What excatly are colleges looking for in the application essays??

Question

What sort of things are you excatly supposed to write about when you're writing for college admission?

What you contribute as a student?
Your academic experiences?
Why you wish to enroll in that specific college?
All three?
and more???
I dont see what else there could be to include, but what else is recommended to write an essay about?

Answer 1

They really want to get a better idea of you as a person and not just a student. You don't need to start talking about your grades and things like that because they already know that and they want to find out how you would contribute to their school as a person (not just academically). They want to see who you are and not just a bunch of grades and numbers. Give them an idea of who YOU are. You may want to talk to some teachers about how to start writting your essay and have them read them when you're done to get a better idea of whether or not it's something that college admissions would like :)

Answer 2

Your college application essay is one of the few ways they have to see your personality since the rest of your application is largely numbers and lists of activities. So a good application essay should show the admissions committee reading it who you are (while of course following the topic). Stay within the constraints of the topic and your personality. Jokes are okay as long as they're clean and appropriate (if you aren't someone who has a sense of humor in real life though, I wouldn't). Also be careful about spelling and grammar (get your english teacher to proofread it if needed).

Answer 3

What they really look for is what makes you stand out from the thousands of other applicants.
Thousands of other applicants will write out their brag lists - "I was captain of the cheerleaders, I was on the drill team, I played soccer for eight years on both the high school team as well as a club team, all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA since junior high."
What will make you stand out, especially if you have a 3.5 GPA, is if you focus primarily on what you have learned and how it will apply at their college. For example, if you were to apply to MIT, you might focus your essay on whether or not you successfully fixed the old radio in your garage. Or if you were to apply to UC Berkeley (goodness knows why everyone wants to go there when UC Irvine is equally interesting in a less liberal way), you would write about how you helped your family survive on a tight budget by collecting recycling while walking the dogs every night and helping poor people by rescuing boxes and bags of clothing and household goods from the dumpsters, cleaning them up, and donating the clothes directly to poor families or donating everything to local thrift stores ( wait, no, that's my personal experience even though I'm not ever applying to Cal Berkeley. Go Trojans! Beat the Bears!)
Focus on what you do best, and write about it, and what you have learned from it - even if it is something as inane as babysitting you next-door neighbor's kids and figuring out how to manage them - it's the real learning experience you gained an how it will apply to their program that will help them pay attention to you.
Good luck in all your endeavors.

Answer 4

It is all a scam...elite higher education is after your or your parents money. There is nothing wrong with starting at a community college, then graduating from a state university. Major employers could careless where your degree is from, as long as the school is accredited.

Answer 5

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