college essay 101

Ultimate Guide to Writing Your College Essay

Tips for writing an effective college essay.

College admissions essays are an important part of your college application and gives you the chance to show colleges and universities your character and experiences. This guide will give you tips to write an effective college essay.

Want free help with your college essay?

UPchieve connects you with knowledgeable and friendly college advisors—online, 24/7, and completely free. Get 1:1 help brainstorming topics, outlining your essay, revising a draft, or editing grammar.

Writing a strong college admissions essay

Learn about the elements of a solid admissions essay.

Avoiding common admissions essay mistakes

Learn some of the most common mistakes made on college essays

Brainstorming tips for your college essay

Stuck on what to write your college essay about? Here are some exercises to help you get started.

How formal should the tone of your college essay be?

Learn how formal your college essay should be and get tips on how to bring out your natural voice.

Taking your college essay to the next level

Hear an admissions expert discuss the appropriate level of depth necessary in your college essay.

Student Stories

Student Story: Admissions essay about a formative experience

Get the perspective of a current college student on how he approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about personal identity

Get the perspective of a current college student on how she approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about community impact

Student story: admissions essay about a past mistake, how to write a college application essay, tips for writing an effective application essay, sample college essay 1 with feedback, sample college essay 2 with feedback.

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College admissions

Course: college admissions   >   unit 4.

• Writing a strong college admissions essay
• Avoiding common admissions essay mistakes
• Brainstorming tips for your college essay
• How formal should the tone of your college essay be?
• Taking your college essay to the next level
• Sample essay 1 with admissions feedback
• Sample essay 2 with admissions feedback
• Student story: Admissions essay about a formative experience
• Student story: Admissions essay about personal identity
• Student story: Admissions essay about community impact
• Student story: Admissions essay about a past mistake
• Student story: Admissions essay about a meaningful poem

Writing tips and techniques for your college essay

Pose a question the reader wants answered

Don't focus exclusively on the past, experiment with the unexpected, don't summarize, want to join the conversation.

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College Essay Writing 101—the Comprehensive Guide [2024]

So, you can’t wait to get into college and join a fraternity, sorority, or student union. Well, we have some incredibly useful tips and helpful information for college admission essay writing!

Remember: getting into college takes more than money. And outstanding essays get you great college scholarships!

With help from our college essay writing service, you will be able to win any essay contest!

Higher Demands for Arguments

A more sophisticated structure, what you can write about, topics to avoid.

• 🤔 How to Write an Application Essay
• 📑 Essay Criteria
• ✍️ Essay Examples
• 🙋 How to Deal with College Questions
• 📜 50 College Essay Topics

The Proper Structure of an Essay

Techniques for successful essay writing, reliable help with college writing, 📃 chapter 1: the ultimate guide to a fantastic college essay.

Suppose in high school you were an expert in writing five-paragraph essays.

However, then college starts. Your brilliant writing turns out to be just so-so. If you are feeling confused about your custom essay writings, there are things you need to know.

A five-paragraph essay is a standard form of writing in any school. It means that you can fit all your ideas into five paragraphs. And that only three paragraphs about the main point are enough.

This type of a custom essay paper also has its certain inner structure that guides you directly to the end. College essays are much trickier.

Well, there are several reasons:

First of all, they give more credits to strong, not vague, arguments. A college argument is a complex set of statements arranged logically. By a complex system a duo of claim and evidence is meant. By the way, there must be more than one supportive fact to any claim in a college essay paper. Whether it is a reflective essay or a cause and effect essay, support your claims!

The argument has to be more of a provocative one in any type of a custom essay paper . Readers have to analyze it, as well as get information. Convince your audience that there is more than 80% of truth in your statement.

You have to make your custom essay papers look like a formal, well-organized conversation between you and your readers.

By doing so, you’ll show your professor that you can handle the subject easily.

Making your point

When mastering the arguments, please, do not forget about the point you are making. Here’s a second difference between five-paragraphs and college essays. In the first case, a point is something that has to be stated in a specific sentence. It needs to be clearly seen.

But here’s the kicker:

What satisfies the high school teacher is not enough for a professor. Your skillfulness in college essay papers is shown when the point is clear from the context. Make your readers see the main idea between the lines.

Don’t fall into too much conspiracy, though. A lot of professors admit that they don’t like to take wild guesses, and just lower the grades if they don’t grasp the main idea. A little practice and drafting will be helpful here.

