College application essays require an appropriate mix of colloquial tone and polished grammar. Simple as that, right? If academically ambitious high schoolers didn’t routinely submit essays full of errors, we wouldn’t be here! The truth is that a shocking number of college applicants, including those with near-perfect SAT Reading sections, grades, and 5s on their AP English Literature and AP English Language exams, still submit poorly written essays. Poor writing is something of a pandemic afflicting America’s teens. Students are not being taught the skills they need to succeed like they used to be, and someone needs to sound the alarms.

What accounts for this nationwide dip in reading and writing competency, which has become so prevalent that it even impacts Ivy League-bound college applicants? There are many possible culprits. For one thing, pandemic learning losses decimated many students’ academic momentum, and most are still recovering from these setbacks. Another culprit is A.I. — educators are still assessing this new technology’s impact on students’ abilities to think and write for themselves. With a machine that can do an (albeit very poor and easily detectable) job of writing your college essays for you, many students have chosen to phone it in.

Essay Writing Mistakes Can Hurt Your College Admission Chances

But the students who have taken the easy way out are not our concern here. Instead, we’d like to know why so many students struggle to write even the most basic essays. The fact is that if you submit essays with even a few grammatical mistakes, college admissions officers will immediately write you off as an unserious candidate for admission. These mistakes can hint that you couldn’t even be bothered to proofread what amounts to the most critical writing in your high school career. It doesn’t matter if you aced your AP English Language exam. When push came to shove, you didn’t cross all your Ts and dot all your Is, and this could cost you your dream college.

Perfect Grammar, Colloquial Style

We at Ivy Coach are not advocating for pretentious essays that use huge vocabulary words and over-the-top jargon (which can often happen when you rely on your English teacher for feedback). Be as casual as possible when penning these crucial essays. Otherwise, you risk coming off as disingenuous. Plus, using an everyday writing style ensures that you will know how to edit and proofread your work. If you’re misusing the word “invaluable” and have no idea you’re misusing it, you won’t catch your mistake before submission. Stick to something like “key” or “important.” These down-to-earth changes in style will make you much more likable, causing admissions officers to want to root for your case for admission instead of rolling their eyes and writing you off as another applicant trying to sound more intelligent than they are!

A Note on Using AI for College Essays

AI is undoubtedly a part of this problem. But can it also be part of the solution? Maybe, if used sparingly. Using AI to write your college essays from start to finish will only result in mediocre essays full of factual inaccuracies that your future school will quickly identify with AI-detection software, causing you to receive a swift rejection letter. We promise your voice will be much better than anything AI software can produce!

However, using an AI proofreading service like Grammarly to check your work only after you’ve already written the entire essay is advisable in moderation. You’ll be able to catch any misspellings or misplaced modifiers without compromising on your own unique tone and style. The trouble arises when you let AI fill your essay with adjectives you would never use and sentence structures that don’t sound like a high schooler wrote them. This is a major red flag for admissions officers, so proceed with caution if you decide to check your work with AI.

Ivy Coach’s Assistance is Much Better than AI or Your English Teacher

Instead of putting your faith into a computer or an adult whose last encounter with college admissions was in the 1980s, turn to one of Ivy Coach’s former elite college admissions officers for guidance as you navigate these tricky writing tasks. We will help you pen the most competitive college essays possible while protecting your unique voice. 

If you would like to optimize your child’s odds of admission to a highly selective college, fill out our complimentary consultation form, and we’ll be in touch.