9 Common College Essay Mistakes To Avoid in Your Personal Statement

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9 Common College Essay Mistakes To Avoid in Your Personal Statement

Over the years, I’ve read and edited hundreds of college application essays. To help you during your writing stage, I’ve recapped my most useful edits below so you can avoid the common mistakes that pop up most often in college admissions essays.

1) Using Bloated Thesaurus Speak

Most students think a higher vocabulary (read: thesaurus) will make their essay sound better. That instinct may work for your more formal academic essays, but it’s wrong in the case of the personal statement: the essay should sound how you speak, not a formal academic letter. "Thenceforward" and “heretofore,” for example, seem way too formal and almost sound funny in this personal context. Would you ever use those words in real life? Didn’t think so.

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How to Revise Your Admissions Essay

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How to Revise Your Admissions Essay

Aha, you’ve written your first draft. Congratulations! This is the hard part. Now, give it a breather and put it away for a few days at least so your words will seem fresh for the revision process.

First, look for repetitions.

Are you using the same word over and over? (Everyone has their own personal crutch). If you're a vocab savant, check for other repetitions like, are your sentences all periodic and using the same construction? Like life, good writing needs variety.

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The 8 Grammar Mistakes to Watch Out For

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The 8 Grammar Mistakes to Watch Out For

These are all a great thing to look out for when you're proofreading your essay. I’ve had so many students make the dangling modifier mistake, in addition to the faulty quotation mark punctuation. But you should find comfort that even published authors make the same mistakes! Everyone needs help with their grammar sometimes, especially since it often takes a new pair of eyes to spot typos, because yours have already gotten habituated to your words.

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Your Last-Minute Admissions Essay Checklist

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Your Last-Minute Admissions Essay Checklist

Overusing adverbs (basically, essentially, actually) means that your verbs are not strong enough on their own. Wordy phrases and fragments slow down your narrative. Pedantic words like “myriad” and “plethora” should only be used if you know what they mean - otherwise you come across as someone disingenuous who used athesaurus to sound smarter (something admissions officers can easily see through.)

Inspired by Karyn, here are a few more things I would add to your admissions essay checklist for before you submit:

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The One Thing Most Students Forget Before Submitting Their Admissions Essay

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The One Thing Most Students Forget Before Submitting Their Admissions Essay

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.

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What High School Doesn't Teach You About The Admissions Essay

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What High School Doesn't Teach You About The Admissions Essay

Most high schools focus on teaching you the academic essay: you know, thesis statement, supporting paragraphs, and a closing paragraph summarizing the above. There is a pretty exact formula you have to stick with and not much room for creativity. Your tone is overly formal and you are expected to cite and analyze texts for a unique argument and conclusion. The good news: You spend 4 years learning this academic skill, which is helpful and will be what you are expected to write in college. 

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This is What Admissions Officers See When You Use a Thesaurus in Your Personal Statement

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This is What Admissions Officers See When You Use a Thesaurus in Your Personal Statement

When writing the essay that *may* determine the rest of your life, you may be tempted to embellish a little. You're competing with SO MANY OTHER KIDS that you think you need to sound that much smarter and well-read. The best writers use big words, right?

Wrong.

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How to Overcome The Hardest Essay Roadblocks

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How to Overcome The Hardest Essay Roadblocks

1) Ignoring the Supplemental Essay Questions

A common mistake is providing the same generic answer to the supplemental "Why do you want to go to this school?" question. Admissions officers have told me that if you can copy and paste your answer to every school, you're doing it wrong. The answer has to be personalized to each school: mention specific professors or majors unique to the school or something you discovered on your campus tour. Experts in Forbes second that opinion.

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BOO: 4 Scary Personal Essay Mistakes To Avoid

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BOO: 4 Scary Personal Essay Mistakes To Avoid

In honor of last night's Halloween shenanigans, let's talk about terrifying mistakes not to make in your admissions essay. As someone who helps students brag about themselves for their admissions essays, I’ve realized there’s a fine line between impressing someone and irritating them. So what do you do when the cover letter practically begs you to be #blessed all over the place? Check out our killer tips for wowing their socks off without turning them off. 

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Admission Essay Lessons from Tonight's Election Debate

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Admission Essay Lessons from Tonight's Election Debate

Whatever your politics, you can agree that presidential debates can bring out the best in people—or the worst. Some people onstage look calm, educated, and even presidential. Others look mean-spirited, angry, and even unstable. So what does that have to do with the admissions essay? Republican or Democrat, you have to come across as LIKABLE in your personal statement. Based on countless interviews with admissions officers, that is the #1 quality they look for when making the decision to accept you or not. So how do you that exactly? 

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