Third basic distinction is in structure. Custom College essays are usually longer than five paragraphs. The paragraphs themselves can, and must be more than eight sentences long.

Higher expectations

College essays usually have more instructions and requirements to fulfill. And there are no childish topics like “My Family and I.” College essay topics should be deeper.

Want to get an exceptional essay that will guarantee your success? Want to learn how to write a college level essay?

Do not hesitate to contact us! We will provide you professional custom college essay help.

Essays are the most common academic paper that might seem easy to write. Our free tips will help you to get through any kind of essays. Still, if you are stuck on writing, you can always look for personal essay examples and ask us for help!

Remember: there is nothing wrong with asking for help with your academic writing.

Here’s something interesting.

The Huffington Post writes that many students resort to such online services. That goes for Ivy League students, too. And that’s to say nothing of international students.

✍️ Chapter 2: Writing Your College Admission Essay

Importance of the application essay

This is no secret:

College admission depends heavily on the quality of the essay you submit. This is how you let the committee know why you deserve a spot at their school!

Look at it this way:

Working on admission essays is like choosing fortune cookies. This paper will define your destiny. However, you have good chances to succeed in writing excellent admission essays if you want to. So, let’s stop panicking and take a closer look at what admission committees want to see in your essays.

Your college application essay is an important part of your admission. The point of your essay is to persuade the committee to choose you. To achieve this goal, you can use any of these three options in your college application essays:

What can you do to write an original college-level essay?

For example, you might write an advertisement about yourself or a movie script about your college. However, be careful if you choose this option. This approach is risky, because some admission commissions might dislike too much creativity. Use your common sense. Try not to be too eccentric.

Now that you know what your basic options are, let’s go into more detail:

In general, a good common app essay says to the committee: “Hello! It is me you’re looking for.” Unfortunately, applicants need to look for indirect ways to convey this idea .

Here are some standard topic suggestions for a common application essay:

• an important experience or ethical dilemma, which affected you as a person;
• a problem of personal, local or global importance and its role in your life;
• an encounter with a person who influenced you greatly;

• the impact of a fictional character, a historical figure or an artwork on you as a person;
• an encounter with somebody very different from you, demonstrating that you understand the importance of diversity in community;
• your choice.

However, you should not see these standard options as limitations to your imagination. If your brilliant ideas do not fit in any of these categories, it is possible to choose the last option and say that it was your choice. So, it is up to you to decide how to present yourself in the best way possible.

But here’s something to keep in mind:

Some topics will leave any admission committee with a less-than-favorable impression of your academic potential. To be more specific, admission committees recommend that you avoid the following topics:

• The death of your pet Even if you had a traumatic experience in your childhood, more often than not these essays turn out too melodramatic. And your typical college application essay format is just not suited to this kind of topic.
• Conflicts with others The reason these ones are best avoided is simple: you might come across as petty, too focused on old quarrels, or bad at resolving conflicts in the right way, all of which pretty much make up the definition of “bad college applicant”. Generation gap in your family and criticism of your parents. This topic is pretty similar to the previous one: you might come across as whiny, unreasonable, or ungrateful. Not the best approach for your college search, right?
• Something that you do not understand You should not write about  Black Square  by Malevich if you do not understand it. This is especially important if you’re thinking of writing an opinion essay about some sophisticated subject like contemporary art. If an applicant seems overly pretentious, that’s a huge red flag for the committee.
• A global problem that you do not actually care about You should not write about AIDS and orphans in Africa if you do not actually care about this issue. Remember: you don’t want to come across as insincere. And if you pretend to be more concerned about something than you actually are, it will show in your writing.

And one more thing:

Before you choose the best suitable option from those above, check the requirements of the particular college you want to apply to. Visit their website or contact their college admission committee and ask which of the formats is preferable for your college application essay. If they have no specific requirements, you may choose any of the above-discussed formats.

🤔 How to Write an Application Essay

The next step is to check the tone of your writing.

Suppose you are writing an essay on the importance of life or an essay about life challenges.

Make certain that it is respectful and you do not sound like a pampered child or a 60-year-old cynic.

You are probably wondering:

How can I come off as a sincere and respectful person?

Listen to your heart, be yourself, choose the most appropriate topic, words and tone and look through some useful examples (2016, 2017, 2018).

When starting to write your college admission papers, you should bear in mind one simple truth: you deserve this place in college. Don’t doubt this for a single moment while you write, or your doubts will show in what you write.

