What makes for an outstanding college essay?

Answer 1

Admissions officers read hundreds of applications trying to discern which students will achieve the most during their college experience.

The personal statement is a main factor in the admission decision, especially when so many students look exactly the same on paper.

Grades, test scores, volunteer experience, internships, these variables don't provide a lot of variation. The personal essay is an opportunity for students to present who they are and impress upon the admissions committee why they should be accepted to a particular institution. 

Trying to write about yourself can be difficult. Knowing what details and facts about your life to include and what to leave out, how much time to spend talking about one thing or several, there's a lot to consider when writing your personal statement.

Start with an Image

Great application essays are cinematic; they have a heavy visual component that lets the reader imagine themselves in the student's story. Compare these two openings:

1. "My parents always told me to do my best."
2. "The bicycle wheel was still turning, though half of the bike was under a bush. My dad pulled the bike from the bush, wiped dirt from my knee, and set me back on the seat. 'You've got to get back on the horse,' he said. Though I had no idea what he meant then, this has become my guiding phrase in life."

The second is more personal, engaging, and tells a unique story.

Include an Epiphany

An epiphany is your "aha" moment. That moment when you realized something significant, something that changed the way you think or act.

Attaching an epiphany to your vivid memory will tell the admissions officers what they really need to know about you: that you learn from experience, and that you know how to skillfully articulate what you've learned.

Think about it. The personal essay is an opportunity for the college to see what kind of student you will be. They're hoping to rope in a freshman (or transfer) student that will thrive in their academic environment. Demonstrating how you learned an important quality is much more effective than simply stating your qualifications.

For example:

When I saw my baby brother in my mom's arms for the first time I realized I was no longer the most important person to my mom and dad. But when I looked at my brother's rumpled red face, I felt that realization wash out of me. It didn't matter that I wasn't the main focus of the family. We were all a family together, each piece as precious as the next.

The body of your essay should include particular life and school experiences relevant to your epiphany value. If your epiphany stressed community, choose extracurriculars and volunteer work that relate to the value of community. You want to present a cohesive, clear picture of yourself, and you can get scattered if you talk about too many disparate achievements.

End with an Image & Epiphany

Many short story writers end with an image that shows the reader the conclusion rather than telling them, which can seem heavy-handed.

Images are powerful. They're open to interpretation. They can show more than you can tell.

If you can end with a strong image that again shows your value, you're ending strong. The last sentence is your last word on the matter; rarely will your application essay be read more than once. You want the reader to finish your application with the thought, "Yes! We have to have them!" 

If you kept your essay hugging your core value, it will be easy to reuse your initial image.

For example, I was working with a student who was writing his application essay about his family's business success and his own drive to study business in college.

His opening image was his father's busy restaurant. This was the moment the student realized that his father built his restaurant from scratch -- all the more impressive because he was the first of his family to immigrate to the US from Thailand.

To close, my student went back to his original image of that busy restaurant, that moment when he realized his father built his own success from the ground up and related it to his own experience which he'd shared in the previous paragraphs.

His examples showed him to be an independent, entrepreneurial, enterprising person.

His final image was him cleaning up after all the customers had left the restaurant. He realized that with success comes the behind-the-scenes action of cleaning up, keeping the mechanics running smoothly.

It was another important lesson for him. Success isn't divorced from hard work. A perfect image and understanding to close the essay with.

Answer 2

The Common App essay, also known as the personal essay, is a 650-word required application essay for almost every college in the United States. The Common App provides seven prompts for students to choose from, ranging from questions about a student's identity or background to asking students to describe a time when they were grateful for someone or something.

Here are five tips for nailing this essay, no matter which prompt you choose:

1. Tell a story. The best way to engage a reader is with a story. You should start your essay by dropping the reader into a specific moment in your life. Describe how you felt in this moment, what the sky looked like, how the room smelled, what kind of chair you were sitting on. Not only do these details help the reader see through your eyes, but also, the specificities help your essay stand out from the rest. Or course, this story should be relevant to the overall topic/theme of your essay.
2. Which brings me to number two: develop a thesis statement for your essay. This trick will help you be sure that throughout your entire essay, you're sticking to one main point. Whether your essay is about the time when you traveled to Japan to meet your grandmother, or how you learned to adapt as a student after your learning disability diagnosis, the thesis should summarize the lesson you learned.
3. Your essay should show growth. Remember, this is an application essay for college, so readers love to see that you've learned something, and better yet, that you can articulate what you've learned in the form of an essay. One simple way to show character growth (you are the character!) is to structure your essay with a "before," a "turning point," and an "after." In the "after" section, there's room to talk about the lessons you learned from this event, accomplishment, or realization in your life.
4. This should be obvious, but do not use AI to write your essay. College admissions boards use their own artificial intelligence tools to detect essays that have been written using AI. Don't risk it.
5. Use the essay as an opportunity to share your voice, values, and character. It's the only part of your application where you can show readers who you truly are. There's no need to write formally. A conversational tone is often the best way for readers to really get to know you.

Answer 3

I’m a former Foreign Correspondent and Visiting Professor of International Journalism, who’s been fortunate to have lived on four continents. Today, as a Global Communications expert, Executive Coach and author. I apply all my skills, strategies and storytelling to help students write winning Personal Essays for their university applications and professionals build their brand - to climb the career ladder.

Answer 4

College essays are often a student's main chance to show admissions officers who the student is as a human being, not just a student. As a result, the best college application essays focus on something that isn't portrayed in your GPA, test scores, coursework, or even just your extracurriculars. Additionally, the college essay should emphasize you, the applicant, not other people (even if those other people feature briefly in your overall story). Here are some important "DOs and DON'Ts" for your college essay!

DO

1. Focus on YOU (not your bestie or mom or dog)
2. Write in active voice (e.g. "I led my team", "I attended the conference", "I became stronger.")
3. Be concise, but detailed
4. Write on topics that you’re comfortable with

DON'T

1. Repeat numbers or resume
2. Remove the focus off of yourself
3. Write in passive voice (e.g. "The team was led by me", "The conference was attended by me", "Strong was something I became")
4. Forget the prompt
5. Write something that may be too triggering for you to share

Good luck on your applications! There are lots of incredible tutors ready and willing to help you, so don't feel like you're alone in this process.

Answer 5

Several steps contribute to excellence in college-level essay writing.

1. Identify the question you are trying to answer. Every college-level essay should have a critical question they are trying to answer or at the very least grapple with. Typically, professors will provide a prompt or prompts to choose from. If not, think about what you are trying to prove or argue in your essay.

2. Develop a thesis. A thesis should be a statement, or a pair of statements, explaining the crux of your argument and outlining how you're answering the prompt. A thesis should lay out the analytical components of your argument concisely, while still doing justice to the complexity of the analysis.

3. Select several pieces of evidence from the text and develop a close reading that strengthens your thesis. An exceptionally strong essay also incorporates second-hand sources such as academic articles.

4. Select evidence that contradicts your thesis and argue against it. The ability to identify and explain contradictory evidence/arguments, while displaying your analytical argument's superiority, is a trademark of an outstanding college-level essay.

5. Properly craft a conclusion. It's important to have a paragraph or two that wraps everything up. At a minimum, restate your thesis and evidence. It is optional -- but highly encouraged -- to relate your argument and findings to a larger idea or to current events.