5 Tips on How to Write a Great College Essay
college essay brainstorming
While it’s true that not all colleges require an essay for the admission process, most require at least one essay, and many mark it as optional. When it comes to figuring out how to get into your top colleges, submitting optional items, including optional essays, is a great way to boost your chances for admission. It even makes a difference in scholarship consideration and certain schools.
Even popular public colleges like the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, the University of Michigan, the University of California schools, the University of Florida, and Indiana University require the standard personal statement essay that is part of the Common Application, plus additional supplemental essays!
This article will help you understand how to plan for all of these upcoming college admission essays and uncover valuable tips for eye-catching essays. Take it from me, a college planner with over 9 years of experience helping students increase their chances for admission and scholarships.
I also sit on several scholarship committees where I review over 125 college scholarship essays each year, and I can tell you what works and what doesn’t when it comes to essays that stand out.
How many college essays do I have to write?
If you are applying to colleges using the Common Application. There is a personal statement essay that most colleges will elect to see as part of your application. For those who don’t know, the Common Application, often referred to as Common App, is an online form that you can fill out and send to multiple colleges.
The Common App officially opens on August 1, right before your senior year of high school. You have to wait until that time to add the schools you wish to apply to so you can see what additional essay prompts are that year. Those additional essays are called supplemental essays.
The Personal Statement Essay:
It is also commonly referred to as the “Common App essay.” The Common App has seven different essay prompts to choose from. This essay is shared with all colleges on your list unless the school elects not to see it or use it in its admission decision.
The word count limit for the Common App essay is 250-650 words. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s more about quality over quantity. Most quality essays that I’ve read over the years utilize the maximum word count of 650 words to convey their message.
Supplemental Essays:
In addition to the Common App essay that every college added to your Common App will receive, a college may require one or more additional essays, referred to as supplemental essays. These essays may ask why you want to attend their college, why you want to study the major you selected, or something more obscure, like identifying one song that represents the soundtrack of your life and explaining its personal relevance. Supplemental essays may also include short answer questions, which aren’t quite a full essay, but the college is still looking for a quality, well-thought-out answer. These kinds of essays may range in length from 50 words to 650 words.
Now that you know the different kinds of essays to expect, let’s discuss tips on writing effective college essays that admissions officers actually want to read.
Tip #1: Teach the reader something new
College applications contain information about you, such as grades, classes taken, standardized test scores, and activities. Your essay should teach them something positive about you that’s not found in the rest of the application. If you summarize the same information that’s listed in your application, the space has been wasted.
Think of your essay as the trailer to the movie of your life—a snapshot of one element of your life or one memorable moment, not the entire movie from start to finish.
College admission officers are looking to learn something positive about you. Even if you choose to talk about a failure or something unfavorable that happened in your life, focus on the triumph. How did you overcome the hardship, what did you learn, and how are you living victoriously with the lessons? The proper ratio is talking about what happened to you 10-15% of the essay and how you overcame it or what you learned for the remaining 85-90%.
The main purpose of the essay is so that admissions can see your ability to communicate effectively through writing and, more predominantly, learn who you are as a person. This helps them understand your character and if you will be a good fit on their campus.
Really think about the following question and take notes. Ask yourself, “What do I want colleges to know about me after reading my essay, and why.”
Tip #2: Only written by the student
This tip seems like a no-brainer, but I see situations every year that require my intervention. If you have AI write your essay, we can all tell. If my human eyes can detect that you used Chat GPT or other AI software to write your essay, colleges will notice it too. They also have extensive resources to detect plagiarism and AI-generated writing digitally. You could risk disqualification in the admission process, which is really the worst possible outcome.
It can be tempting for parents to write their child’s essays, but it’s the admission’s job to read essays, and they can tell when it’s adult writing vs teen writing. This is a big turn-off to admissions because it means you took a shortcut and didn’t do the work yourself. Parents can certainly help with brainstorming and editing, but students should be taking the lead on their own essays in their own language.
