My english teacher recently told us how to get a good opening and ending sentence for your essay, and I thought I'd share it with you all.
Write the entire essay first. Even parts of the introduction and conclusion.
Then read the entire thing. You're bound to come up with something better instead of just winging it when you first write it.
On another note, would anyone be interested in reading over and correcting my college short answers and personal statement for Pepperdine University?