The One Thing Most Students Forget Before Submitting Their Admissions Essay

Think you're done with your essay? Think again.

You spent months perfecting your essay, going through multiple revisions and edits. You've cut the cliches and got it down to word count. You've finessed the opening and closing lines to eye-catching perfection. Everyone from your counselor to your mom's cousin twice removed has proofread it and given it their seal of approval. Maybe you've even hired a guru or two to give it the professional once (or twice) over.

Now all you have to do is click submit, right? And then you'll breathe the sweet victory of completion.

But hold on a second. I can almost guarantee there's something you forgot.

Put the essay away for at least a few days. Then print it out. Now, with a clear head and new eyes, read it out loud. Something magical happens in your brain when you give the essay some distance and then see it in a different medium than the glaring computer screen from which you wrote it. Your eyes are able to see the essay in a new light and catch any typos they literally couldn't see before because they were habituated to the words you spent so much time crafting.

Give it a try, then report back. What was the most glaring typo you caught?