Instead, be full of confidence, so that the admission committee does not hesitate for a single moment either.

And, by the way, if you need some helpful examples, you could always take advantage of Custom-Writing.org ’s assistance. If you are wondering: “How many common app essays do you write?” the answer is “enough for every customer!”

📑 Essay Criteria

When looking through lists of college scholarships, remember:

Your application essay is your first small step into the world of academic writing .

While you are not a student yet, the rules of academia already apply to you!

Want to know how to write a good essay?

Well, here’s the thing:

There are certain criteria you have to follow if you want to achieve success and impress the committee.

These are the main criteria for evaluating  application essays:

• Original content. This is crucial for showing your college-essay writing skills Try to put yourself in the shoes of the admission committee, who have to read thousands of essays. Each and every essay tells when the applicant was born, what school he/she went to and what subjects he/she liked most of all. It can make anyone get bored to death. Try to be yourself and don’t waste words on unimportant statistical data. Instead, communicate your feelings, motivations and aspirations.
• Enthusiasm. Show your burning desire to go to that college. Even if it is only half true, it will improve your chances for success.
• Tone. Respect your readers and avoid shameless self-promotion. Feel free to use humor, but do not go too far with it. It will show the committee that you have a lively mind, but you also know where to stop. Remember: if you want to find scholarships, you can’t rely on primitive zingers—they won’t do the trick.
• Structure. When writing, say, a short essay on life, make sure to structure it logically and avoid long lists. A college application essay should not be confused with a resume or a curriculum vitae, which consist of lists of your competencies and experiences. The traditional essay structure would be great. Why to reinvent the wheel?

• Style. Your grammar and writing style are important elements of your college application essay.

Two main recommendations are to use active verbs and relatively short sentences. Some people think that long sentences and sophisticated grammar constructions can show how intelligent they are.

This is wrong.

Long words and complicated sentence structures can be rather annoying. Furthermore, it can prevent committees from understanding your brilliant ideas.

✍️ Essay Examples

Now that you have a certain idea about the topics that will work in an application essay, it’s time to look at some helpful examples!

First of all, let’s take a look at several prompts from the 2017-2018 admission cycle that can serve as templates for your writing.

Suffering from creative block?

If you still do not know how to start writing your essays for college application, the following prompts can inspire you, give you an idea about how to start a college essay about yourself and get your writing process going:

• Write about your childhood experiences, such as designing a useful tool, playing computer games, or saving the lives of homeless kittens. These memories are always touching and provide valuable insights into your long-term preferences.
• Speak about the moment when you realized that nursing (engineering, design, etc.) is your calling. Maybe you wanted to help your granny when she had a bad headache. Or, you had good ideas to improve the design of your favorite computer game, but did not know how to put them in practice. If you do not recollect a specific moment, you should not fabricate it.
• Tell how you found out about this college (your friend told you, you found the information on the web or watched an advertisement on TV) and why you decided to apply to it.
• Speak about your dreams, which you will be able to realize after graduating from college (work on the cutting edge, save people’s lives or develop new chemicals, for example).

And here we have some examples of college admission essays with comments that can give you a general direction:

With these helpful tips in mind, you will be able to fully appreciate the following examples of college admission essays:

An encounter with a person:

I never thought that a single conversation would change my entire life. However, after I met Mr. Brown during my volunteer work in the hospital last summer, my life views will never be the same again. He said to me that professional nursing is about healing not only human bodies, but also their souls.

Mr. Brown’s words and personality carved themselves in my memory and contributed to my understanding of the role of a nurse in society. Those memorable words rang in my ears when I was speaking to my patients. It was then that I realized that Nursing is my calling and Mr. Brown helped me make this important life choice…

Comment:  The author discusses not only the encounter, but also its impact on his/her life views. In addition, the author mentions volunteer work, but does not insist on it for itself -instead, the volunteering is shown through the benefits it offered.

Do not hurry to leave this page, because another amazing sample is waiting for you below:

A problem of global importance

Like most of my peers, I did not care much about rare species until I visited the Bronx Zoo and Wildlife Conservation Park in New York. When I looked into the sad eyes of lowland gorillas, I felt that I must do something to contribute to their conservation. My decision to become a biologist became even firmer when I searched for more information for the conference “Better Naked than in Furs”…

Comment:  The author explains why the global problem of conservation of rare species is important to him/her. The phrase “decision became firmer” shows the applicant’s enthusiasm about becoming a biologist. If you need more samples for inspiration (like examples about yourself, examples of personal statements), check out these websites that contain some very helpful information on college writing:

1. https://www.internationalstudent.com/essay_writing/college_essay/ 2. https://www.sparknotes.com/

On these sites you will find useful narrative essay topics, topics for reflective essays and much more!

