The college application essay is possibly the most challenging writing task students take on. This is because the college entrance requires praising oneself while putting as much relevant personal and academic information as possible into a very short space. Writing this essay type, in fact, can be quite a tedious balancing act!

Even though the college application essay is often known as the personal statement, a distinction should be made between them. The term "personal statement" applies to personal letters for jobs and internships as well as to college application letters, and therefore may focus primarily or exclusively on professional experience. The college application essay, by contrast, focuses primarily on academic experience, and therefore addresses a more exclusive set of concerns. While writing a college application essay, for instance, students must remain aware of audience at all times, and this audience will be a panel of academics, not typically business professionals.

The need to consider audience while writing the college entrance essay often makes students nervous, further intensifying the already complex set of concerns that come with writing this kind of personal statement. Because students are aware that they are writing to an academically sophisticated audience they often struggle, when composing their college entrance essays, to "show off" by using language meant to appear sophisticated. Unfortunately, this can easily lead to a credibility gap in the student's essay. If the student writes what he or she in reality does not know, committees are, in all likelihood, going to discover this fact in the essay itself. Further, some professors on admissions committees will reject students who seem to "know it all" since "showing off" can leave the impression that you're not interested in learning!

Admissions committees, like most people, want to read clear and concise language. They want to know what you have achieved and what you have experienced. Further, when they read your college entrance essay, they want to see a balance between what you can take from this exciting new learning experience and what you can contribute to their department.

Here is an actual sample of an ordinary essay perfected with the help of our professional editor.