The college essay may be the hardest part of the entire application process.
Other pieces of the application, such as grades and test scores, all look backward at what your student has done up to this point. A student may not be totally happy with their GPA or ACT score, but they’ve already had time to accept that at this point, there’s not much they can do about it.
The essay, on the other hand, is a creative, longform expression of a student’s state of mind. It tells admissions officers who a student is now and who they want to become in the future. And rather than quantifiable, objective numbers, it involves the very subjective medium of the written word.
However, despite the challenges, any student can learn how to write a great college essay that showcases their unique personality and helps admissions officers get to know them as three-dimensional human beings.
How to Write Your College Essay
In this video, Sheila Akbar, our president and COO, breaks down Signet’s method for writing the perfect college essay. She covers the following topics:
- What is a common App essay?
- Making your admissions essay writing plan
- How to find your story with brainstorming
- Writing your essay based on a working thesis
- Revising your essay for consistency and flow
