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How to Write Application College Essay: Guide and Tips
Author:
Dallas Hardwick
Feb 3, 2025
7 min
Table of contents
- How to write a college application essay
- College application essay vs college admission essay: is there a difference?
- 1. Organize early
- 2. Start brainstorming
- 3. Make an outline first
- 4. Begin with an attention-grabbing intro
- 5. Write creatively
- 6. End the essay with a strong impression
- 7. Proofread, revise, and get feedback
How to write a college application essay
More and more colleges are no longer taking test scores as the biggest factor when admitting students. What does this mean for you?
Only that your college application essay is now more important than ever.
College essays offer a unique chance to stand out from the thousands of other applicants. A personal statement that shows insight into who you are can make or break your college application but it all depends on how well-written it is.
So let’s delve into college essay writing, from the right college application essay format down to proofreading and revision.
Check out the rest of this blog for the step-by-step process of writing college essays.
College application essay vs college admission essay: is there a difference?
Most likely, a college application essay is the same thing as a college admission essay. Many people use both phrases interchangeably when they talk about the essay required for college application. However, they do have slightly different connotations based on the context.
College application essay
Some people use this term when they refer to the essay involved in the college application process. These could mean different essays like personal statements and supplemental essays or anything else written as part of the college application.
College admission essay
A college admission essay, on the other hand, could mean just the main essay required for the college admissions process. This particular essay often prods you as the applicant to reflect on your personal experiences, identity, values, motivations, and achievements.
Given how this essay provides insights into your character, it will be a crucial component to the decision of the admission officers on whether you are fit for the institution or not.
In the end, whatever you call it, you must know how to write a good college application essay to get a higher chance of getting into your dream school. The good news is we’re here to help you with a simple guide and a few tips.
1. Organize early
You should organize early for your college application essay, sometime in the summer of your junior year. Doing so will make the writing process so much easier, giving you more time for brainstorming, writing, and everything else.
What’s the usual timeline for this? It’s different for every student, but here’s the usual breakdown:
Brainstorming and writing the first draft – 1 to 3 weeks
More writing and revising – 2 to 4 weeks
Be sure to leave enough time between the writing and editing so you can look at your first draft with fresh eyes when revising.
What if you’re applying to several schools?
This makes the writing more complicated, but you can juggle it with the help of a tracker. You can make a spreadsheet to help organize your essays, adding how many essays you need to write, the deadline for each, the prompts, and other details.
2. Start brainstorming
Start brainstorming as early as you can too, maybe during the summer before senior year. The goal is to think of topics unique enough that make your personal essay notable among the other thousand college essays the admission committees receive.
When deciding what to write about, know that a good college essay topic is personal, is uncommon, and reveals something different about you. If you decide to write a common topic for your personal statement, find an unusual angle to differentiate it from other essays.
Here are some questions to help you get started on brainstorming:
- What are your strengths? Why do you think they are your strengths?
- What part of your daily life do you find most interesting?
- Have you traveled before? If yes, what did you do or have learned from it?
- Where do you feel at home the most?
- Have you ever felt out of place before?
- Have you had a job before? What did you do? Did you have a memorable experience then?
- Whom do you admire the most?
- Do you feel different from your peers? Why do you think so?
- What adjectives do you think best describe you?
- What are your values? What are your experiences where you have demonstrated these values?
Ask yourself more of these questions, which should help you narrow down the college essay topics that you might be interested in writing about.
3. Make an outline first
If you’ve picked up a college essay topic, the next thing you need to do is organize your ideas by creating an outline. This is important so you can keep your focus while writing and your ideas not ending up all over the place.
One thing to note is there is no set structure or format in college essays. With this type of essay, we advise that you actually apply creative writing and storytelling to make your narrative more interesting.
There are various approaches you can use in structuring your college essay, but the most common is the single-story structure.
With this structure, you use a chronological narrative to show your character development. It can be a story detailing moments of just one significant moment. Or, you can write a story that spans different periods in your life.
Whichever the case, you can use this structure to showcase your personal development or overcome a major challenge that has now shaped who you are.
4. Begin with an attention-grabbing intro
The admission officers won’t spend more than a few minutes reading your essay. That’s why you need an absolutely attention-grabbing introduction.
How? Well, not by starting your essay with clichés or famous quotes. It also won’t grab their attention if you start with a reference to the essay itself saying, “While I’m writing this essay..,” They are not going to compel the admission committees to read more.
