3 Common College Essay Mistakes To Avoid

3 Common College Essay Mistakes To Avoid Many schools have started to implement tracking software on their sites that are able to identify a person based on other online activity. This type of software, often called a cookie, is typically associated with online advertising. When you visit a site searching for boots, for instance, and all of a sudden start seeing advertisements for boots on other sites, it's because of tracking cookies. In the case of these schools, those cookies are used to gauge a person's interest in the university. They are okay with thoughts and phrasing that sounds like it’s come from a teenager; they understand that not all of the ideas will be fully formed. But the main idea behind any essay is that it should reveal something of the writer’s (in this case, the student’s) character and parents can easily hinder that process if they edit too much. You absolutely should have a second and even third set of eyes help you edit and proofread your essay. Be sure to pick readers who have strong skills in grammar and usage. If your parents fit the bill, there’s no reason they shouldn’t help you polish your essay, but students often find it easier to work with a teacher, counselor or other adult. The other 30 lacked any disclosure of tracking practices or failed to fully explain the extent of the tracking being done and how it might factor in to a student's application process. ShutterstockOn its face, this perhaps doesn't seem surprising, but it is troubling for a number of reasons. The reason that teachers don’t assign a number of pages anymore is because it’s too easy to manipulate pages. When students used to write on typewriters, it was common for teachers to assign essays in number of pages. The practices may raise a hidden barrier to a college education for underprivileged students. According to the Washington Post, the tracking services have become particularly popular among schools operating on tight budgets. This has led to some schools placing an increased emphasis recruiting out-of-state students who may pay a higher tuition. Those students are more likely to be consistent contributors to the school's revenue, even if they aren't the best fit at the school based solely on their academic background. According to the Post, the tracking process begins as soon as a student first directs their browser to a school's website. In fact, if you’re reading this blog post as a junior or senior and you have a college essay to write, you can do something about that right now. It is certainly okay for parents to help edit their child’s essay â€" with the key word in that sentence being EDIT. They can help catch spelling or punctuation mistakes or help a student better clarify an idea that isn’t fully fleshed out in the early draft. It is NOT okay for parents to WRITE their child’s essay or influence it unduly, however. He or she isn’t a full-fledged literary genius and the admission officers who read the essays are well aware of this. With the adoption of computers in the classroom, teachers switched from pages to work count because it was too easy for the computers to manipulate the font size and page size. By assigning a word count, teachers get a more accurate length of essay than they would if they assigned homework by pages. Strong teamwork skills are very important to colleges because they want to admit students who will work well with their classmates and other students on campus. Having strong teamwork experiences such as the ones you can get through Model UN can help strengthen your college applications. Part of the reason the Common App can seem intimidating is because of the Common App essay component, which is required of all students who submit a college application this way. In reality, the Common App essay is easy to ace if you know how to approach it and you give it your best. If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably started the very exciting process of applying to collegeâ€"and chances are you may be a little overwhelmed at times. The key to getting into the right college for you is taking each step of the application process in stride, and one of those steps is completing the Common App and the Common App essay. The Common App essay isn’t like many of the other argumentative essays you’ve been taught to write in school. It is argumentative in that you are essentially arguing for why you are a good candidate for a particular college, using your personal experience as support, but it’s more than that. It tracks their activity, on site and off, and can use data about the person's location and interests to determine who the student is. And of course, make sure your essay is pristine before you submit it. Triple and quadruple check for spelling and usage errors, typos, etc. Since this isn’t a timed essay you have to sit for , the college admissions readers will expect your essay to be polished and sparkling. Our team personally vets every college scholarship listed on our website as your one-stop shop for scholarships. We’re not just one of the best scholarship search engines, but we’re also the only scholarship application platformâ€"all offered to students for free.