Grammar Matters In College Admissions

In the world of college admissions grammatical accuracy is more important than you may think. Especially on your college applications! We know from our conversations with admissions officers and Michele’s years working in the Dartmouth admissions office that these mistakes are noticed and may be enough to sink your application. At the very least, they distract from the content of your essay and could confuse your (very tired) reader.

To avoid submitting an essay with these common and avoidable mistakes, don’t procrastinate on your first draft. Seniors, we recommend you start your essays in June or July so that you have plenty of time to revise and proofread. You should also always have a second set of eyes on your essays before you submit your applications—whether it’s a college counselor, a teacher, a parent, or an older sibling.

Proofread ALL Elements of the Common App

Students often remember to proofread their essays but forget to catch typos and errors on their extracurricular descriptions or other shorter sections of the Common App. Don’t neglect these other elements of the application.

Tips to Avoid the Most Common Grammatical Mistakes

We’ve listed the most common grammatical mistakes we see in essays year after year and some tips so you can avoid them.

There, Their & They’re

• What’s the difference?
  • “They’re” is a contraction for “they are.” “Their” refers to something owned by a group, and “there” refers to a place.
• Correct Usage:
  • They’re going to love the new Italian restaurant in town owned by celebrity chefs. I heard their food is amazing! We’re going there for dinner next week.

Its & It’s

• What’s the difference?
  • “Its” is a possessive adjective.
  • “It’s” is a contraction for “it is” or “it has.”
  • Note: Its’ is never
• Correct Usage:
  • It’s raining outside (contraction for it is raining outside).
  • It’s been a long time (contraction for it has been a long time).
  • The jury has reached its
  • The cat had its claws tripped.

Your & You’re

• What’s the difference?
  • “You’re” is a contraction of you are.
  • “Your” is a possessive adjective.
• Correct Usage:
  • You’re my favorite daughter.
  • Your favorite color is blue.

Affect & Effect

• What’s the difference?
  • Affect is usually a verb (meaning “to influence”) and effect is usually a noun. This can be confusing since they’re both referring to something changing another thing.
  • Effect can also be used as a verb to mean, “to bring about.” i.e. “Effect change.” More commonly, however, an effect is something that happens due to a cause, meaning a result or an influence.
• Correct Usage:
  • The documentary will have a powerful effect on its viewers.
    • (Talking about the change itself).
  • The documentary affected me greatly.
    • (Talking about the act of changing).

“Me” & “I”

• What’s the difference?
  • “Me” is an object pronoun. It refers to the person that the action is being done to.
  • “I” is a subject pronoun. It refers to the agent performing the action.
• Correct usage:
  • You and I should have lunch (“I” is performing the action of having lunch)
  • He’ll blame you and me (The act of blame is being done to “me”)

Pronoun Agreement

• What’s the rule?
  • A pronoun must refer to a noun. It also must agree (singular or plural) with that noun.
  • Note: Pronouns that are singular (I, he, she, everyone, someone, each, either, neither,) require singular verbs.
  • Exception:When each follows a noun or pronoun in certain sentences.
• Correct usage:
  • Each of the girls sings
  • Neither of us is available for tomorrow’s meeting.
  • The women each gave their

In College Admissions You Must Avoid Silly Mistakes

Finally, before you submit your essay, make sure you’ve addressed the college correctly everywhere it appears. There’s nothing worse than having your Yale essay end, “and that’s why Harvard is my top choice.” The Associate Director of Admissions for MIT has said that, “When there get to be a lot of errors, we start to question how much time and effort the student has put into the application.”

Bottom line: Grammar counts.

We recommend investing in a hard copy grammar guide for reference as you’re writing. We like some of the classic hard copy standbys such as The Elements of Style. At the end of the day, these small precautions will help your application in a big way.