college essay how to stand out

Tips for Writing an Effective Application Essay

Find the right college for you.

Writing an essay for college admission gives you a chance to use your authentic voice and show your personality. It's an excellent opportunity to personalize your application beyond your academic credentials, and a well-written essay can have a positive influence come decision time.

Want to know how to draft an essay for your college application ? Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing.

Tips for Essay Writing

A typical college application essay, also known as a personal statement, is 400-600 words. Although that may seem short, writing about yourself can be challenging. It's not something you want to rush or put off at the last moment. Think of it as a critical piece of the application process. Follow these tips to write an impactful essay that can work in your favor.

1. Start Early.

Few people write well under pressure. Try to complete your first draft a few weeks before you have to turn it in. Many advisers recommend starting as early as the summer before your senior year in high school. That way, you have ample time to think about the prompt and craft the best personal statement possible.

You don't have to work on your essay every day, but you'll want to give yourself time to revise and edit. You may discover that you want to change your topic or think of a better way to frame it. Either way, the sooner you start, the better.

2. Understand the Prompt and Instructions.

Before you begin the writing process, take time to understand what the college wants from you. The worst thing you can do is skim through the instructions and submit a piece that doesn't even fit the bare minimum requirements or address the essay topic. Look at the prompt, consider the required word count, and note any unique details each school wants.

3. Create a Strong Opener.

Students seeking help for their application essays often have trouble getting things started. It's a challenging writing process. Finding the right words to start can be the hardest part.

Spending more time working on your opener is always a good idea. The opening sentence sets the stage for the rest of your piece. The introductory paragraph is what piques the interest of the reader, and it can immediately set your essay apart from the others.

4. Stay on Topic.

One of the most important things to remember is to keep to the essay topic. If you're applying to 10 or more colleges, it's easy to veer off course with so many application essays.

A common mistake many students make is trying to fit previously written essays into the mold of another college's requirements. This seems like a time-saving way to avoid writing new pieces entirely, but it often backfires. The result is usually a final piece that's generic, unfocused, or confusing. Always write a new essay for every application, no matter how long it takes.

5. Think About Your Response.

Don't try to guess what the admissions officials want to read. Your essay will be easier to write─and more exciting to read─if you’re genuinely enthusiastic about your subject. Here’s an example: If all your friends are writing application essays about covid-19, it may be a good idea to avoid that topic, unless during the pandemic you had a vivid, life-changing experience you're burning to share. Whatever topic you choose, avoid canned responses. Be creative.

6. Focus on You.

Essay prompts typically give you plenty of latitude, but panel members expect you to focus on a subject that is personal (although not overly intimate) and particular to you. Admissions counselors say the best essays help them learn something about the candidate that they would never know from reading the rest of the application.

7. Stay True to Your Voice.

Use your usual vocabulary. Avoid fancy language you wouldn't use in real life. Imagine yourself reading this essay aloud to a classroom full of people who have never met you. Keep a confident tone. Be wary of words and phrases that undercut that tone.

8. Be Specific and Factual.

Capitalize on real-life experiences. Your essay may give you the time and space to explain why a particular achievement meant so much to you. But resist the urge to exaggerate and embellish. Admissions counselors read thousands of essays each year. They can easily spot a fake.

9. Edit and Proofread.

When you finish the final draft, run it through the spell checker on your computer. Then don’t read your essay for a few days. You'll be more apt to spot typos and awkward grammar when you reread it. After that, ask a teacher, parent, or college student (preferably an English or communications major) to give it a quick read. While you're at it, double-check your word count.

Writing essays for college admission can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be. A well-crafted essay could be the deciding factor─in your favor. Keep these tips in mind, and you'll have no problem creating memorable pieces for every application.

What is the format of a college application essay?

Generally, essays for college admission follow a simple format that includes an opening paragraph, a lengthier body section, and a closing paragraph. You don't need to include a title, which will only take up extra space. Keep in mind that the exact format can vary from one college application to the next. Read the instructions and prompt for more guidance.

Most online applications will include a text box for your essay. If you're attaching it as a document, however, be sure to use a standard, 12-point font and use 1.5-spaced or double-spaced lines, unless the application specifies different font and spacing.

How do you start an essay?

The goal here is to use an attention grabber. Think of it as a way to reel the reader in and interest an admissions officer in what you have to say. There's no trick on how to start a college application essay. The best way you can approach this task is to flex your creative muscles and think outside the box.

You can start with openers such as relevant quotes, exciting anecdotes, or questions. Either way, the first sentence should be unique and intrigue the reader.

What should an essay include?

Every application essay you write should include details about yourself and past experiences. It's another opportunity to make yourself look like a fantastic applicant. Leverage your experiences. Tell a riveting story that fulfills the prompt.

What shouldn’t be included in an essay?

When writing a college application essay, it's usually best to avoid overly personal details and controversial topics. Although these topics might make for an intriguing essay, they can be tricky to express well. If you’re unsure if a topic is appropriate for your essay, check with your school counselor. An essay for college admission shouldn't include a list of achievements or academic accolades either. Your essay isn’t meant to be a rehashing of information the admissions panel can find elsewhere in your application.

How can you make your essay personal and interesting?

The best way to make your essay interesting is to write about something genuinely important to you. That could be an experience that changed your life or a valuable lesson that had an enormous impact on you. Whatever the case, speak from the heart, and be honest.

Is it OK to discuss mental health in an essay?

Mental health struggles can create challenges you must overcome during your education and could be an opportunity for you to show how you’ve handled challenges and overcome obstacles. If you’re considering writing your essay for college admission on this topic, consider talking to your school counselor or with an English teacher on how to frame the essay.

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9 tips for How to Write a College Essay That Stands Out

Are you wondering how you’ll manage to write a college essay that stands out from all the other admissions essays? How do you even start writing a standout college essay?

If you’re a high school senior staring at a list of prompts, facing the daunting task of writing an outstanding college essay, you might not know where to start.

After all, the college essay isn’t just another homework assignment. Your personal statement essay is a critical part of your college application.

Writing an impactful college essay is more than just a formality; it’s your opportunity to show colleges who you are beyond your academic achievements and test scores.

So how do you ensure that your essay captures the attention of admissions officers and leaves a lasting impression?

After all, admissions officers read so many college essays that they start to run together pretty quickly.

This guide provides straightforward advice on crafting an essay that stands out from the crowd and makes a strong impression.

These essential tips will ensure your essay highlights your unique character and perspectives.

With these pointers, you can tell your story in a way that resonates with admissions committees and helps them see you an an invaluable addition to their campus.

Whether you’re just getting started or fine-tuning your final draft, this post will help you craft a college admissions essay that stands out from the rest.

How to Write a College Essay that Stands Out

Here are nine clever college essay tips that will make your personal statement pop!

1. Start with a catchy opening

First, from the list of college essay prompts, choose a topic that has a personal meaning for you. An experience, a hobby, or a favorite thing could each be an excellent college admission essay topic.

The best way to grab the readers’ attention right from the start is by opening with an engaging hook. There’s no need to restate the prompt—just jump right into your story. 

Start with a bold statement:

• A strong first sentence will pique the reader’s interest immediately. This will set the tone for your essay.
• Use an anecdote :
• A brief (relevant) story from your life can be a powerful way to draw readers in.

Pose a thought-provoking question:

• Choose a question that reflects the central theme or dilemma of your essay to get the reader thinking.

Introduce a paradox:

• Present the reader with a contradiction to set the stage for your personal experiences.

Jump into the action :

• Starting your story in the middle of a pivotal moment can be a dynamic way to begin your essay.

The opening of your essay is your first opportunity to make an impression on the college admissions officers . The opening sentence should not only hook the reader but also introduce the main theme of your essay in a compelling way.

Whichever approach you choose, ensure the beginning sentence of your personal essay aligns with your essay’s overall tone and message, and most importantly, that it feels authentic to you.

If you’re having trouble crafting a strong hook, that’s okay. Write a draft of your essay and come back to revise the hook. A great introduction and first paragraph will grab the reader’s attention and help your college essay stand out from all the others!

2. Appeal to all five senses

Make your college essay stand out by using vivid descriptions and specific details about smells, sounds, textures, and tastes in your essay.

Appealing to the senses in writing is a powerful technique to create vivid and immersive experiences for the reader.

This approach, known as sensory detail or imagery, involves using descriptive language to evoke the five senses – sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.

Here’s how you can effectively incorporate each of these senses into your writing:

• Use descriptive language to paint a picture in the reader’s mind.
• Describe colors, shapes, sizes, and contrasts.
• Include details about lighting, movements, or visual patterns.
• Include sounds to add dimension to the setting or action.
• Describe the volume, pitch, and tone of sounds.
• Use onomatopoeia (words that imitate sounds) for effect.
• Describe scents and aromas to evoke memories or emotions.
• Be specific about the source and quality of the smell.
• Describe flavors and the experience of tasting.
• Use adjectives to convey the quality of the taste (e.g., sweet, bitter, savory).
• Describe the texture and physical sensations.
• Include temperature, shape, and the sensation of touch.

Internal Sensations :

• Sometimes, writers also describe internal sensations like hunger, pain, or fatigue to evoke a physical response.

If you can make the reader feel, smell, or imagine what you’re writing about, you’ll have successfully written a compelling essay.

How to Choose a Unique College Essay Topic

3. Pace yourself

Pacing is a crucial element in storytelling, as it controls the rhythm and flow of the narrative, keeping readers engaged and eager to see what happens next.

Help the reader feel like they are in your story, waiting to find out what happens next. 

To write a college essay that stands out, make the reader feel invested in your story, so they are really curious about what will happen and they are rooting for you.

Here are some strategies to effectively pace your story:

Vary Sentence Structure and Paragraph Length :

• Use a mix of short, punchy sentences and longer, more descriptive ones.
• Short sentences can increase tension and pace, while longer ones can provide necessary details and background.

Control Information Release :

• Don’t reveal everything at once. Dole out information gradually to keep readers curious.

Balance Action with Reflection :

• While action scenes can quicken the pace and add excitement, moments of introspection are essential part of the best college essays.

Create Tension :

• Conflict is the driving force of a good story.
• Introduce one or more different types of conflicts (internal, external, interpersonal) to tell your story.

A well-paced college essay includes fluctuations in intensity and tempo, that align with the story of your personal growth.

4. Reference, but don’t restate

Remember, your admissions officer already knows about your high school grades, clubs, volunteer activities, sports, and musical talents.

So if you mention any extracurricular activities or your GPA in your college essay, be sure it’s particularly relevant to the story you’re telling.  

For example, it’s fine to note that the story you’re telling happened when you were volunteering at the animal shelter. It’s not okay to tell the reader (again) that you have volunteered there six hours a week for the past three years. 

You want to provide a glimpse into your achievements and experiences without merely repeating what’s already listed in your resume or letters of recommendation.

The best essays highlight unique qualities, deeper themes, and personal insight that aren’t mentioned in another part of your application.

Focus on Experiences, Not Titles :

• Rather than listing accomplishments or positions, delve into specific experiences and what they taught you.
• Describe a particular event, project, or challenge and reflect on its impact on your personal growth.

Use Stories to Illustrate Your Point :

• Narrate a story that highlights an achievement or skill.
• Stories are more engaging and memorable than mere lists of accomplishments.

Reflect on Your Achievements :

• Instead of just stating what you’ve done, discuss what you’ve learned from these experiences and how they’ve shaped your perspective, values, or goals.

Highlight Skills and Qualities :

• Use examples from your resume to demonstrate key qualities like leadership, teamwork, resilience, intellectual curiosity, or creativity.
• Show how these experiences have helped you develop these qualities.

Be Selective :

• Choose one or two significant achievements or experiences from your resume to discuss in your essay. Good college essays are concise and impactful.

Connect to Your Future Goals :

• Explain how your past experiences have prepared you for your future ambitions.
• Talking about your goals for later success can help admissions officers see the continuity and progression in your academic and career trajectory.

A great college essay provides insight into who you are and what matters to you. It shouldn’t be just another list of your accomplishments already covered in other areas of the admissions process.

5. Details for the win

Little details about you—your life, your feelings, your surroundings, your experiences—are what will make your college essay memorable. 

Specific details transform your essay from a generic narrative into a vivid, personal story that truly engages the admissions committee.

It’s a good idea to use details in your college application essays because they:

Create a Vivid Picture :

• Specific details help paint a clear and vivid picture in the reader’s mind. Instead of saying “I like science,” you could say, “I spent countless nights under the stars with my telescope, marveling at the mysteries of the Orion Nebula.”
• This level of detail helps the reader visualize and understand your experiences more deeply.

Demonstrate Authenticity :

• Details provide authenticity to your story.
• When you share specific moments, feelings, or thoughts, your essay becomes more believable and genuine.
• This helps build trust with your reader and makes your narrative more compelling.

Engage the Reader’s Emotions :

• A well-chosen detail can evoke emotions, making your essay more engaging and memorable.
• By describing how you felt during a significant moment or what exactly motivated you, you allow the reader to connect emotionally with your story.

Facilitate Personal Reflection :

• By reflecting on the details of your experiences, you can better articulate your learning and growth.
• This introspection can reveal deeper insights about your character and aspirations to the admissions committee.

In conclusion, the inclusion of specific, relevant details is a critical element in crafting a compelling and effective college essay.

These details bring your story to life, making it not just a narrative about events, but a reflection of your identity, journey, and potential.

6. Show, don’t tell

Colleges want to know that you have amazing personal traits that will make you a valuable, involved, engaged member of the campus community.

Your essay should demonstrate that you have the character traits the college is looking for.

Demonstrating these traits is not just about listing your qualities, but about showing them through your experiences, reflections, and the way you tell your story.

Fill your essays with details and examples that show the admissions counselor you are resourceful, resilient, positive, optimistic, curious, engaged, and empathetic, rather than outright claiming to be those things. 

