Crafting An Unforgettable College Essay

Crafting An Unforgettable College Essay Whether you're a terse writer or a loquacious one, we can advise you on college essay length. In this guide, we'll cover what the standard college essay length is, how much word limits matter, and what to do if you aren't sure how long a specific essay should be. While rated below GPA, Course Load, and Test scores for most universities, the essay still remains an important factor in admissions. The essay allows the candidate to express something that cannot be determined based on data alone. Make sure you spend plenty of time on this part of the application and that it represents the best you have to offer. Depending on the college, the essay can be quite important. The most important component of any application are the student’s grade and academic rigor. Assuming the student meets the academic criteria, the essay can set the student apart from others in the potential admit pile. THIS IS YOUR MOMENT TO BRING YOURSELF TO LIFE… The essay is a critical piece in the application process! This may be the only opportunity you get to show exactly who you are, what you stand for and where your passions lie. With an array of essay topics to choose from, pick one that makes sense to you. Perhaps you want to talk about the moment you helped your athletic team to win an important game. If you really feel that you will do poorly or that the anxiety might negatively impact the rest of your test, you should be OK without it. My son took the ACT without writing as a junior and received a 34 composite . He retook it as a senior with writing and also received a 34 composite , but only received an 8 on the writing portion. The only other difference between the 2 scores is that he got a 36 Reading/35 Science on the first ACT, and 35 Reading/36 Science on the second. For competitive schools that don’t require the writing portion, would you recommend that he submit his first score without the writing, or the second? Given their testing page, I find it hard to believe that they are rejecting students for not having an essay score. We will be leaving it up, however, until we get clearer guidance from the school. The did say that a single test with an essay is fine. That’s a difficult question to answer because of all of the potential factors. Have you had a practice essay scored to know where you stand? Also, don’t expect an essay score to stand out in the same way that your ERW and M scores might. Some colleges feel that removing “recommended” would mean that they are diminishing the importance of writing as a skill. That’s not the same thing as saying that it is important to them in the admission process. He shouldn’t count on his Writing score making a difference. I don’t know of any superscoring school that will not superscore across ACT and ACT with Writing. As you may have read, the essay is becoming less important every year â€" even at Duke. If you feel that you would do well or would like to keep all of your options open, then I would encourage you to spend the extra time to take Writing. So even though there's no word limit, they'd like somewhere in the 4-10 pages range. High school students are not usually writing papers that are longer than 10 pages anyways, so that isn't very limiting. Either way, it will not hurt your ability to superscore. Warn students not to write about high-minded topics or exotic locales simply to impress the reader. If you really can't find any length guidelines anywhere on the admissions website and you're at a loss, I advise calling the admissions office. They may not be able to give you an exact number (in fact, they probably won't), but they will probably at least be able to tell you how long most of the essays they see are. (And keep you from writing a panicked, 20-page dissertation about your relationship with your dog). Maybe you want to shed some light on a mission trip that you took to China. Whatever topic you choose, remember to be creative! Grammar and punctuation count, as this is not a text message! It is also important to note that your essay should be kept within the guidelines, with many between words. Keep in mind that Admission Representatives get tons of applications to read, so you want to make yourself stand out, while engaging them in a short period of time. I’m thinking the first is probably a better choice for him (especially for liberal arts colleges/universities), but wanted to get your thoughts. 8 falls within the 25th-75th range of enrolled students at even Berkeley and UCLA. More important, the UCs are likely to drop the essay requirement this year. That said, I don’t like to stand in the way of students motivated to retest. If he has the time and the desire, he could take the ACT again on Feb 8.