Students usually have to write an application letter when they want to join a college or university or would like to enroll for courses or scholarship programs.
Writing an Application Letter
Undoubtedly, the enrollment procedure in colleges and universities remains a dreadful experience for students, who are exposed to stressful situations. Nowadays, more and more high school students understand that they need to gain degrees to find their place in life, where education plays a pivotal role. Therefore, members of committee try to choose the best applicants that will become decent representatives of their educational establishments.
Stages for Application Writing
- Check information published on the college website concerning the admission procedure.
- Be it a job application cover letter or college application letter, you should always write down a list of requirements to see what you are supposed to do to be chosen by admission officers.
- Write a CV and cover letter. Check some samples on the web that will make the writing process easier.
- If you mention any certificates, you have to provide the relevant certified copies. All your claims must be proved with the authorized documents.
- Your application cover letter should include the list of all your achievements.
- You should briefly introduce yourself, point out your qualifications, and prove that you are the best student to be taken into consideration.
- Application paper should not be extensive. You can include 3 main body paragraphs and end the paper with a call for the interview.
- It is preferable to write an introduction when everything else has been already said. Look at your main body and conclusion and think how you can creatively present your personality in the introduction.
The Tone of Writing
Different colleges and universities post various instructions as for application writing. Therefore, one cannot claim that the format of application letter is the same. However, what remains typical for any application paper is the tone of writing. Since your letter will be read by admission officers, your tone should be highly formal. At the same time, it is preferable to use simple language and not to focus on too elaborate sentence structures. Your goal is to present the basic facts about yourself and admission officers are not interested in reading too long sentences with ideas that could have been excluded. Do not beat around the bush. Be precise and clear in your writing. For sure, you can include some terms to prove that you are a competent candidate, but not too many.
Follow the Major Rules for a Job Application Letter
- Gather all the needed materials regarding the admission procedure. Check the opening and closing dates of the application period in each college or university. Late arrivals of your documents will be automatically rejected. Gather all the documents that prove your qualifications, make appropriate copies of certificates, collect evidence to prove your identity (passport, visas, temporary residence permits for foreigners, etc.). All copies of your documents must be certified.
- Some colleges and universities offer an application letter template that must be strictly followed. It means that it is forbidden to make your own amendments and exclude/add any information. If you do not follow it, admission officers will have a feeling that you are not able to write a simple paper and won’t become a good student.
- In application letters, students have to prove that they are able to work under pressure and manage their time appropriately. College/university studying is challenging in terms of the workload and if students are not able to create a plan of their day, they will definitely not manage to complete all the writing assignments and attend lectures at the same time.
- Application writing is meant to show who you are. You are not writing a letter to your friend or an essay to the teacher who knows you a couple of years and will disregard basic grammar mistakes. Sometimes a few mistakes can make admission officers disregard your letter.
- Check if your application letter format is based on a single writing technique. You should present specific facts from your life and appeal to logics in your writing.
- Proofread your paper and check if you managed to cover requirements posted on the college website. If there are specific instructions about the word count, strictly follow them. Even a couple of extra words can make your essay a failure.
