How to Write a College Application Essay: So What Kind of Writing Is This?

I know what you’re thinking. Essays. Introductions opening with rhetorical questions and ending in thesis statements. Three body paragraphs, each supporting a main idea. A conclusion that sums it all up with a bow on top.

Don’t you dare.

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For a full discussion of the surprising no’s and the absolute yes’s of writing the college application essay—see the rest of this article in Chapter 2 of our title How to Write a College Application Essay: Expert Advice to Help You Get Into the College of Your Dreams.

Photo by cesar bojorquez,  Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Tania Runyan, author of How to Read a Poem and How to Write a Poem.

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Providing everything a student needs to go from draft to polished essay, the instruction in How to Write a College Application Essay is straightforward, easy to apply, and inspiring. Includes sample essays from students who got into the colleges of their dreams.

“How to Write a College Application Essay is a valuable resource that I enthusiastically recommend to my students and their families.” —Lisa Scanio, High School Counselor, Adlai Stevenson High School

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Tania Runyan

Tania Runyan lives in Lindenhurst, Illinois, a sort-of suburb, sort-of small town, where the deer and the minivans play. She's a 2011 NEA fellow and mama to four poetry books—A Thousand Vessels, Simple Weight, Delicious Air, and What Will Soon Take Place—and three (much cuter and noisier) human children. Tania is also the author of five non-fiction books—Making Peace with Paradise, How To Read a Poem, How to Write a Poem, How to Write a Form Poem, and How to Write a College Application Essay. Visit her at TaniaRunyan.com

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