Here are strategies for effectively demonstrating your character traits in your college essay:

Use Specific Anecdotes :

• Choose anecdotes from your life that clearly illustrate the character traits you want to highlight.
• For instance, if you want to show your leadership skills, describe a specific situation where you took charge, organized a team, or overcame a challenge.

Show Growth and Self-Reflection :

• Colleges look for students who are self-aware and capable of growth.
• Discuss a challenge you faced or a mistake you made, and then reflect on what you learned from that experience and how it shaped your character.

Discuss Your Passions and Interests :

• Often, your hobbies, interests, and passions can reflect your character traits.
• For instance, dedication to a sport or art can demonstrate discipline, while volunteer work can showcase empathy and community spirit.

Highlight Resilience and Adaptability :

• Share experiences that show how you’ve adapted to changes or bounced back from failures.
• Resilience is a highly valued trait, as it demonstrates your ability to handle challenges.

End with Reflection :

• Conclude your essay by reflecting on how your experiences and traits have prepared you for college and your future goals.
• This not only reinforces the traits you’ve discussed but also shows your forward-thinking mindset.

Providing concrete examples and personal stories that bring your character traits to life will make your essay both authentic and compelling.

7. Be yourself

The most memorable essays are those that are authentic and honest.

Admission officers are skilled at detecting insincerity. Share your true thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

Here are some tips on how to infuse your entire essay with authenticity and personal flair:

Reflect on Your Unique Experiences :

• Think about the experiences that have shaped you.
• What moments in your life have been pivotal?
• What is your unique take on the world?
• How do you see things differently?
• Reflecting on these will help you find a story that is uniquely yours.

Write in Your Voice :

• Your essay should sound like you.
• Avoid overly formal language if that’s not how you naturally write or speak.
• Don’t try to use fancy vocabulary words or stiff academic transitions. 
• Use a tone and vocabulary that are comfortable and natural for you.

Be Honest :

• Don’t exaggerate or lie about experiences to make your essay more impressive. Admissions officers value sincerity.
• Write about your real experiences and genuine interests.

Share Your Passions and Interests :

• What excites you?
• What do you spend your free time doing?
• Sharing these aspects of your life can help admissions officers get a better sense of who you are.

Discuss Your Learning and Growth :

• Talk about how you’ve grown from your experiences.
• Colleges aren’t just looking for accomplished students; they’re looking for individuals who are self-aware and capable of learning and evolving.

Seek Feedback, but Stay True to Your Story :

• While it’s beneficial to get feedback from teachers, counselors, or peers, ensure the final essay stays true to your authentic voice.
• Don’t let others’ suggestions overshadow your personal expression.

Avoid Trying to Impress at All Costs :

• Don’t focus solely on what you think the admissions committee wants to hear.
• Your authenticity is more appealing than a manufactured attempt to impress.

Remember, the goal of the college essay is to give admissions officers a glimpse of who you are beyond your grades and test scores. Your unique perspective, voice, and experiences are what will make your essay stand out.

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

8. Avoid clichés

Is it cliché to even say that?

Avoiding clichés in a college essay is important to ensure your essay is fresh, original, and genuinely reflective of who you are. However, using clichés is a common mistake.

Here are some strategies to help you steer clear of clichés and write an impactful essay:

Identify Common Clichés :

• Familiarize yourself with frequently used clichés in college essays.
• These often include overused themes like “the big game,” “community service trip to a foreign country,” or “overcoming a sports injury.”

Choose Unique Experiences :

• Focus on experiences that are unique to you.
• Even if the overall theme (like community service) might be common, your personal take or a specific aspect of it can be unique.

Reflect Deeply :

• Go beyond surface-level observations.
• Deep reflection on your experiences can unearth original insights or perspectives that steer clear of clichés.

Use Specific, Personal Details :

• Generic descriptions lead to clichés.
• Instead, use details that are unique to your specific experience. This makes your essay more authentic and engaging.

Avoid Overused Quotes and Phrases :

• Starting your essay with a quote from Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., or similar figures is a common trope.
• Express the idea in your own words instead.

Seek Constructive Feedback :

• Have your English teacher or someone else read your essay to point out any clichés you might have missed.
• Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to catch overused expressions or ideas.

Embrace Vulnerability :

• Writing about your uncertainties, fears, and questions can often be more powerful than presenting only your achievements or a lesson learned.

Remember, clichés often stem from trying to say what you think others want to hear or relying on overused ideas.

By focusing on your genuine thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and presenting them in a fresh way, you can effectively avoid clichés in your college essay.

9. Keep a list of Potential Supplemental Essay topics

Many selective colleges require supplemental essays often ask specific questions that require thoughtful responses.

Coming up with ideas for supplemental essays in college applications can sometimes be more challenging than writing the main essay.

However, ideas that didn’t quite make the cut for your main college essay might turn out to be just right for a supplementary essay. 

Here are some ways to write outstanding supplemental essays:

Brainstorm Around the Prompt :

• For each supplemental essay prompt, spend some time brainstorming.
• Write down any and all ideas that come to mind, no matter how trivial they might seem initially.
• This process can help you uncover unique angles to approach the prompt.

Use Different Aspects of Your Identity :

• Consider aspects of your identity like your background, interests, hobbies, and aspirations that aren’t covered by your personal statement or Common App essay.

Reflect on Your Life Experiences :

• Think about moments in your life that have shaped who you are.
• These could be major life events, small but significant moments, or unique family, cultural, or community experiences.

Connect Your Interests to the College :

• Many supplements ask why you are interested in a particular college or program.
• Research the school thoroughly and think about how its specific resources, programs, clubs, or academic philosophy align with your interests and goals.
• Avoid generic responses.

Revisit Past Essays and Projects :

• Sometimes, your previous work can inspire new ideas. Look through old essays, projects, or journal entries for themes or stories you might expand on.

Talk to Family and Friends :

• Sometimes those close to us can offer insights into what makes us unique.
• Friends and family members might recall stories or characteristics that you haven’t considered.

Explore Your Future Goals :

• Think about what you want to achieve in the future – both at college and beyond.
• How do your aspirations tie into the prompt?

Consider Your Challenges and How You’ve Overcome Them :

• Reflect on obstacles you’ve faced and what you’ve learned from them.

Look for Patterns in Your Activities and Interests :

• Examine your extracurricular activities, hobbies, and volunteer experiences. Is there a common thread that ties them together?

High school seniors can feel completely overwhelmed the first time they realize how many types of essays they have to write as part of the college application process. So keeping a running list of potential main ideas for essays can really help.

Remember, the key to a successful supplemental essay is to provide new insights about yourself, not just restate what’s already in your application.

Each essay should add another dimension to your overall profile, helping admissions officers see the full picture of who you are and what you could offer as a college student at their campus.

Final thoughts on writing a college essay that stands out

In summary, writing a standout college essay boils down to being clear, authentic, and thoughtful as college applicants tell their own story.

While senior year can be extremely busy, and the writing process can be tedious, once you start writing the first draft of your Common Application Essay, you’ll be well on your way to crafting a memorable college essay!

In exploring various college essay topics, remember that a well-written essay can be approached in different ways. This is your unique opportunity to distill the essence of your high school years into a narrative that resonates with the college community.

Your essay should reflect your individuality and give insight into your character, beyond what grades, test scores, and the rest of your application can convey.

Focus on telling your story in a genuine way, using your own voice.

Catching and holding the reader’s attention are key to writing a college essay that stands out. Use detailed descriptions to tell a story that will engage the reader.

Remember to let your personality shine through while carefully avoiding any cliches.

Be sure to organize your thoughts coherently, and don’t shy away from showcasing your personal growth or lessons learned.

Remember to proofread and revise; a well-polished essay speaks volumes about your attention to detail. Writing a college essay that stands out will require a lot of revision and reflection, so allow time for the editing.

Ultimately, your goal is for your personal statement essay to give the admissions committee a compelling reason to see you as a valuable addition to their student body.

Keep your college admissions essay straightforward, honest, and reflective of who you are, and you’ll be on the right path to creating a thoughtful essay that stands out from those of other applicants and resonates with college admissions committees.

And before you know it, you’ll be on your way from high school student to college student! Good luck!

Graduate of Brown University, higher ed professional, and mom of three. Sharing everything I’ve learned about college with you.

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7 Ways to Make Your College Application Essay Stand Out

• Apply to College
• Application Process

There’s so much that goes into a college application, combining years of hard work that lead up to the final moment when you hit “send.”

Grades and test scores are important components, but numbers only tell a portion of your story. What colleges really want to know — and what sets you apart from the crowd of other applicants — is who you are and what makes you tick. Your best opportunity to go beyond the letters and numbers on your high school transcript is through the application essay , or personal statement, which is precisely that: your invitation t o let your personality shine. For admissions officers comparing students with similar scores and extracurricular activities, a compelling essay that brings an applicant to life can lift that student to the top of the pile. 

To make your college essay stand out, consider these expert tips.

1. Choose a Thoughtful Title

College essays are not typically required to have a title, but crafting one can be a powerful tool to make your essay stand out right away — which is why Benjamin Caldarelli, co-founder of Princeton College Consulting , recommends adding one. He says a strong, simple title is perfectly effective, though you may be able to make a positive impact with a well-chosen cultural reference. “Using a variation on the title of a well-known book or movie is an example,” he says. A winning title he saw recently was “Mindful Middle Class Indian.” It was a play on the popular book-turned-movie Crazy Rich Asians .

Even with a more straightforward title, Caldarelli says it’s important to pique the interest of the reader. Another effective title he noticed was “The Cheesecake.” It’s simple, relatable and leaves you to wonder what that dessert has to do with college. The essay turned out to be a creative and unusual approach the applicant used to demonstrate their perseverance by making a fancy, labor-intensive cake, and Caldarelli says the title was the perfect setup.

You need to start with the meaty part right off the bat. Phyllis Zimbler Miller

2. Jump Right In

Just as people often judge whether to read a book based on its first sentence or two, the college essay should waste no time in grabbing a reader’s attention. “Frequently, first paragraphs are weak, as if the writer is winding up to write the meaty part of the essay. You need to start with the meaty part right off the bat,” says Phyllis Zimbler Miller , author of How to Succeed in High School and Prep for College . Her recommendation? Write your first draft and then chop off the first paragraph to see how it reads. Chances are that’s a good place to start strong.

Lindsey Conger, an independent college counselor at MoonPrep.com , agrees that the first paragraph is crucial and suggests starting with an anecdote, particularly one in which you can draw the reader into the action. “I recommend that you throw your reader right into the middle of the story,” she says.  

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Use Humor

Moments of levity can be a welcome relief for admissions associates who are knee-deep in earnest essays. To pull them in, Brian Galvin, chief academic officer for Varsity Tutors , recommends using humor or a semi-sensational statement. His example of an intriguing line? “When I was three, I was abducted by aliens. My life has never been the same.” That’s an essay you want to continue reading, right? And a couple of lines is the perfect amount of humor — after all, your essay isn’t meant to be, and shouldn’t be, a standup routine. Instead, it is designed to present the fullest, truest and most compelling version of yourself. If you choose a humorous opening line, Galvin suggests transitioning into a particular passion or interest. This alien opener might “transition to a student’s deep interest in astrophysics or aerospace engineering,” he says.

4. Use Specific Examples

It can be tempting to use the essay to showcase all of your positive attributes, but remember, it shouldn’t feel like a résumé. For a successful college essay, keep your focus narrow and then use strong examples to illustrate your points. “Don’t just tell us that you are empathetic; tell us about a time you volunteered at a nursing home and spent hours talking with a particular resident. Tell us how you felt and the impact the conversation had on you and the resident. Those types of stories will stick out much more to the admission officer reading your essay,” advises Conger.

5. Channel Your Most Unusual Passions

Chances are, if you’ve chosen to write about something you’re genuinely passionate about, your excitement will shine through and will distinguish your essay from those that sound robotic. And the more unusual that interest is, the better — whether it’s skydiving or cosplay, think about the things you love that set you apart. 

To make a particular interest really stand out in the context of a college essay, discuss how it aligns with your educational objectives. You might explain what skills you’ve mastered from a hobby that will be meaningful in your future career, or perhaps point to a specific experience that highlights your individual growth and personal development.

6. Be Vulnerable and Authentic

If you want your college essay to leave an impression, don’t be afraid to open up and show genuine emotion. “Being very vulnerable and sharing a painful or intense experience honestly can make for compelling essay material,” says Galvin. Just be mindful of the fine line between sharing difficult experiences and painting yourself as a victim. “It’s OK to talk about the challenges you’ve faced in life, but if you do that, also talk about how you grew as a result and worked to overcome the challenge,” says Louise Grant, associate director of admissions for Husson University . 

You don’t need to have experienced personal tragedy to have material for a memorable college essay. Acknowledging a mistake you made and reflecting on it honestly and with maturity can display emotional depth and vulnerability too.

7. Draw Connections

It’s pretty easy to just talk about yourself, but to bring your essay to the next level, try to connect it to the world at large. “What often elevates an essay is that the writer is able to place their own story and insights in a larger historical, cultural, philosophical or intellectual context. Ask the question: What is an important and authentic context for my story? Whether it is an idea that frames the entire essay or just finds its way in through telling details, it often separates good from great,” says Caldarelli. In a well-known example , one student framed her essay within the context of shopping at Costco while deftly bringing in physics concepts and literary references and demonstrating her own personal growth.

These suggestions are your guide to writing a college essay that stands out — in a good way. Equally important is that your essay not stand out for the wrong reasons — because of poor grammar, careless typos, divisive or offensive statements or straying far from the topic or word count. To avoid these pitfalls, be sure to proofread your essay several times and then have it reviewed by an extra set of eyes (or two) before hitting send. 

Following the above do’s — and don’ts — will help you compose an essay that communicates the best of you, guaranteeing that it will be compelling and utterly original. 

