Take Your College Admissions Essay From Good to Great!
Your SAT scores are in, but your essay is not. You feel all of the essay formulas you’ve been taught bearing down on you. Or worse, you are frozen. Everyone is talking about passion. But what is yours? Can you relate? As you write your first draft…
…be sure you:
● Look for unique angles to write from; break the formula. Don’t make the admissions officers snore!
● Use imagery and powerful words that make your essay a vivid snap-shot. Who are you, and what do you value? Make sure the essay isn’t just a good story. Make it paint a mini portrait of you.
● Make sure the language is grammatically correct but not stiff or stilted!
(More tips needed? Scroll down.)
If you would like professional feedback on your draft, give me a call. If you would like to be coached in how to make this an essay to remember, I can help! 609-799-6071. Or you can contact mail@cynthiayoder.com.
Can’t get past that frozen feeling?
I can send you a “tips, scripts and prompts” page to get you moving.
I am the proud mom of an AP and Honors teen in New Jersey, which is why I’m offering this service. I see the pressures kids undergo and know that a good writing instructor can make all the difference! This isn’t on my “about” page, but I won college awards and scholarships based on my student essays. Let me help you write your own winning essay!
Let’s get started! Email me at mail@cynthiayoder.com. Or call my land line, 609-799-6071.
Or maybe you feel lost when you hear the word, “passion.”
There are important questions to ask yourself about what you fear, what you long for, what you want most for yourself. After years of helping people uncover their passion, I shared the inner-listening exercises I developed in a workbook. This book, Divine Purpose: Find the Passion Within is available for the price of a skinny latte, via download, on amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. This book was written just for you.
You can also try these essay writing tips. Your aim: blow down the admissions door!
To show your passion, you must feel strongly about your topic. If you don’t, throw out your topic and find one that you do feel passionate about! Imagine writing about a cereal that you find bland and trying to make someone else want to eat it. “Well, it’s a healthy cereal; it has some good vitamins and minerals. The taste is okay.” Your reader will taste the “blah, blah, blah.” Passionate writing starts with a passionate writer. Find a topic that you love to talk about and write about that.
● Think of words as tiny galaxies that open up when you write them. The admissions counselor does not know you. What part of your galaxy do you want this counselor to discover about you? Don’t be shy! This is not the time to be shy.
● Choose sentences and words that crackle with meaning. When you have finished a draft, go over it line by line and ask yourself, “Does this sentence crack open the world I want it to?” And “Does this word pop with meaning?” Choose your sentences and words accordingly.
● Exceedingly delicious words having to do with passion (while avoiding the word ‘passion’): eager, avid, gusto, zest….proclivity, fascinated, enthusiast…pleasure, curious, propensity…desire, fulfillment, longing…keen, yearning, yen…relish, thirst, devotee…
● Have fun! And if you get stuck, talk it out. This is your chance to create a vivid snap-shot of who you are, what you value and what you love. If you feel stuck, talk out what you want to say to a friend, a parent, or (insert drum roll) a writing instructor! That person can jot down your ideas as you are speaking them. That will give you the raw material you need to craft your story.
(Looking for more Admissions Essay Tips? Write to me at mail@cynthiayoder.com with your question, and I will do my best to answer it!)
Feeling like some professional input could take your essay from good to great? I’m here to help: call 609-799-6071, or write to mail@cynthiayoder.com. To learn more about my professional experience, please click –> here <–, or visit me on LinkedIn.
