College Admissions

College Admissions Fill in supporting facts from your research under each paragraph. Make sure each paragraph ties back to your thesis and creates a cohesive, understandable essay. Ensure you have transitions between paragraphs so the reader understands how the paper flows from one idea to the next. If you've been assigned an argumentative essay, check out these Top 10 Argumentative Essay Topics. At the collegiate level, you’ll need to dive beneath the surface of an issue and be able to defend your ideas. Even if the prompt is about a personal experience, the admissions officers will still want you to reflect a level of awareness and understanding that goes beyond the obvious. They’ll want to know that you can reflect meaningfully and think critically about yourself and the world around you. Here's more on When to Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize. Now the essay is written, but you're not quite done. Reread what you've written, looking out for mistakes and typos. As you move through the essay, transition words will be paramount. How likely is that I will get into a school like Harvard? I have As and some high Bs in all of my classes I have over 100 hours of community service, a leadership role in a club, play varsity sports, and I did well on my PSATs (I haven't received my SAT scores yet). Also my financial background is that of lower income. We partner with colleges to bring high quality programs online, at half the cost. Below are the five components of a college paragraph. They follow the order in which they are most commonly found in a paragraph; however, this is not the only possible or even successful order. Transition words are the glue that connects every paragraph together and prevents the essay from sounding disjointed. Support your thesis adequately with the information in your paragraphs. Each paragraph should have its own topic sentence. This is the most important sentence in the paragraph that tells readers what the rest of the paragraph will be about. As much as you wish to shine, the shine will be lost if your sentences and thoughts do not string together logically. Perhaps you can create a little mystery by not answering the prompt immediately. Maybe you could reveal that in the last sentence of your prompt after telling about all the little things that have some relevance to your area of study. For example, you might describe many natural flora, observe fauna, then list feelings you have about nature to lead up to writing that you want to study biology. What if you were to take the negative approach to answer the prompt? Maybe you can tell what your hopes are by writing what you do not hope for. If you look at things a little differently from others you stand out. Don't jumble too many ideas in each paragraph or the reader may become confused. If you've been tasked with an argumentative essay, here's the best formula for an Argumentative Essay Outline. The next step is to outline what you are going to write about. This means you want to essentially draw the skeleton of your paper. Writing an outline can help to ensure your paper is logical, well organized and flows properly. Write your essay as though you would be a great second date. That means you should write with voice, that is, you need to write with your own personality. Honesty, humor, talking the way you talk, showing the way you think, all help to create voice. Sometimes even a single word that stands as a paragraph can make the reader wonder and read on. In answering an essay prompt, you need not always do it the most normal way. If there are a lot of mistakes in your essay, it can not be pretty. Make sure you have spelled everything correctly. If you are on a date, you would naturally want to be smart, funny, nice, caring, unique, not boring. You also want to have an opinion, not step back like an unthinking geek.