Many of you will now be at a stage in your education where you are thinking about going to college and/or university for the value that it may give to your future career direction due to the need for the further qualifications required for certain jobs in areas as diverse as sport and film and law and accountancy to prepare you for working in these areas.
Therefore, an admissions essay is written by a potential student as part of some college or university admissions processes in order to be able to filter out the best candidates. This is because an admissions essay can be invaluable for allowing the administration of the institution that you are applying to will then be able to get to know much more about an individual student than what more generic application forms can provide.
And yet the rules in relation to the admissions essay are not absolute.
The importance college and university admission reviewers place upon a potential future student’s admissions essay can vary greatly from one institution to another. This is because whilst some institutions place little or no importance on the nature and scope of this kind of essay writing, others place much greatest importance on this kind of essay writing. Nevertheless, it has come to be commonly understood that liberal arts colleges place a great deal more importance on the value of an admissions essay than major universities – although, of course, there is no absolute rule.
But what about the admissions essay itself?
Generally it has come to be recognised that the majority of colleges and universities that require an admissions essay from each of their potential future students will choose one or more topics for their applicants to write about. However, it is also to be appreciated that there are some other colleges and universities that have an ‘open topic’ policy in place meaning the applicant can write on any subject they choose – although some of the most typical topics include career aspirations, academic strengths and weaknesses, past experiences, along with the reasons for applying.
The writing of the admissions essy is clearly not a task to be taken lightly – it could be the difference between your getting into the institution you want to get into to further your career and having to resort to your second choice.
With this in mind, I would advise you to make sure that you make sure you deal with the following basic steps in your admissions essay regardless of the subject that you are planning to study (unless of course you are given guidance from your prospective institution that you clearly MUST adhere to) since you need to introduce yourself and explain why you are an appropriate candidate for studying your chosen subject at a given institution.
But what do you need to do for the admissions essay writing process?
When writing your admissions essay you may wish to consider the following areas -
Consider an appropriate theme – May be you could first make a list of all of your experiences and interests at first and then try to find a connection between the different items on the list – although of course you will usually need to emphasise why you should be accepted onto the course by distinguishing yourself as superior to other applicants in your admissions essay.
Use the appropriate tone – There is usually a need to be balanced or moderate, but with a serious and ambitious tone. Regardless of whether you are discussing positive or negative experiences, there is a need to sound open-minded and use a neutral tone. Moreover, you must not sound too casual or formal by portraying confidence with an active voice in your admissions essay.
Writing in the first person – Although most of us are taught essay writing that avoids using ‘I’, ‘we’, or ‘my’, you are encouraged to speak in the first person on your personal statement that may or may not be part of your admissions essay. This is because you must make sure your work sound personal and active – you should also avoid overusing ‘I’ and also include ‘my’ and ‘me’ along with transition words like ‘however’ and ‘therefore’.
Discuss your research interests – There is no need to include a specific and concise dissertation topic in your personal statement since you should only express yourself in broad terms within your field. You must discuss your research interests to compare the degree of similarity in research interests between you and the faculty member you wish to work with in your admissions essay. Of course admissions committees are aware your interests will change over time and so they do not expect you to provide them with a detailed description of your research interests but merely your academic goals rel