7 Most Common College Application Essay Mistakes That Are

Nobody likes a show-off. 5. Repeating the accomplishments found on your resume/application, your credentials speak for themselves on your resume and application, so you dont need to repeat them in your essay.

Turnitin, which has been used in the past to expose cut-and-paste malfeasance in term papers, is now being used to detect plagiarism on applications. Penn States MBA program is the first university to sign up. It is better to write the essay in your own voice and with your own vocabulary than to be caught using words that you obviously dont fully understand, and words that are forced into an essay are easy to spot. Dont give them ANY reason to reject you. You might get the the one admissions officer in the office whose pet peeve is essays that exceed the maximum word count. 3.

Exactly How personal is That Personal Statement?, April 8, 2010, NY Times. The introduction is the hook, and reading it should draw in your audience and make them want more. The middle paragraphs should be the meat of the essay. Your middle paragraphs should elaborate on what you introduced in the first paragraph. 2. Going over the maximum word limit, you might not think that 3-4 words over the maximum word limit is a big deal. Think again. College admissions officers have the tough job of selecting the best prospective freshmen from a huge pool of applicants.

4. Being overly confident, sometimes when a student is insecure, they can try to overcompensate on their admissions essay and come off overly confident. Try not to puff yourself up too much.