So, now you are ready to write your own application essay of exceptional quality. Choose the best suitable approach, unlock your imagination and write a winning college admission essay to contribute to your better tomorrow.

❓ Chapter 3: How to Deal with Topics

If you want to be admitted and enroll in college, you have to be aware of the most common college application essay topics. Sure, each college has its own questions and topics, but most of them are likely to fall into one of the following categories:

• The Moment of Enlightenment: What Is Your Main Experience?
• The House That Jack Built: What Are Your Main Accomplishments?
• The Greatest Dream of All: What Is Your Lifelong Ambition?

• The People Around You and What Impact They Have on You;
• Your Vision of the World: The Point of View That Makes a Difference;
• On Moral Issues: What Is Your Opinion of Commercials in Public Schools (/Abortions/Capital Punishment/…)?

• You and the College: What Are Your Anticipations?
• You and the College: Your Major Impressions;
• You and the College: What Are Your Ideas about Certain Changes?

🙋 How to Deal with College Questions

Given the essay writing tips, recommendations, prompts, and sample papers already given above, this part is pretty short and simple.

Whenever you deal with college essay questions, remember the following: An essay question already contains 50% of the answer. The rest is your memory, ability to think, and enthusiasm!

50 College Essay Topics

Sometimes, a sample essay topic like the one below is just not enough. When you face the challenge of writing essays for college, you must know you’re in for something extreme.

Some of the topics below might seem quite unorthodox! You’re not very likely to find these topics among common app essay examples for Harvard, Yale or another Ivy League college, but they do give you a bigger picture of what’s possible.

Check these top 50 craziest topics for essay in the world’s history:

• Write a short story on any topic that will end in the following way: “It was only tomorrow that mattered.”
• Write an essay without using the letter “V.” What could be better for a non-typical college admission letter?
• Describe one day in the life of a certain body part.
• Orwellian nightmares are back: what is your vision of his dystopian world?
• What will it be like living in the year 5000? Offer your ideas about the planet, people, and social life in a 500 words essay.
• If you lived in Carroll’s Wonderland , who of your family, friends, and enemies would impersonate which character from the book?
• Try writing the worst English essay that can possibly exist (believe it, this is harder than it sounds!) Comment on this experience .
• Imagine that you are a cartoon character. What would you say to your scriptwriter? (Probably something like: “If you are such a good writer, write me a decent academic essay!”)
• Think of reasons why aliens have not contacted the Earth yet.
• Imagine that you have been trapped in a dream . Describe the dream and your impressions in a personal essay.
• You have just seen what will happen to the world in the year 4000. Describe your impressions .
• Imagine you have just written a 400-pages autobiography . Submit the 311th page, please. Now that’s putting a new spin on the average essay about yourself! And the weirdest topic for an essay in college is…
• If the ordinary world was only a figment of your imagination , what would the “reality” look like? (Now, that’s definitely not your average common app topic.)
• Write a letter to a college student from the future.
• What do you think of the dystopian future of the modern world?
• Describe your personal views on what art is. 
• Explain your concern about water quality and suggest ways to improve it.  
• What do you think about taking a gap year between high school and college ?
• Examine why it’s essential to save lakes’ and oceans’ wildlife and what you do about it.  
• Describe why you decided to become a teacher.
• Discuss the value of a healthy lifestyle to you.
• Tell about your views on money and expenditure .
• Analyze why deforestation is an urgent problem everyone should care about.  
• Present your views on student responsibility. 
• Explain your opinion on the influence of social media on friendship.
• Describe how the lockdown time became for you a period of personal growth.
• Present your views on the real value of a college education.
• Discuss the influence of the culture you’ve been brought in on your life and personality.
• Analyze how your hobby can help you achieve your professional aims.
• Describe the lessons you’ve learned about race and ethnicity.
• Tell about the event that inspired you to dream of becoming a police officer .
• Explain how the qualities you possess will make you a great nurse.
• Describe what you do to improve your interpersonal relations and how it’ll be beneficial for your future career.
• Discuss the effect Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants had on you .
• Write about your future career goals and how studying in this college will help you to achieve them.
• The most important event from your childhood.
• Discuss the high school challenges you’ve faced and what they taught you.
• Tell about the teachers that made a difference in your life.
• Analyze what habits are essential for your personal development and what you do to achieve them.
• Give your definition of responsibility and explain what you feel responsible for in your life.
• Personal reflections on aging .
• Explain how you managed to resolve a cover conflict .
• Describe what influenced your decision to choose a musical career .
• Write about the event that changed your life and taught you a valuable lesson.
• Discuss the impact of Abraham Lincoln’s personality on your life.
• Analyze the role of reading in your life and the book that affected you the most.
• Why do I want to become a firefighter?
• The role the Internet in our life.
• Tell about the experience of your first job and what it taught you.
• Explain what qualities you need to develop to become a great teacher and how you work on the task.

