Sample College Essays - Get Yours To Stand Out!

Getting accepted to college is long process that begins early in high school. But now you've come to that part of your college application and you are looking for sample college essays to see if yours measures up. Does that sound about right?

So many students across the country get great grades and test scores in high school, but when it comes to the essay portion of their application, they are STUMPED! But it's ok. This happens all the time due to the fact that your college essay is a very important part of the application. In fact, it has the potential to "make or break" your admission chances.

We are going to make this as simple as possible for you. We've gone ahead and broken down a few sample college essays already and are about to tell you what the main points are that you should cover. This article will cover a few of the basics of how to write a college essay or personal statement. Let's begin!

1. Start off by telling them about yourself!

Let's start by breaking down your essay into 3 parts, the first being about you. Here, you should tell the college where you come from, what siblings you may have and what your home life and family is made up of. This should not take long! Make sure you keep it around 4-7 sentences, that's it!

The key here is to be brief, but still giving the college representative a good mental picture of you and the people you surround yourself with. Again, just one paragraph for this!

2. Tell them about what you plan to major in and why!

The middle portion of your college personal statement or essay should go into a little more depth about what you plan on majoring in. After doing so, elaborate as to WHY you chose that major. Colleges want to hear some "real life" stories or experiences that you had that helped you come to that choice of major.

If you've taken a class, or just have a really good story about something or someone that prompted you to pursue Engineering (as an example) as a career, tell them that! Help the college to understand why you are so passionate about that specific major.

3. Stoke that school's ego!

That's right! A little flattery can go a long way in those good, sample college essays! The first thing you want to do in order to accomplish that is to visit the college's website. Next, look around a bit and pick out a fact or two about that school that they are PROUD OF. It shouldn't be hard to find something like recent campus additions or improvements. Another good aspect to pick out is to find something about the school that is "nationally recognized" like a program or certain area of study.

By point this out, you are doing two things: First, you're telling the school that they are so great! They love that. And second and more importantly, you are telling the school that you've researched them and aren't just applying because you like the school's football team. College representative want to see students who have put time into their college selection search.

But we are going to take the flattery a step further! One often overlooked thing you can do to greatly help your admission chances is to TELL that school that if you were offered admission, you would DEFINITELY accept and begin attending in the fall. One thing school's like more than flattery is a sure thing, so make your intentions clear!

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Downplaying Bad Grades Through Sample College Application Essays

There are some universities and colleges that don't give as much weight on grades and SAT scores in their application requirements. But that doesn't give you license not to care about your academic records, particularly your grades? Since the competition for your chosen college can be tough, bad grades can be the one that will close the door on your college application. That's why you need to address these bad grades in your admission essay. You have several ways in which you can lessen the impact of these bad grades on your application. For example, you can look at sample college application essays by people who have bad grades but still got accepted into their chosen courses and colleges. Though particular situations would differ, there are general methods on how you can mitigate the possible effects of these bad grades.

Admission essay tips

One tip is to look for justification for your bad grades. The word here is justification, not excuses. Whining about how boring or unfair your teacher is just won't do. You need to look for acceptable reasons as to why you got the scores that you have. You may use lack of interest as a reason, so long as you can justify it, such as developing more interest and devotion to another skill or subject. You may say that English is your poor subject, but you're an expert at Math and Science. Or, you may not have a particular subject your exceptional at, but you have a lot of interests and experiences in machinery or metalworks. That can work. The essential thing is to show that even if you don't excel in academics, you do excel in other things.

Another tip is to just downplay the bad grades through your college admission essay. You can show in your essay your passion, your personality, and how it can relate to the course and college that you're applying for. There are cases wherein people with average grades but with good admission essays have passed the selection process. Admission officials have feelings too, and there is a chance that you can win them over through your willingness to learn and determination. You can find good sample college application essays that used this approach. Though it may seem like a Hail Mary pass, it does work. The only thing is, this would be a bit difficult to pull off.

Bad grades may be bad for your college application, but they're not the only determinants for the success of your college admission. So use whatever means you have available to lessen the impact of these grades. One of your best weapons is your admission essay. By focusing on the good things and giving the right justifications, you greatly improve your chances of admission. Plus, there are sample college application essays that can help you do that. Now, it's just a matter of writing the right things to convince admission officials that you are worth their pick.

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Sample Graduate School Essays That Will Help You Get an Interview

Although the application process for admission to graduate school can really give you a tough time, this is not the sole purpose of all these admission requirements. What a university's admission committee wants to find out is if you have what it takes to survive and finish graduate studies. Of course, you have the results of the battery of tests and your transcript of records. Unfortunately, these are not sufficient on their own, especially since graduate school is not just a matter of aptitude but attitude as well. It's good that former professors and mentors at work can submit their recommendation forms to improve your chances. It's even better that an admission interview is part of the selection process, so you will be able to discuss your objectives more extensively. But before you get to that, you will have to submit an excellent graduate admission essay. It is advisable to read through a lot of sample graduate school essays to accomplish this.

