{"id":2682,"date":"2013-12-10T03:29:44","date_gmt":"2013-12-10T03:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/?p=286"},"modified":"2021-11-26T05:34:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T12:34:55","slug":"perfect-application-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/perfect-application-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"Here&#8217;s How You Write a Perfect Application Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogdotpetersonsdotcom.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/10\/application4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-203 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/blogdotpetersonsdotcom.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/10\/application4.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"application essay\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a>Search for \u201cHow to write an application essay,\u201d in Google and you\u2019ll instantly return more than 16 million pages (&#8220;How to write an admissions essay,&#8221; yields an additional million plus). Titles like \u201cHow to write an Application Essay,\u201d \u201cWriting the Successful College Application Essay,\u201d and \u201cHow to Write an Outstanding Admissions Essay\u201d draw in stressed-out high-school students and equally nervous\/confused parents, tantalizing them with promise of some proven formula for writing the perfect essay. Heck, our acclaimed editing and consulting service, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.essayedge.com\">EssayEdge<\/a>, wouldn\u2019t exist if huge numbers of people weren\u2019t looking for help with this challenging task.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m here with good news: there is a proven way to craft a winning <a href=\"\/blog\/a-step-by-step-guide-to-writing-the-best-college-admissions-essay\/\">admissions essay<\/a>. Unfortunately, however, the formula is extremely complex. In fact, it\u2019s so complex that it is different for every single applicant. You see, the formula for admissions essay success is to be personal. The quickest way to write an essay that falls flat is to spend tons of time searching for advice on topics, researching the most effective types of presentation, or reading what thousands of other students have written. The simple truth of the matter is that a story that worked for another applicant probably won\u2019t work for you. And an outline that is \u201cguaranteed to impress the admissions committee\u201d has probably been used thousands of times already. And a step-by-step guide to writing an ideal essay will likely lead you to create an essay that is formulaic and unoriginal. And plagiarizing\u2026 possibly the worst idea ever unless you\u2019re hoping for rejection for some reason.<\/p>\n<p>One of the best application essays I\u2019ve ever read focused on the student\u2019s passion for go-kart racing. He framed his entire essay as if he were narrating it from behind the wheel of his go-kart; the twists and turns of the course represented formative life events, other racers were people who had impacted him, and the overall race itself reflected his ultra-competitive and motivated personality. That essay succeeded because the student crafted an original structure, wrote about an original activity that was obviously extremely important to him, and used the essay to provide worthwhile insights into his own personality and life experience. <b>No other student besides that one individual could have written that essay<\/b>, which made it memorable and compelling.<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t have to pursue some relatively obscure activity like go-kart racing, ice dancing, or sand sculpting to write a successful essay, though. An excellent essay can take an everyday topic and turn it into something remarkable. Thus, you shouldn\u2019t simply try to write about the craziest activity in your life. As an admissions officer from Duke University said, <i>\u201cIn their search for exciting content, applicants often overlook the fact that a well-written essay about a rather \u2018everyday\u2019 subject can be far more compelling than a poorly-written essay about a fascinating subject.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>There are countless ways to write an excellent application essay. Within that massive variety of options, though, there is one constant: no matter your content or presentation, you need to write well. Regardless of what you write about and how you organize it, the ultimate success of any admissions essay hinges on its readability. Even the most compelling topic can be derailed by sloppy typos or confusing constructions. Likewise, a narrative based on a personal story can end up seeming impersonal and vague if it is not written in a clear, concise, and compelling fashion.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, remember that there is no single proven method of writing an admissions essay. If there were, everyone would follow it and crank out strikingly similar essays. Thus, when searching for suggestions on how to write a winning essay, remember that the simplest advice is often the best: <b>keep it personal, be original, and polish until it shines.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Search for \u201cHow to write an application essay,\u201d in Google and you\u2019ll instantly return more than 16 million pages (&#8220;How to write an admissions essay,&#8221; yields an additional million plus). Titles like \u201cHow to write an Application Essay,\u201d \u201cWriting the Successful College Application Essay,\u201d and \u201cHow to Write an Outstanding Admissions Essay\u201d draw in stressed-out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[113,33,506,516],"class_list":{"0":"post-2682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-colleges","7":"tag-admissions","8":"tag-application","9":"tag-college-application","10":"tag-essay-writing"},"better_featured_image":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Here&#039;s How You Write a Perfect Application Essay - Peterson&#039;s<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is a proven way to craft a winning admissions essay. Unfortunately, the formula is extremely complex. It is different for every single applicant.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/perfect-application-essay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Here&#039;s How You Write a Perfect Application Essay - Peterson&#039;s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is a proven way to craft a winning admissions essay. Unfortunately, the formula is extremely complex. It is different for every single applicant.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/perfect-application-essay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Peterson&#039;s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/petersons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-10T03:29:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-26T12:34:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogdotpetersonsdotcom.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/10\/application4.jpg?w=300\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Petersons\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Petersons\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Here's How You Write a Perfect Application Essay - Peterson&#039;s","description":"There is a proven way to craft a winning admissions essay. 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It is different for every single applicant.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/perfect-application-essay\/","og_site_name":"Peterson&#039;s","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/petersons","article_published_time":"2013-12-10T03:29:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-11-26T12:34:55+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogdotpetersonsdotcom.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/10\/application4.jpg?w=300","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Ben","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Petersons","twitter_site":"@Petersons","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ben","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/perfect-application-essay\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/perfect-application-essay\/"},"author":{"name":"Ben","@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ca05daec864dfcfd275d1789dd8ba07f"},"headline":"Here&#8217;s How You Write a Perfect Application Essay","datePublished":"2013-12-10T03:29:44+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-26T12:34:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/perfect-application-essay\/"},"wordCount":642,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/perfect-application-essay\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogdotpetersonsdotcom.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/10\/application4.jpg?w=300","keywords":["Admissions","Application","college application","essay writing"],"articleSection":["Colleges"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/perfect-application-essay\/","url":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/perfect-application-essay\/","name":"Here's How You Write a Perfect Application Essay - Peterson&#039;s","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/perfect-application-essay\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/perfect-application-essay\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogdotpetersonsdotcom.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/10\/application4.jpg?w=300","datePublished":"2013-12-10T03:29:44+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-26T12:34:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ca05daec864dfcfd275d1789dd8ba07f"},"description":"There is a proven way to craft a winning admissions essay. 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