• Imagine that you have been trapped in a dream. Describe the dream and your impressions in a personal essay.
• You have just seen what would happen to the world in the year 4000. Describe your impressions.
• Imagine you have just written a 400-pages autobiography. Submit the 311th page, please. Now that’s putting a new spin on the average essay about yourself! And the weirdest topic for an essay in college is…
• If the ordinary world was only a figment of your imagination, what would the “reality” look like? (Now that’s definitely not your average common app topic.)

Want to see some more interesting and funny ideas for essay topics? Check out these websites:

• Looking for some ideas to write an essay about something funny? Take a look at Quirky College Application Essay Prompts
• Want your topic to be unorthodox, unconventional and surprising? Then you will definitely like Creative Writing Prompts
• Have you always wanted to make an argument for some concept that is completely out there? Get inspiration from 200 Prompts for Argumentative Essay Writing

⭐ Chapter 4: The Key to Successful College Writing

Be mindful of the structure of your essay. All college application essay topics have a formula. If you follow it, the committee will see your abilities and academic potential.

The college application essay should follow the structure:

• Essay introduction - the presentation of the problem, the timeliness of the problem
• Opinion 1, proofs
• Contradictory opinion, proofs
• Opinion 2, proofs
• Contradictory point of view, proofs
• Opinion 3, proofs
• Conclusion. It is advisable to express your personal point of view about the problem

Here’s something important to keep in mind: When we talk about “proof”, what we mean is this: “Because I said so” never really counts as proof. Try to look for authoritative sources and experts on the subject.

If you want to learn more about the typical essay structure, follow this link . For more information on different types of essays (like descriptive essays, narrative essays, or persuasive essays) check out this page.

There is no template for a great essay. But there are techniques that can help you write your application.

Choosing the topic

Ask yourself: “Do I want to write a persuasive essay or an informative essay?” If you can’t make up your mind, take out a sheet of paper and make a table. Fill one column with topics of a more persuasive nature and the second one with topics of a more informative nature. Then cross out any topics that seem a bit off.

Checking Essays Written by Other People

This is not a suggestion to steal other people’s work. But their thoughts can definitely help you with your own essay. And, if you need some more assistance, use our services!

Writing the essay outline

Some people prefer to get straight to the writing. However, if you do so, you may run out of creative fuel halfway and then be clueless about where your essay is going. Writing an outline first, on the other hand, provides a solid plan you can stick to.

Walking in the shoes of the reader

When you’re engrossed in writing, you can forget one simple fact: Someone else is going to read the assignment. By switching your perspective to that of, say, a committee member, you’ll be able to see flaws you didn’t notice before.

Not everyone knows that the college application essay is the chance to show your personality, inner world. It develops your creativity. Here are 3 steps to successful essays:

• Brainstorming Due to brainstorming you can find the subject which you have not noticed before. Make a list of your best characteristics before applying to college.Why are you a strong person? Have you ever tried to change the lives of people around you for the best? How do people around characterize you? What are your dreams for the future? Do you apply every effort to realizing them?
• Is the topic selected of the real interest for you?
• Have you ever had an experience of facing the similar problem?
• Can you make your essay vivid?

• Editing Once you’ve finished writing, double check the text of your college application essay. Correct whatever errors you find, and don’t put it off until just moments before the application deadline! When it comes to editing, many of us relax, convinced that the bulk of the work is done.But that’s a mistake.Silly typos and poor grammar can be the deciding factor for the committee. They can be especially scrupulous about grammar. Thus, you could find yourself out of the running due to very minor details.Wouldn’t that be a shame?Stay vigilant about your grammar, and check out some resources to make sure your grammar is perfect.

