concerns regarding college application essay

College Essays
1

Hi,
I’m applying to Rutgers, and I’m working on my essay.

I don’t know how much help/advice I’m allowed to get from parents/English teacher - the ideas in my essay are my own, but can they read my essay and give advice, for example, about the structure, the word choice, or things like that?

Also, I don’t know how much time and effort I should be putting into the essay, b/c I’m not concerned about getting into Rutgers, but about scholarships (on the Rutgers website, it says “Q: What factors are considered during the awarding of first-year merit scholarships? A: We consider SAT or ACT scores, cumulative grade-point average, final course grades and the strength of an applicant’s academic program.”).

I’d really appreciate some advice!

2

Sure, your parents and teachers can give advice about structure and word choice, and also give their impressions of you after reading the essay. They just shouldn’t be rewriting or writing parts of the essay for you, and you shouldn’t let them pressure you into writing about something or taking out something if that’s not what you want.

As for effort, I wouldn’t do any essay halfway. But how much time you give to this would probably depend on how many other essays you have to write.

3

Yes, ask your parents and teacher to critique your essay.

Work hard on the essay. Even if it does not affect your scholarship chances, Rutger’s essay prompt is similar to others and can be adapted for other schools.