How You Can Make the PERFECT College Application
Dear Class of 2025, the deadline for your applications is slowly creeping Up! Here is a simple guide to make sure you have the PERFECT college application.
1) Have a Stand-Out Personal Statement
Your personal statement is the essay that colleges are going to see first! It’s your ultimate avenue to share yourself, who you are, and how you’ve grown through your time in high-school. There is a stark difference between a good college essay and an average one: the story.
The story of your essay is its heart. You don’t want to simply begin listing positive attributes of yourself (anyone can do that). Instead, you want to break down your essay into compelling narratives, stories that show your positive qualities.
By doing this, you are showing the admissions counselor that you are capable of putting actions into words; that you are a person capable of taking life experience and turning it into a lesson.
If you want to make sure that your essay is amazing, Admit-U has an essay-editing service, book a consultation today and ask about it!
2) Be Careful With Your Supplemental Essays
After an admission counselor reads (or, most likely, skims) your personal statement, they’ll look at your supplemental essays. What is a supplemental essay? It’s a piece of writing that answers to a university-specific prompt. Unlike the personal statement (which follows a prompt provided by the Common App), supplemental essays are written with prompts crafted by the university in order to determine if a student fits their campus.
Most of the time, universities have you submit supplemental essays through the Common App. If you begin your applications early, you will be able to see these prompts and begin writing your supplemental essays with more time to spare (because you’ll be writing more than one).
Remember: When writing supplemental essay ask yourself: What attribute specific to this university resonates with me on a personal level? By highlighting a characteristic that only that specific university offers you will demonstrate a better fit to the admissions counselor.
3) Your Activities
It’s great to write about what you could and can do, but it’s a whole other universe when it comes to showing what you have done.
That is what you’ll have to think about when writing your activities list. We could write a whole separate article on this (and we probably will), but in summary, this is what you have to keep in mind when writing your activities list on the Common App.
Make sure to highlight your positions of leadership.
Try and avoid putting any obligatory community service.
Highlight the activities where you’ve excelled at a regional, national or international level.
Do not put down activities that are low-effort (they don’t take up much time).
Do write about your business ventures, personal projects (that have seen success), and job experience
Those were some general rules when it comes to writing your activities list. Remember that the word limit for your activities description is really low! Make sure that every word counts when writing these descriptions.
Don’t know where to start?
Yes, this is a very long and very hectic process! However, Admit-U is here to help you. We offer personalized, 1-on-1 college advising to make sure you maximize your admissions process! Schedule a free consultation to see how we can help you!
We also have a digital college checklist and college application organizer to make sure that you maximize your college admissions process. Organization is key! Our digital products will make sure that you are organized in every regard of this process.
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