Competent college application essays show how articulate you are. Do not miss such a chance. Just believe in yourself! And we will help you in this.

Essays are the most common academic paper that looks might seem easy to write. Our free essay tips will help you to get through any kind of essays. Still, if you are stuck on writing, you can always ask us for help!

Custom-Writing is an essay writing service that helps people all over the world get scholarships. If you need a research paper, a thesis, or an essay for any subject, you don’t have to look any further.

Here’s what’s so great about our company:

• Professional writers Our employees are people with degrees in various fields of academic studies. You can always rely on their expertise and years of practice.
• Generous discounts Loyal customers are rewarded with special discounts on their orders. Get your papers up to 30% cheaper!
• 100% original content While many online writing services deal in pre-made university essays, ours are always custom-made. As you can guess, plagiarism is simply out of the question!
• Solid guarantees With our money-back policy and free revisions, you can be sure that we always put our clients’ interests first.
• Free perks These include an outline and a complete list of references!

Are you wondering, “Who can write my essay?” Want to know more about the fantastic world of Custom Writing? Then check out what our company has to offer to make sure that every college essay you submit is of top-notch quality! Here you will find college essay examples of a personal statement as well as some advice on how to write a proper college essay format.

Our custom written essays are well-structured, professional, and cover the material in-depth. With our help, you can get all kinds of college scholarships and grants. Simply place an order with our custom writing service. Then buy the essay using any available payment method. And get your A+ papers!

Further reading:

• How to Write a Creative Essay: Tips, Topics and Techniques
• Descriptive Writing Exercises to Boost Your Imagination
• Unique Essay Topics for College Students
• Terrific Essay Tools for Fast and Simple Writing
• How to Use the Right Gender-Neutral Pronouns
• How to Write an Outline That Will Earn an A+ Grade
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Thanks for showing the difference between a college essay and a high school essay:)) Nice ideas to use when writing essays and ones to avoid using at all. Thanks for sharing them!

A high school essay is not the same as a college essay. It is much harder, with more profound research and mature ideas… Thanks for the main peculiarities and differences between these two types of work.

College 101

• Writing Your Essay

Writing Your Essay Article Type: Quick and Dirty

You've written a lot in your lifetime. For serious. You've authored papers for your history classes and reports for English. You've penned poetry en español . You've Tweeted, Facebooked, and blogged.

The college application is an extension of something you've been doing for most of your life, so don't treat it as something terrifying. Treat it as a challenge. Treat it as one of the obstacles you have to overcome in order to get your grubby paws on an acceptance letter to Yale.

Now, how do you actually get this sucker written? So glad you asked.

First thing's first: start writing. Take your favorite idea from your amazing brainstorming session, and run with it. You're going to do a million drafts of your essay, so don't waste your time fretting over word choice or semicolon placement. The important thing is that you get something – anything – written down, so you have raw material to work with.

Once you have a couple of pages on how your summer mission trip to Guatemala changed your life, you can take your ugly lump of coal and start polishing it into a Harvard-worthy diamond.

Parke Muth knows a thing or two about application essays (only two though). After serving in the Office of Admission at the University of Virginia for almost 30 years, he's seen his fair share. Read what Parke has to say about voice and about well-written application essays in general.

Two Things To Keep In Mind While You Write

• Is your essay answering the question? As you hammer out the many iterations of your essay, remember that you're responding to a particular prompt. Your reader should be able to tell what question you're addressing when they start paging through your essay, and they should have your answer to that question by thetime they get to your final sentence.
• Are you making the impression you want to make? You are a composition of hundred of traits, qualities, and quirks. In your essay, you will emphasize one or two of the things that make you, you. You will emphasize the one or two things that you feel make you an exceptional applicant to a particular school. Polish your essay accordingly.

You've written four drafts of your essay. You've spell-checked the heck out of it. It's a product that you're proud of, and that you feel will enhance your application.

Time to let other people look at it.

This part...well, this part can hurt, because your essay is your baby.

Thing is, you want honest opinions on this. While you'll find that not all input is useful or workable, you're likely to get back a suggestion or two that will make your essay stronger, better, faster. So, suck it up, and ask someone with an editor's eye to read what you've written.

Then, edit. And rewrite. Rinse and repeat until you're satisfied it's your best work.

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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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College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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