Interviews for this article were conducted in 2019.

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Related articles, how to write admission essays that get you noticed and get you in, how to start your college application, the best apps for college application time management, 6 ways to improve your sat score that aren’t studying.

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How to Write Your College Essay: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide

Getting ready to start your college essay? Your essay is very important to your application — especially if you’re applying to selective colleges.

Become a stronger writer by reviewing your peers’ essays and get your essay reviewed as well for free.

We have regular livestreams during which we walk you through how to write your college essay and review essays live.

College Essay Basics

Just getting started on college essays? This section will guide you through how you should think about your college essays before you start.

• Why do essays matter in the college application process?
• What is a college application theme and how do you come up with one?
• How to format and structure your college essay

Before you move to the next section, make sure you understand:

How a college essay fits into your application

What a strong essay does for your chances

How to create an application theme

Learn the Types of College Essays

Next, let’s make sure you understand the different types of college essays. You’ll most likely be writing a Common App or Coalition App essay, and you can also be asked to write supplemental essays for each school. Each essay has a prompt asking a specific question. Each of these prompts falls into one of a few different types. Understanding the types will help you better answer the prompt and structure your essay.

• How to Write a Personal Statement That Wows Colleges
• Personal Statement Essay Examples
• How to Write a Stellar Extracurricular Activity Essay
• Extracurricular Essay Examples
• Tips for Writing a Diversity College Essay
• Diversity Essay Examples
• Tips for Writing a Standout Community Service Essay
• How to Write the “Why This Major” Essay
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• How to write the “Why This College” Essay
• How to Research a College to Write the “Why This College” Essay
• Why This College Essay Examples
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• Overcoming Challenges Essay Examples

Identify how each prompt fits into an essay type

What each type of essay is really asking of you

How to write each essay effectively

The Common App essay

Almost every student will write a Common App essay, which is why it’s important you get this right.

• How to Write the Common App Essay
• Successful Common App Essay Examples
• 5 Awesome College Essay Topics + Sample Essays
• 11 Cliché College Essay Topics + How to Fix Them

How to choose which Common App prompts to answer

How to write a successful Common App essay

What to avoid to stand out to admissions officers

Supplemental Essay Guides

Many schools, especially competitive ones, will ask you to write one or more supplemental essays. This allows a school to learn more about you and how you might fit into their culture.

These essays are extremely important in standing out. We’ve written guides for all the top schools. Follow the link below to find your school and read last year’s essay guides to give you a sense of the essay prompts. We’ll update these in August when schools release their prompts.

See last year’s supplemental essay guides to get a sense of the prompts for your schools.

Essay brainstorming and composition

Now that you’re starting to write your essay, let’s dive into the writing process. Below you’ll find our top articles on the craft of writing an amazing college essay.

• Where to Begin? 3 Personal Essay Brainstorming Exercises
• Creating the First Draft of Your College Application Essay
• How to Get the Perfect Hook for Your College Essay
• What If I Don’t Have Anything Interesting To Write About In My College Essay?
• 8 Do’s and Don’t for Crafting Your College Essay
• Stuck on Your College Essay? 8 Tips for Overcoming Writer’s Block

Understand how to write a great hook for your essay

Complete the first drafts of your essay

Editing and polishing your essay

Have a first draft ready? See our top editing tips below. Also, you may want to submit your essay to our free Essay Peer Review to get quick feedback and join a community of other students working on their essays.

• 11 Tips for Proofreading and Editing Your College Essay
• Getting Help with Your College Essay
• 5 DIY Tips for Editing Your College Essay
• How Long Should Your College Essay Be?
• Essential Grammar Rules for Your College Apps
• College Essay Checklist: Are You Ready to Submit?

Proofread and edited your essay.

Had someone else look through your essay — we recommend submitting it for a peer review.

Make sure your essay meets all requirements — consider signing up for a free account to view our per-prompt checklists to help you understand when you’re really ready to submit.

Advanced College Essay Techniques

Let’s take it one step further and see how we can make your college essay really stand out! We recommend reading through these posts when you have a draft to work with.

• 10 Guidelines for Highly Readable College Essays
• How to Use Literary Devices to Enhance Your Essay
• How to Develop a Personalized Metaphor for Your College Applications

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12 Strategies to Writing the Perfect College Essay

College admission committees sift through thousands of college essays each year. Here’s how to make yours stand out.

Pamela Reynolds

When it comes to deciding who they will admit into their programs, colleges consider many criteria, including high school grades, extracurricular activities, and ACT and SAT scores. But in recent years, more colleges are no longer considering test scores.

Instead, many (including Harvard through 2026) are opting for “test-blind” admission policies that give more weight to other elements in a college application. This policy change is seen as fairer to students who don’t have the means or access to testing, or who suffer from test anxiety.

So, what does this mean for you?

Simply that your college essay, traditionally a requirement of any college application, is more important than ever.

A college essay is your unique opportunity to introduce yourself to admissions committees who must comb through thousands of applications each year. It is your chance to stand out as someone worthy of a seat in that classroom.

A well-written and thoughtful essay—reflecting who you are and what you believe—can go a long way to separating your application from the slew of forgettable ones that admissions officers read. Indeed, officers may rely on them even more now that many colleges are not considering test scores.

Below we’ll discuss a few strategies you can use to help your essay stand out from the pack. We’ll touch on how to start your essay, what you should write for your college essay, and elements that make for a great college essay.

Be Authentic

More than any other consideration, you should choose a topic or point of view that is consistent with who you truly are.

Readers can sense when writers are inauthentic.

Inauthenticity could mean the use of overly flowery language that no one would ever use in conversation, or it could mean choosing an inconsequential topic that reveals very little about who you are.

Use your own voice, sense of humor, and a natural way of speaking.

Whatever subject you choose, make sure it’s something that’s genuinely important to you and not a subject you’ve chosen just to impress. You can write about a specific experience, hobby, or personality quirk that illustrates your strengths, but also feel free to write about your weaknesses.

Honesty about traits, situations, or a childhood background that you are working to improve may resonate with the reader more strongly than a glib victory speech.

Grab the Reader From the Start

You’ll be competing with so many other applicants for an admission officer’s attention.

Therefore, start your essay with an opening sentence or paragraph that immediately seizes the imagination. This might be a bold statement, a thoughtful quote, a question you pose, or a descriptive scene.

Starting your essay in a powerful way with a clear thesis statement can often help you along in the writing process. If your task is to tell a good story, a bold beginning can be a natural prelude to getting there, serving as a roadmap, engaging the reader from the start, and presenting the purpose of your writing.

Focus on Deeper Themes

Some essay writers think they will impress committees by loading an essay with facts, figures, and descriptions of activities, like wins in sports or descriptions of volunteer work. But that’s not the point.

College admissions officers are interested in learning more about who you are as a person and what makes you tick.

They want to know what has brought you to this stage in life. They want to read about realizations you may have come to through adversity as well as your successes, not just about how many games you won while on the soccer team or how many people you served at a soup kitchen.

Let the reader know how winning the soccer game helped you develop as a person, friend, family member, or leader. Make a connection with your soup kitchen volunteerism and how it may have inspired your educational journey and future aspirations. What did you discover about yourself?

Show Don’t Tell

As you expand on whatever theme you’ve decided to explore in your essay, remember to show, don’t tell.

The most engaging writing “shows” by setting scenes and providing anecdotes, rather than just providing a list of accomplishments and activities.

Reciting a list of activities is also boring. An admissions officer will want to know about the arc of your emotional journey too.

Try Doing Something Different

If you want your essay to stand out, think about approaching your subject from an entirely new perspective. While many students might choose to write about their wins, for instance, what if you wrote an essay about what you learned from all your losses?

If you are an especially talented writer, you might play with the element of surprise by crafting an essay that leaves the response to a question to the very last sentence.

You may want to stay away from well-worn themes entirely, like a sports-related obstacle or success, volunteer stories, immigration stories, moving, a summary of personal achievements or overcoming obstacles.

However, such themes are popular for a reason. They represent the totality of most people’s lives coming out of high school. Therefore, it may be less important to stay away from these topics than to take a fresh approach.

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Write With the Reader in Mind

Writing for the reader means building a clear and logical argument in which one thought flows naturally from another.

Use transitions between paragraphs.

Think about any information you may have left out that the reader may need to know. Are there ideas you have included that do not help illustrate your theme?

Be sure you can answer questions such as: Does what you have written make sense? Is the essay organized? Does the opening grab the reader? Is there a strong ending? Have you given enough background information? Is it wordy?

Write Several Drafts

Set your essay aside for a few days and come back to it after you’ve had some time to forget what you’ve written. Often, you’ll discover you have a whole new perspective that enhances your ability to make revisions.

Start writing months before your essay is due to give yourself enough time to write multiple drafts. A good time to start could be as early as the summer before your senior year when homework and extracurricular activities take up less time.

Read It Aloud

Writer’s tip : Reading your essay aloud can instantly uncover passages that sound clumsy, long-winded, or false.

Don’t Repeat

If you’ve mentioned an activity, story, or anecdote in some other part of your application, don’t repeat it again in your essay.

Your essay should tell college admissions officers something new. Whatever you write in your essay should be in philosophical alignment with the rest of your application.

Also, be sure you’ve answered whatever question or prompt may have been posed to you at the outset.

Ask Others to Read Your Essay

Be sure the people you ask to read your essay represent different demographic groups—a teacher, a parent, even a younger sister or brother.

Ask each reader what they took from the essay and listen closely to what they have to say. If anyone expresses confusion, revise until the confusion is cleared up.

Pay Attention to Form

Although there are often no strict word limits for college essays, most essays are shorter rather than longer. Common App, which students can use to submit to multiple colleges, suggests that essays stay at about 650 words.

“While we won’t as a rule stop reading after 650 words, we cannot promise that an overly wordy essay will hold our attention for as long as you’d hoped it would,” the Common App website states.

In reviewing other technical aspects of your essay, be sure that the font is readable, that the margins are properly spaced, that any dialogue is set off properly, and that there is enough spacing at the top. Your essay should look clean and inviting to readers.

End Your Essay With a “Kicker”

In journalism, a kicker is the last punchy line, paragraph, or section that brings everything together.

It provides a lasting impression that leaves the reader satisfied and impressed by the points you have artfully woven throughout your piece.

So, here’s our kicker: Be concise and coherent, engage in honest self-reflection, and include vivid details and anecdotes that deftly illustrate your point.

While writing a fantastic essay may not guarantee you get selected, it can tip the balance in your favor if admissions officers are considering a candidate with a similar GPA and background.

Write, revise, revise again, and good luck!

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About the Author

Pamela Reynolds is a Boston-area feature writer and editor whose work appears in numerous publications. She is the author of “Revamp: A Memoir of Travel and Obsessive Renovation.”

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How to Make Your College Essay Stand Out: Essential Tips

Your Personal Statement for the Common Application—the classic “college essay” that you’ve been hearing about since freshmen year—is the biggest piece of individual storytelling in the college application process, and it has only continued to grow in importance for college admissions officers. Now, with the number of applications to top US colleges surging higher , writing an essay that distinguishes you from the pack has become tougher than ever.

The challenge of the college essay might seem straightforward: 650 words about what makes you… well, you. If you’ve looked over the Common App Personal Statement prompts , you’ve noticed that they aren’t too intimidating. Maybe you even started writing a response to one for your English teacher, and hey, it went fine!

That’s all well and good, but anyone who takes the assignment lightly is dooming their application for failure. Because the truth is, despite the neat prompts and hundreds of models and outlines, there is no one formula for the perfect personal statement . 

Snatching an outline from the internet or reading over dozens of college essay examples from former admits are habits that will hurt your process, rather than help it. When you’re overloaded with information, it’s easy to end up in a state of analysis paralysis. This can make you hypercritical of your own stories and experiences, even though they are authentic to who you are. It can also lead to procrastination and imposter syndrome.

So before you go back over that draft you scribbled out in class months ago, or gobble up every daring college essay you can find on the web, take a moment to reimagine the challenge of the piece. Then, use our essential tips below to make your college essay stand out from the crowd—not through clever wordplay, name dropping, or mimicking examples found online, but by tapping into your own motivations, staying rooted in your own story, and launching into writing confidently.

Start with you, not the essay prompt

Writing about yourself is hard. Writing about yourself in the context of a high-stakes application can be excruciating.

Many of us would prefer to write about anything other than ourselves. That’s why so many college essays become stories about inspiring figures: grandparents, teachers, Elon Musk. But none of these people are the person who the essay should be about, so these essays fall flat.

When you start your college essay with the belief that you must write for a prompt, you’ve already constrained your opportunities. You will make artificial rules out of your interpretation of the prompt, then second-guess your most original ideas. You’ll write for your audience rather than for yourself. And this is one of the worst traps you can fall into.

That’s why, when brainstorming your college essay, you should resist the urge to look at prompts, read examples, or borrow templates.

Instead, focus only on yourself. 

What do you most love to do in your free time? What behaviors do you detest? What small mistake have you never forgotten? What about yourself do you have trouble understanding or accepting?

You must get comfortable making everything about you in order to get to the heart of your personal story. These are examples of questions that can push your reflection in the right direction, but there are countless others. And the most effective way to approach such questions is through a conversation.

Rather than generate and respond to intense personal questions yourself, arrange to have a conversation about them with someone close to you. This person should be a trusted confidante you’ve known for years, but shouldn’t be a parent, sibling, or anyone bringing too much emotional baggage into the conversation. They could be a family friend, an aunt or uncle, a coach, teacher, mentor, or college counselor—but it’s best if they are not a peer.

Have an open conversation focused only on your own life stories, values, and motivations—and record it . Keep a record of every word you say in your discussion. Encourage the other person to dig deeper into topics they find intriguing or unclear, no matter how uncomfortable this might be for you. If you’re surprised by something they find fascinating, make a note of it.  

