Shiksha Guidelines for Admission Essays for Abroad

While there are separate guidelines given by different universities for admission essays, some universities, on the other hand, have no set instructions. In such cases, we follow some basic rules. Check out the article to understand what our experts at Shiksha say about admission essays to study abroad. 

Compelling admission essays, showcasing your personality, achievements, and aspirations, to the admissions committee (Ad Com) are important for getting admitted to your chosen program and university. While many universities have specific instructions for the applicant regarding the essay, some institutions leave it to you to write an admission essay. Now, in case no specifications are provided by the university, how do you get around to writing your admission essay? It seems like a daunting task, but don’t worry, we have you covered.  

Basic Guidelines for Admission Essays

There are some basic rules to follow in case the universities do not provide specific essay guidelines: The Shiksha guidelines for admission essays for abroad are as following: 

• Avoid too short or too lengthy essays. Keep the word limit between 800-1000 words, if no word limit is mentioned. Avoid giving an essay title because it may increase the word count. 

• Follow formal formatting without random capitalizations, bold sentences/ words, or italics.  

• Maintain a professional and formal tone in your essays; avoid the usage of emojis, hashtags, and/or fancy symbols. 

• Do not write abbreviations such as BYOB, RSVP, ETA, ASAP, and others. 

• There is no need to mention your name in the header and footer section or anywhere else on the page, either at the top or the bottom of the page, unless it is specified by the university.

After receiving the theme or topic of the admission essay, the applicant may begin working on it, while keeping some important points in mind. Some important pointers to follow when the college/university has provided the essay prompt/ prompts:  

• The essay should be written in an MS Word document.  

• You must check the spacing and formatting of your essay carefully before submitting it, even if you are sending it online and not as an attachment. 

• Ensure that the documents that you attach are comprehensible and readable. 

• Use serif fonts such as Times New Roman or Ariel, with a font size of 11-12 points, single spacing, ‘normal’ 1-inch margins, 0 indents, and justified alignment. 

• Make sure that your file format is according to the university requirements because the application only accepts specific versions of word files (.doc and not .docx, or .rtf or .pdf files). 

• You must draft the essay in a proper format having an introductory paragraph, a few body paragraphs, and a conclusion. 

• Do not use any essay templates available online because this it will make your essay unnatural and inauthentic. 

• Avoid plagiarism; it is unacceptable by universities abroad. 

• Proofread and double-check the document for content, space, character limit, or word. 

• In case of pasting the whole text into the box, you must ensure that the entire content has been copied and nothing is missing. 

• Make appropriate adjustments when transferring the essay into the text box as it can disturb the word count because it can be counted differently than the word doc. 

• Edit the document in the box itself as there can be formatting errors like missing bold/ italics words or extra spaces.  

• There should be a clear demarcation between the paragraphs, without any spaces between the paragraphs. 

Should you need further help with your admission essays, you may contact our experts for free admission services.

Also read:

• Importance of Grammar in your Admission Essays
• Importance of Vocabulary in your Admission Essays
• Sample Essays for Study Abroad