College Essay Help

College Essay Help And it wouldn't be unheard of for colleges to tell your other colleges what you did. Colleges know that kids who are willing to take that risk are more likely to do things like cheat on a test or plagiarize a paper. However, parents should not try to change the voice of the student, which can be difficult to refrain from. The essay needs to be a reflection of the student’s creativity, writing ability and personality; not the parent. My preference (and admissions officers’) would be that parents are minimally involved in the essay. Personal language tends to be imprecise, but formal writing should be clear and exact. Editing is vastly different from original writing so this needs to be clarified first, as it has to be the voice and personal memories of the applicant not the parent. The sooner the family treats this as a team effort it will be much easier for the 12th grader to feel as though they are not alone in this process. I think it is always best for a student to have an impartial person do the proofing. It is difficult for parents to remain unbiased and often it can cause a lot of added tension between the student and parent. It is, however, a good idea for the parents to help the student brainstorm ideas for the essay prior to writing it. Yes, it is perfectly okay to have your parents edit your essays. There is a certain “voice” that defines a young person about to start college and if it is lacking in an essay, Admissions Directors will quickly pick it up. But resist the urge to rewrite everything in the way you might express it. Understanding what makes the provider/college unique and what their motivations are, will allow you to incorporate that information in your essay. For example, many scholarships are funded by private companies that sell products. You might want to reference those products in your essay. However, you do want the essays to sound like you; it should be your voice. There should be some consistency between the essays and interviews. The emphasis must be on “help” and not, “take over.” Parents, with only the best intentions, will often offer lots of input and comments, which their child will gratefully accept. The danger there is that the essay starts sounding more like a forty something adult, instead of a high school senior. However, the key is to edit, not to write them for you. They can help with typos, grammatical errors, and help you to be clear, concise and compelling. They know you best, sometimes more than you know yourself so they may have good suggestions. You’re telling your story, so write from your perspective! You can provide an overview of what you learned from your experiences. However you choose to answer the prompt, we recommend writing in an active tone, and using “I” and “me” throughout your essay. Parents should always help their child in a positive way as long as they are not writing the ideas for the student. For instance, “They exceeded expectations” is stronger than “They did a really good job.” Instead of “The difficulty went up over time,” write “The level of difficulty gradually increased. The pressure from other class assignments and projects may be so time-consuming that the student has little time to dedicate to completing their essay. The assigned prompts or topics may not harbor any interest for the student, making it difficult to put passion and meaning into the words when writing. If you lie on your college application and a college finds outâ€"no matter what the lie is or how they find outâ€"that's it. Parents may know other details about the student that they should include in the essay. Parents are also a great second pair of eyes for grammar and spelling errors. I would still suggest that a English professional still read over the essay for expert editing purposes.