Why The First Sentence Of Your College Essay Is The Most Important

Why The First Sentence Of Your College Essay Is The Most Important Admissions officers are seeking students who are purposeful in their pursuits when choosing among highly talented students. They see a ton of candidates who are drawn by the fame or prestige of their institutionsâ€"who are simply applying to see if they can get in. Such candidates, regardless of their credentials, are not very compelling and are easily dismissed. Admission officers want to get past the facts of your application to better understand how you think. Listening to yourself reading your essay aloud will help you understand what is clear and what is confusing. Don’t start with the end in mind, write to find out what you actually have to say. If you are asking yourself, how can I impress the college admissions folks without sounding, you know, braggy? Okay, maybe I’m overreacting â€" but I cannot for the life of me understand that award. “Most Original” always let me down, and as a result, I hated to be original in any context. In my hometown of New Haven, Connecticut, where normality was…well, the norm, I tried to be a typical student â€" absolutely, perfectly normal. I blended into crowds, the definition of typical. How do you process information about yourself and the world around you? Your essay should reveal how and why have they shaped you. College professors don’t want to have to teach you how to write. From a technical point of view, then, your essay should reveal that you have good command of the language, understand the rules of grammar and can convey ideas concisely. College essays, however, are arguably the most challengingâ€"and, potentially paralyzingâ€"assignments you will face during your senior year. I became a person who refused to surprise people. Unsettled, I turn to my ever-present book for comfort. Today it is The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, already worn and slightly crumpled. The overflowing sense of hyper-reality in Tim O’Brien’s words of warfare spills into my world. His words somehow become my words, his memories become my memories. Despite the high speed of the bullet train, my mind is perfectly still â€" trapped between the narrative of the book and the narrative of my own life. One great way to keep yourself accountable in the essay drafting process is to work with a friend, a parent, a teacher, anyone who will expect you to send them drafts. Don’t go at this journey alone, especially in the editing process, and always ask for help. Not only that, but they’ve burned about 6% of their word count in doing so. Ask others - those who know you well and those who do not - to read your work. They say the best books tell you what you already know, resonating with your own thoughts and emotions. As I read, it is as if the tempest of my thoughts is spelled out on paper. These are the beginnings of two very different, very accomplished writers. One student is really into ceramics and stock market simulations; one wants to study Archaeology and to continue teaching kids tennis in her self-started after-school tennis program. But by failing to maximize on the opener, by failing to take a stance, they are mushing themselves together with identical openers. Know the essay word limit and stick to it - ours is 650. Identify a topic or talk about something that is unique and different Or, breathe life into a mundane subject by approaching it differently. Be careful about bragging and using your essay to explain perceived injustice. The essay is one way to ascertain whether you can write well and support ideas with logical arguments. you can “Focus Out” and write an essay that people actually remember.