Tip #3 The earlier, the better
It takes time to develop a unique essay. If colleges wanted to see undeveloped writing you produced on the fly, they would require the timed SAT writing test. But guess what? No colleges require that.
College essays are very different from other types of writing that students practice in English class. These essays are introspective, and it takes time for a student to reflect on how a situation has impacted their life. Students typically wind up processing their growth for the first time through the very process of writing a college essay!
I recommend starting in the spring of junior year or at the very start of the summer after junior year. This gives them time to brainstorm, reflect, write, edit, and polish their essay. Putting in the work can be the difference between getting placed into the “yes,” “no,” or “maybe” pile on an admission officer’s desk during their deliberation.
#4 Answer the question
This is another tip that sounds absurdly obvious. However, in my experience of reviewing thousands of essays over the years, it’s more common than you think to get off track from the main point of the essay. It’s common for students to try to impress admissions by throwing in random facts about their accomplishments and achievements. But at the end of the day, if it doesn’t relate to the question in the essay prompt, the reader will be distracted from the main purpose of your essay, and it will be less memorable and impactful in differentiating you from other applicants.
Pro Tip: At the top of your essay document, copy and paste the essay prompt, along with the name of the college and the word count, so you ensure you stay on track as you work on your rough draft.
#5 Showcase the bigger meaning
This may sound harsh, but colleges (mostly) don’t care about the topic you choose to write about. The subject should always be you, the student. While supplemental essays will ask you to write about a specific topic, the personal statement (aka Common App essay) offers flexibility in choosing the direction of your essay. You can essentially write about anything you want, but it’s critical to brainstorm and choose something that has depth, can demonstrate your growth, and highlights your personality.
I’ve had a student write a story about a stuffed animal fish he had as a toddler. So while the topic technically was the fish, he used his story to demonstrate how sharing the toy to comfort his friends when they were upset helped him to develop a caring personality. The essay further developed to showcase how empathy was his greatest strength, providing specific examples from his high school years and motivation for becoming a family care physician.
Caveat: There are certain cliche topics that so many students write about that it’s difficult to stand out. The top ones to try to avoid are COVID, divorce, sports injury or success,
Pro Tip: Stories are powerful. By using personal anecdotes, you will inherently have unique content, help the reader visualize your story by describing specific details, and leave a lasting impression about your application.
Bonus: Brainstorming Exercise
If you follow these helpful college essay tips, you will surely write a great college essay. When I work with students one-on-one, I have several essay brainstorming exercises that help them generate the best ideas for college essays.
Since college essays are used to get to know who you are, here is an easy exercise that helps you uncover your strongest characteristics and personality traits:
Game of 3s:
Make a list of 3 friends and 3 adults in your life. You will call each of them or ask them in person to help you with a small project you’re working on. Ask them the following questions and record their responses:
“What are 3 things that you like about me most?”
“Can you tell me more about why you said that?”
The point of this exercise is to find out from other people’s perspectives what your top positive traits are. There will likely be some overlaps in answers, which clues you into your most dominant traits that others notice. Feel free to add to the list if it sparks an idea! Once you’ve asked everyone and have your notes outlined, think of three stories that show how you demonstrate those characteristics. This generates a ton of unique content that can be used in any college essay!
Work Smarter, Not Harder
Now that you have the best college essay tips to help you stand out from the crowd, it’s time to take action! Find the most current Common App essay questions, start brainstorming ideas, and keep these tips in mind as you write your personal statement. If you would like support in this process to ensure you are organized, not wasting time, and setting yourself apart from other applicants, I can help you, just as I’ve helped thousands of other students increase their chances for admission and scholarships.
I’ve guided one-on-one students through their college applications and helped brainstorm and edit their essays for hundreds of schools like the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, Georgia Tech, Columbia University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Georgia, the University of Washington, Tulane University, Washington University of St. Louis, University of Southern California, and many, many more!
Click here to connect with me and start leveling up your chances for admissions today!
Written by Jackie Postelnick, College Admission Prep-Coach and Student Career Coach, Founder of Conscious College Planning.
