5 Key Steps to Writing the College Admission Essay

By Dr. Mitali Chaudhery

You're about to finish high school, looking forward to the new journey where you really can begin defining your life, its direction, and fulfillment. You may experience moments with complete excitement and nervousness; other moments might consist of exhaustion--after all, you've just finished twelve years of schooling, and now you are facing more years of education. With that higher education comes applying to colleges and the college admission essay.

In 5 Key Steps to Writing the College Admission Essay, author Dr. Mitali Chaudhery presents a hands-on guide to help you compose a thoughtful, organized, mature, and well-written college application essay. It provides the major steps in preparing, constructing, developing, and refining the essay and leads you through each step with recommendations, strategies, and visualizations of your journey to write the unique, original, and befitting essay for each college of your choice.

5 Key Steps to Writing the College Admission Essay offers a concise but comprehensive guide to writing the college application essay while imparting the importance of hard work, including scheduling enough time, finding a meaningful and impactful theme, and polishing the writing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: May 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781480862807

Dr. Mitali Chaudhery

Dr. Mitali Chaudhery earned a PhD in curriculum and instruction with a special focus on diversity, online education, and English language arts at Wayne State University. She has been an Associate Dean and Director for online undergraduate and graduate programs and an instructor at the high school and college levels, teaching English, humanities, and communications. Dr. Chaudhery is the founder of Swayam Learning, where she designed an exclusive and advanced English language arts program for grades three to twelve in preparation for standardized exams and college.

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Copyright © 2018 Dr. Mitali Chaudhery.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-6281-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-6280-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018905372

Archway Publishing rev. date: 5/10/2018

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Step 1: Get Started

Step 2: Refine The Focus

Step 3: The Actual Writing

Step 4: Reviewing

Step 5: Finishing Touches

Conclusion

About The Author

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my parents for their unswerving dedication to raising me in a rich environment filled with academics, art, music, and dance, which had a profound and lasting impact on my life. Thanks to them, education is in my blood.

INTRODUCTION

So here you are, about to finish high school, looking toward the new journey where you really can begin defining your life, its direction, and fulfillment. You may experience moments with complete excitement and nervousness; other moments might consist of exhaustion—after all, you’ve just finished twelve years of schooling, and now you are facing more years of education!

You may be speculating your major, or maybe you are contemplating exploring general education courses before deciding on that major. You may have pressures, guidance, and even needs to major in something specific, so you may already know where you want to go and how you want to get there. You may even have made sure that all your achievements, extracurricular activities, and so forth have been geared toward preparing for just that. But you won’t be able to embark on the next steps until you are admitted to the college.

You may already possess knowledge of good writing skills. But so do thousands of other students facing the same task. Now you face the daunting task of using all your skills to impress the colleges to which you hope to gain admission. In working with admissions, advising, and student success and support departments in higher admissions, as well as reviewing undergraduate and graduate student applications for specific programs, I have determined that the most important characteristics of a good application are clarity, coherence, organization, depth of analysis, and an inviting yet mature tone and style of writing. And why not? The admissions essay is your chance to show your maturity and insight.

By also working in corporations, such as the IT industry in the health, pharmaceutical, and financial sectors, I have seen that the greatest need in new hires, interns, and recent graduates is the ability to write and speak well, coherently, concisely, maturely, and professionally, with depth, credibility, and integrity. Corporations are increasingly admitting to the need for communication, expression, and emotional intelligence in employees of the next generation—what are called soft skills—in addition to the ability to mentor, lead teams, coach, and interact, all while being professional and mature. Can you convey this essence or your development in light of these skills in your essay?

In having gone through the full educational system in the United States, all the way through to my PhD, I have come to understand not only the struggles and processes of education but also the