Students needing help with college admissions essays, which may be the most important component of getting into a university, are not without a variety of assistance.

Emilee Taylor, former head of the SE reading and writing resource center, offered a few tips Sept. 8 to help students with writing these essays.

Taylor began with a simple instruction.
“Do not panic,” she said.

For some, it may be a difficult instruction to follow, Taylor said. But because of that, SE Campus has many options to help students complete their admission essays.

Five different kinds of admission essays were put into use in 2013: a story central to the student’s identity, a student’s experience of failure and growing beyond it, an experience where a student challenged a belief, a descriptive story of a place of the student’s contentment and an account of the event that marked a student’s transition to adulthood. These essays are introspective and challenging, Taylor said, but definitely not impossible.

“Let someone else read it,” she said.

Writing should “be honest, accurate and descriptive,” Taylor said, especially in the fourth essay choice, and a student should make the topic as selective as possible to answer the whole question.

Located in ESEE 2227A, the SE center is available every day of the week except Sunday. Students can use free assistance 30 minutes a day. Taylor recommended students make appointments before coming in because of limited staff and time.

Taylor said the center also offers a wide selection of workshops, two to three a day, with exercises in grammar, technology and confidence.

­­— Curtis Howe