As an international student, when you apply to a college or university overseas, you need to complete an essay as a part of your application. This gives you an opportunity to show admission officers who you are and to provide information about your background and goals. Essays can be broadly divided into two categories: the Common App essay & the university-specific essays. The Common App essay is a 650-word essay that an applicant needs to submit through the Common App. This essay is about the applicant and gives admission counselors a reflection of the applicant. The prompts for the essays will be provided by the Common App itself. 

The college-specific essays are essays that applicants write for individual universities. These generally show their interest in that particular university. These essays can vary in word limit depending on the university. Some universities may ask for no essays at all while others may ask for four essays of 500 words each. 

Essays to universities in the US are offered in a variety of topics but almost all of them seek to ask applicants the following three things:

• Who are you and what have you achieved?

• Why are you a good fit for our university?

• Why our university?

Here are some tips on how to write a perfect college essay:

Tip 1: Break the essay question into parts and choose a story from your life that best fits the topic. Then create an outline and make sure that you answer all the questions. 

Tip 2: Give the admission counselors something that they can remember! They are reading over 100 applications each day and at the end of the day, if they remember your story, you’re in! Tell your story and make it unique. Advertise yourself!

Tip 3: Don’t just narrate a story rather reflect on it. Anyone can write about how they won a big game or how they scored well on an exam. Universities want to know your personality and who you are at your core. Describe what you learned from the experience and how it changed you.

Tip 4: Put yourself in the shoes of an admissions officer and rate your essay: Is the essay interesting? Do the ideas flow logically? Does it reveal something about the applicant? Is it written in the applicant’s own voice? Make sure to say something that hasn’t been said.

Tip 5: Don’t tell them what you think they want to hear. Tell them who you are and be truthful. The rest will fall in place. Admission counselors are experienced and read 100s of essays on a daily basis. They will find out if you are making something up or not telling the real story.

Tip 6: Start early. Don’t write about the first thing that comes to your mind. Think about more ideas. Write multiple drafts and make your essay concrete. We have seen students revising their 15th draft sometimes. It’s never too much! 

Tip 7: Get your essays reviewed by people who know you well. Make your friends, parents, and teachers read your drafts and incorporate their suggestions.

Essays are the most important components of your application. If you need additional help with your college essays to improve your admission chances, UniRely offers a number of services designed to help you with your college applications. With UniRely, you can get access to successful essays of admitted students and professional guidance on writing your own essays.