- Admissions essay
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An admissions essay, admission essay, college essay, app essay or personal statement is written by a prospective student as part of some college, university and graduate school admissions processes. The admissions essay is a vehicle by which colleges and universities learn more about applicants.
The importance admission counselors place on admissions essays varies greatly. Some schools place little or no importance on the essay and others place the greatest amount of importance on the essay. Generally, liberal arts colleges place a greater importance on the essay than major universities but this is not always the case.[citation needed]
Some higher education professionals believe the admissions essay is the most important part of an admission application.
Most schools[which?] choose one or more topics for applicants to write on, but there are some schools, such as Harvard Business School's current MBA application essay 4[1] , that have an "open topic" policy in place, meaning that the applicant can write on any subject they choose. Common topics include career aspirations, academic strengths and weaknesses, past experiences, and reasons for applying to a particular school.
Excellent college admissions essay resources can be found online. These resources include sample essays, blogs, articles, videos, and tools. College and university websites, in particular, provide great tips on crafting a persuasive college admissions essay.
The Common Application requires a general admissions essay, in addition to any supplemental admissions essays required by member institutions. The Common Application offers students six admissions essay prompts from which to choose.[2]
The application process for All Souls College, Oxford has the reputation of being the hardest examination in the world. It consists of several specialist papers and, until 2010, also required candidates to write an essay upon a topic suggested by a single word such as Possessions, which was the topic of successful Fellow, A. L. Rowse. This was especially challenging because it provided great scope to demonstrate imagination and intelligence.[3]
See also
References
- ^ "Written Application - MBA - Harvard Business School". http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/writtenapplication.html#essays. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
- ^ http://collegeapps.about.com/od/essays/a/EssayPrompts.htm
- ^ Harry Mount (19 May 2010), "All Souls, Oxford should continue to put genius to the test", The Daily Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/7740812/All-Souls-Oxford-should-continue-to-put-genius-to-the-test.html
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