Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a relaxing and restful four day weekend. It is hard to believe that Labor Day Weekend is already upon us, and we are already a week into September. This is a great time for your teen to focus in on starting their college admissions essays by leveraging the extra time they have before school gets too hectic. Remember, time should be your teen’s friend instead of enemy.

Last week, I shared 3 mistakes to avoid to guarantee your teen’s college application essay is successful.

Here are 3 more things your teen should avoid to ensure an amazing college admissions essay:

1. Lack of logic or unsound progression of ideas: Your teen’s essay should flow and connect. Every example and detail should be relevant and connect to the topic of the essay.

2. Too worried about what colleges “want” to hear and less concerned with expressing own opinion, story, or journey: What colleges want to hear more than anything is your teen’s authentic voice and experience. If your teen is trying too hard to meet a standard or give colleges what they “want” to hear, readers will be able to tell.  

3. Poor attempt at humor or cleverness: Using humor is a great way to engage readers, but only when it is used correctly. Be sure that your teen avoids crude or inappropriate humor. Additionally, humor should not sound forced or contrived, but should come naturally and flow with your teen’s writing. If it isn’t natural, don’t include it!

As college application deadlines approach, life can be stressful for you and your teen. At Total Writing Enrichment our mission is to make the college admissions process as stress free as possible for parents and as successful as possible for teens. If you are looking for organized college admissions essay support for your senior that make it easy to feel good and keep a healthy relationship with your teen, it is not too late to sign your teen up for our College Admissions Essay Writing program.

If you are interested in learning more tips and tricks about the college application essay, don’t miss out on our weekly newsletter to keep you and your teen steps ahead of the competition and closer to college acceptance by scrolling to the bottom of this page and entering your information. 

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Have a fabulous week!

Moira ♥

 *Moira Ritter is a junior at Georgetown University and looks forward to contributing her writing skills to Total Writing Enrichment this summer!