Important Essay Tips...Do Yourself a Favor

Take your time but beware over-editing.
Spend plenty of time writing and fine-tuning your essays. Ask for feedback from people you trust before submitting your essays. But be careful. Don't allow helpful editors to edit you out of your own essay.

Although you want to write with care, you should not spend weeks or months rewriting essays. There is little to gain after the third draft.

Express yourself:
Appeal to the senses when you write: show us what is beautiful, sad, impressive, scary, confusing, frustrating or comforting. Don't just tell us that it was so. To make your story resonate employ detail, description and precision rather than pretension and melodrama. Don't simply tell us what you think or what you feel in abstract terms. Describe it. Make it real.

Size matters:
Although the University's BeALonghorn essay information suggests an essay should be no longer than one page (single-spaced) we find that essays shorter than one full page are skimpy by Plan II Honors' standards. It's quite rare to see top-notch essay written with fewer than 250 words. That doesn't mean that longer is better or that we will reward you for "filler." Write to the point! In most cases, the most successful Plan II application essays are in the 500-600 word range.

More Essay Tips on the Plan II web site