120 College Essay Examples For 14 Schools + Expert Analysis

120 College Essay Examples For 14 Schools + Expert Analysis Full credit for these essays goes to the original authors and the schools that published them. If you're looking for even more sample college essays, consider purchasing a college essay book. The best of these include dozens of essays that worked and feedback from real admissions officers. No spelling mistakes, no grammar weirdness, no syntax issues, no punctuation snafusâ€"each of these sample college essays has been formatted and proofread perfectly. If this kind of exactness is not your strong suit, you're in luck! Some Common App schools will require additional supplemental writing. The reason that teachers don’t assign a number of pages anymore is because it’s too easy to manipulate pages. When students used to write on typewriters, it was common for teachers to assign essays in number of pages. With the adoption of computers in the classroom, teachers switched from pages to work count because it was too easy for the computers to manipulate the font size and page size. By assigning a word count, teachers get a more accurate length of essay than they would if they assigned homework by pages. In the case of these schools, those cookies are used to gauge a person's interest in the university. It tracks their activity, on site and off, and can use data about the person's location and interests to determine who the student is. The Common App asks students to submit one long essay, no more than 650 words. The other 30 lacked any disclosure of tracking practices or failed to fully explain the extent of the tracking being done and how it might factor in to a student's application process. According to the Post, the tracking process begins as soon as a student first directs their browser to a school's website. Many schools have started to implement tracking software on their sites that are able to identify a person based on other online activity. This type of software, often called a cookie, is typically associated with online advertising. When you visit a site searching for boots, for instance, and all of a sudden start seeing advertisements for boots on other sites, it's because of tracking cookies. Living on the Notre Dame campus with other REU students, UND athletes, and other summer school students was a whole other experience that prepared me for the world beyond high school. For 9 weeks, I worked, played and bonded with the other students, and had the opportunity to live the life of an independent college student. Sometimes students pick the hardest challenge they’ve been through and try to make it sound worse than it actually was. Tons of students write doctor/lawyer/engineer essays; if you want to stand out you need to say a few things that others don’t tend to say. All colleges advise applicants to have their essays looked over several times by parents, teachers, mentors, and anyone else who can spot a comma splice. Your essay must be your own work, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting help polishing it. Good grades and impressive test scores are certainly helpful on college applications, but colleges also want to see students take initiative beyond the classroom through extracurricular activities. Whether they’re sports, clubs, or community service, it’s always good idea to stay involved with extracurriculars. Even though in many ways these sample college essays are very different from one other, they do share some traits you should try to emulate as you write your own essay. Through her writing, Callie allows the admissions committee to better understand her approach to learning new perspectives. This essay highlights her personality and values and helps us imagine how she will collaborate with others throughout different spaces on campus in a diverse student body. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. I've picked two essays from the examples collected above to examine in more depth so that you can see exactly what makes a successful college essay work. By broadening her initial anecdote and having the majority of the essay focus on her reflections and takeaways, we were able to spend even more time learning about Callie. By the end of the summer, I wasn’t ready to leave the research that I was doing. Through this summer experience, I realized my ambition to pursue a career in research. I always knew that I would want to pursue a future in science, but the exciting world of research where the discoveries are limitless has captured my heart. College courses have high writing standards, and most professors who assign essays have lofty expectations for those essays. Instructors can be rather difficult to please and their reputation is well-known on campus, striking fear into the hearts of students who are committed to getting good grades. This problematic practice is rarely disclosed to students. Just three of 33 sites reviewed explicitly stated that their website hosts tracking software.