Reflecting on and listening over this conversation is the surest way to discover the memories and parts of your identity that matter most.

Establish a regular writing routine

As you move from generating ideas into drafting, you’re likely to encounter some roadblocks. Actually expressing the story that’s clear in your mind may turn out to be surprisingly frustrating. You may be unsatisfied with each attempt you make. You may hear extraordinary stories about exceptional people and doubt whether your idea is any good in the first place.

In order to make the writing process less daunting, focus on getting into the habit of simply putting words down on paper, instead of expecting yourself to produce brilliant content. The most important thing is that you do this every day for at least five days a week. Here are some keys for making this routine work:

• Daily writing sessions can be as short as 15 minutes or as long as an hour. Give yourself a slight buffer to first think through what you want to write about, then a chunk of time to write, and a few more minutes at the end to consider what your next step will be.
• Following from this, aim to finish each writing session when you still have more to say . Knowing what you want to say next doesn’t mean you need to put it down on paper immediately. In fact, it’s helpful to intentionally leave off your final paragraph. Write as the Japanese eat , until your page is 80% full of what you set out to say. That last paragraph will then become a starting point the next day, and you’ll have 24 hours to let your mind work on what comes next.
• Schedule your writing sessions at the same time every day . For many, jamming in an evening time slot may seem more attractive than waking up early. But consider honestly when you are sharpest: many of us, even self-professed night owls, have our best focus and presence of mind in the morning.
• Write the way you speak . If you’d like, you can even keep dictating your thoughts, rather than writing them. More on this later.
• Write about anything : your pet, what you see out your window, even why you hate writing. You do not always need to continue where you left off the day before. What you produce on a given day doesn’t even need to correspond to the general topic or story you are developing. Remind yourself that the most important thing is the writing itself, and force yourself to do it anyway, even when it feels like pulling teeth. 
• Do not worry about the quality of what you produce . No good comes from pondering every word or reengineering every phrase. The more you write, and the more often you write, the more the words should spill out naturally. Yes, you will need to do some serious editing at some point. But no one needs to know if your first drafts were flimsy.

Over time, a cycle of honest conversation and regular writing practice will produce results. Trust in this process and stick to your plan: you will likely end up with even more juicy content than you can possibly fit in your college essay—and this is great! You can often re-work stories and stances into your shorter, supplemental college essays, and almost always share them in interviews or networking conversations. The process itself will help you become a more compelling person overall.

Trust your instincts & keep it simple

Admissions officers are all too used to reading college essays written in a style or voice that seems forced. These essays are littered with complex clauses and semicolons. The words that fill them are unwieldy and questionably used. Metaphors, analogies, and grand claims abound.

These mistakes make sense: if personal creative writing doesn’t come naturally to you (as it doesn’t to most people), it’s understandable that you’d want to elevate your language. You are, after all, applying to selective colleges that expect whip-smart high school students.

But writing can be overdone. And overdoing your college essay is a pitfall you must avoid. 

As a student, you’re bombarded daily with writing: you may read snippets of a novel, a magazine, a history textbook, a philosophical discourse, and a chemistry paper—all on the same day. It’s all too easy to lose track of what you actually sound like amidst all those voices in all those texts.

And in the worst case scenario, this causes you to write like you’re thumbing through a thesaurus. Case in point: the compulsion to replace each usage of the word “use” with “utilize.”

To avoid this, whenever you are drafting, rely on your instincts. As the ideas pop into your mind, write them in the exact phrasing in which they appear . If you lose your train of thought, go back over the recording you made of your conversation, and listen again to what you said when you weren’t thinking about an essay . Perhaps you used slang, or a pet phrase; perhaps there was an unexpected moment of sarcasm, and you can tap back into that humorous state.

Most importantly, keep it simple . Remember that sentences do not need to be long in order to be engaging, and that a story is best presented plainly enough that it allows a reader to do some interpreting. If you attempt to explain every detail of your story, you will spend the entire essay explaining rather than actually telling the story itself. 

In order to preserve your natural voice and keep your writing simple and meaningful, get in the following habits:

• When you start your writing session, spend 10 minutes thinking about what you’ll write, and do not read anything else . 
• If you get stuck on writing, begin to speak your ideas freely and record them exactly as you speak them. Even if you spend an entire session speaking rather than writing, it is worthwhile.
• Don’t go back over the sentence you just wrote . It isn’t perfect, and you know that. Forge ahead regardless. Return to tweak your phrasing only at the end of your writing session, and later, when you have reached the editing phase of your process.
• Remember that this is not an academic essay . Don’t fall into the patterns that have served you well in English or History courses. Topic sentences are not summaries of entire paragraphs. Grammar does not need to be impeccable: the priority is the natural flow of the writing—how it sounds when read aloud—not the preciseness of each clause.

Remember that you are writing to a normal person

As you go through the intense process of assembling your application package, it can begin to feel that you are performing, to some extent, for an admissions committee shrouded in mystery. These admissions officers hold your fate in their hands, and given the acceptance rates at top colleges, it’s hard not to assume that they are cold-blooded critics looking for any excuse to kill your application in the water. Most students who make this assumption automatically go on the defensive, doing whatever they can to cover up potential red flags and appear flawless. 

And this approach does them no good.

No 17-year-old is perfect, and the admissions officer reading your application will be eminently aware of this. They are not looking for perfection, but for authenticity. They want to bring students to their university who could genuinely benefit from and contribute to the learning experience on campus. If you come across as someone who believes they’ve already mastered everything life can throw at them, will you sincerely challenge yourself and grow while in college? It’s doubtful.

Let the other parts of your application speak for themselves. Your goal in the college essay is not to impress an admissions committee, but to connect with them . This means you need to come across as a human. To do this, think of creating a casual encounter with the person reading your essay. Imagine that you are at a party, and you’re sharing a story with someone you just met. What does this mean?

• Write as though you are speaking to a peer . Admissions officers are not predisposed to judge you; in fact, they are seeking to understand the person inside all the statistics and materials. They are smart and compassionate people looking for things to like about you. You don’t need to spell out basic facts or waste space drilling the same point home. Trust that they will be able to interpret your deeper themes because they sincerely want to learn more about you.
• Don’t exaggerate or undersell . Both are important. You can immediately tell when someone you’ve met is bragging or being disingenuous. At the same time, you’re at your most engaging when you acknowledge your own talents and don’t shy away from sharing them. Try to present both your positive qualities and the skills you’re still working on as plainly as you can, without apologizing or aggrandizing. 
• Avoid going into too much detail about your lowest low points . This may seem counterintuitive, given everything else we’ve written about being authentic with your story and style. And yes, there is huge value in being vulnerable—to an extent. But if you meet someone at a party, your scarring experiences with clinical depression or childhood trauma are probably not your best icebreaker. These may be important elements of your life, which you refer to when sharing what you care about. But in the end, your application reader is not a close friend or a trusted confidante. Don’t overwhelm them with darkness you’ve begun breaking through: focus on the progress you’ve made and how your past drives you forward.

Don’t have too many readers

It’s more likely than not that you have several people interested in reading your college essay and giving their opinion on it. When you do feel that you’ve fleshed out a story and you see its shape coming together, it is useful to seek some outside perspective. After all, admissions committees are made up of multiple personalities, all of which will contribute to the decision of whether to accept or deny your application. 

But be careful not to have more than two or three other people give you feedback on your personal statement. If you show it to your counselor, your teacher, your soccer coach, your piano instructor, your mom, your aunt, and your cousin… you are going to be overwhelmed by competing opinions, each with their own biases.

If you’re not working closely with a consultant or counselor, the first person to read your college essay should be the same person who had that original brainstorming conversation with you. They will come into the reading with a sense of what makes you special, but without too much bias related to their personal feelings on your character. Have them read the essay without you present, first. Then meet, and ask them:

• Did they learn anything new or unexpected about you in this essay?
• Did they find themselves thinking back on the essay after they were done reading it? If so, what part(s) were they thinking about?
• Would they want to have a coffee with you after reading this essay? Or collaborate on a project with you? 

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, but asking them will help you to gauge whether your story communicates what you want it to about who you are.

Following these guidelines will enable you to set your sights in the right direction for your college essay and launch your writing process with confidence. Check back in soon for part two in this series: we’ll be sharing an article on the next steps for editing your Common App Personal Statement into its most compelling final state.

More Help on the College Admissions Process

Have these tips helped you brainstorm or draft? Are you interested in personalized advice for planning your own personal statement, extracurricular activities, school list, and more? Tell us about your goals and what you’ve been doing using our college admissions calculator , and we’ll get back to you shortly with tips for just your profile. Or, skip straight to a free phone consultation to discuss your application strategy with our expert college admissions consulting team.

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23 College Essay Tips To Stand Out

Over the years, we've read and helped students write thousands of essays that worked.

And one thing has become clear: there's no "rules" or magic formulas to writing outstanding essays.

Great college essays come in all sorts of varieties, and that uniqueness is what makes them great.

In this guide, you’ll learn 23 easy-to-implement strategies that actually help your essays stand out, including:

• How to write a powerful hook that captivates the reader
• A simple strategy to come up with tons of essay ideas
• How to showcase your achievements without bragging
• Ways to find your authentic and best writing style

...And much more!

These strategies are based on the advice from admissions officers, expert college counselors, and most importantly: the real essays of admitted students.

Apply these tips to your own college essays and watch they become more engaging and interesting.

Let’s get started!

Only write from your perspective

Don’t try to write like a novel, or other books you may have read in the past.

In describing moments, avoid writing from outside of your own perspective.

Don't write:

I grimaced when I heard the bad news

How could you be seeing yourself react? Who is watching you in that moment?

Your college essays are personal pieces, so only write from your perspective. Don’t write from outside your own perspective, or about things you wouldn’t be able to perceive.

Since your essays are written in the 1st person, you should tell your reader what you feel. Describe what you felt, and let the reader infer the meaning.

Instead try:

I felt a pang in my gut when I heard the bad news

By writing from your perspective only, you will automatically show, not tell.

Your essay will always be stronger if you show the physical actions, details of your characters, and your feelings. Allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing.

Watch out for this subtle difference, which can have a big impact on how your essays read.

Use specific and nerdy words

You shouldn’t dumb down your knowledge when writing your personal essay.

Instead, showcase your understanding by naming things specifically and using some jargon or technical language. Rather than saying:

My biggest fear is being unengaged.

You could try:

My slimy, monolithic, Lovecraftian fear is unengagement.

As long as it is authentic, you should make specific references to your interests, passions, or knowledge.

It shouldn’t be “over the top” or forced, but doing this sparingly throughout your essay can showcase your character.

Writing specifically (while not being overly detailed) also automatically makes your essay more interesting to read.

Tell a story, tell many stories

Humans are naturally drawn to stories, and great stories stay with us after reading them.

You want the admissions officers to remember and think about your essays after reading them, and stories help you do just that.

Remember these additional tips for writing stories in a personal essay:

• Focus on why those stories matter (your insights )
• Avoid overly descriptive writing, which can be easy to gloss over
• Don’t write only stories, have a balance of reflection and analysis too

Here’s a technique for reflecting on your stories and experiences:

Write a story in the past tense. Then add, “Now I realize...” and continue writing.

This phrase will get you to reflect, and later while revising you can remove it.

Remember that your stories needs conflict, setting, and context. At the end of your story, you need to answer the question “Why does it matter?”

Write stories, lots of stories, and use them as the starting point for your essays. They shouldn’t take up too much of your final essay though.

This gets to my next tip about finding the best essay ideas...

The best ideas come while you write

Here’s the truth about getting brilliant essay ideas: you need to write first , and ideas will come later.

Our brains are great at making connections , and by writing you’re putting material in front of your brain, which lets it start coming up with connections (AKA your ideas).

Human brains are not as great at spurring up ideas on the spot. It’s nearly impossible to just sit down and force yourself to think up great, unique ideas.

Your best ideas will likely come about while you’re writing. Often, those interesting ideas are the spontaneous ones.

That’s why most students need 4-10+ drafts to write an outstanding personal statement.

Why write so much? Because your initial drafts are just for thinking out ideas. Expect not to use 90% of what you write at the start.

And writing to get ideas is actually easier than thinking to get ideas, because you’ll end up getting to good ideas faster.

So choose a topic and start writing. It’s the most effective way to start getting ideas.

Paragraph breaks are your friend

Paragraph breaks make it easier for the reader to read. Spaces help your eyes from skipping over dense blocks of text.

Use paragraphs to organize your ideas into groups. Then, you can move them around and see what works best. Small changes in placement can have a big impact on how your essay flows.

Avoid “writing like a suburb,” which is writing with lots of evenly sized paragraphs (1). This can make for a boring reading experience.

Instead, use paragraph breaks freely and make your essay be like Paris, with a variety of paragraph lengths.

If your paragraphs are too dense, they’ll also be easier to skip over. Having longer paragraphs is good, but make sure to have a balance.

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Seven Ways to Make your College Essay Stand Out

Because the college essay is not the same kind of essay that you write for your high school English teacher, it does not have to have the typical essay introduction which would usually provide a thesis statement. Most students are unaware of this fact. Just as you want to prepare the best answers to your college interview , here are seven tips for writing an engaging essay that will stand out from the rest!

1. Your first paragraph should grab the reader

The college essay has to grab the attention of an admission’s reader.  It is imperative, then, that the introduction to the college essay capture the reader’s attention and make the reader want to read more.

There are different ways to grab the reader.

• Try starting with a question.
• Begin with a bold statement.
• Use an interesting quote.
• Put the reader in medias res, that is, in the middle of things. Place the reader in the middle of something happening or in the middle of a conversation.
• Challenge the reader by speaking directly to him/her.
• Tell the reader what you do NOT want to do in your writing.
• Sometimes even a single word that stands as a paragraph can make the reader wonder and read on.

