We asked admissions officers at 18 colleges for their grammatical pet peeves. Make sure your college essay is free of these errors by sharing this list with your proofreader. We also offer proofreading help through our awesome tutors!

1. Confusing its & it's; your & you're; or there, their & they're

2. Run on sentences & fragments​​

3. Verb/noun agreement and verb tense

4. Singular articles before plural nouns like “an alumni”

5. Misusing “me” and “I”

6. Split infinitives

7. Ending a sentence with a preposition​

8. Missing apostrophes

9. Incorrect use of semicolons (Tip: If you’re not sure about semicolons, avoid them all together.)

10. Overuse of contractions

11. Poor use of the word “got” or “get” (Tip: Don’t write “get” when you mean “understand”.)

12. Too many exclamation points