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Remember that you want your essay to stand out from the others in the pile on that admission officer’s desk. You want to make a favorable and memorable impression and you want the reader of the essay to feel as if he or she is getting to know you. To make sure that your essay sounds unique and individual, take care to avoid certain pitfalls; for example, don’t respond with the answers that everyone else does. If you are asked to write about a book you have read, don’t pick the one that all high school students were required to read. Pick something unusual or different, a book that tells the admissions personnel something about you for choosing it. It does not matter if the admissions officer has ever heard of it. What matters is how you explain why it was an important book to you.

If you are asked to write about an event in your life, go beyond just describing it. Show how it affected your life and how you are different because of it. The trick here is not writing what everyone else does. Along with Dr. Seuss essays, admissions officers weary of reading essays that focus on the “I’ve seen the light” philosophy. You lost the game, but achieved a goal. Your parents got divorced/took drugs and it taught you a lesson. You had this favorite teacher or coach. It’s one thing to write about something that you learned from the experience, but it’s over the top to write that you’ve found the purpose of life through these experiences. It’s easy to think that you have to be profound and philosophical when you write this essay, but the truth is that admissions officers see more than enough of this approach.