Want to write a killer common app essay which will attract the attention of admissions officer? Keep in mind that this is a kind of assignment that has the potential to influence the success of your application process. You need to make your personal statement interesting and memorable to stand out. It would be great to know more about the admissions committee and understand what do they want to read or what writings they consider trivial and primitive? But, there's something more relevant and useful. That's our extensive guide on common app essay tips and recommendations.

Here, we will go through several aspects that can help you come up with a winning college application essay:

• What are the stages of preparing your common app personal statement?
• What mistakes should you avoid to boost your test scores?
• Which of the topics could work the best for your writing?

What is the key objective of this article? We aim to provide students with a chance to go through the application process without worries. With our common application essay tips, you'll know what particular aspects should be highlighted in this assignment. You'll also understand how to avoid the most common mistakes. After reading this guide, you will be able to work with prompts for the common app essays, master the power of convincing and confident writing, and guarantee yourself a successful entering the college of your dreams.

Insightful Tips for Common App Essay

You already know that this essay should be focused on specific kinds of topics. Those are your interests, different life challenges, ideas that captivate you, or anything that describes your personality. The overriding purpose of this assignment is to get to know you better. That is why many students select a prompt that can help the admissions committee discover who they are. However, every life has its particularities, special events, and challenges. Hence, we've decided to prepare some specific common app essay tips on topics you should know.

What Your Essay Topic Is about?

How and what to tell about ourselves in an app essay puzzles many applicants: they aren't used to writing their own biographies. But, even such a task can be easy to deal with if you follow some simple steps:

• Determine which special skills or knowledge are required by the standards of chosen college or university. Also, consider how they are interconnected with your future profession. Do you have any of those skills? Describe the way your knowledge and academic abilities are used. Back your words well with examples from school, work, and personal life.
• Think about which universal personal qualities that you have will help you succeed on the chosen path. Describe them, and if possible, provide examples from your academic, professional, social, or sports life.
• If you have interesting hobbies or participated in events that are related to your studies or can help to become an interesting participant in college life, don't forget to describe them.
• Write about the qualities and knowledge necessary for successful personal growth in terms of the career you would like to move toward while studying. Frequently, they're called "improvement points."
• Don't praise or depreciate yourself — describe yourself with maximum objectivity. Quote facts and rely on relevant opinions.

You can always look for any information in the brochures or on the website of your chosen college or university. Most frequently, the schools openly report on a list of criteria students have to meet. Is it asking to provide specific certificates? Don't neglect to look for any useful information about the common app essay.

Common App Essay Preparation Tips

Before you start writing an app essay, consider the content diligently. Try to make a list of questions that will need to be answered in the process of writing an essay:

1. Who are you?
   What is important to you? What do you say about your accomplishments during your studies or other activities? Confirm your statements with specific examples. Don't write just, "I am smart." Tell how you managed to solve a difficult problem. Don't say, "I am diligent." Describe the goal that you set and achieved. Tell about your loyalty to academic standards and objectives. You don't need to write about your character — it's better to show it through examples.
2. Why did you choose a particular field of knowledge?
   Why do you want to devote your academic life to a particular specialty? Don't just say, "Chemistry is my favorite course." Tell about your impression during the first time you conducted experiments made on you or how you were carried away by a specific idea or phenomenon.
3. Why did you choose this particular college?
   Learn as much as you can about the chosen institution. What exactly makes this university special? Don't just say, "Duke University is a great place." Write down what academic strengths attract you, call a professor who studies there in your area, or a research center working in this field of knowledge. Describe the uniqueness of the university.
4. What is your professional goal?
   Don't just say, "My goal is to get a Duke University degree." Tell the admissions board how the degree you want to receive is interconnected with your personal and professional development. In college, your education will be a continuation of what you have already begun and will help achieve your goals. Your writing shouldn't be the story of the lost potential. Show that you know your objectives and are determined to achieve your education goals.