2. Be a real person, not an anonymous author

Do not be just another of thousands of applicants that do not make an impression. If you are reading a newspaper article, the writer fades behind the facts and you know nothing about the writer except that s/he can collect, organize, and present the facts that you need to now. You want the admissions reader to say, “Ah, this is a real person writing to me.

That means you should write with voice, that is, you need to write with your own personality. Honesty, humor, talking the way you talk, showing the way you think, all help to create voice.

3. Don’t be boring

Trying to be proper or trying to impress or trying to be intellectual can be a drag. What you should be are doing is getting noticed as unique. It’s like you are on a date with the admissions reader and you want to be asked out again.

If you are on a date, you would naturally want to be smart, funny, nice, caring, unique, not boring. You also want to have an opinion, not step back like an unthinking geek. Write your essay as though you would be a great second date.

4. Make your essay correct and beautiful

Dates should look good, too. You can make your essay beautiful by giving thought to a few things. Use a font that is readable. Consider whether or not a bold typeface could make your essay easier to read. Don’t crowd your essay near the top of the page, but balance it on the page and attend to soothing margins. Provide the essay prompt at the opening. Separate paragraphs in a consistent way, either by indenting each paragraph or by using block style, keeping all the words to the left margin but spacing extra between paragraphs.

If there are a lot of mistakes in your essay, it can not be pretty. Make sure you have spelled everything correctly. Make sure your basic punctuation is correct.

Did you separate dialogue correctly from the rest of your text? Did you use capitalization correctly? Check out our article on the most common mistakes in college essays for more tips to ensure your essay reads well.

5. Approach the essay from a different angle

If you look at things a little differently from others you stand out. In answering an essay prompt, you need not always do it the most normal way.

• What if you were to take the negative approach to answer the prompt? What are your hopes? Maybe you can tell what your hopes are by writing what you do not hope for.
• Perhaps you can create a little mystery by not answering the prompt immediately. What do you want to study? Maybe you could reveal that in the last sentence of your prompt after telling about all the little things that have some relevance to your area of study. For example, you might describe much natural flora, observe fauna, then list feelings you have about nature to lead up to writing that you want to study biology.
• You might even bury your answer to a prompt in a story or in a moral tale or even in a description.

6. Be clear and logical

As much as you wish to shine, the shine will be lost if your sentences and thoughts do not string together logically. You must make sense to the reader.

Reread your essay as though you have no idea what the writer is talking about. Does it make sense? Are there transitions between different sections of the essay? Is the essay organized? Have you started at the beginning? Have you provided an ending? Have you given enough background information?

It is a good idea to make sure different audiences understand what you have tried to write. Test your essay with a friend, a teacher, a parent, even a younger reader. Ask them not to judge but simply read to see if they know what you are saying. “Tell me,” say to them, “exactly what you got from this.” If there is confusion, fix it.

7. Leave your reader with a lasting impression

People remember the last things first or, at least, best. As Alan Alda said in a commencement address he delivered to his daughter’s graduating college class, the most important things are said on the way out the door. His last words in that speech were, “I love you.”

In the same way, you should end your college essay with something that not only summarizes the most important aspects of you but that is also memorable. Memorable endings are poignant, making the reader feel an emotion. Or, they capture a several-line conclusion in one pithy, well-worded phrase or sentence. Or, maybe they end with a simple, clean truth written from the heart.

Final Tips! If you are having trouble getting started on your essay, you might want to check out Academichelp.net where they provide sample essays and free writing guides or check out The Essay Guy for more great essay writing tips. Lastly, if English is not your first language, you might want to look for some tips on how to improve your English writing skills to make sure you can be clear and concise with your writing.  Good Luck!

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College Essays

Most colleges and universities in the United States require applicants to submit at least one essay as part of their application. But trying to figure out what college essay topics you should choose is a tricky process. There are so many potential things you could write about!

In this guide, we go over the essential qualities that make for a great college essay topic and give you 50+ college essay topics you can use for your own statement . In addition, we provide you with helpful tips for turning your college essay topic into a stellar college essay.

What Qualities Make for a Good College Essay Topic?

Regardless of what you write about in your personal statement for college , there are key features that will always make for a stand-out college essay topic.

#1: It’s Specific

First off, good college essay topics are extremely specific : you should know all the pertinent facts that have to do with the topic and be able to see how the entire essay comes together.

Specificity is essential because it’ll not only make your essay stand out from other statements, but it'll also recreate the experience for admissions officers through its realism, detail, and raw power. You want to tell a story after all, and specificity is the way to do so. Nobody wants to read a vague, bland, or boring story — not even admissions officers!

For example, an OK topic would be your experience volunteering at a cat shelter over the summer. But a better, more specific college essay topic would be how you deeply connected with an elderly cat there named Marty, and how your bond with him made you realize that you want to work with animals in the future.

Remember that specificity in your topic is what will make your essay unique and memorable . It truly is the key to making a strong statement (pun intended)!

#2: It Shows Who You Are

In addition to being specific, good college essay topics reveal to admissions officers who you are: your passions and interests, what is important to you, your best (or possibly even worst) qualities, what drives you, and so on.

The personal statement is critical because it gives schools more insight into who you are as a person and not just who you are as a student in terms of grades and classes.

By coming up with a real, honest topic, you’ll leave an unforgettable mark on admissions officers.

#3: It’s Meaningful to You

The very best college essay topics are those that hold deep meaning to their writers and have truly influenced them in some significant way.

For instance, maybe you plan to write about the first time you played Skyrim to explain how this video game revealed to you the potentially limitless worlds you could create, thereby furthering your interest in game design.

Even if the topic seems trivial, it’s OK to use it — just as long as you can effectively go into detail about why this experience or idea had such an impact on you .

Don’t give in to the temptation to choose a topic that sounds impressive but doesn’t actually hold any deep meaning for you. Admissions officers will see right through this!

Similarly, don’t try to exaggerate some event or experience from your life if it’s not all that important to you or didn’t have a substantial influence on your sense of self.

#4: It’s Unique

College essay topics that are unique are also typically the most memorable, and if there’s anything you want to be during the college application process, it’s that! Admissions officers have to sift through thousands of applications, and the essay is one of the only parts that allows them to really get a sense of who you are and what you value in life.

If your essay is trite or boring, it won’t leave much of an impression , and your application will likely get immediately tossed to the side with little chance of seeing admission.

But if your essay topic is very original and different, you’re more likely to earn that coveted second glance at your application.

What does being unique mean exactly, though? Many students assume that they must choose an extremely rare or crazy experience to talk about in their essays —but that's not necessarily what I mean by "unique." Good college essay topics can be unusual and different, yes, but they can also be unique takes on more mundane or common activities and experiences .

For instance, say you want to write an essay about the first time you went snowboarding. Instead of just describing the details of the experience and how you felt during it, you could juxtapose your emotions with a creative and humorous perspective from the snowboard itself. Or you could compare your first attempt at snowboarding with your most recent experience in a snowboarding competition. The possibilities are endless!

#5: It Clearly Answers the Question

Finally, good college essay topics will clearly and fully answer the question(s) in the prompt.

You might fail to directly answer a prompt by misinterpreting what it’s asking you to do, or by answering only part of it (e.g., answering just one out of three questions).

Therefore, make sure you take the time to come up with an essay topic that is in direct response to every question in the prompt .

Take this Coalition Application prompt as an example:

What is the hardest part of being a teenager now? What's the best part? What advice would you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)?

For this prompt, you’d need to answer all three questions (though it’s totally fine to focus more on one or two of them) to write a compelling and appropriate essay.

This is why we recommend reading and rereading the essay prompt ; you should know exactly what it’s asking you to do, well before you start brainstorming possible college application essay topics.

53 College Essay Topics to Get Your Brain Moving

In this section, we give you a list of 53 examples of college essay topics. Use these as jumping-off points to help you get started on your college essay and to ensure that you’re on track to coming up with a relevant and effective topic.

All college application essay topics below are categorized by essay prompt type. We’ve identified six general types of college essay prompts:

Why This College?

Change and personal growth, passions, interests, and goals, overcoming a challenge, diversity and community, solving a problem.

Note that these prompt types could overlap with one another, so you’re not necessarily limited to just one college essay topic in a single personal statement.

• How a particular major or program will help you achieve your academic or professional goals
• A memorable and positive interaction you had with a professor or student at the school
• Something good that happened to you while visiting the campus or while on a campus tour
• A certain class you want to take or a certain professor you’re excited to work with
• Some piece of on-campus equipment or facility that you’re looking forward to using
• Your plans to start a club at the school, possibly to raise awareness of a major issue
• A study abroad or other unique program that you can’t wait to participate in
• How and where you plan to volunteer in the community around the school
• An incredible teacher you studied under and the positive impact they had on you
• How you went from really liking something, such as a particular movie star or TV show, to not liking it at all (or vice versa)
• How yours or someone else’s (change in) socioeconomic status made you more aware of poverty
• A time someone said something to you that made you realize you were wrong
• How your opinion on a controversial topic, such as gay marriage or DACA, has shifted over time
• A documentary that made you aware of a particular social, economic, or political issue going on in the country or world
• Advice you would give to your younger self about friendship, motivation, school, etc.
• The steps you took in order to kick a bad or self-sabotaging habit
• A juxtaposition of the first and most recent time you did something, such as dance onstage
• A book you read that you credit with sparking your love of literature and/or writing
• A school assignment or project that introduced you to your chosen major
• A glimpse of your everyday routine and how your biggest hobby or interest fits into it
• The career and (positive) impact you envision yourself having as a college graduate
• A teacher or mentor who encouraged you to pursue a specific interest you had
• How moving around a lot helped you develop a love of international exchange or learning languages
• A special skill or talent you’ve had since you were young and that relates to your chosen major in some way, such as designing buildings with LEGO bricks
• Where you see yourself in 10 or 20 years
• Your biggest accomplishment so far relating to your passion (e.g., winning a gold medal for your invention at a national science competition)
• A time you lost a game or competition that was really important to you
• How you dealt with the loss or death of someone close to you
• A time you did poorly in a class that you expected to do well in
• How moving to a new school impacted your self-esteem and social life
• A chronic illness you battled or are still battling
• Your healing process after having your heart broken for the first time
• A time you caved under peer pressure and the steps you took so that it won't happen again
• How you almost gave up on learning a foreign language but stuck with it
• Why you decided to become a vegetarian or vegan, and how you navigate living with a meat-eating family
• What you did to overcome a particular anxiety or phobia you had (e.g., stage fright)
• A history of a failed experiment you did over and over, and how you finally found a way to make it work successfully
• Someone within your community whom you aspire to emulate
• A family tradition you used to be embarrassed about but are now proud of
• Your experience with learning English upon moving to the United States
• A close friend in the LGBTQ+ community who supported you when you came out
• A time you were discriminated against, how you reacted, and what you would do differently if faced with the same situation again
• How you navigate your identity as a multiracial, multiethnic, and/or multilingual person
• A project or volunteer effort you led to help or improve your community
• A particular celebrity or role model who inspired you to come out as LGBTQ+
• Your biggest challenge (and how you plan to tackle it) as a female in a male-dominated field
• How you used to discriminate against your own community, and what made you change your mind and eventually take pride in who you are and/or where you come from
• A program you implemented at your school in response to a known problem, such as a lack of recycling cans in the cafeteria
• A time you stepped in to mediate an argument or fight between two people
• An app or other tool you developed to make people’s lives easier in some way
• A time you proposed a solution that worked to an ongoing problem at school, an internship, or a part-time job
• The steps you took to identify and fix an error in coding for a website or program
• An important social or political issue that you would fix if you had the means

How to Build a College Essay in 6 Easy Steps

Once you’ve decided on a college essay topic you want to use, it’s time to buckle down and start fleshing out your essay. These six steps will help you transform a simple college essay topic into a full-fledged personal statement.

Step 1: Write Down All the Details

Once you’ve chosen a general topic to write about, get out a piece of paper and get to work on creating a list of all the key details you could include in your essay . These could be things such as the following:

• Emotions you felt at the time
• Names, places, and/or numbers
• Dialogue, or what you or someone else said
• A specific anecdote, example, or experience
• Descriptions of how things looked, felt, or seemed

If you can only come up with a few details, then it’s probably best to revisit the list of college essay topics above and choose a different one that you can write more extensively on.

Good college essay topics are typically those that:

• You remember well (so nothing that happened when you were really young)
• You're excited to write about
• You're not embarrassed or uncomfortable to share with others
• You believe will make you positively stand out from other applicants

Step 2: Figure Out Your Focus and Approach

Once you have all your major details laid out, start to figure out how you could arrange them in a way that makes sense and will be most effective.

It’s important here to really narrow your focus: you don’t need to (and shouldn’t!) discuss every single aspect of your trip to visit family in Indonesia when you were 16. Rather, zero in on a particular anecdote or experience and explain why and how it impacted you.

Alternatively, you could write about multiple experiences while weaving them together with a clear, meaningful theme or concept , such as how your math teacher helped you overcome your struggle with geometry over the course of an entire school year. In this case, you could mention a few specific times she tutored you and most strongly supported you in your studies.

There’s no one right way to approach your college essay, so play around to see what approaches might work well for the topic you’ve chosen.

If you’re really unsure about how to approach your essay, think about what part of your topic was or is most meaningful and memorable to you, and go from there.

Step 3: Structure Your Narrative

• Beginning: Don’t just spout off a ton of background information here—you want to hook your reader, so try to start in the middle of the action , such as with a meaningful conversation you had or a strong emotion you felt. It could also be a single anecdote if you plan to center your essay around a specific theme or idea.
• Middle: Here’s where you start to flesh out what you’ve established in the opening. Provide more details about the experience (if a single anecdote) or delve into the various times your theme or idea became most important to you. Use imagery and sensory details to put the reader in your shoes.
• End: It’s time to bring it all together. Finish describing the anecdote or theme your essay centers around and explain how it relates to you now , what you’ve learned or gained from it, and how it has influenced your goals.

