What is a College Application Essay?
Your college application essay or personal statement is your opportunity to share more about who you are. You also tell them why they should choose you over all other candidates. It's what catches readers’ attention and makes them notice you, so it demands exceptionalism from you!
It is important to pay attention and answer the prompt when writing a college application essay. Most personal statements tend to range from 250 words to 650+. However, it all depends on your specific needs as an individual applicant at any given time.
Applying to college is an exciting but stressful process. You need your application essay not only to be interesting but also needs to prove what you're capable of.
Application Essay for College Admission Examples
The application essay is one of the most important parts of applying for college. It can make or break your chance of getting accepted into their school. Here are some examples that you can go through to know how to excel at writing a college application essay.
How to Start a College Application Essay Examples
Example 1
I am a member of Oxford Academy's Speech and Debate Team. I compete in Parliamentary Debate and Lincoln-Douglass debate. I also write screenplays, short stories, and opinionated blogs. I contribute to my school literary magazine, The Gluestick. I have done community service for over 300 hours, including work at homeless shelters, libraries, and special education youth camps. According to the College Board, I am in the top percentile. |
Example 2
Ever since I was a little kid, I've been fascinated by travel. My grandparents took me to France for the first time and that's when I caught the travel bug. Now, I've been to 29 different countries and each one has taught me something different. |
Example 3
As a doctor, my main priority is to heal people. But I don't want to just help individuals get over one disease after another. I want to work on a much larger scale. I plan on being involved in research, getting ideas and information from my patients, and sharing it with researchers so that together we can find cures for the diseases that plague the human mind. By being a voice from the front lines, I hope that I can catalyze the development of treatments. Additionally, I want to become an advocate for public health. We need to speak up when the government is doing something that makes people sick. If we don't, then nothing will change and the people we are trying to help will still get sick. |
Here are a few other examples of college application essays that can help:
College Application Essay Examples for Various Disciplines
The colleges offering a specialized degree often ask students to write a college application essay that depicts their keen interest in a specific field. Here are a few examples of college application essays from various fields.
College Application Essay Examples Nursing
If you were looking for nursing college application essay examples, then here is one to help you out!
When we look up the word "nurse" in the dictionary, we will read about a profession that involves taking care of people who are not feeling well. It might seem like an easy job, but nurses have a lot of responsibilities. Nurses care for people through many different life stages, including when they are sick, injured, in pain, or dying. They also promote health and prevent diseases. Nursing is a field of work that helps people. I think that in order to be a successful nurse, you need more than just the desire to help people. Nurses need to be open and strong, determined and thoughtful, and caring. These qualities would make it easier for them to care for patients. Nurses need to have a positive and upbeat attitude, as well as the ability for empathy. Nurses should also stay determined in their profession no matter what obstacles come along on this journey called "nursing." Caring is an essential part of being a nurse; without caring about others there wouldn’t be anyone left! I have always wanted to make a positive impact on people's lives. I felt the need to care for others ever since I was a child. This desire comes from my experiences growing up in the Philippines, where I saw how much good I could do by helping others.I have seen poverty in many forms throughout my life. I have seen it in infants, children, elderly people, and disabled people. Every day, I see them on the streets begging for money so they can afford to treat their loved ones. When I see them, I feel so weak. I want to help them, but I don't know how because I'm just a child. I always knew I wanted to be a nurse, but it wasn't until I moved to the United States that I really understood why nursing is my passion. When I saw how other countries, like the Philippines, struggle with health care, it made me want to do even more to help. Now that I am older and more mature, I know that I can make a difference in the lives of others. Nursing can help people who are suffering from poverty. Another reason why I want to be a nurse is that my sister is a nursing assistant. She has told me many stories about her time working in the hospital. These stories have inspired me and made me realize that nursing is what I want to do with my life. My sister says that the feeling of helping someone who is in need is unlike any other feeling on earth. I believe that I would be a great nurse. I am honest and open to communication, which are important traits for nurses. Nurses need to be able to communicate with patients and doctors, as well as understand and support family members of patients. My greatest accomplishment is being able to help somebody every day. Whether through my words, actions or attitude; if I can make someone heal then that will stay with me for the rest of my life as one of those things you do because it's worth remembering The best part about what I get up here and do every day? Being there when somebody needs us most. This includes both patients who come into clinics around town looking for medical attention and also friends/family members seeking emotional support from others. Nursing is a career that helps others and also helps you. It is always changing, and there are new things to learn every day. Nursing can be tough work, but at the end of the day, I am proud of my decision to become a nurse. I will remember the feeling of helping someone who is in need, and I will feel rewarded. |
College Application Essay Examples Engineering