When you have decided on the aspects you would like to include in your assignment, we advise you to work on your app essay example. After the first draft of common application essay is done, you can notice that the structure is incoherent, and there should be more paragraphs. A good tip would be to reread your app essay sample after a break. Sometimes, a week of rest can be needed to come back to your essay with a clear mind and see what you can improve.

Main Stages of Writing

it's time to reflect on four major stages of your app writing.

• Your writing should always have a subject.
  Ok, what does it mean? If you choose the topic yourself, it doesn't mean you can write about absolutely anything. Your objective is to reveal why you would be an excellent college student at this particular institution. Therefore, before turning the assignment in, you need to make sure it shows a well-painted picture of you in both contexts — academic and personal.
• Your common app essay is non-fiction prose, revealing something unique about you.
  It's not a poem or drawing. The admissions committee likes creative students, but your essay should be an academic text and not a list of your latest achievements.
• Polish your assignment.
  You can write an amazing story, but if there are grammar or lexical mistakes, your grade will be lowered. Today, there are many online tools allowing you to polish your text to perfection. Don't hesitate to use them and double-check your application, even it is only a draft. The major revision work comes when you are absolutely sure about the quality of your writing. Remember that slow and steady always wins.
• Show who you are.
  When reading your common application writing, the admissions officers should immediately consider you a decent student. They need to find the evidence that you can be a perfect campus citizen. So, your goal is to convince them of it.

Using these common app essay tips, you can prepare a solid ground for your writing and consider every step of your preparation. Now, you know what elements can influence the final result.

Basic Common App Essay Guidelines

The length limit for the application piece of writing is 650 words (the average length of the body section is 400-500). Therefore, you need to check whether you are within this word count. As for the structure, there are two approaches to this task. Some students think a common app essay is about themselves, their credentials and achievements, and a writer shouldn't follow a certain structure.

However, some experts have another viewpoint — planning the structure before you embark on writing can help avoid lots of mistakes. A pre-planned and structured text can help save some time and effort. This way, at the end of writing, you won't need to work with an essay coherence, fix the structure, delete or add paragraphs, etc. While writing, you should lay out the key ideas clearly and show their interconnection. Use transitional phrases to link different statements and make a common application paper more organized.

Double-check your essay before you submit it — you'll fix all the mistakes and boost the overall quality of the text. Don't be in a hurry because the proofreading stage can take more time than writing. You can either use online tools or ask one of our consultants to help you with the editing stage.

Mistakes to Avoid

There are several common app essay tips that will help you not to scare the admissions committee off. Many students make the following mistakes and, as a result, cannot succeed. So, in your application assignment, don't:

• Describe other people's achievements, talents, and hobbies ("I have a friend, and his grandfather is...")
• Write on topics that you cannot cover them. (Don't try to impress the committee with astrophysics if you're going to major in Literature.)
• Use common phrases and cliches. (You win some, you lose some; easy come, easy go.)
• Make too many references and quotes. (You have to dwell on your own thoughts.)

All these errors can make the admissions committee think that you don't have an individual opinion, cannot express your thoughts clearly, and aren't competent in the chosen topic. Remember that your essay will be read by people who have read hundreds of thousands of essays. They can easily distinguish lies from truth, pretense from sincerity, and selfishness from leadership qualities.

Final Touches

Now, the final part. We would like to summarize all our common app essay tips and go through the main questions you should answer while writings your application paper.

• Structure. Is there a logical connection between paragraphs?
• The sincerity of tone. Avoid too emotional adjectives and adverbs. Does the text sound like your own thoughts?
• Unity of style. Is your application written in accordance with the academic standards?
• Length. Comply with the requirements for the essay, reduce any redundant information. What paragraphs need to be longer/shorter?
• Isn't it boring? Remember that you submit your work to the people who have read thousands of similar ones.
• What should you add/omit to make your writing stand out? Does it have a specific feature?

We hope this common app essay guide will help you create an application that won't leave the admissions committee indifferent. Although app writings differ from secondary essays or any other high school assignments, with a thoughtful approach, you will deal with it easily. Keep in mind that there are hundreds of applicants writing similar essays. That's why this assignment is a perfect opportunity to show what you're made of.