Step 4: Write a Rough Draft

By now you should have all your major details and an outline for your essay written down; these two things will make it easy for you to convert your notes into a rough draft.

At this stage of the writing process, don’t worry too much about vocabulary or grammar and just focus on getting out all your ideas so that they form the general shape of an essay . It’s OK if you’re a little over the essay's word limit — as you edit, you’ll most likely make some cuts to irrelevant and ineffective parts anyway.

If at any point you get stuck and have no idea what to write, revisit steps 1-3 to see whether there are any important details or ideas you might be omitting or not elaborating on enough to get your overall point across to admissions officers.

Step 5: Edit, Revise, and Proofread

• Sections that are too wordy and don’t say anything important
• Irrelevant details that don’t enhance your essay or the point you're trying to make
• Parts that seem to drag or that feel incredibly boring or redundant
• Areas that are vague and unclear and would benefit from more detail
• Phrases or sections that are awkwardly placed and should be moved around
• Areas that feel unconvincing, inauthentic, or exaggerated

Start paying closer attention to your word choice/vocabulary and grammar at this time, too. It’s perfectly normal to edit and revise your college essay several times before asking for feedback, so keep working with it until you feel it’s pretty close to its final iteration.

This step will likely take the longest amount of time — at least several weeks, if not months — so really put effort into fixing up your essay. Once you’re satisfied, do a final proofread to ensure that it’s technically correct.

Step 6: Get Feedback and Tweak as Needed

After you’ve overhauled your rough draft and made it into a near-final draft, give your essay to somebody you trust , such as a teacher or parent, and have them look it over for technical errors and offer you feedback on its content and overall structure.

Use this feedback to make any last-minute changes or edits. If necessary, repeat steps 5 and 6. You want to be extra sure that your essay is perfect before you submit it to colleges!

Recap: From College Essay Topics to Great College Essays

Many different kinds of college application essay topics can get you into a great college. But this doesn’t make it any easier to choose the best topic for you .

In general, the best college essay topics have the following qualities :

• They’re specific
• They show who you are
• They’re meaningful to you
• They’re unique
• They clearly answer the question

If you ever need help coming up with an idea of what to write for your essay, just refer to the list of 53 examples of college essay topics above to get your brain juices flowing.

Once you’ve got an essay topic picked out, follow these six steps for turning your topic into an unforgettable personal statement :

• Write down all the details
• Figure out your focus and approach
• Structure your narrative
• Write a rough draft
• Edit, revise, and proofread
• Get feedback and tweak as needed

And with that, I wish you the best of luck on your college essays!

What’s Next?

Writing a college essay is no simple task. Get expert college essay tips with our guides on how to come up with great college essay ideas and how to write a college essay, step by step .

You can also check out this huge list of college essay prompts  to get a feel for what types of questions you'll be expected to answer on your applications.

Want to see examples of college essays that absolutely rocked? You're in luck because we've got a collection of 100+ real college essay examples right here on our blog!

Hannah received her MA in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California. From 2013 to 2015, she taught English in Japan via the JET Program. She is passionate about education, writing, and travel.

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Impressionable Openers

Descriptions and demonstrations, show vulnerability, be authentic, stay personal, fun & quirky, common mistakes to avoid in your college essay.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Starting a College Essay

College essays are a huge part of your college career. If not huge, one of the biggest, and for someone who has been there and done that, I know the amount of pressure the beginning of a college essay, as well as the entire essay, can put on your shoulders.

Not only are you trying to juggle things like word count and grammar errors, but you're also trying to create the perfect college essay introduction that will attract admissions officers to your application or professors to your writing skills. And that, itself, can feel impossible, fill you with dread and self-doubt, but just breathe. I am here to help all present and future students know how to start a college essay.

Today is all about starting a college essay. I have come up with five easy and effective techniques that will help you create essays so good you're going to leave your readers wanting more , starting with your opening sentence! So, this is for all college students and college applicants. Stress no more! This guide was created to help you write a successful college essay. Let's get into it.

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The beginning of your essay should, first and foremost, always have a strong opening sentence . This sentence sets the tone for not only your readers but for the entire essay. Having a wobbly, almost interesting opener can steer an admissions officer and/or professor away, so you want it to be strong. And it doesn't have to be complicated! Less is more in this situation. Here are a couple of ways you can accomplish this.

• Look within and be relatable
• Use your real life for inspiration
• Think about ways to evoke emotion

Here are some examples of impressionable openers:

• Example 1: When I was 11 years old, my mother told me she had cancer over breakfast.
• Example 2: Maybe yellow isn't my favorite color.
• Example 3: I sat next to this girl in class who made me feel stupid.

DISCLAIMER : your opener should ALWAYS adhere to the essay prompts. These are just a few examples that can capture your reader's attention almost immediately.

In order to keep readers interested, visuals are key . Image-based descriptions will not only add value to your writing, it will give your readers front seats to your essay's journey. These descriptions let actions speak for themselves.

Here is an example of a description and demonstration in an essay:

• Example 1: "I was sitting on a bar stool when the word 'cancer' hit me like the smell of her coffee brewing on the stove. The Rice Krispies were popping in my cereal bowl, and MTV Jams was playing in the background, yet all I could hear was the sound of doom all around me. The lips of my mother were moving, but I was frozen, crumbling on this stool like my mother's health. She was sick, and I didn't know how sick or what that even meant, and that terrified me."

Why This Works:

Here you can clearly feel the writers emotional state: shocked, still, scared. Not only is this moment at breakfast traumatic, you feel frozen in time with the writer. Using descriptions like this will evoke so much emotion and leave your reader wanting more.

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Something one of my teachers told me in high school was any good essay will have personal elements in it, no matter the topic. That always stuck with me and became the way I approached my college essays. Showing vulnerability in your writing will always guarantee interest. It also evokes emotion.

You can show vulnerability by:

• Being honest
• Explaining what's going on inside underneath the exterior
• Describe what's going on around you at the moment
• Letting go of the fear of being seen
• Connecting with the topic
• Being transparent about mistakes/flaws

Examples of showing vulnerability:

• Example 1 : My mother telling me she had cancer over breakfast was not on my bingo card this year.
• Example 2 : I never thought losing someone I love would change me.
• Example 3: I had to lose everything in order to gain everything.

I know being vulnerable can be tough for some , but showing this side of you to college admissions officers and/or professors will not only make you stand out, but it can also help free you of things that might be weighing on your mind. Not to sound corny, but it can be therapeutic and make you a better writer . Just make sure you are staying on track with the essay prompt, and you're set!

Whether it's believed or not, an admissions officer wants to see pieces of you in your personal statement, so starting your essay by showing authenticity is a major major key. Along with being vulnerable, there are a few ways you can achieve this.

• Reflect : Take the time to reflect on your experiences, values, and beliefs that have shaped who you are today. Let your values, passions, and interests shine through in your writing.
• Mind Your Voice : Write in your own voice and avoid trying to sound like someone you're not. Authenticity comes from being genuine and true to yourself.
• Tell Your Story : Share personal anecdotes and insights that show your unique perspective.
• Be True to You : Focus on what matters to YOU (as long as you're on topic!). Write about what is meaningful and important to you rather than what you think admissions officers want to hear.

Above all, be open . Showing introspection and self-awareness in your essay will show any admissions committee who you are beneath the surface, as well as your personal growth.

You can also begin your essay being as random and silly as you'd like . It goes hand-in-hand with other important factors like vulnerability and authenticity. But don't get too crazy . Beginning your essay with something strange will definitely draw readers in. Let me show you what I mean.

• Example 1 : I start my mornings off in silence and solitude to keep people away from me.
• Example 2 : Sometimes, I like to circle big words in complex articles to learn new words. Yeah, but to also keep one in my back pocket for later use.
• Example 3 : Being the youngest child means getting away with everything you want, and that's exactly how I like it.

Do you see how each sentence draws you in? Not only are they light-hearted, but they also make you want to know why you want to keep people away in the morning and what kind of weapon you're forming against others with new words. And every youngest sibling will attest to feeling that exact same way. All of these examples are sure to make your essay fun, show who you are, and leave readers wanting more.

Years of writing college essays have taken me through every high and low of the process possible. And when they're good, they're great! But for some reason, my mistakes stick out more than anything. So, I've compiled a list of common mistakes to avoid when writing your college essay .

• Avoid Being Cliche - While you want to be captivating, you want to avoid overly used syntax and phrases that could potentially lose your reader's curiosity. For example, "in today's day and age," "follow my heart," "don't judge a book by its cover," etc. are all cliches that can be avoided by thinking outside of the box.
• Using Vocabulary to be Impressive - I know you want to impress the admissions committees, but it's important to stick to what you know and not what you can allude to. That is, use verbiage that resonates with your personality. Using extravagant words can work against you, and they can also sound forced. College admissions officers want to see the real you, so show it to them.
• Steer Clear of Controversy - Though it's not said enough, your college essay should tell your personal story and not touch on things that can stir the pot. For instance, talking about politics and religious beliefs may not be the route you want to take UNLESS it's called for in the college essay topic. And if so, stay on track with the essay prompts.
• Procrastinating : Waiting until the last minute to start writing your essay will bite you in the butt. You will feel rushed and end up writing a poorly crafted piece. Give yourself enough time to complete an essay draft, edit the draft, and repeat this two-step cycle until your essay is complete.
• Lack of originality : This goes hand-in-hand with avoiding cliches. Your college essay should exude a lot of your personality, so show admissions officers and teachers who you are! Include your cultural background, test scores that you're proud of, any future aspirations, etc. This all depends on the essay prompts, of course, but in my experience, every essay topic has room to show who you are.
• Ignoring the prompt : This is a major key. STAY ON TRACK. Make sure to carefully read and understand the essay prompt, and write your essay accordingly. The last thing you want to do is write a college essay that has nothing to do with the prompt. Reading is essential here.
• Lack of focus : If you want to know how to start a college essay, that means knowing how to stay focused. Find a quiet space, turn off electronics, hide your phone, and really nestle into how you want to capture your reader's attention. This will help you use your five senses clearly, keep your writing strong and not write an overly wordy essay. Focus is the tool here.
• Poor organization : Make sure your essay has a strong structure with clear transitions between paragraphs. An outline will work best to accomplish this. If you go into starting your college essay without a plan, be prepared to hit all roadblocks.
• Neglecting to Revise and Edit : Like procrastinating, don't fail to revise and edit your work. Always, always, always proofread your essay for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors , as well as clarity and coherence.
• Not Seeking Feedback : Listen, I know that completing an essay is an accomplishment in itself, and you immediately want to submit it, but it's so beneficial to have others read your essay for feedback. You can only spot so many holes in your work when your eyes are constantly reviewing it, so a second, third, or even fourth set of eyes can help point out areas for improvement.

Above all, trust the writing process. Though I do want you to be aware of your jargon, don't get too wrapped up in thinking you're making a mistake. That's what editing is for! Once you complete your college essay, you should always revise and edit accordingly . What you thought sounded good might make you edit it to sound great. Just keep in mind that many colleges are looking for honesty and authenticity vs how well you can sound on paper . So, if you're aware of these factors, you'll be good to go.

Ways to Overcome Writer's Block

Take it from someone who has suffered from chronic writer's block, it's a pain to get through . Imagine being on a writing streak so good that when you stop, the entire essay writing process stops as a whole. It's definitely a challenge, but after 10 years of writing essays and really honing my craft, I learned a few things that have helped me get through even the thickest of writer's blocks, and I want to share them with you. Check them out:

• Take a break : This works every single time. Take a short break and step away from your computer to clear your mind and come back with a fresh perspective. For me, 15 minutes is all I ever need. If you need more time, that's okay. Just try not to make your break a rest.
• Freewriting : Sometimes, I'd start writing without worrying about my structure or grammar to get the ideas flowing, and surprisingly enough, I found my essay taking a pleasant turn.
• Change your environment : Move around. Don't underestimate the effects of a different location or workspace to stimulate creativity. Try coffee shops, bookstores, a park, or a new room in your house. New environment, new energy.
• Set small goals : This one is actually the most important. Some people get overwhelmed with the word "essay" for things like lack of proper writing skills, pressure to write a great essay, etc. But if you try breaking down your writing task into smaller, manageable chunks to make it less overwhelming, it can help. For example, set a goal of three paragraphs one day, take a day to edit those paragraphs, two more the next day, and so forth. Find a formula that works for you.
• Brainstorming : Write down all your ideas--everything. No matter how small you think the idea is, write it down. Even if these ideas seem unrelated, they will help you generate new thoughts and connections.
• Read or listen to music : It took me a while to realize this helps, but engaging in other forms of art can inspire new ideas and break through mental blocks. And new creativity can lead you to impress admissions officers.
• Talk it out : As a writer, it's hard to let people in on the creative process, but discussing my ideas with a friend, family member, or colleague helped me gain new perspectives and insights.
• Relax and Meditate : Hear me out: it works! Practice deep breathing and/or meditation to reduce stress and anxiety that may be contributing to writer's block.

I won't sugarcoat it: the college application process can be intimidating , but it doesn't have to throw you off your game. When it comes to college essays, I see them as opportunities to be fun and expressive. Trust me when I say if you have fun with it, you'll attract the reader's attention , paint vivid details, and write an essay that will leave the admissions officer wanting you at their school. So, take it one step at a time and watch your personal statement come to life.

How can I make my college essay stand out to admissions officers?

Simply put, be yourself. As long as you stay on track with the essay's topic, showing pieces of yourself will allow admissions officers to know more about who you are. Essays are meant to show readers who you are, how you feel, and what you think naturally, not robotically, so be authentic in your writing, and you'll be sure to stand out amongst the rest.

What are some common mistakes to avoid when writing a college essay?

