Guide on How to Write a Successful Application Essay
An application or admission essay is a paper written by a student who applies to a specific educational institution, program, or scholarship.
The main purpose of the application essay is to introduce the author or a person who applies to the application committee. The student should describe their relative experiences and aspirations, and briefly but informatively tell about themselves.
Understand the Prompt
Usually, the application committee offers a prompt, which is relevant to the field and helps the applicator direct their thoughts appropriately and share the information important for the educational institution.
Here is the example of the prompt for the essay: explain why you have chosen your major and how it aligns with your goals.
As soon as you receive the prompt, you should spend time to understand it and choose the relevant experience aligning with it. You need to dissect key themes, questions, and requirements. Meeting the expectations of the evaluators is your main goal so you need to search for the experience that highlights your strong sides.
There are a few tips for you to quickly understand the prompt:
- Break down the prompt into main components: the prompts may be complex sometimes, built of one or two parts. Thus, you need to define what are the essential questions of the prompt and answer them one by one while still keeping a connection between them.
- Understand the intent: in each prompt, evaluators want to assess specific skills or experience. Thus you need to understand the underlying intent and respond according to the expectations of evaluators.
Clearly understanding the prompt is the first and the most important step to writing a successful admission essay.
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Apply Personal Experience
An application essay is a paper that only requires your unique experience. Thus, you should not make anything up or use any other’s ideas. We offer you a few hints on how to use personal experience the most effectively:
1- Brainstorm:
After understanding the prompt it is time to pick up the appropriate experience. If it seems difficult you can create a list of significant life events, challenges, or moments of personal growth you experienced throughout your life.
Transformative moments are the most valuable for application essays because they show your strong character. Read through the list of your personal experiences and select the ones that are the most relevant to the prompt.
2- Analyze the impacts:
After selecting the transformative moments, it's time to analyze them appropriately.
You need to reflect on how each experience has influenced your character or aspirations. Pick up the moments or situations that made you want to pursue your major and become proficient in the specific field of your choice.
Keep in mind to tailor your essay appropriately if you pursue distinct majors. For example, if you apply for information technology and nursing, you need to pick up different experiences, which are more relevant for the specific major.
3- Be unique:
you need to identify what sets you apart to make the admission committee see your ability to see your own uniqueness and strong sides.
Thus, you need to understand why you are special and what makes your life distinct. For example, you may have a dream to make the environment better and you have always wanted to save animals and preserve rare species. All your unique traits and hobbies may be specifically useful when writing an admission essay.
Therefore, your admission essay should revolve around your personality and unique experience, which should necessarily be mentioned in the paper.
Develop a Strong Thesis
Developing a strong thesis is important for every type of paper, including the admission essay. A thesis statement is a sentence that shortly explains what the essay content will be about. It is extremely useful for the admission committee because they will know right away what the essay is about and will note your good writing skills. We will shortly tell you how to write a good thesis statement:
1- Be clear:
Your thesis should never be broad and be as concise as possible. For example: I have always dreamed of becoming a nurse and was volunteering and learning human anatomy winning two awards. Then, you will need to develop this topic in the body paragraphs.
2- Keep the prompt in mind:
Thesis is important but it should necessarily address the prompt and develop the topic demanded by the prompt. This way, a thesis itself will hint at the appropriate content throughout the admission essay.
The thesis is important not only to make a good impression on the admission committee but also for your successful writing. Thus, you should never avoid building an effective thesis, which should be located in the introduction. You can find out more about how to write a thesis statement by following the link.
Tell a Compelling Story
Although your story should be structured and correspond to the prompt, you should still try to captivate the reader. You come up with a specific tone, for example anecdotal, where you utilize anecdotes and share your own emotions.
Use this website to find out more about how to incorporate the anecdote in your essay. The tone can be dramatic as well, telling some sad and depressing experiences of your life. Anyway, your goal is to make the narrative not just informative but captivating and interesting to read.
Final Words
In writing an application essay you should necessarily remember that it is your narrative requiring your unique experience. However, when writing the essay you should not only be original but also stick to the prompt to meet the expectations of the admission committee.