COMMENTS

  1. Bad College Essays: 10 Mistakes You Must Avoid

    Bad college essays have problems either with their topics or their execution. The essay is how admissions officers learn about your personality, point of view, and maturity level, so getting the topic right is a key factor in letting them see you as an aware, self-directed, open-minded applicant who is going to thrive in an environment of ...

  2. What makes a college essay bad?

    A bad college essay can suffer from several issues: 1. Poor grammar and punctuation: Proofread, proofread, proofread! No matter how great your story is, if it's plagued with grammar and punctuation errors, it gives the impression that you didn't put in the effort. Ask others to review your essay and use tools like Grammarly to catch any errors ...

  3. What I've learned from reading tons of your essays (as a college senior

    To elaborate on #1, one of my most common criticisms when reviewing essays is that your details have to have a point. The problem isn't that you have a ton of detail - it's that your details don't advance your plot, characters, or key insights. So use the details of the story to showcase things about yourself.

  4. Bad College Essay Examples: 5 Essay Mistakes To Avoid

    A bad essay will prompt an admission officer to assume one of two things: 1) either you don't care enough about your future at their school to take the time to write a good essay or 2) you aren't academically up to attending their college or university. Neither of those assumptions will help you get admitted.

  5. What Not to Write About in a College Essay

    Sometimes, what makes a topic a bad college essay is that it doesn't really do anything new. And that's the case when it comes to the cliche immigration essay. We say "cliche" because the vast majority of college essays focusing on immigration emphasize the same things: moving to a new home, feeling out of place, and eventually learning ...

  6. 21 College Essay Examples (Graded by Former Admissions Officers)

    College Essay Example #6: The Stop Sign. While some high schoolers get in trouble for skipping class, I get in trouble for arguing with my local government officials on Twitter. But when lives are at stake, I can take the heat. I live at the intersection of 33rd and Spruce.

  7. Bad College Essays: Examples and Mistakes Avoid

    Let's give our readers an example of some bad college essay writing. Here is a sample paragraph from an essay. Tell us what you think is wrong with it in the Comments section below: Winning the race was a really big accomplishment for me. It made me really proud to stand on the podium and wave to the crowd, surrounded by so many people I love.

  8. 8 of the biggest common app mistakes I've seen in 200+ essays by

    This is usually really easy to make happen. Just shift your focus a bit — mess with the ratios of the essay. Cut down on the challenge section and beef up the learnings. SHOW ACTION-STEPS: Your reader should see the concrete actions you've taken to address the situation / get involved / help make a change in your community / learn more ...

  9. 9 Biggest College Essay Mistakes

    Mistake #1: Staying shallow. College essays aren't a time to mess around. As I've described at length in the college essay writing guide, they are a time to be deeply personal, even vulnerable. Shallow personal statements tell an admissions officer nothing about who you are as a person or student.

  10. On the Bright Side: My Bad College Essay

    The whole point of this essay is to make yourself look good, and it can be really easy to go from making yourself look good to coming off as pretentious, snobbish, or just downright unpleasant. Admissions officers admit people, not just some cardboard cutout of "the perfect college student.".