics such as ambition, good communication skills, dedication, diligence, drive, honesty, proven leadership, a personable nature, and so on)?
What made you choose a particular field of study? Do you have any career objectives, and what are they?
What will you bring to a particular program or institution?
What are the reasons that an institution should choose you out of numerous other applicants?
Does any other part of your application contain any specific information that you should explain or elaborate on in your essay (e.g., lower than desirable GPA, lower than desirable GRE or SAT scores, a notable increase in grades over a period of time, break in your education, etc.)?

Writing an application essay is torture.

The most difficult thing is how to start an application essay. It is true that, once you write a couple of words or sentences, the process will go on its own. You will not even notice how your application essay becomes well organized, well-shaped, and well done. However, how to do it right? How to start an application paper? You will find answers to these questions here.

When it comes to writing an application essay, most students are worried that their application paper will not be as impressive and outstanding as they want. These worries are not unsubstantiated. Imagine that an application or admission committee reads dozens of application essays every day. Yours must be truly impressive and memorable! It must definitely stand out. This is the only way that you can draw the attention of committee members to your paper and give you a chance to win this academic competition. Follow our tips below to produce a mind-breaking application essay today.

Never reject an opportunity to do research

Think about what you want to become after you are accepted. Do not even assume that you will not pass. Every word and every sentence you write in your application essay must be written by a determinate winner. Why did you decide to choose this or that major? How will you contribute to the field? How will the field contribute to your growth and professional development? Be specific.

Never reject an opportunity to research your program
Your application essay – why are you writing it? What are your mission and intended result? Why did you focus on this particular program? Why do you believe it is different from other programs? You will probably need to read all information that is available about the institution of your choice and the program you plan to choose. You may need to attend college or university events. In either case, you must have a thorough understanding of the program itself and the reasons that justify your choice. You must be very compelling and persuade the application committee that this is the best program for you and, more importantly, you are the best candidate to enter this program.

Do not exaggerate things

Do not assume that your involvement in a business administration or philosophy major will help you in becoming a prominent space explorer. You must be realistic and reasonable. Evaluate your chances to translate the knowledge you gain in this program into real improvements. See what past graduates have accomplished and follow their example. Do not be selfish. Do not focus on your personality. Try to see yourself in an academic environment that fosters your growth but also requires that you contribute to it.

Never reject an opportunity to explore and advertise your personality

Who are you? Why are you better positioned than other candidates to be in this program or major? What are your life experiences? Why do you believe that you have the skills and knowledge needed to excel in this program? What life experiences or anecdotes have led you to this particular program, and how can this program change the direction of your growth in life? Do not assume that you are perfect. This is one of the biggest mistakes that you will make in application essay writing. Everyone is a human. Application committee members want to see you as a human, too. Acknowledge your weaknesses and explain how the program of your choice will help you to become a better professional and a better person.

Drafting a Personal Statement/Admissions Essay

When you start drafting your essay, you should be very specific. Draw on your own experiences and use solid examples. If you are too general in your statements, your readers will not get a clear picture of you and, even worse, they might get bored. So you need to make absolutely sure to look for something that gives a special uniqueness to your essay and sets you apart from other applicants. It is important to choose a topic you find interesting and to demonstrate how enthusiastic you are about it.

Your essay should remain focused on the goal(s) you are trying to achieve i.e. getting admitted into the college, university, and study program you have set your heart on. Your essay should list any classes taken or experience you have that is relevant, e.g., workshops, seminars, jobs, or internships that have a bearing on the subject you want to study. Continuing in this same vein, your essay should not contain any information that is not relevant. It is not usual to include, for example, any reference to one’s political or religious beliefs in this type of essay.

An admission essay or personal statement should be crafted in a way that is distinct and separate from other materials in an application pack. As a rule of thumb, any information that is already in other parts of an applicant should not be repeated in your essay. Instead, the essay part should be used to provide important information that does not easily fit into other parts.

In cases where you want to send applications to several colleges or universities (or at least more than just one), remember to tailor each essay and cover letter for the institution you will be sending it to. Undoubtedly, a lot of the content may be similar (or identical), but each individual essay needs to be focused on the objectives and mission statement of the institution that will receive it.

How to Write an Application Essay

Begin with the prompt

You will need at least five seven minutes to review and understand the requirements for your application essay. You may also need to divide the prompt into several elements and address each consistently, step by step. How does the prompt resonate with you? What do you think you need to include in your application essay to make it stand out among other papers? What is the essence of the prompt? What is the application committee willing to see in your application essay? Now take a break and return to your prompt in a while. Is there anything that surprises you? Is there anything that you did not notice at first? Do not hurry. You may need to read and reread the prompt to produce a superb, premium-level application essay. It will take time!

