Overview - Admission Essay
Admission essay is a document demanded by the universities as a part of the application process to understand the student’s profile and interest. Universities that don’t need a statement of purpose usually ask for an admission essay. Universities provide students with particular essay topics that may be descriptive, persuasive, narrative, etc. to better evaluate the student’s thinking style and process. Admission essay topics vary based on the type, of course, you are planning to enroll, be it undergraduate programs or an MBA course. Students enrolling for a competitive course should know the importance of an admission essay and how it can make or break your application despite impressive academic records. Students must pay attention to the university requirements, do the research and thoughtfully draft the essay to make that striking impression.
As a part of the application process, students are required to write an admission essay and submit it. The university mentions the topics, requirements, word limit, etc. which makes it easier for the students to follow through it. Universities who demand an admission essay don’t need SOP and vice versa.
Admission essay types
Before you start writing an admission essay, take your own time to research and know about the different kinds of admission essays. Admission essay is a golden opportunity to highlight your personality and achievements to the university apart from your academic grades. Every essay requirement is unique in its way, and the content highly varies accordingly. In a nutshell, admission essays are broadly distinguished based on
Content
Admission essay topics can be about a random situation or to elaborate topics of varied nature such as descriptive, persuasive, argumentative, etc. Some of the common admission essay topics are situation essays, goals essay, career essays, professional, failure, leadership essays, etc. Admission essay topics are highly influenced by the type of course or program you enroll for.
Program /course type
- Undergraduate admission essay
UG essay topics primarily focus on academics as well as extracurricular interests. UG essay usually prompts about academic and activity interest, tell about yourself, current issues, etc.
- MBA admission essay
Being a professional course, MBA essays emphasizes more on topics related to learning, future goals, academics, leadership ideas etc. Some of the most common essay topics for MBA admission essays include why this university?, Work ethics, achievements & failure, situation essays, and career-related essays.
- Word limit requirement
Every university has a different word limit requirement. Mostly, universities demand
Short essays- Short essays are usually 200-500 words long
Very short essays- Very short essays ca be anywhere about 30-200 words long
Long essays- Long essays must be at least 500 words long but nit more than 800 words long.
Brief full length essays- Full length essays must be 800 words long
Admission essay topics- Nature
While common admission essays gives you the liberty to choose your own topic and write, universities with specific requirements shall give you topics of any nature which is described below.
Narrative - Narrative essays are similar to storytelling wherein the candidate can narrate a chain of events and the learnings and experiences gained from it.
Argumentative - Argumentative essays require the students to have an opinion about the situation and back it up with facts and proofs to convince the evaluator. Students must be very careful and well researched while writing such essays.
Descriptive - Descriptive essays are one of the easiest essay topics to write. Students must be able to explain a certain topic efficiently with the right set of words and must have a smooth content flow.
Persuasive - Students would be provided with a topic, and the student must present their opinion. The writing must be persuasive to convince the readers of your viewpoint.
Autobiographical- Autobiography is presenting highlights of one’s own life, which may be personal, social, or professional experiences in life.
Admission essay writing tips
Clearly understand the topic - The admission essay topics might be twisted sometimes. Take your time and read the requirements again and again until you are very clear and sure of the university’s expectations. Having clarity of thought is very important and forms the base for you to brainstorm and write accordingly.
Bullet points - As soon as you are clear with the essay topic, roughly note down the points that come to your mind. As you write, you will get a better idea of how the content should flow, what more can be added, and so on.
Basic draft - Star off with a basic draft and write everything you know related to the topic. At this stage, don’t worry about the word limit, subtopics, etc. Try and cover every aspect to make the article wholesome and valuable. Expand and explain every little point in a smooth flow.
Research - Try exploring more about the topic to add more value to the essay. Always look at both the positives and the negatives.
Ask help - Seek help from your friends and family. Take inputs and feedback from them and improvise accordingly. This way, you will be able to explore new dimensions, perspectives, and depth to the content.
Polish - At this stage, start refining the content. Remove excess content and keep it crisp. Ensure that the essay is in align with the topic and delivers the requirements seamlessly.
Always proofread - Re-read the article 3-4 times. Every time you read, you will find new ideas and minute errors that need a spell check. Be very careful with punctuation, spellings, and grammatical errors. Proofread the content from bottom to top at least 2-3 times.
Admission essay - Guidelines
Universities specify the requirements and guidelines to be followed. While some universities might not mention specific needs, as students you must follow some basic rules which are mentioned below
- Keep the essay professional and clean
- Skip writing an essay title to save up on the word count
- Use formatting to highlight the sentences only if required
- Avoid the millennial slang, emoji’s, hashtags, etc. unless relevant
- Don’t use abbreviations
Things to keep in mind
- Check the attachments and ensure the format is acceptable and readable
- Draft your essay in a word document and double-check the formatting and spacing errors
- Stick to a font size of 12 with 1-inch spacing and uniform spacing
- Ensure the essay has a structure and flow to it right from the introduction, body, and conclusion.
- Do not use any readily available online essay templates
- Plagiarism must be avoided at all costs
- Pay careful attention to spellings, grammatical errors, and spacing. These might seem small but make a more significant impact while evaluating the content.
Admission essay- Submission
- Ensure that the paragraphs are separated, and no space is used between two paragraphs
- Formatting errors found in the box such as spacing issues can be edited and corrected in the box itself
- Once you paste the content in the text box, check for the word count and make the alterations accordingly
- Cross-check if the whole content is copies and nothing gets cut out or missed
Admission essay- What to include and what to avoid?
Things to include
Introduction paragraph- The introduction para must lure or create an interest among the readers to read further. The first para is the window that shares insights on what to expect from the content.
Body of essay - The body of the essay can be elaborate and must incorporate all the important aspects.
Personal experience - Add a personal touch to the article to keep the reader engaged.
Humor - Humor always works but ensure that it is relevant to the content.
Originality - Originality will make your content stand out. Refer and seek help but stay true to your style.
Conclusion -Impress the reader by concluding it thoughtfully.
Things to avoid
Plagiarism - Avoid copying content from the web.
Grammatical errors - Ensure that there are no spelling mistakes, missing punctuations, grammatical errors, etc.
Cliché sentences - Get over cliché content and present something unique and new.
Long sentence formation - Avoid writing big words or long sentences. Keep the content short and straightforward.
Everything you need to know- Common admission essay
About 700 colleges accept common admission essays. This becomes easier for the students to write one official admission essay, which can be sent to all the universities. Common admission essays must be at least 250-600 words long, and the topics can be anything related to the below scenarios.
- Candidates who have a strong passion for any extracurricular activity and believe it adds value to their personality must share their stories.
- Candidates can also share any obstacles and challenges faced by them. This can be a narrative type of essay sharing how these incidents improved or helped them recover from that setback.
- Share something when you were firm about a decision and questioned a belief or idea. This can be an argumentative or persuasive essay
- Describe a happy phase when you accomplished something worthy and how it helped in your personal growth