Engineering college application essay examples are searched by most students. Here is one that can help you write a great college essay for securing admission to an engineering college. I have always been interested in how robots are able to do their jobs and in how cars are designed. But I wanted to learn more about how they do those things, not just what they look like on the outside or how well they work. I was curious about the inner complexities that make them work, and that interest kept me coming back for more. Engineering combines two subjects I am very passionate about physics and mathematics. Majoring in engineering will give me the opportunity to explore the findings of physics in more depth and put my mathematical knowledge into practical application. I will be facing many problems during my years of studying. I am willing to face these challenges so that I can help society and myself. I am also tempted by challenges, and I would risk everything to make sure that I come out a winner. This makes me ready to solve any problem that comes my way in the most creative way possible. Engineers are important because they help make the world a better place. They work on things like pollution and making sure the environment is clean. They also develop new medicines, technologies, and ways of doing things. This makes our future brighter and more exciting. I want to be an engineer too! After choosing to become an engineer, I read various pieces of information about successful engineers. Among the text I read, I found Hedy Lamarr. She has affected today's availability of Wi-Fi, Smartphones, and any other wireless technology possible. I honestly regard this as very impressive, as almost all our reliance nowadays is on the result of her creation. Hedy had no degree in engineering, but she had an idea for switching from one frequency to another very quickly. Her idea helped us reach today's technologies. Nowadays, I think that an engineer won't be successful if he only depends on the knowledge he graduates with. Every engineer needs to build certain skills, including leadership, business skills, management skills, and communication skills. Even though English is not my first language, I worked hard to become a good user of it. I have been attending an English-speaking school for thirteen years and achieved an A* on the IGCSE English as a Second Language exam. I also went to two English Summer Programs when I was younger. I think my time in the UK will help me learn more about language and accents. I really enjoy learning new languages, and being around students from all over the world will help me learn more languages and improve the ones I know a little bit. In addition, interacting with students from different backgrounds and with different talents will help me become a better team player and boost my confidence. Studying in the UK will help me be more independent. I will be able to organize my time better and not have family obligations hold me back. This will make me more capable of working my way through life on my own. I hope that your university degree will help me achieve my dreams of having a successful career in engineering. |
College Application Essay Examples for Universities
If you're looking for inspiration or ideas to help with your own university applications, check out these excellent examples. These application essays have impressed admission officers.
College Application Essay Examples Harvard
I participated in the University of Notre Dame’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program this past summer. I worked with two professors, Wendy Bozeman and Georgia Lebedev from the Biological Sciences department, to research how cobalt iron oxide cored (CoFe2O3) titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles could be used as a scaffold for drug delivery. My specific focus was on how well they could deliver a compound known as curcumin, a flavonoid with anti-inflammatory effects. I was a high school student who was looking for a research opportunity. It was hard to find a place that would take me in, but I did not give up. I asked my biology teacher for help, and he found me a position in a program. With high school level equipment, I mapped apoptosis (programmed cell death) versus necrosis (cell death due to damage) in HeLa cells, a cervical cancer line, after treating them with curcumin-bound nanoparticles. By exciting each individually suspended cell with a laser, the scattered light from the cells helped to determine which cells were living, had died from apoptosis, or had died from necrosis. We used this data to figure out if curcumin and/or nanoparticles had any significant role in cervical cancer cells. I also used microscopes to watch cells in 4D. This gave me practical experience with science so that I could love it even more than before. Living on the Notre Dame campus with other REU students, UND athletes, and other summer school students was a great experience. I got to know other students really well and learned what it is like to live on my own as a college student. For 9 weeks, I worked, played, and bonded with the other students. I participated in a research project this summer. I also had the opportunity to attend seminars on public speaking, trips to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and one-on-one writing seminars. The experience was so good that I didn't want to leave when the summer ended. While my research didn't have a clear answer for the effects of curcumin on cervical cancer cells, my research on curcumin-functionalized CoFe2O4/TiO2 core-shell nanoconjugates showed that there were many things we still don't know about how the drug affects HeLa cells. This made me want to do more research to find out if the timing of the drug delivery matters and if where the drug is attached to the cells makes a difference. Doing this research this summer made me realize that I want to pursue a career in research. I always knew I wanted to pursue a future in science, but the exciting world of research where the discoveries are limitless has captured my heart. This school year, the REU program offered me a year-long job. I was obligated to accept this offer as a high school senior preparing for college. So during this school year, I will be able to further my research and interest in nanotechnology. |
Common app essays are highly sought-after sample college essays by students.
College Application Essay Tips
When applying to a college, one of the most important things you will do is write an essay. This essay will be reviewed by the admission committee to see if you are a good fit for their school.
To make sure your essay is written correctly, follow these tips:
- Don't copy someone else's essay. Your essay has to be honest and show your abilities. It also needs to tell your story, not someone else's. Copying someone else's essay is breaking the rules of academic integrity.
- When writing an essay, be sure to pick a topic you're passionate about. If you're not excited to write about it, your readers won't be either.
- Show people what you are like, not just tell them. Use examples from your own life to show them what you mean. This will help them understand you better.
- Make sure that your essay is the right length- not too short or too long. Don’t lose all track of the word limit and requirements while writing. If it's over the limit, it will look like you didn't follow the rules or that you don't care. Neither of these looks good for an applicant!
- Make sure to proofread your essay carefully. The admissions committee will be looking at your writing skills, and a poorly written essay will reflect badly on you. Make sure to check for spelling mistakes, grammar errors, and confusing syntax.
- Make sure you have answered the essay prompts effectively by reading them one last time. This way, you can be sure that your essay is on topic. Checking again before submitting also makes sure that there are no major errors.
In conclusion, a successful college essay includes the student’s background, identity, interest, or talents. If you ever faced a challenge, a setback that made you learn a life lesson, or if you yourself challenged a belief, do mention it. Moreover, your application would be incomplete without key achievements, so don’t forget to mention those.
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