How to Write a College Application Essay? – Be organized

You might need extra time to develop a proper outline and organization for your application essay. It must be logical. You must not miss anything, but you must also be very concise. Remember that a typical application essay does not exceed 500 words. Imagine that your life is 500 words long – how will you describe it? Use life anecdotes to illustrate your points. The members of the application committee certainly want to see a person behind this piece of paper. Write gradually, step by step. No need to hurry. Then you will read the first draft and redesign it to make it perfect.

Do not tell – Show instead

You may have a difficult time selecting the most interesting anecdotes for your application essay. The situation is virtually the same as the one described in the previous paragraph. You will not be allowed to exceed the requested word count. Therefore, it will take some time and effort to select the most vivid anecdotes and unite them around some core message or theme in your application essay. Do not assume that everyone knows you as well as you do. Application committee members have never heard about you before seeing your essay. Your task is to create a full picture of your personality. You must be fit for the program for which you are applying. Prove it!

Keep an eye on your wording

When writing a college application essay, you must show a good mastery of academic vocabulary and forms. However, do not use language that is too sophisticated or advanced for your level. You must sound professional but not too complicated. After all, you are a down-to-earth personality who has the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the program of your choice. What else is needed here? Do not try to jump over your head. You will look comical rather than persuasive. Be reasonable and balanced. Keep yourself from doing unwise things in application essay writing.

Brevity is the key

Be succinct in every word and sentence. No filler words! You cannot afford it in an application essay as short as 500 words only. Use catchy phrases instead of advanced technical words. Use live language. Do not fall into the trap of dry academic terms and scientific assumptions that will bore your reader to death.

Bring similar ideas together to discuss in one sentence of the word

You will have to use compound sentences or complex sentences to express yourself in application essay writing. However, if you write several sentences that discuss the same idea, better unite them into a complex structure to avoid repetition and redundancy.

Ask someone for help

No one keeps you from requesting professional academic help. Ask someone you trust to read your application essay before submitting it. You are not in the best position to see the strengths and weaknesses of your application paper. You are not objective because it is your essay, and that is natural! Try to find someone who specializes in college application essay writing and ask them to revise your paper.

The Formatting of College Admission Essays

In this list of tips for writing an admission essay, our next piece of advice concerns formatting. Of course, where instructions stipulate a particular format, you should adhere to this. However, some assignments will not suggest a certain format. Nonetheless, you should generally get a reasonable idea about what to include from the way instructions are worded. Then, while you are planning your essay’s structure, make certain it is properly organized. One of the best ways of doing this is to develop an essay outline. Within this outline, you should list all the key points and ideas (even any relevant experiences and/or examples) that you intend to include over the course of writing your essay. You can then arrange these points and/or ideas in logical and sequential order. Use the following guidelines when you actually start writing the first draft of your essay.

Start in a way that gets the interest of your readers. At the outset, your aim should be to get the attention of your readers. Therefore, you should allow sufficient time to develop a good introduction section that provides a good picture of you, your unique personality or particular values, and some idea of what will follow.
Do your best to bring cohesion to your work. When writing your admission essay, use appropriate and well-placed transitions to help the sentences, ideas, and paragraphs in your essay to flow smoothly from one to the next. This will prevent the reader from getting confused or lost.
Use style features (if required). It is permissible to use style features, e.g., bold headers, bullet points, numbering, and so on if you wish to. These are good for highlighting any information you want to draw attention to and for making the text more readable, but these features should not be overused.
End on a note your readers will remember. As is the case with the introductory section of your essay, be especially careful when writing your concluding paragraph. End on a memorable note so that readers are left with a good impression and will remember you when they get around to selecting applicants.

Revising Your Essay

Once your admission essay or purpose statement is written, leave it to one side for one or two days. You should then do a careful review of your work, revising any parts that need revising. Tighten up any parts that are too wordy, remove any repetition, reword any parts that seem unclear, improve or add transitions to link sentences, points, and/or paragraphs, etc. You should additionally remove any information that is irrelevant where this does not support or relate clearly to any of the points, especially to key points, in your paper. Please refer to our article on “Revising an Essay” for additional information on this aspect. Also, get another person to read your work and revise it according to their feedback/comments.

Once your essay has undergone a thorough revision, you should proofread it for possible spelling, punctuation, typos, and other types of errors. Just do your best to ensure your document is as perfect as it possibly can be.

