A couple of years ago when I was developing the original version of my book on how to write college admission essays and personal statements, I was obliged to conduct a lot of research into the entire subject of admission essay writing. So, I did a fairly extensive literature search of what was available on the subject, both online (Internet) and offline (books).
By the way, I’ve just released the latest Revised Edition of that toolkit. You can take a look at it right here:
http://instantcollegeadmissionessay.com
One thing that really struck me during my research was how many people seem to go out of their way to sabotage their own college admission essay-writing efforts.
Time, and time again, I read about the first-hand experiences of Admission Committee members who received essays and/or personal statements with two or three strikes against them from the outset – usually due to some glaring oversight, omission, or risky strategy.
In fact, it’s hard to believe at times, some of the things I’ve seen on draft essays that have been submitted
to me. Fortunately I’ve been able to fix most of those before they went any further. Unfortunately for some
people though, these problems don’t get fixed, and end up being submitted to an Admissions Committee.
Here’s a list of the seven (7) common mistakes that reviewers frequently encounter when reading admission essays and personal statements:
