What if I have a bad college essay?

If a student's essay isn't great OR good, the admission officer will probably just skim past the essay and move right on to your transcript and your test scores to evaluate your candidacy for admission. Bad essays don't get read. Period.

Can you get into a good college with a bad essay?

Curating and word-smithing a compelling essay is a key factor to getting accepted by your college of choice. If you are applying to top colleges, you do not get a pass for poor essays, you get a rejection.

Is it OK to write a sad college essay?

If your "sad" topic is truly significant to your life and has shaped your character or values, then it might be a strong choice. However, be mindful of the following considerations: 1. Avoid writing a sob story: Your essay should not be an attempt to gain sympathy from the admissions officers.

Is it bad if my college essay is short?

For the Common App, try to stay within 550-650 words, even though the given range is 250-650. Any submission shorter than 500 words will make it look as though you simply didn't care enough to give your best effort.

Does my college essay have to be good?

A well-written and thoughtful essay—reflecting who you are and what you believe—can go a long way to separating your application from the slew of forgettable ones that admissions officers read. Indeed, officers may rely on them even more now that many colleges are not considering test scores.

The Worst Kinds of College Essays

Can a college essay make or break you?

The essay is not the most important part of your application—your transcript is—but the essay can be a critical factor in the process, and a poorly written college essay is, at best, a wasted opportunity. So your essay has to be good.

Is name dropping bad in college essays?

Consider your impact carefully before name dropping specific professors. This may be appropriate to include if the professor's research covers a specific academic interest of yours or if you've read a book they've published. However, steer away from browsing the school's website just to drop in a professor's name.

Can a bad essay ruin your college application?

After months or even years of working to achieve excellent test scores, strong grades, and relevant work/volunteering experiences, fatigue can get the best of people. However, a weak college application essay can severely hurt your chance of admission.

Can a bad college essay negatively affect my application?

Q: What about a bad essay? Can that negatively affect my application? Of course. But the good news is that I've also heard admissions officers say that great essays will help you stand out from the competition more often than a bad essay will negatively impact your chances of admission.

What does 650 words look like?

650 words is 1.3 pages single-spaced or 2.6 pages double-spaced. Documents that typically contain 650 words are high school and college essays, short blog posts, and news articles.

Do sob story college essays work?

Students need not make up sob stories to improve their cases for admission to elite universities. In fact, we always discourage students from telling sob stories. We don't want students writing about illnesses that they, their parents, or grandparents have faced.

Should I break my college essay into paragraphs?

A very simple writing rule for your application essay (and for essay editing of any type) is to make your writing readable by adding line breaks and separate paragraphs.

Is depression a bad college essay topic?

This is perhaps the trickiest exception to the general rule of avoiding discussion of mental health. But, if having a mental health disorder is central to a student's life story and they feel that their personal statement would be unreflective or incoherent without it, they should reframe their diagnosis as a strength.

Is one typo in a college essay bad?

You double and triple-checked each essay, and you were positive that everything was perfecto. But then, you reviewed your submitted materials and — gasp — you noticed a mistake! Don't panic. One mistake is not going to jeopardize your admission.

Do college essays matter more than grades?

At the top 250 schools, your essays generally account for 25% of your overall application. This is only slightly behind the 30% for extracurriculars. Essays are actually ahead of the 20% for grades and coursework, 15% for test scores, and 10% for recommendations and interviews.

Do colleges accept bad grades?

Do you still have a chance to get into college if your grades aren't that great? The answer is a conditional yes. You can still be admitted to a college if your grades were less than stellar. However, you should do everything you can to make the rest of your college application shine diamond bright.

Will a bad essay get you rejected?

Period. 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.

How serious should a college essay be?

The point of a college essay is to convince the reader that you would be a good person/an asset to have at the institution. It doesn't have to be serious; it just has to showcase YOU.

Why is college essays so hard?

Oftentimes, the reason writing the college essay is so difficult is because the student doesn't spend enough time picking the right topic before they start writing. Students look at the Common App essay prompts to generate ideas. And then they choose a topic that they spent mere moments thinking about.

Do college essays really matter?

As you can tell, college essays are very important for applicants hoping to get accepted into prestigious institutions. And if you are planning to apply to any colleges that are test optional or test blind, then the essay probably becomes more important, since schools have fewer data points to work with.

Can I talk about trauma in my college essay?

While it's true that some students may have experienced personal trauma that has shaped them into the person they are today, this is not a requirement for writing a strong personal statement.

Do college essays have to be traumatic?

Students should not need traumatic experiences in their past in order to be competitive applicants, nor should they feel forced to disclose anything that they may have gone through. Pain should not be the avenue through which students must represent themselves.

What do colleges hate in essays?

Anything That Involves Lying

You would think this one is obvious, but many people feel like their stories just aren't good enough to tell, so they fabricate elements. The bottom line is you should never lie about anything in your college admissions essays. Admissions committees can smell insincerity.

Is lying on a college essay illegal?

First, we will deal with the easy bit: if you knowingly employ deception (stating something on the application that you don't believe is true) in order to receive an advantage (admission to college), then that is most definitely fraud.

Can a good essay alone get you into college?

Well, yes. Colleges use essays to see if you'll be successful in college and beyond. Essays that prove potential for success can 10x your chances of getting into selective colleges, so it's worth figuring out how to do it well. The way to prove future success is through your experiences to date.