The college admission essay, or college essay for short, is also known as the personal essay or personal statement. As we mentioned, it is a requirement for a lot of colleges. Since your high school grades and transcript are basically set already, writing a compelling essay can improve your chances of shining and getting accepted, especially if your academic performance does not stand out. Some colleges have even gone test-optional, making the essay more important.

The essays for college applications are not only a showcase of your writing skills, but you must apply these skills to craft an essay that shows the college admissions officers who you are. In the college essay, you are usually given an essay prompt or a set of prompts to choose from, and this is where your essay is based. An essay prompt is a statement or question that becomes the topic of the essay you will write or the question your essay must answer. In college application essays, the prompt is usually something that reveals more about you, for example:

"The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?"

Some colleges may ask for supplemental essays or ask you to write essays about additional prompts.

What are Some Types of College Application Essays? 

Here are some common types of admissions essays that colleges may require.  

Regardless of the type that you are working on, your goal should be to make an impactful college essay. As we mentioned earlier, college essays not only showcase your writing skills, but they are also a chance for you to let the college you are applying to know more about you - beyond transcripts, grades and list of achievements.

Here are some things to remember as you aim to make a perfect college essay.  

Start Early

Do not wait until the last minute or when college application deadlines are fast approaching before starting on your essay. It is best to get an early start and look at the essay prompts or topics when they become available. This gives you ample time to choose and even brainstorm with people you trust such as your parents, tutors or guidance counselors on the topic you will select for your essay. Getting started early also allows you more time for edits and revisions.

Choose the College Essay Prompt or Topic That Lets the Reader Know More About You

The topic or prompt you choose to tackle in your college essay can make or break it. Choose one that reveals more about you or your values or personality. It need not be a story of a great achievement or deep personal crisis. What is important is that the reader evaluating your essay gets to hear your voice and gets to know you better through your essay. While writing it well is still essential, the essay should stand out not because it is a perfect literary piece but because it shows the reader who you are and how you'll be as a member of the college through the way you address or answer the essay topic or prompt. Make sure you are writing about yourself and not what you think the essay evaluator will want to read. Also, avoid digressing from the main topic and avoid trying to cram too many ideas into one essay.

Here's a way to get organized.

Make Sure to Follow Instructions and Watch Out for Requirements

You may be a great writer and have the perfect topic, but if you are not careful about reading instructions and watching out for requirements, the effort you put on your essay might go to waste. For example the Common App essay has a recommended 650-word limit while some schools may ask for supplemental essays with only a 250-word limit. Make sure you follow these instructions and restrictions otherwise your essay may be rejected. Make sure not to miss submission deadlines as well.

The Perfect College Essay is a Result of Editing and Revision

Once you are finished writing the essay, you will definitely need to proofread it well and make any necessary edits and revisions. The person assessing your essay will still look at your writing skills and any glaring grammatical or spelling errors or typos will reflect poorly on you. Look for possibilities to make your essay as concise as possible while addressing the topic or prompt. After doing your personal edits or revisions, you can let people you trust read your essay and give their feedback. You can ask friends, family, your school's guidance counselor, and so on and take their inputs into account before you finalize your essay. Another person you can seek for help is a college admissions essay coach or tutor.

Here is an essential summary of tips and tricks for your essay that you can use as a quick reference.

Getting the help of a dedicated college admissions coach or tutor to help with your college admissions essay will definitely help you towards writing a perfect college essay.

Unlike getting help from other people, hiring a competent 1:1 college admissions essay tutor or coach will get you the sort of dedicated help you need to produce a great college essay. Furthermore these tutors or coaches are very experienced with the college admissions process and with knowing what sort of help the student needs and what the student should focus on.

From planning the essay such as helping the student select a topic all the way to editing and polishing, competent and qualified coaches or tutors have helped students produce great college application essays and get past the very competitive college admissions process. Some may even help you with getting your application requirements organized and also with keeping track of deadlines. And since you are paying for their services, they will surely dedicate their attention to you. This is not something other people can do for you.

Getting a college essay tutor will definitely help you in your goal of crafting a perfect college application essay. But you should make sure you are getting a competent and qualified one.

One important thing you should look for is the experience level of the college essay tutor. This is in terms of how many students the tutor or coach has helped get into college, how many college application essays edited, and other similar information. Experience in the admissions process along with knowledge of what college admissions officers look for in the essay is very important and these figures will give you an idea if the tutor has these attributes.

Also remember it is important that the tutor will only help guide, edit and polish the essay of the applicant, and not be the one to write the essay. Ask if it's possible to see some samples of essays that the tutor has helped edit. The tutor should only guide the student in deciding what topic or prompt to write about, assess and help improve the student's student's writing abilities and edit the essay to make sure the essay is polished and good for the college application and error-free. At no point should the tutor make the student invent stuff or impose their own ideas for the essay on the student just to make it look good.

While the cost of hiring a college application essay tutor may seem considerable, remember you are paying for someone who will dedicate their time to you one-on-one. The coach or tutor is like an investment - getting great essay coaching that helps you get into college will provide better returns in the future than whatever amount you will pay for the tutor.    

Hive College Buzz is a website where you can find a qualified and reliable college admissions essay coach who can help with your essays for college applications. Christen Arafeh, founder and coach, has helped more than 400 students and edited more than 350 college application admission essays. Furthermore, she has helped students get more than $1.4 million in scholarships.

Their online college essay tutoring services will help students if they want to craft a perfect college application essay and if time is of the essence they offer a guaranteed 24-hour essay editing service. A perfect and impactful college essay is one big step into the college you've dreamed of getting into.