What can sample graduate school essays do for you?

You may think that your writing abilities have enabled you to complete your bachelor's in flying colors and that you no longer need to read other students' sample graduate school essays. You may want to re-think that. Graduate school is an entirely different environment from college, and graduate school admission essays should go beyond the elements of style. Your essay should reflect your determination and suitability for graduate studies. For this reason, reading several essays should help you think of various ways that you can show the clarity of your personal and career development goals and your consistency in fulfilling these goals.

Where can you start looking?

If you're lucky, you may have friends who have successfully got into or completed their graduate programs. They could help you with your application by providing tips on what admission committees usually look for. They might even allow you to read the essays which they have submitted to give you a better idea. If you aren't that lucky, you can still access sample essays through the Internet. Choose the ones that are sure to catch and hold attention from the first line to the end.

What makes for a good essay?

As a statement of purpose, essays typically explain why you would want to get into graduate school. Make sure that you have the right reasons for wanting a master's degree or a PhD. The minimum or maximum number of pages or words for admission essays is often given, so you have to write one that is concise but comprehensive. Do your homework and research whatever you could find on the program and the university of your choice, so you can make a good match between your personal goals and their academic objectives. Cite personal experiences which can show how you deal with difficulties with a positive outlook. Be creative, and start with something catchy, such as a story that you grew up on. Relate how insights from the story or the values of a character shaped your goals the way they are now. It would also be great to write about social responsibility. After all, society should benefit from your graduate degree in the end.

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Writing a College Application Essay

The truth is, nobody really wants to be writing an essay for college during what feels like your last break before the chaos starts. But by the time fall rolls around and it's application crunch time, you'll be glad you did. Here is a composition of tips straight from the horse's mouth. That's right, from the very people themselves that slogged through countless college essays each year.

There is no better way to start your essay then with a grabber of a line. Something lighthearted, descriptive of yourself, and something that shows off your personality. Writing a college essay is not about making yourself seem already perfect, but more about giving them a chance to see, hear, taste, smell, and feel the type of world you live in. You don't need to share every detail of your life, but giving them a thin slice of the pie is recommended.

Be genuine in what you write. The college admissions team doesn't want you to try to impress them, but more so just tell them what is important to you. Don't rely too heavily on how to books. If you need them to help get your brain flowing that's okay, but chances are if you pick one of the suggested topics, they've already read one just like it. Be as original and creative as you can. The last thing you want is to write an essay that has been written by hundreds of other applicants. Your goal should be to stick out to the admissions team.

Before you complete the final draft of your essay, test it out orally on some family and friends. Pay attention to their reactions and body language to help you decide where you could use improvement. Make sure that your essay is written with your voice, and that no one else could write one just like it. You want to be heard as an individual who is unique and different.

Write about things that are of great importance to you. They want to know what you're passionate about. Think about the things in your life that make you special and different. Everyone has different qualities and attributes to show off, so think deep and find out what makes you who you are. It's important to realize that people who read essays for hours on end will read this essay. Do your best to stand out. You want them to remember you!

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Write a Better Persuasive Essay for the SAT or ACT: Having Examples Ready

Imagine a criminal trial that consisted of JUST the attorneys' closing statements, without the testimony of even ONE witness. Obviously, a lawyer could hardly expect to convince a jury that way. So you might be surprised to learn that the essays that most students write on standardized tests are just like such a trial! As an English teacher I can tell you that nearly every essay I have read has boiled down to 4 or 5 paragraphs of "I think I am right because...", and I can also tell you that that is NOT the way to impress the test graders. To accomplish that, just like the attorneys you will need "evidence".

Your evidence should take the form of examples from the following areas: 

• Literature - books, plays, poems, movies, song lyrics
• History - people, places, events
• Pop Culture - politics, famous people, famous movements
• Family History - not YOUR life, but your grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. Especially think about your traditions and culture or how your family came to live where they do.

But here are a few caveats: 

• Don't use your own life: It's not very persuasive, resembling too closely the "I think I'm right" style of argument.
• Don't EVER use any of the following examples: They are overused to the point of horror!
• Romeo and Juliet
• The Great Gatsby
• The Catcher in the Rye
• Martin Luther King, Jr. or Rosa Parks
• Hitler
• The current president or George Washington Don't make up stuff: You may expand a bit, to be sure, but fabricated evidence is hard to write with authority and will only serve to weaken your essay.

