YOU: The person behind the GPA, the test scores, the extracurricular activities, and even the mailing address; the you that you have not revealed in the rest of your application.

SURPRISE:  An unexpected angle on your topic--even if the experience you're writing about is ordinary.

GENUINENESS:  Writing as yourself, without pretension and without taking yourself too seriously; relying on your own vocabulary rather than the thesaurus or the words your parents think you should use.

THOUGHTFULNESS:  Thinking about your experience and its meaning, to yourself or to others (or both); showing through your reflections that you are a person on whom nothing is lost.

A lot of big words that are meant to impress - make sure to use your OWN voice!

Sloppiness, mechanical errors (spelling, punctuation), obvious professional input, reference to an incorrect institution - PROOFREAD your essay and have multiple people read it!

Cliches

Merely putting your activity lists into prose form--and thereby missing a chance to tell us something new and different about your self

Bland, impersonal writing

Doom-and-gloom essays