A personal statement is required by many colleges and universities as part of the admissions process.This important part of your application gives you the opportunity to discuss personal attributes and leadership qualities which may not be evident through your academic record. As a result colleges place a lot of importance on the personal statement.

At Essay+, we belive we are uniquely qualified to help you write a unique college essay.

The Race is On . . .

Our Philosophy

You learn a thing or two about students after teaching and editing writing for thirty years. For one thing, you learn that many students who assume they can't write a good essay are much better at it than they think. We strive to develop that hidden talent. We have discovered that with a little direction and encouragement, students can produce a piece of writing that gives them a real shot at the college of their choice

At Essay+, we supply the direction, expertise and encouragement to help you make that shot.

Tips to Effective Writing

If writing is a challenge for you, follow these rules:

• Keep it simple
• Be yourself, above all else
• Avoid flowery, ornate language
• Don't try to sound sophisticated, complex or profound
• Write with an audience in mind
• Seek an economy of language in your personal statement . . . fewer words are better than many

Take Time!

The statement should not be left until the last moment. Frantic people are not likely to produce quality work. Remember you are selling your self. Be sure you don't sell yourself short by leaving this very important task until the eleventh hour.

Advice from Yale's Margit Dahl on writing a winning college essay:

Warning: Admissions officers often assume that a statement with lofty prose was written with the aid of a thesaurus or too close adult supervision. Overreaching for words or phrases with which you are unfamiliar produces awkwardness and confusion both in speech and writing.

Be unusual: Discovering something extraordinary about an ordinary experience is good material for a college statement.

Consider your audience: The reader has probably been through a heavy pile of essays, with a fat stack beneath yours. Write your essay in a way that holds the reader's interest. Make yourself come alive on paper. Basically you are telling your story. Nobody knows better how to do that than you do. For more information on story telling, go to the EssayDoctor page of this website.

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9/11/01