The fact is that you can use almost ANY example to prove almost any point. Seriously. This works especially well with examples from literature, because a great piece of literature always communicates ANY number of themes within the same story. For instance, consider Romeo and Juliet. You could say that the theme is any of these: 

• Love at first sight really happens.
• True love is worth your life.
• Gang warfare causes nothing but sorrow.
• Lying to your parents always leads to disaster.
• Absence does make the heart grow fonder.

... depending on your point of view.
LONG before test day pick 4 or 5 different sources. Choose some with which you are at least somewhat familiar. THINK about them, and then use them for EVERY essay you write. For example: 

• "However, as The Great Gatsby shows, what we love is more dangerous than what we fear."
• "However, as The Great Gatsby shows, it is better to live in the country than to live in the city."
• "However, as The Great Gatsby shows, challenges bring out our inner strengths."
• "However, as The Great Gatsby shows, we need others to truly understand who we are."

So instead of spending ten minutes (or more!) of the precious test time trying to come up with evidence after you read the prompt, select your evidence BEFORE you go into the test room.
Do it right now! Make the following list and you will be READY!
Examples: 

1. History -->
2. Literature -->
3. Pop Culture -->
4. Family History -->

If you go into the writing section of the test with examples in hand you will waste less time, avoid the "I think because...' type of essay and write a more authoritative and ultimately higher-scoring paper.

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How to Write a College-Level Essay

Writing an essay is pretty much like pouring your own experience and accumulated knowledge from a certain field into words. That's why it's called academic writing. For some people it comes as naturally as drinking water, but for others it can prove to be challenging.

There are several major issues students come across in essay writing, and they can be divided into two groups.

Group one is pretty much your standard how to find and extract information. This bit is very easy to overcome, it just takes a bit of practice and effort. Let's say, for example, you have to write a paper on Shakespeare, his life, work and place him within a historical context.

Where do you start? First, you have to formulate a question, or questions, that will help you decide what your essay is about. In this case, questions like:

-When was Shakespeare born, where did he live and when did he die?
-What was the political structure of his country in the time he worked?
-What did Shakespeare do that made him so famous?
-Why is his work so appreciated?

After you asked the questions, it's time to look for books, journals and other sources that will help you learn how to answer them. Google books, Google Scholar and your College library are as good a place to start as any, so head there. Important part about literature research is to ask the database correct questions. We need data on Shakespeare, so phrases like English Medieval literature; Shakespeare - life and work and similar are a great place to start.

Once you found 3-4 core readings, additional sources will pop up by themselves as you read. Check the sources sections of the works you found, they will usually hold a great deal of potentially useful titles.

Now that we taken care of the sources, and we know what should we write about, the only thing remaining to do is to actually write the damn thing. Easy? No, but it can be, with a bit of effort.

Group two is much trickier to master, as it requires grammar, vocabulary and synthesis capability. Hey, nobody said that custom essay writing is easy.
Essentially, what you have to do is constrict the material from the sources into an essay (usually 5-10 pages long) about a single topic. Keep in mind that the information within must be focused on the topic, so any type of buzzing around the bush is not a good idea.

Best bet would be to divide your essay, physically into smaller segments, for example

-Introduction
-Body 1
-Body 2
-Body 3
-Body 4
-Body 5
-Conclusion

These segments should correspond with the essay questions we talked about earlier. Try to answer each question in as much detail as you possibly can, while adding a pinch of personal view. Not much, but just enough to give it that personal touch.

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The Role of Technology in Education

In the current age we live in, technology has become an important component. Every day there is some new gadget or software that makes lives easier and improves on the technology and software that already exists. Making lives easier is not, however, the only role technology plays in our lives.

Technology is playing an increasing role in education. As technology advances, it is used to benefit students of all ages in the learning process.

Technology used in the classroom helps students adsorb the material. For example, since some people are visual learners, projection screens linked to computers can allow students to see their notes instead of simply listening to a teacher deliver a lecture.

Software can be used to supplement class curriculum. The programs provide study questions, activities, and even tests and quizzes for a class that can help students continue learning outside the classroom.

Technology has also become part of many curriculums, even outside of computer and technology classes. Students use computers to create presentations and use the Internet to research topics for papers and essays.

Students also learn to use the technology available to them in computer and tech classes. This ensures that after graduation they will be able to use the technology in a work setting, which may put them ahead of someone who didn't have access to a particular technology or software in their own school setting.

As technology advances, students have better access to educational opportunities like these. When something new and "better" is revealed, the "older" technology becomes more affordable, allowing it to be used in educational settings, even when schools are on a tight budget.

Technology has also advanced to help children even before they've started school. Educational video games and systems for young children helps them prepare for school and in some cases get a head start on their education.

There are people who may say children are "spoiled" by technology. Instead of being able to add a long column of numbers in their heads, for example, they turn to a calculator. Regardless of these arguments, technology is an important part of today's society. By incorporating it into the classroom, students will be better equipped to transition from the classroom to the work place.

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