Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Top 10 - What Not To Do

You've seen a large number of posts from us and many others on what you should do with your essays. Knowing what not to do is probably as important, if not more, than what to do...

So, DON'T:

1. Exceed the word count

2. Use "I realized" ad nauseum - we actually have a tool that counts what we call absolutely overused essay phrases and this is top of the list..

3. Gloss over the details - the AdCom is more interested in understanding the specifics of what you did than the broad, high level generalizations that you felt during the situation you are describing

4. Say "I was enchanted" or enraptured or captured or any such magical sounding verb - c'mon, were you really?!

5. Suggest that you were in the epicenter of the financial crisis and helped solve it - unless you really did.

6. Say you volunteered or are a 'community service' type of guy if you are not. If you are, say where, when, how and how much.

7. Use every essay to talk about your career. You need at least one "personal" essay, if not two (depending on the school that you are applying to)

8. Blame everyone but yourself in your 'failure' essay. Even though you might not think you have, revisit it - we can't state how many people do this because its embarrassing.

9. Ignore the question. As plainly obvious as this might sound, after you have written your essay, re-read your answer once to only check for this - have you answered each component of the question that is asked and done it justice?

10. State the obvious. Let your discussion of situations and experiences naturally lead the reader to your conclusions - e.g., after describing a particularly challenging time in your life, don't say "this experience was extremely challenging" - they get it.