Some common mistakes to avoid in your essay are using cliches and boring wording. You also want to avoid procrastinating, wasting time, not focusing, not editing, etc. When writing your essay, you want to make sure you give your writing the time and attention it deserves, so make sure you're aware of what is pulling you away from your writing. This will help you stay focused. If you have any other doubts, refer to the section about mistakes in this article and let it guide you to success.

How important is the college essay in the admissions process?

Your college essay is key in the admissions process . It's an admissions committee's first impression of you as a writer and potential student, so it should be taken very seriously. Trying to cut corners or rush through the writing process will be obvious, and it will stand out more than things like test scores, academic achievements, extracurricular activities, and any other positive influence you've had in your life. So, don't take the easy way out and really work on your essay.

Feeling confident in your college essay skills and want to explore some other essay content? Explore our blog on the comma splice to enhance your technical writing skills!

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5 Biggest Tips on How to Stand Out on Your College Essay This Fall

Hey, it’s Elena! Scoir and College Essay Guy just hosted our event: How to Stand Out on Your College Essays This Fall. In case you missed it, we're rounding up the 5 biggest tips from the event to help you write outstanding personal statements, supplemental essays, and more!

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1. How to Find Your Personal Statement Topic 🤔

2. values exercise 💛.

At 9:50 , College Essay Guy talks about an exercise that he feels is so core to planning out your college essay. Exploring and identifying your core values can help you see how these values manifest themselves in what you do in your life, what you do for fun, and what you'll bring to a college campus. You'll want to check out the full Values Exercise to follow along!

3. Thoughts on this Year's New Supplemental Essays 💬

Each year, many colleges change the prompts for their supplemental essays, which are additional essays (aside from your personal statement) that some schools require with your application.  At 20:18 , College Essay Guy shares his quick thoughts on this year's new prompts!

4. Two Approaches to the "Why Us?" Essay 👀

At 24:02 , College Essay Guy dives into one kind of essay that won't be going away anytime soon on college applications: the "Why Us?" essay .  If you've scrolled through different schools' essay prompts, you've definitely seen at least one of them ask: "Why do you want to attend XYZ college?" When you're applying to multiple colleges that ask that question, it can be hard to figure out how to be personal in your response for each school. College Essay Guy shares how you can craft your responses in a way that's both honest and unique, and that targets specific aspects of the college that align with you and your goals.

5. Ways to Improve Your Activities List 🎨

Finally, the cherry on top of your college applications: your Activities List ! How can you best showcase the activities you're involved in on your college applications? Are there ways you can re-word what you've already written to make sure the hard work you've done is standing out?   Pop over to 36:26 in the replay to hear College Essay Guy's advice!

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Articles & Advice > College Admission > Articles

7 Unique Ways to Stand Out on Your College Applications

No one wants to be just another piece of paper in the college admission process. Here are a few ways to make your application stand out from the crowd.

by Kara E. Joyce Freelance Writer

Last Updated: Jul 5, 2023

Originally Posted: Jun 19, 2019

No one wants to be just another piece of paper when it comes to the college application process—but unless you're partaking in college interviews, it's easy to succumb to that. There are plenty of articles on how to make your college essay stand out with original language and powerful stories, but how do you make the rest of your application pop too? After all, if writing isn’t your strongest asset, it’s daunting to have such high stakes resting on the admission essay. So if you're not a writer, what other things can you highlight to show your worth in paper and ink? The good news is there are plenty of ways to make your college applications stand out other than writing a Pulitzer Prize–worthy essay. Here are just a few.

1. A top-notch portfolio

If you’re planning to major in Art, Graphic Design, Film/Photography, or Creative Writing, chances are you’ll be asked to provide a portfolio of work for review . Put your best foot forward for this requirement. Don’t overdo it—if the school asks for five pieces, don’t give them 10—but make sure those five pieces are the best they can be. Make sure your portfolio submissions are true to you. If your favorite subject to draw is office supplies, don’t submit drawings of flowers because you think that’s what the admission council wants to see. You’re choosing this major because you’re passionate about the work and your content. Don’t cheat your passions because you’re afraid they’re unusual. Maybe the professor reviewing your portfolio loves drawing office supplies too!

When you’re preparing your portfolio, don’t be the only one to look over your submissions. Pick out your top 10 works and ask a trusted teacher or mentor to help you choose which ones they think are best. Also ask them to help you improve those top choices. Nothing is perfect, but you want to make sure these are as close to perfect as possible. Also, if you have a piece that won an award of some sort (schoolwide, statewide, or nationwide) but you feel like it doesn’t fully showcase your ability, you don’t have to include it. But if you do think it’s a testament to your abilities, then you’ll definitely want to!

Related: How to Make Your Art Portfolio Pop

2. Your awards

Speaking of awards, make sure to include these on your application too. There are two places in the Common Application you can mention awards: either the “Honors” subsection in the Education section or in the Activities section. According to CollegeVine, you should list achievements that aren’t directly related to an activity in “Honors” and list activity-related awards in the Activities section. For example, if you won a national poetry contest your sophomore year, that would go in the “Honors” subsection of Education. But if you placed first in a dance competition with the team you’ve been on since you were 10 years old, that would go in Activities.

However, be aware of certain “honor societies” that allude selectivity but make you pay an exorbitant price to join the club. According to College Confidential, including societies that aren’t selective as long as you can pay the right price isn’t worth it. Colleges are well aware of which societies are highly selective and which aren’t, so make sure you do your research before you sign up to join strictly for a résumé builder . And do plenty of research to make sure these groups aren’t scams.

In short, if you’re in the National Honor Society or won a prestigious fellowship through your school, put that on your application. If you get a random email inviting you to join the self-proclaimed prestigious Red-Headed League, it might not be worth mentioning. Also, don’t do it.

3. Odd jobs

One of the easiest ways to stand out to colleges is to get unique work experience. There are plenty of interesting jobs out there, and you don’t need a college degree to get most of them. And these jobs don’t even have to be related to your major. Extra bonus: not only can working a unique job make you stand out on your application, you make some money too!

From being a carnival hawker to leading historical tours of your city to working as an ice cream scooper, there are tons of interesting part-time jobs out there. And if you’re worried about work interfering with your grades, look for seasonal positions to keep you busy during the summer or places that will let you work on the weekend. Also, if you received any certifications for your job, such as PSIA/AASI (ski and snowboard), ISA (surfing), or ASA (sailing) certifications, make sure to mention those the same way you reported your other awards in the Activities section. It may not feel like an award, but with all the hard work that went into getting it, that little piece of paper or pin is practically a trophy!

4. Major-specific jobs

This might seem a bit tougher because most jobs related to your potential major will be built for students who are already in college. An obvious option is being a counselor at a camp with a focus on your intended studies. If you’ve attended computer, Bible, basketball, music, or another type of camp, there might be an opportunity for you to participate from the other side now. You need to be 18 or older to be a camp counselor, but many camps have junior counselor positions available to high school students. It never hurts to ask about these opportunities, especially if you’re a camp regular.

Outside of summer camps, cities like Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Boston provide job opportunities for resident students. These cities partner with local and national companies to place students in internships for the summer, and students are often placed in positions based on specific interests. For example, if you’re planning to major in US History, you might be able to work at a nonprofit focused on historical preservation.

Taking on one of these positions shows colleges you’re dedicated to your potential major outside of academics. If you’re not sure what programs are available to you locally, do a simple Google search for “high school internships,” talk to your guidance counselor, or ask your parents if their company provides these opportunities.

Related:  5 Ways to Beef Up Your College Applications

5. Volunteering

You can even volunteer in ways that support your potential studies. See if you can be a peer tutor in your favorite subject at your high school or for students in middle and elementary school. If you’re interested in teaching, see if you can help out during summer school or summer bridge programs. Outside of volunteering at school, try to find ways to help out in your own backyard. Go to your community center or the local YMCA and see what opportunities are there for you to improve your community. Children’s hospitals, nursing homes, and group homes typically look for volunteers for a variety of purposes. Don’t dismiss your religious affiliation either. Speak with the leader of your family’s church, synagogue, temple, or mosque and see how you can be active in the community. Ask if you can assist in teaching younger students in religion classes or help with planning or setting up for events.

6. Non-school activities

Never forget about non-school clubs, especially if the activity is something you’ve been involved in for a while. Obviously, you wouldn’t leave out your Gold Award or Eagle Scout merits, but don’t forget to include the five years you’ve spent in sailing and the 15 you’ve spent taking dance lessons. If you’re a member of a less traditional club like the National High School Rodeo or American Youth Circus, those should find a place in your Activities. If you’re trying to stand out and you’re worried your essay might not help you do that, your offbeat extracurricular activities will certainly make you memorable (in a good way!).

7. Video essay

In recent years, video essays have been gaining popularity at colleges across the country. Many schools give the option to submit a video essay in place of the standard application essay, while even more accept it as supplemental material. A superb video essay not only puts a face to your name but can successfully assert your professionalism and dedication in a genuine voice. Be aware that first impressions matter exponentially with your video essay. According to U.S. News & World Report , most counselors will have a strong opinion on the candidate within the first seven seconds of a video. Even though it’s a change of format, consider some of the same advice for the traditional college essay. Make sure you have a strong, original opening. Keep your tone casual but professional. Follow the directions ; if they ask for a three- to five-minute video, don’t send in a seven-minute clip. In general, be clear and concise with your language. Make sure the content is targeted to the specific college, especially if it’s a supplemental piece.

Additionally, try to minimize the number of times you say “um” or “like.” You should have a neutral background, such as a plain wall or a quiet outdoor space. And make sure you’re dressed professionally. You can show you’re dedicated to geology in business casual attire—you don’t need to wear your faded “Metamorphic rocks are gneiss!” T-shirt.

Related: How to Make a College Application Video That Will Impress

Though the application essay is an important part of your college application, it’s not the only way to stand out as the individual you are—though experiences like these do make great topics for your essay! You still have plenty of time to take advantage of unique opportunities that can make you stand out, so go out there and find them.

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More From Forbes

5 strategies to unlock your winning college essay.

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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS - JUNE 29: People walk through the gate on Harvard Yard at the Harvard ... [+] University campus on June 29, 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admission policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Constitution, bringing an end to affirmative action in higher education. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

The college application season is upon us, and high school students everywhere are staring down at one of the most daunting tasks: the college essay. As someone who has guided countless applicants through the admissions process and reviewed admissions essays on an undergraduate admissions committee, I've pinpointed the essential ingredient to a differentiated candidacy—the core of your college admissions X-factor .

The essential ingredient to your college admissions X-factor is your intellectual vitality. Intellectual vitality is your passion for learning and curiosity. By demonstrating and conveying this passion, you can transform an average essay into a compelling narrative that boosts your chances of getting accepted to your top schools. Here are five dynamic strategies to achieve that goal.

Unleash Your Authentic Voice

Admissions officers sift through thousands of essays every year. What stops them in their tracks? An authentic voice that leaps off the page. Forget trying to guess what the admissions committee wants to hear. Focus on being true to yourself. Share your unique perspective, your passions, and your values. Authenticity resonates deeply with application reviewers, making your essay memorable and impactful. You need not have experienced trauma or tragedy to create a strong narrative. You can write about what you know—intellectually or personally—to convey your enthusiasm, creativity, and leadership. Intellectual vitality shines through when you write with personalized reflection about what lights you up.

Weave A Captivating Story

Everyone loves a good story, and your essay is the perfect place to tell yours. The Common Application personal statement has seven choices of prompts to ground the structure for your narrative. The most compelling stories are often about the smallest moments in life, whether it’s shopping at Costco or about why you wear socks that have holes. Think of the Common Application personal statement as a window into your soul rather than a dry list of your achievements or your overly broad event-based life story. Use vivid anecdotes to bring your experiences to life. A well-told story can showcase your growth, highlight your character, and illustrate how you've overcome challenges. Intellectual vitality often emerges in these narratives, revealing how your curiosity and proactive approach to learning have driven you to explore and innovate.

Reflect And Reveal Insights

It's not just about what you've done—it's about what you've learned along the way. When you are writing about a specific event, you can use the STAR framework—situation, task, action, and result (your learning). Focus most of your writing space on the “R” part of this framework to dive deeply into your experiences and reflect on how they've shaped your aspirations and identity.

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The most insightful college-specific supplement essays demonstrate depth of thought, and the ability to connect past experiences with your future life in college and beyond. Reflecting on your intellectual journey signals maturity and a readiness to embrace the college experience. It shows admissions officers that you engage deeply with your studies and are eager to contribute to the academic community.

Highlight Your Contributions—But Don’t Brag

Whether it's a special talent, an unusual hobby, or a unique perspective, showcasing what you can bring to the college environment can make a significant impact. Recognize that the hard work behind the accomplishment is what colleges are interested in learning more about—not retelling about the accomplishment itself. (Honors and activities can be conveyed in another section of the application.) Walk us through the journey to your summit; don’t just take us to the peak and expect us know how you earned it.

Intellectual vitality can be demonstrated through your proactive approach to solving problems, starting new projects, or leading initiatives that reflect your passion for learning and growth. These experiences often have a place in the college-specific supplement essays. They ground the reasons why you want to study in your major and at the particular college.

Perfect Your Prose

Great writing is essential. Anyone can use AI or a thesaurus to assist with an essay, but AI cannot write your story in the way that you tell it. Admissions officers don’t give out extra credit for choosing the longest words with the most amount of syllables.

The best essays have clear, coherent language and are free of errors. The story is clearly and specifically told. After drafting, take the time to revise and polish your writing. Seek feedback from teachers, mentors, or trusted friends, but ensure the final piece is unmistakably yours. A well-crafted essay showcases your diligence and attention to detail—qualities that admissions officers highly value. Intellectual vitality is also reflected in your writing process, showing your commitment to excellence and your enthusiasm for presenting your best self.

Crafting a standout college essay is about presenting your true self in an engaging, reflective, and polished manner while showcasing your intellectual vitality. Happy writing.

