The Trick to Writing Short College Essays

Today we’re talking about short college application essays.

Everyone knows the Common App will allow you to submit an essay of up to 650 words; then each college might have their own school specific supplemental essays that are just for them. And that might be 500 words, or 400 words; but what do you do when they’re 250 words? 200, 120, 100, 50 words? Or just a number of characters? Or just complete the sentence?

The big mistake students make with those short essays is they dismiss them as a simple, small task, and they put all of their time into their big essay. When it comes time for the short ones, they just write something first draft, off the top of their head and submit it.

And that’s a big mistake because these need to be as memorable, as meaningful, and as telling about you as anything else you submit to these colleges.

So you want to put in the time and you want to think about it. And the most important word you want to use in those short essays is the word “because” — that’s how you’re going to bridge what you’re talking about to why it matters and why a college should care about it, and why you’re writing about it today.

So cut out the description and get it down to a few sentences or less.

And if you have questions, call us at 732-556-8220. Solution Prep is here to help.