An essay for admission to a university (personal application) is a short essay that shows the best qualities of an applicant, usually in the context of the study. This work reveals the autobiography, talents, skills, hobbies, and ambitions of the author. 

It is quite a challenge to write an admission essay for some students, so I decided to write my paper with WritingAPaper writers online. A personal statement in the essay allows you to evaluate a candidate not only in terms of what he says about himself but also in how he does it.

Writing about yourself isn’t always easy: it’s a pretty personal topic. In this guide, we explain how to prepare an essay for university admission.

What is a personal statement?

As mentioned above, an essay for admission to a university is a resource used to evaluate candidates for study at a certain educational institution. There are no strict rules for writing personal statements, but usually, the amount of work does not exceed 1 page.

The main problem is that the author needs to independently determine which areas of life to write about. After all, all applicants are different, everyone has their life path and personal qualities. In addition, you need to write in such a way as to stand out among other candidates, and this often leads to a stupor.

How to write an essay for admission to a university?

As in the case of writing any formal work, we recommend a five-step process.

Brainstorming

This is an important stage, as a result of which the author generates different ideas: good and bad, effective and not so. During the generation process, you do not need to think about how good the idea is, just write it down. You will take up the comprehension later.

For example, if you are asked to write about an important event that affected you as a person, write down several options. The best choice is not always obvious, it will become clear only after reviewing the records.

If you already know about the most significant event, you can brainstorm on how exactly it affected you.

What should I do if I don’t know what to include in the essay? Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

What is the biggest challenge I have faced in my life? How did I overcome it and what did I learn in the end?

What do I like the most? If I had a billion dollars (if I didn’t have to make a living), what would I do?

What skills, talents and knowledge set me apart from my peers?

How do my background and character affect my life? How do people treat me?

Who are my heroes? How did their story change my life?

The outline stage is when you take all your ideas from brainstorming and systematize them into the basic structure of the first draft.

However, before you start structuring everything, ask yourself who you are writing for. The reader determines not only the tone of the letter but also what needs to be said in his statement (and what should be skipped).

Try to find out what will be interesting to the reader before starting to formulate thoughts. The university commission wants to know if your skills meet the requirements of the university, so include facts about yourself that demonstrate that you will become an ideal student.

Divide the ideas into three sections of the essay: introduction, main part, and conclusion. There is no need to worry about the details at this stage. Just make sure that all the necessary ideas are included and arranged in the correct order.

Draft

Drafting is the longest and most difficult stage of writing an essay. This is the process of writing a full-fledged essay, creating its structure and content. But in the end, you will not get the final version: it will still need to be corrected.

The first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. Its compilation is only the embodiment of your ideas. You will take care of improving the overall appearance later when you need to focus on small details at the completion stage. 

We recommend starting with the introductory part and then expanding the idea in the following paragraphs. If you feel stuck, try freewriting – a technique in which you simply write down everything that comes to mind, regardless of whether it is suitable for use in the final version of the essay. Often the author needs freewriting to overcome the writer’s barrier.

Revision

Choosing the perfect words and rebuilding the structure is much easier when you already have a draft in front of you. Now you can re-read the work and fix all the controversial points.

When reviewing, pay attention to unnecessary words, repetitions, long and complex sentences. Don’t worry about spelling and punctuation yet: you’ll take care of them at the next stage.

As for the information presented in the essay, make sure that everything is formulated clearly, and the reader will not be guessing what exactly you meant.

Give the work to a person who does not know you very well, and then ask if everything is clear to him. Perhaps you forgot to specify some detail that has a significant impact on how the reader will perceive the essay.

Proofreading

If the essay was successfully revised at the previous stage, you can start proofreading it. Proofreading means correcting grammatical and spelling errors, descriptions, and improving the design.

Before you start proofreading, we recommend taking a break. Firstly, long work on a text document is very exhausting. Secondly, returning to work after rest will help you notice the shortcomings that you did not pay attention to before. This way, it will be much more effective, and your essay will be a lot clearer.

If you are not sure of your editorial skills, we recommend contacting the best essay writing services for professional help. Specialists will put your sketches in order, and if necessary, prepare an essay from scratch.