Tip #4- Start Strong and Take Some Risks
Don’t be afraid to sound a little crazy in your first line. Just as you eat with your eyes first, the first few sentences of your college essay are what grabs the reader, and can help turn a common essay into an uncommon one.
This is one of my favorite college essay articles, because most of these one-liners are just so cool and fun to read. Of course, you’ll need to back up a great one-liner with evidence and stories later in your essay in order for it to make sense and lend itself to having maximum credibility.
Some risk can pay off, but not so much that you run the risk of turning off an admissions reader (for more on how to help figure out if something is too risky, read on to the next tip).
Tip #5- Get Feedback From Someone You Trust, But Not From More Than Two People
The worst thing that can happen to your college essay is that it becomes someone else’s essay, not yours. Remember that the best way to preserve your own voice, is to really believe in your written product. Because if you start asking too many people for feedback, your head spins and suddenly, everything you once thought was right, now just sounds wrong. So, two, maybe three people are just the right amount to ask for essay feedback.
So who do you ask? Whether it’s your older sister, best friend, English teacher or Stoodnt.com college counselor, pick people that you trust and those that aren’t afraid to give constructive criticism. Don’t take feedback personally, because something that may have sounded like an epiphany to you at 2 am the night before, may not have translated well on paper to your reader.
I get it, writing well is hard. Especially when so much is at stake. But it doesn’t mean that you should fear it, because we all know that saying, starting is the hardest part. But, starting is often the best part because it only gets easier from here! So, what are you waiting for?!