Senior year is a special time; it's our last year to participate in highschool events such as prom, homecoming, football games, and spirit weeks. In addition to all the fun activities, there's another component that makes our senior year distinct: applying for college. Although applying for college can be an exciting experience, it can also be stressful when it comes to writing essays. What do you think are some pros and cons to writing a college essay? What kinds of subjects do you think would help your essay stand out?
Since most colleges give a word limitation to the essays you submit, I think the length could possibly be a con. If your subject requires more description to inform the reader, that could leave less space for explaining the purpose of your essay. Balancing out details while answering the prompt could be difficult. It's clear that quality is more important that quantity with the college essays.
Furthermore, choosing the right topic could lead to some problems. It's helpful to think about the number of people that are applying to college and how often the situation you're considering writing about happens to other people. How many other people could possibly write about a hardworking and successful family member or friend that inspires them? Unique stories and situations are ideal for these essays.
I agree I feel colleges essays Doesn't let us fully express ourselves. For example the Michigan state college essay only allows you to use 250-500 words. Personally if I want to impress admission offices with my essay ill use more than 500 words to get my point across. having a set word limit can be a major con. The pro side can be the total opposite. Admission offices can argue that this set requirements helps you get to your point and overall meaning of the essay quicker. I feel college essays should allow students to go above the requirement if it is needed
ReplyDeleteI agree that college essays are a major component of our high school senior year. For me personally, they're very difficult and stressful.
ReplyDeleteThe cons that make the college essay stressful are choosing topics, and making deadlines. Choosing a topic that stands out is a challenge because there are most likely several submitted essays that are consistent with your topic. Taking a broad topic and making it unique is difficult. Deadlines are a con for me especially because only one of the schools I am applying to uses the common app. This means that I have to write several different essays that cannot be reused for other schools.
A pro of college essays is that it's another factor in which you are analyzed. If you're grades or test scores are lacking, the essay can possibly still work to establish you as a great student. For students like me, this aspect is personally a con because I am more confident in my letter grades than I am in my writing ability
I totally agree with Jacob and Allison. We are suppose to tell the universities about us,but one could never be defined in 250 to 500 words. On top of that the universities ask for experiences you have been through or how you think you could be a good asset to their community,etc. Well isn't that more than 500 words. Yes, they expect us to know how to give precise elaborate answers within a few sentences, but is that really something that we need to learn how to do anyway since college papers sre going to be 10 pages,sometimes 20. For example MSU gives you two choices to write on. One of them asking you to describe a time when you were put into a different culture. Well in order to do that you must talk about your culture and you as an individual in your culture to explain about what you experienced in a different culture. That is atleast a page and a half. Colleges makes it hard for students to get into,but when it comes to a personal statement they only want 2 paragraphs and barely even that. I have found the applying to college somewhat stressful these past few weeks. As students we want to sound so perfect to get into the college of our choice. Colleges should accept no more than a page and a half for an essay.
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