Additional Tips on Writing an Effective Admissions Essay

Allow sufficient time. Putting an assignment off is a sure way of failing.
Try not to use clichés and strive for originality. It is best to avoid proverbs, well-known quotations, etc.
Give your personality, uniqueness, and individuality a chance to come through.
Avoid telling your entire life story. Write in a direct manner and stay focused.
Do not use slang or jargon.
Shun negativity in favor of a more positive outlook. Should you decide to discuss a problem or turbulent time in your life, describe how you became a stronger and/or better person for it or what the experience taught you. Furthermore, leave out any negative details that are unnecessary, e.g., do not say you are applying to a particular institution because you do not feel you would succeed in getting your number one choice or that there will not be as many science or math classes on this particular course.
Avoid flowery and/or very large words in an attempt to appear intelligent or sophisticated. Instead, choose words, statements, and phrases that are concise and clear and easily get your points or ideas across.
Set out your achievements/accomplishments in a clear and confident manner without boasting or exaggerating.
Do not be afraid to use a dictionary or thesaurus, but avoid using words you do not understand the meaning of. Otherwise, the incorrect use of words may make you sound foolish.
Leave out any statements relating to politics, race, religion, or anything else that borders on the controversial.
Try to predict a few challenges you may encounter in your chosen field or program and say how you will attempt to overcome these.
Address any potential weaknesses in your application in a sincere and direct manner without whining or apportioning blame, e.g., if any of your school grades are lower than you would like or if you want to return to education after a break or absence.
Stay within the word count limit.
When you are revising your essay, remove any generic or very general statements, e.g., “I would like to be a scientist because I enjoy experimenting”. Instead, show how dedicated you are to the course you want to take by talking about, for instance, your own achievements, experiences, and so on.

To Conclude

A great deal of time and hard work goes into writing an admission essay. It involves writing, revising, and revising again. However, if you take care to write well, you will end up with a clear, memorable, interesting, and highly organized essay that will go a long way towards getting you a place in the college or university you want to study at.

Extraordinary College Admission Essay

When students have to submit a college admission essay, they tend to get depressed or panic because this single document can identify student’s success. If you dream to join a college or university, you will not be able to make your dream come true without a good admission essay. Therefore, please ensure that you clearly understand what admission writing is and how custom-written papers should look like.

Some researchers state that one needs to spend around 80-100 hours to produce an excellent resume (CV) with 2 pages of text. You can imagine how much time you need to create a superb admission essay, especially if you have not written such pieces of writing before. Even if you work days and nights on the paper, it does not guarantee success since you have to follow the writing requirements assigned by the admission committee and include the key details about your life and aspirations.

Enough Time – Always a Challenge

You should ask yourself if you have enough time to complete the task of writing a college admissions essay. If not, you should find other alternatives rather than spending the last hours on complex writing. Many students think that they will write down everything that pops up in their heads. Admission writing is much different from completing essays in high school. Admission officers want to see the best candidates, who will be enrolled as future students to colleges and universities. Therefore, it is a wrong decision not to find any assistance if you cannot make up your mind what to write in the essay.

Complete a College Application Essay with Us!

Students contact us and say that writing a college application essay is the most dreadful and overwhelming task. Reaching success during the admission procedure seems to be a far-fetched idea, but you can easily overcome it. Admission writing has always been a challenging activity, especially nowadays, when students have to prove that they are the best candidates to be chosen by the admission officers. Learn about application writing techniques from our online writing tips.

If you need to submit a common application essay, obviously, you should not postpone writing an essay until the last hour. Your goal is to impress the members of the application committee with clear and up-to-the-point ideas. Therefore, you should follow all writing guidelines while working on your paper and strive to transform your admission essay into a masterpiece.

Application Writing Procedure

When it comes to college application essays, the admission committee can give you certain questions that need to be addressed in the paper. It is obligatory to cover all questions to the full and follow every single point from the task file. Do not think that adding some extra details will bring positive results. Admission officers will automatically reject your essay because if you cannot cope with the basic requirements, how will you succeed in college? Members of the committee hate wasting time on boring reading, and you will fail the application paper if you do not adhere to their rules.

For sure, all students do not like to write an application essay because this piece of writing influences one’s future. An application essay should clearly show that you are better than others. It can be shown only if you apply all your analytical and critical abilities, creativity, and positive thinking, as well as many other aspects that define success in application writing. Therefore, if you would like to stand out from the rest of the applicants, start writing your essay long before the deadline expiration.

Steps in Writing Application Papers

Many students do not understand that writing application papers differ much from common essay writing because all their future is at stake. In comparison to many other writing forms, application writing is different because a student has to follow very precise word count limits, include only those facts that admission officers want to hear, create an interesting body structure, etc. Therefore, even if you think that writing an essay is easy, you will change your mind after writing a college application essay. Completing application papers should be done in accordance with the following steps:

Creating an outline
Drafting
Text writing
Proofreading.

Online Assistance with Application Writing

We understand that far not all students are able to cope with the application process on their own. If you find it very difficult to write an application essay, do not hesitate to resort to professionals, who will do it for you. Our talented and well-versed writers know how to please the demands of admission committees. Even if you have got very complex instructions and do not think that it is possible to produce a well-written essay, outsource this writing task to our online writers and we will take care of your application process.