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How to Stand Out with your College Essays

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My Admissions Story: As a low-income student, I had no idea how to approach college admissions. I remember looking at the sticker prices for the schools I was interested in and worrying that college might not actually be for me. Fortunately, I was able to find my way, navigating the complex process of admissions and aid. I’m so excited to be in a position to help other students who feel as I once did.

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Secondary Medical School Application Essays: How to Shine

Emphasizing fit and showing authenticity help medical school secondary essays stand out, experts say.

Tips for Secondary Med School Essays

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One of best pieces of advice when writing an application essay is to be authentic.

Key Takeaways

• Secondary medical school essays should highlight why an applicant is a good fit.
• Applicants should submit the essays early without compromising quality.
• It's important to be authentic in essay responses.

After receiving primary applications, most medical schools ask applicants to complete a secondary application, which typically includes additional essay questions. While primary essay prompts ask why you're pursuing medicine, medical school secondary essays focus on you and how you fit with a specific school.

Secondary essay prompts vary by school, but they're generally designed to help med schools learn about you at a deeper level. They may ask you to reflect on what makes you who you are, a time when you worked with a population different than yourself, an occasion where you asked for help or a time when you worked in a team. They may ask how you spent a gap year before applying to medical school or what you did after your undergraduate degree.

"What we are trying to figure out is if this is a candidate that can fulfill the premedical competencies and whether they are mission-aligned," says Dr. Wendy Jackson, associate dean for admissions at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine . “Can they help fulfill the needs that our institution is trying to deliver?”

A lot rides on these essays, but keeping a few best practices in mind can make the process less daunting.

Emphasize Fit

The first thing medical schools look for is whether an applicant will be a good fit for the school’s mission, Jackson says.

“I would challenge someone who is completing a secondary application to understand the mission of the school and envision how they are going to contribute to that,” she says. “The vast majority of schools are going to ask why you chose their institution, so you need to be prepared to answer that.”

Some secondary essay questions are optional, but experts recommend answering them even though they're extra work. For example, the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee asks applicants what makes them interested in the school.

“We just want to see if they’re a good fit for us and that they’ve done a little bit of homework about Vanderbilt," says Jennifer Kimble, director of admissions at Vanderbilt's medical school. "We want to make sure that the students we admit are going to be happy with their Vanderbilt experience.”

Avoid focusing on what you’re going to gain from the school – schools are really asking how you'll be an asset to the program.

"It’s almost like if you’re trying to date someone and you tell them, ‘Here’s what I’m going to get from this relationship,’ without saying, ‘We’re better off together,’” says Shirag Shemmassian, founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting. “You have to sell the idea that you’re bettering one another and how you’re better together than apart. I think students often miss that latter component."

Don't Procrastinate

The medical school application process is often compared to a marathon, but the final steps may feel like a sprint. Applicants typically receive secondary application requests in late June, and in some cases schools want those back within a matter of weeks. Others set deadlines months down the road.

Either way, because of rolling admissions , it's best to send essays in as early as possible without compromising quality, Shemmassian says.

The earlier an applicant submits materials, the less competition they typically face, experts say. For example, Vanderbilt receives nearly 7,000 applications per year. Of those, roughly 600 applicants will be asked to interview and around 260 will be offered admission for 96 spots.

"At the beginning of the cycle, our calendar is wide open and we’re very open to who we bring in for an interview," Kimble says. "Down the road when we only have 30 seats left, it’s highly selective who those candidates are that get those coveted 30 interview spots that are left over."

Prewrite Essays

Applicants won't know the specific language of secondary essay prompts until schools send them, but in many cases, essay prompts are similar year to year and the previous year's prompts are often published on a school's admissions website, experts say. Some schools may change or tweak questions, but you can generally get a head start by prewriting essays based on previous prompts.

"As the new ones come out, you can modify as needed," Shemmassian says. "I would say that about 70% to 80% of prompts will remain the same or similar. If they change, you can usually adapt an essay you’ve written for another school."

Secondary essays vary in length and number. Vanderbilt requires applicants to submit an 800-word essay and two 600-word essays. Some schools may require close to 10 secondary essays. Shemmassian says this is significantly more writing than applicants are used to, so budgeting time is crucial.

But applicants should take care when prewriting essays and make sure each is tailored to the specific school with the correct school name, experts say. Jackson says she's read plenty of essays where applicants included the wrong school name and it cost them.

“You may think you can save time by cutting and pasting or taking half of a previously written essay response and making a modification,” Jackson says. “Be careful, because the questions vary from institution to institution.”

Experts say applicants often neglect to fully read prompts in their haste to complete answers. Though there's a time crunch, it's vital to thoroughly read the prompt and answer the question fully without grammatical or spelling errors.

“That seems kind of silly, but I think we can get going down a road when we’re writing and feel like we’ve completed and written something well but look back and never really have a response to the true question being asked," Jackson says.

Be Authentic

Medical school applicants tend to put a lot of pressure on themselves to write something that schools haven't read before, Kimble says. Given that med schools sift through thousands of applicants a year, "we’ve read all sorts of scenarios in life, so take that pressure and put it on the shelf," she says. "That’s not a concern for us. We aren’t looking for something that’s totally innovative."

Experts say schools are mostly looking for authenticity and an organic, genuine tone. The tone "can make or break an applicant," Jackson says.

It may be tempting, especially given time constraints, to rely on outside help – such as ChatGPT or other AI-powered software – to write essays. While some professors and admissions officers have embraced AI to help automate certain processes, Kimble says she strongly discourages med school applicants from using AI to help with secondary essays.

"We had an (application) that you could clearly see was not written by a human voice," she says. "It sounded very computer generated, so we ended up passing on the candidate just because we want to hear their story in their own words."

A Secondary Essay Example

Shemmassian compiles more than 1,000 sample secondary essays each year, using prompts from more than 150 medical schools in various states, and offers them to paying clients. The excerpted example below, created by Shemmassian's team and used with their permission, shows what he considers to be a successful diversity-themed essay in response to a Yale University School of Medicine prompt that asks applicants to reflect on how their background and experiences contribute to the school's focus on diversity and how it will inform their future role as a doctor.

As a child, one of my favorite times of the year was the summer, when I would travel to Yemen… at least until I turned twelve. Suddenly, the traditional and, in my Yemeni American view, restrictive laws for women, applied to me. Perhaps the most representative of these laws was having to cover my hair with a scarf-like garment. Staying true to my values, I decided against returning to Yemen, thereby losing a vital connection to my culture. However, this estrangement did not inhibit my growth.

The 500-word response continues with how the applicant met a Yemeni student who grew up in France and was barred from wearing a headscarf due to a school uniform policy. Where the applicant saw the headscarf as restrictive, the other student saw it as a connection to her roots. The applicant describes how although the same object held different meanings to two people from the same background, she used that to appreciate different perspectives and to advocate for a woman's right to express herself.

Later that year, I applied this lesson in perspective to my work as a clinical coordinator, when a patient walked into the office and handed me a piece of paper explaining she only spoke Arabic...By thinking critically while vernacularly translating the doctor’s advice, I was directly involved in the process of her medical care. Because of my experience in exploring the multi-cultural barriers I faced alongside the Yemeni French student who cherished her headscarf, I spent time talking to this Yemeni patient about the barriers she had faced in receiving care.

This experience motivated me to help overcome cultural healthcare barriers and disparities, showcasing my devotion to equitable treatment by creating a new protocol within the clinic where I work. Now, when scheduling patients over the phone, we ask if they have any language preferences, and we have a series of scripts we can use during each patient’s treatment.

The applicant then drives home why she believes she's a good fit for the school.

My background and experiences will contribute to Yale School of Medicine’s diversity and inform my future role as a physician by creating a student organization that holds informational workshops, utilizing my unique experiences to connect with Yale’s diverse patient population, and working to address healthcare disparities as a future physician. I envision these informational workshops would operate in the Haven Free Clinic patient waiting rooms to empower all patients, regardless of their background.

This essay is successful because it does more than tell essay readers about the applicant's background, Shemmassian says. It shows how the applicant grew "into a more compassionate and culturally humble future physician who will help patients overcome health care barriers."

"Strong diversity essays will always show admissions committees how a unique trait or life experience will help them become a better physician," he says. "This essay is especially successful because the applicant connects their experiences and what they’ve learned because of them to the Yale School of Medicine itself. This is an applicant who is already thinking deeply about not just what they can get out of medical school but how they can contribute to the values and mission of the school they attend."

Searching for a medical school? Get our  complete rankings  of Best Medical Schools.

Medical School Application Mistakes

Tags: medical school , doctors , graduate schools , education , students

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• May 30, 2024

College Admissions

May 2024 newsletter: how to stand out at t20 universities and pass the “vibe check”.

Imagine, you fire up your computer to begin some serious research about the top twenty universities and amidst ten different tabs and ten college brochures, you find one daunting fact: there is hardly any variation in the average test scores and GPAs for admitted students to the top twenty universities. You look back to last year’s data, and the year before, and five years before that, but the fact remains. And somehow, every year, amongst 40,000+ applicants these universities are finding ways to select just 1,000-2,000 applicants per cycle. Yet, with over 20,000 students earning a 34 or above on the ACT (2023 National Graduating Class Profile Report), what else are these universities considering?

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If someone meets the average profile of a T20, you might be questioning how they can earn a spot amongst so many applications. Or maybe someone sits just outside of their admitted profile and you’re wondering about other things they can bring to their campus. The answer often lies in one word. Vibe. Yes, that invisible cloud that follows you around, sprinkling drops of your personality, creating an emotional atmosphere that is you. Just like every person has a particular vibe, every university has worked for years to craft one of their own. In determining how to stand out to a university, understanding the vibe is an important starting point.

So, how do you ascertain the “vibe” that a university is looking for? Sometimes, it’s actually right there in the admitted student profile–the nifty report colleges release typically including average GPA, test scores, and sometimes involvement of the students they admit. For example, UChicago lists geography and involvement of admitted students before they get into the academic profile. In such a small detail, UChicago is subtly implying, we like students who have a variety of community involvements. In other cases, determining what a university is looking for takes a bit more digging.

A good place to start is the university’s website. Click away from the average student profile and look into additional information provided about students’ backgrounds, interests, and involvements. Pay close attention to any themes that emerge. Take a look at the university’s mission statement, values, and campus culture initiatives to gain insight into the qualities and characteristics that they prioritize in their student body. Let’s look at two examples:

Princeton University, “Our Mission Statement,” 2024

In a short paragraph, both of these universities have attempted to distill their vibe to prospective students and families. Did you catch the subtle differences? Drive vs. Service. New schools of thought vs. Making a difference. 

On paper, Princeton and UChicago have nearly identical average student profiles, however, in just a quick look at their mission statements, it’s clear that these universities are looking for two very different students.

Great, so you’re vibe-checking all the top 20 universities and now you’re wondering what this means for your application. With these vibes in mind, how can you stand out? Let’s look at common vibes you may come across:

University of Chicago, “Who We Are,” 2024

The Game Changers (Brown, UChicago, UPenn)

These universities value students who are thinking outside the box, problem-solving, and pushing the boundaries of knowledge and discovery. You might stand out by highlighting passion projects or participation in competitions that value innovation and creativity such as Hackathons or Inventors Challenge. Or maybe you demonstrate ways in which you “break the mold” blending genres or combining specializations in unique ways. In essays, you might focus more on instances where you challenged conventional wisdom, identified problems and solutions, or demonstrated a drive for discovery.

The Worldviewers (Stanford, Yale, Cornell)

These universities are looking for students who demonstrate an understanding and appreciation for different cultures, languages, and perspectives, and who are eager to make a positive impact on a global scale. You can distinguish yourself by highlighting experiences abroad, participation in multicultural events or clubs, volunteer work with international organizations, or research/art conducted with a global focus. In essays , you might discuss changed perspectives, explicit statements of your “why,” or desires for positive change.

The Do-good-ers (Princeton, Harvard)

These universities are looking for students who are passionate about addressing societal issues, advocating for change, and making a positive impact in their communities and beyond. You might differentiate yourself by showcasing your volunteer work , advocacy for marginalized communities, participation in service-learning projects, or initiation of grassroots campaigns for social change. In essays, you can highlight personal experiences that affect your “why,” concrete actions you’ve taken to effect positive change, your role models, or your philosophies.

The Thinkers (MIT, CalTech, Johns Hopkins)

These universities prioritize students who demonstrate a deep love for knowledge, critical thinking skills, and a commitment to scholarly pursuits. You might stand out by highlighting independent research projects, published academic papers, participation in academic competitions, or advanced coursework in your field of interest. In essays, you can focus on aspirations, motivations, or moments of growth in your academic career.

The Team-Players (Duke, Brown, Northwestern)

These universities are all about teamwork, synergy, and collective achievement. They foster an environment where students, faculty, and staff come together to collaborate on projects, solve complex problems, and make a positive impact in their communities and beyond. You might stand out by showcasing your participation in group projects, leadership in student organizations or clubs, collaboration with peers on research initiatives, or organization of community service events . In essays, you might reflect on your collaborative experiences, problem-solving skills, or challenges you’ve faced.

It’s likely that many of the universities you’re looking into fit into two or maybe even three of these vibes. And like everything else in the college admissions process, there’s no way to guarantee admission to a university. However, understanding the types of students these universities are looking for can be a great place to start when thinking about your application sticking out amongst ~40,000 others!

¹ A Top 20 university or college as ranked by U.S. News and World Report.

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Top colleges and universities are looking for students who have excelled academically despite financial hardship, and they partner with QuestBridge to find students like  you . If you are a high-achieving high school junior from a low-income background, the College Prep Scholars Program can equip you with knowledge, confidence, and resources to connect with the nation's most sought-after colleges.

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• High school juniors, regardless of citizenship, currently attending high school in the U.S., and U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents living abroad
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