iRubric: College Application Essay rubric

The writer is the focus of the essay. The readers learn something about the writer which they could not learn from the application. The writer creates a sense of depth by revealing a couple of personality qualities or an event that led to a greater self knowledge.

The writer is the focus of the essay, but the writer does not appear to have developed much in the essay. The writer appears to be static.

The writer is not the focus of the essay, but instead appears as a secondary character. Alternatively, the writer just rehearses a resume, which the reader could read elsewhere in the application

The essay balances telling and showing. The writer includes events that demonstrate the qualities that are explained. The writer also balances description, explanation and narration, so that a lively essay emerges.

Although the writer includes a variety of parts in the essay, the parts are not balanced. Some parts are not focused, and thus drag. Alternatively, some parts may just be too long.

The writer has gotten lost in the details of the story that he or she is telling. Alternatively, the essay may lack an analysis of what is important or what was discovered.

There are no mistakes that most readers would notice.

There are a few examples of the mistakes listed in the
"needs improvement" column.

There are many mistakes. Some of the words chosen may be general or vague. There are spelling mistakes. There are errors of subject/verb agreement. There are sentence fragments or run-on sentences.