Impress admissions officers by starting your personal statement with any of the following methods:
- Ask a question, even rhetorical, to make the reader think about what you have to say
- Tell a joke to lighten the mood and let the reader enjoy reading the rest of the essay
- Make an unexpected statement or mysterious introduction to disarm the expectations of the reader
- Illustrate a vivid image to transport the reader into the memory or scene you are relaying to them
- State a shocking fact or statistics to impress and inspire the reader’s curiosity
These are only a few of the techniques you can use to ensure the admission officers continue reading your college application essay.
5. Write creatively
We mentioned applying creativity in writing your college essay—this doesn’t mean embellishing, exaggerating, or lying in crafting your story. Rather, it’s about using narrative techniques like symbolism, imagery, and dialogue, which help bring life into your words.
Employ the “show, don’t tell” rule. Don’t simply state, “I’m a science nerd,” but show it through imagery, specific details, and examples. Doing so will help the reader visualize the memory or moment you are describing.
You can do this by reflecting on the details of the scene you’re recalling, such as the smells, sounds, sights, or tastes associated with it. You can also describe the physical feeling or emotion you have during that particular time.
Being authentic is also an important part of writing your personal statement. Being vulnerable will allow you to express your heartfelt feelings and thoughts in a way that will evoke an emotional response from your reader. Just remember not to exaggerate so as to gain pity, which will only negatively affect the admission officers’ impression of you.
Another way to make your essay more interesting is by looking for original insights in your otherwise cliché storyline.
For instance, it’s a common insight to talk about forgiveness in a topic regarding making a friend out of your enemy. For a more unique angle, how about you talk about how it forced you to confront your own toxic thinking?
What about the style and tone? Make sure you use the right ones, which are conversational but still respectful.
Don’t make it sound too formal as if you are writing an academic paper but not too informal like you’re just texting someone.
Of course, it is crucial in writing college essays to follow correct grammar rules, use active voice, and write concisely.
More importantly, use “I” statements to keep the focus on you.
6. End the essay with a strong impression
Strongly impress admissions officers with a creative ending or a deep reflection of the topic. One way to make sure of that is to not end it with a summary of the essay or saying you hope to get accepted to your dream school.
An excellent strategy would be the use of the conclusion to reveal the insight you gained from your experiences. If you didn’t name your values in the body of your essay, a simple tactic to show your insight is simply to name them explicitly at the end of the essay.
Describing how your experiences can relate to your course or dream career can also serve as an effective conclusion to your essay. Moreover, it can be a great setup for supplemental essays on why you’ve chosen to apply to that particular school.
7. Proofread, revise, and get feedback
Once you are done writing your personal essay, don’t forget to revise its content, grammar, and style. Read your essay aloud, which may help you notice errors that you haven’t before. It’s also a great idea to let two or three people read it for some feedback.
Know that it will take several revisions before your essay is ready for submission. Remember to keep the essay within the required word count.
FAQ
College application essays must be concise otherwise you risk losing the admission committees’ attention. As such, it’s only meant to have a few hundred words. You must make your point within that word count—quickly and efficiently. The common word count for college essays is around 250 to 650 words.
You want to be able to grab the admission officer’s attention, so think of an intro that can effectively reel in the reader. You will have to utilize any creative bones you have to write a unique and intriguing personal statement. Some of the common tips include adding some anecdotes and relevant quotes or perhaps posing a question at the start.
Your essay should include details about yourself such as your past experiences, values, ideas, convictions, and dreams. The college essay is a tool to make you look like the best applicant, so don’t waste this opportunity by leveraging your experiences. Besides a captivating hook, your essay must be a meaningful story that showcases your reflection and growth with authenticity and of course, clear structure.
It’s best to avoid cliché and controversial topics like your school achievements and accolades as well as politics and religion. These topics are either too common or too difficult to express well, which might backfire on you. Better to pick a topic that the admission officers will find refreshing while effectively showcasing what you have to offer.
You can but keep in mind that it can be difficult to write this particular topic for several reasons such as how you might still be struggling with it. Sadly, it’s also a very common topic so it might be hard for you to stand out with a personal statement on mental health. Consider talking with your English teacher and the school counselor about how you might go about writing it.
Writing an essay for a college application can be extremely stressful but it doesn’t have to be. All you need is to plan your writing well and early to ensure you have all the time you need to craft a well-written college essay that showcases your strengths, abilities, and potential.
This guide should help the writing process be less daunting for motivated students like you. Keep in mind the steps and tips we’ve shared above and you’ll have an easier time creating a memorable essay for every college application you send out.
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