Last summer, I finally decided to tackle the monster: writing my dreaded college essay. Sitting down at my keyboard, I gave myself a pep talk. This can’t be that hard, right? What does a college admissions officer want to hear? And so I began to type. A blur of SAT words and humble brags spilled onto the page.
After an hour of typing, I paused. Glancing through jumbles of words, my heart started to race. Twelve paragraphs of all my achievements, but it was blander than a saltine cracker. This is so cliche! How do I make it more unique?
That was nine months ago. Today I’ve been accepted into my dream school, thanks to the polished and nearly-perfect essays I submitted last November. It took me five months to fix my essays. But you can learn what I learned in just five minutes. Check out my five keys to writing your best college essay and save yourself from the stress I faced!
At first, I studied example college essays about losing a loved one, living with an illness, or telling a long-kept secret. “I don’t have a story like that,” I thought to myself. I felt like my own experiences weren’t significant enough to share. Instead, I wrote about people who inspired me. Soon enough though, I realized these stories weren’t really mine. So, I tried a new approach.
I jotted down my favorite experiences and memories on sticky notes. After 20 minutes, I stepped back to see more than just a collection of stories. I noticed patterns in the stickies, revealing the values that guided my life. It was like piecing together a puzzle. When I found the thread that tied all my experiences together, I finally had a story where I was the main character. It was a story that reflected who I was and what I cared about.
Anyone can write that they are curious, helpful, or passionate. Not many writers can show it. Telling your reader who you are isn’t as impactful as showing them. Here’s an example:
I loved participating in science competitions. Not only did I work with my teammates to come up with innovative solutions, but I became deeply passionate about helping people suffering from medical diseases.
There is nothing special about this besides some fancy words and a noble intention. By putting the reader in your shoes instead, you create something personal to you:
In the break period of the competition, I had 30 minutes to reset my brain. Walking usually helps me, so I wandered the spotless, grand halls, enjoying the soft echo of my footsteps on the cold tile. In the competition, I predicted the arbitrary folding of the protein with Ab initio modeling using molecular dynamics simulations, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of wanting to apply my knowledge of science to something more practical. I looked up and saw gold-framed portraits of history’s greatest scientists lining the walls. I gazed into their still eyes, wondering what they would do in my place.
This paragraph uses sensory details, internal thoughts, reflections, and references to personal experiences to create a much richer, more vivid picture than the first.
650 words. That’s all you’ve got! It might seem like a lot before you start writing but they get used up fast! You want to kick generalizations to the curb but you also want to avoid wasting precious words on irrelevant details. The common advice of “Show, don’t tell” might encourage you to hunt around for dramatic or superficial points.
I arrived at the science competition early, before anyone else had arrived. The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon, casting a soft orange glow across the sky. Once inside the magnificent building, I made my way to the registration desk where I was given my name tag and a schedule of events for the day. I looked over the room and saw other competitors, all dressed in their best suits and dresses, making last-minute preparations and practicing their presentations.
Narrow the focus onto your experience. While this paragraph contains specific details, it feels impersonal. What did you notice that felt important to you? Write about that.
Millions of students are deciding what to write for their college essays, like I did. They are all thinking the same thing: “What does the admissions officer want to hear?” When everyone is trying to impress colleges with their intelligence, accomplishments, vocabulary, and maturity, the essays all sound the same. At one point, different flavors of the same incident, experience, or struggle become indistinguishable. Instead, your aim should be to write something only you could have written.
To write something only you could have written, try the following exercise: Start reading your essay from the top, and at the end of each sentence ask, “Is this something someone else could have written?” If yes, highlight it in red. Once you get to the end, take each sentence again and rewrite until you get something no one else (including ChatGPT) could have written.
When you sit down to write your unique, complex life path, writer’s block sets in. Trust me, I know! But you don’t have to deduce a profound philosophical analysis from your life’s greatest events. Writing your college essay should be fun.
Telling stories about ourselves is what we do in everyday conversation with friends and peers. When you abandon the constraints of writing something original, brilliant, or profound, you notice the small, seemingly insignificant moments or ideas hiding in plain sight. Take these, and start writing. You might just learn a strange or funny thing about yourself that only applies to you.
One final piece of advice to wrap up: Forget what you know about writing! Your college essay is vastly different from the pieces you write in school. In English class, you write a thesis, a line of argument, then add evidence and commentary. You know what you will write about before you lift a finger. The college essay is backwards, more like a math problem.
Start with what you know, like your favorite song, a niche obsession your friends call you out on, or your worst driving experience. As you write, show your work. Think out loud and don’t leave any feelings or thoughts unturned. The seemingly insignificant details of your life experiences are significant enough to share.