5 common app essay mistakes to stop doing, like, yesterday

I don't mean to scare you... but my guess is you're probably making one of these in your essay. The good news is that I'm here to 1) tell you what you're doing wrong and more importantly, 2) how to fix it!

0:00 Intro
0:45 Mistake 1
1:36 Mistake 2
2:36 Mistake 3
4:41 Mistake 4
6:00 Mistake 5

#commonapp #commonapplication #collegeadmissions #ivyleague #yale #yaleuniversity
#howtogetintotheivyleague #elevatedschool #kevinzhen #kevinzhensei #jeffreyyu #collegeessay #collegeessaytips #collegeessayhack #applyingtocollege #collegeapps #collegeapplications

ABOUT US
Hi! We're Kevin and Jeffrey, two Yalies who want to help you get into your dream school!

About Kevin Zhen: Exeter '16, Yale '20 (East Asian Studies)
Since 2016, Kevin has personally helped more than 50+ students gain acceptances into every Ivy League University, as well as top tech schools such as Stanford and Georgia Tech. He also loves teaching creative nonfiction, flash fiction and poetry. In total, his students have won more than 120+ Scholastic Writing awards.

About Jeffrey Yu: Yale '23 (Computer Science and East Asian Studies)
Jeff is a senior at Yale double majoring in Computer Science and East Asian Studies with a concentration on China. His college admissions essay was featured in the New York Times, and he specializes in essay writing, college admissions strategy, and life coaching. He has served as a Student Ambassador to the Yale Admissions Office, written extensively about college admissions on Quora and has taught courses on motivation, passion, and leadership while sponsored by the US Embassy in Tokyo.

LINKS

MORE CONTENT

MUSIC CREDITS

[elevatedschool]

Since 2022, we’ve edited more than 3300 college essays and helped hundreds of seniors from around the world gain more than 600+ acceptances to top 20 schools. If you’d like your essay professionally edited, we’d be honored to help!
Visit:

[justjosh]

huge help i’m going to rewatch this when i am actually at my computer with essay

[kylemccormick]

I am genuinely happy to finally watch a college essay video that shares real, meat-and-potatoes advice, and not just vague, generic advice like "Be your authentic self". Thank you so much! I really appreciate your videos! 👍

[samisubedi]

My essay journey has been a disaster, to say the least. I just discovered your channel and this video has made me realize the fault with my problem-solution essay. But it would be a huge relief for me to get help from a professional like you. Thanks!

[elevatedschool]

Hi friends!! For the next month (until 11/1/23), we’ll be selecting 3 of the commenters on THIS video for a FREE essay review! To qualify, all you have to do is like and reply to this comment with something you learned from this video :) FYI normally, we charge $225 for a professional common app review with feedback from two of our ElevatEd consultants!

[mariarmanu]

Hello, Kevin! I am an international student who has been struggling to navigate this whole process of putting together the common app essay, but your videos definitely helped me the most. From this video I learned about the problem-solution ratio as well as the upgraded strategy of double problem template. The advice regarding the conclusion was also one of the most helpful tips I have gotten so far, all you said about steering away from cliches and not repeating yourself (which, I admit, I have previously done)

[brookecross]

I like that you mentioned how to fix it and not just the problem itself!

[deletedaccount]

Problem 1) packing everything into the personal statement
2) the résume dump - try to talk about stuff that can’t be found anywhere else in application, or take a basic idea and flip it (Costco essay)
3) problem solution ratio - don’t spend majority of essay saying what happened to you instead of making things happen
4) eureka problem - shifting from problem to solution, show 2 problems to present perseverance
5) cliche reflection “through starting my nonprofit I learned importance of community etc”

[VivianLin-mpjh]

Not me watching this 3 hours before it’s due 😭😭😭.

[chirmidetha]

Hey buddy, I now know what is wrong in my essay. Two days ago, I thought it was the best essay ever written but your advice helps me to see things through your eyes as a reader that I can't myself look. It helped me a lot .I have made genuine changes adhering to the Problem : Solution ratio. I believe even if earlier my essay was not selected, now with your video guides I have made it a lot better.
Thank you so much for helping us. What you are doing to us in these stressful times is worth appreciation. May you always soar high buddy. All my best wishes to you.

[ceydakara]

I really need to stop packing everything into my writing, this video made me edit my essay so much, thank you!

[orlehmann-]

Hi Kevin!! I'm an international student and I've been struggling to put together my Common App essay, but your videos are SO helpful!. This particular video really helped me understand the problem I had with the eureka problem and the problem-solution ratio. Your advice on how to end the essay was really helpful as well and I will definitely implant it in my essay. I would love to hear your input and take on my essay! I'm pretty proud of how it turned out but given the fact I have no one to help me with my application (it's not very common to apply to US universities where I live), it would be extremely helpful if you could take a look at my essay

[muhammadmustafotojimamatov]

Thank you. Impeccable timing, as always

[ngwuemeka]

The last problem on cliche endings . Thank you for touching on it, but it’s still really hard for me to change the ending of mine.

[chemicalmilkshake]

Happy Birthday, Kevin! Also, thank you for everything you do, these videos have been so helpful during the college admissions process. 💖

[corpusetanima]

Genuinely helpful video thank you so much ❤

[elevatedschool]

From now until August 2024, I (Kevin) will offering doing FREE intro calls with students (and parents!)
Thank you watching our videos! Your support seriously means the world to us!!

[ArshroopSaini]

Happy Birthday Kevin!
Thank you so much for your informative videos!!

[that_uniguy]

Thank you, for the video ...I'm happy to just fall for one mistake ...working on my second draft

[nabhaf]

Thank you for sharing these infos Kevin ❤ I've been watching your videos lately and it has motivates me to start working on my essay 🎉