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Does your child have what it takes to get into BYU?
The stakes of getting accepted to BYU are getting higher and higher. It is estimated that over 12,000 students will apply to BYU — Provo this fall. And using last year's acceptance rates, more than 4,000 won't make the cut.
With such a large pool of applicants, the BYU Admissions Committee is often tasked with choosing between highly-qualified applicants who all meet the minimum requirements. And since BYU is not currently requiring standardized test scores, it is even more difficult for applicants to stand out.
With all of these factors, parents want to know:
"Is there anything I can do to improve my child's chances for acceptance to BYU?" The answer to this question is an absolute "yes!"
How the BYU application essays can make or break your child's acceptance
By the time your child begins their BYU application, nearly all of the application criteria (transcripts, activities, awards, etc.) is fixed and can't be influenced or changed — with one notable exception: the essays.
The BYU application essays have become one of the most critical ways your child will be evaluated by the admissions committee. This is because the essays are the best way for the committee to get to know your child on a personal level to determine how well they have demonstrated their preparation and alignment with the Mission and Aims of BYU.
In fact, the BYU essays are the only real controllable factor your child has at this point that can either help or hurt their chances of getting accepted.
The wrong way to write BYU application essays
Just sitting down to "knock out" the essays without understanding what BYU is looking for is a huge mistake. Successful BYU essays require deep introspection, multiple drafts and a good deal of pre-work. Students who don't allow time for these crucial activities end up writing sub-par BYU essays that suffer from one or more of the following issues:
Too generic
It isn't natural for most high-school seniors to be vulnerable and genuine. This often results in superficial essays that don't give enough information about your child for BYU admissions to complete a proper evaluation.
Too wordy
This year, BYU has shortened most of the essays by 500 characters. The lower the character count, the more difficult it is for students to effectively address everything the prompt is asking for. Consequently, students can easily spend too much of their essay telling a story but not allowing enough space for important connections and reflections.
No effective feedback
Most students work on their BYU essays right up to the deadline and don't have the proper time to get feedback and make revisions. If parents do read the essays, they often don't know how to provide the most helpful feedback. This cycle often results in substantial errors in essay structure, content and grammar.
The right way to write BYU application essays: The 3 most important questions
Susie Boyce, founder of College Essay Builder, has been helping students write BYU application essays since 2007. Over the years, she has discovered three fundamental questions that all successful BYU essays must effectively answer. These three questions are:
Do my child's essays show that they value the aims of a BYU education?
Each BYU essay should correlate directly to one or more of the Aims of a BYU Education. It is critical that the stories and examples your child uses in their essays make the connection clear and personal. A close look at the BYU admissions website emphasizes that BYU uses the aims to evaluate all areas of the application — especially the essays.
Do my child's essays help them stand out from thousands of other applicants?
This fall, BYU will receive more than 70,000 essays. Given the sheer volume, how will you ensure your child's essays stand out and are memorable for all the right reasons?
The key to this question is helping your child identify events, people and stories from their life that highlight their genuine and unique experiences. This requires vulnerability; the essays should tell compelling stories showing your child's journey, growth and transformation. These personal stories can become the heart of each essay, connecting the reader to your child in an unforgettable way.
Do my child's essays demonstrate their character, values, testimony and potential as a BYU student?
BYU has provided some direct expectations about what they want to see in your child's essay on their admissions website:
"...make sure you read the prompt and answer what's being asked. If there's something about you we should know, make sure to include it in your essay responses!"
Why does BYU want your child to share so much? Because the essays are the best chance admissions counselors have to understand and evaluate your child's character, values, testimony and potential as a BYU student.
To effectively do this, your child must address each prompt completely and deeply. Take time to identify stories and examples that showcase how they have grown and developed in these four areas and write conclusions that make a powerful connection to what BYU is looking for.
The bottom line
You can do something to improve your child's chances for acceptance to BYU. Helping your child write their best BYU application essays is the most important way you can accomplish this goal.
But you don't have to do this alone. College Essay Builder has created a comprehensive application essay course for BYU that leads your child step-by-step through the process of writing all the BYU application essays. With the help of videos, downloads, templates and examples, your child will be writing their best BYU essays faster and more effectively than any other method.
In this course your child will learn:
- How to personalize the BYU Aims and meaningfully connect them to each essay.
- How to identify and tell compelling personal stories that demonstrate their potential as a successful BYU student.
- How to approach each essay prompt to address BYU's specific expectations.
- How to start each essay to "hook" the reader.
- How to conclude each essay to make a powerful connection.
- How to write clear and concise paragraphs that answer each prompt completely and deeply.
- How to edit and revise their essays utilizing proprietary feedback guides.
The stakes are too high to not do everything you can to help your child get accepted.
And the most controllable thing you can do right now to increase your child's chances of acceptance to BYU is to help them write their best BYU essays by enrolling them in the full essay course for BYU today.
And for a limited time, use the coupon code KSL50 to get $50 off the full course price.
