In a short essay or personal statement, university-bound seniors must make every word count.
It’s still summer. You are (hopefully) enjoying the sunshine. Your senior year of high school (hopefully) hasn’t begun yet. You (hopefully) aren’t thinking about classrooms, lectures, and homework. You may even be on a family vacation or lazily scrolling through social media, watching Netflix, or working a summer job for some extra—or indispensable—cash. This is not the time to focus on the nebulous “future,” right?
Actually, it is.
If you plan to apply to a four-year university for the 2024–2025 school year, now is the time to brainstorm, write, and revise your college application essay(s)/personal statement(s).
A Special Kind of “Essay”
I’m certain the word “essay” conjures many thoughts and emotions—not all positive. Maybe it invokes those dreaded five paragraphs you’ve been perfecting—or avoiding—since middle school. Maybe “essay” makes you think of painstaking research or literary criticism to prove you read and understood the deeper meaning of the latest novel your English teacher plucked from the district-approved “canon.” You know the one: It was written at least a hundred years ago. It was assigned to a whole class of varied individuals, and you were all supposed to connect with it and apply it to your modern-day lives. You were asked to glean its themes and metaphors and write about them in a formal fashion with examples from the text.
I know those essays well. I’ve written and read countless versions of them.
Here’s the thing: College application essays are not those kinds of essays.
As a former high school English teacher and current published essayist who has read and assigned those frightful five-paragraph academic papers, I can say with conviction that a college application essay is more fun to write. (No, really.) It’s satisfying because it’s creative, and it’s about you.
Throw Out the Rules
Have you ever had an English teacher tell you never to use “I” when you’re writing an essay—no first-person narrative ever? I have. Guess what? It’s time to toss out that rule and embrace your own narrative. Now is your chance to showcase your unique personality—your voice on the page; a distinctive spin on a specific experience from your life; what you learned about yourself; and how you did or did not change your outlook or behavior as a result of that experience. Bonus points if you learned something universal about the world you can apply to your future as a college student on an incredible campus of your choice!
Where to Begin
The anecdote you choose to write about for your college application essay/personal statement informs the person you are today—right now—with all of your imperfections and marvelous attributes, and it doesn’t have to be a giant tragic—or joyous—life event. In fact, it’s probably best if it isn’t. If you can morph a mundane, unremarkable incident or concept into something weighty and thought-provoking because of how you write about it, you will stand out from the hundreds of other essays in the gatekeepers’ inboxes.
Don’t Fear the Blank Page
If you’re like me, the blank page can be scary. After all the relentless work you’ve accomplished as a young scholar up until now, how can a piece of writing that’s 650 words or fewer stand between you and your dream school—your introduction to the big, bad awesome world of adulthood with all its potential, where anything can happen? If you take it one step at a time, I promise it doesn’t have to be as painful as it appears when you’re staring at that blank page.
This is your opportunity to exhibit your character; to sound like you in a more informal way than when you write bookish papers; to be proud but humble; humorous but not overtly so; an adept storyteller using all five senses; and a straightforward, succinct, reflective interpreter of a personal tale—momentous or otherwise.
A Failure Transformed into a Success
How will you grab a smart reader in the first sentence? How will you make your essay jump out from the pack of other deserving incoming college freshmen?
Let me give you an example:
I once guided a friend’s son through the process of completing his Common Application essay—an online portal used by more than 900 universities. The first draft he sent me began like this: “Humans are fallible creatures . . .”
This is true. The words themselves are solid. But the eyes of someone reading hundreds of these submissions would most likely glaze over if they saw this. Why? Because it’s too broad; it’s something everyone already knows; and it tells me nothing specific about my friend’s son.
Based on my suggestions, in a future draft, he wrote an honest, direct statement about himself instead: “My junior year I made the worst decision of my academic career. I plagiarized an assignment . . .” In fact, he copied an entire essay word for word after three years of busting his backside to succeed without duplicity.
Why would he choose to take this action and admit he cheated on a crucial paper—years before ChatGPT—in an essay meant to help him gain access into his favorite college? Because the rest of the essay explains why he did it and how he overcame such a questionable choice, the actions he took to better his emotional and educational circumstances, and how his current stance makes him an excellent candidate for admission into the university. In the essay, he wrote, “I cheated, but I’m not a cheater.” (Spoiler alert: He got in.)
Start with a Scene
If I advised him now, I would go even further: Start your essay in a scene. If someone was watching a defining moment from your life in a film, what would they see, hear, and feel? The first part of your essay should read like fiction even though it’s true. Universities want to know you can write, and they want to learn about you as a real human—not only someone who will impact their institution but someone who is self-aware and grows from mistakes. Readers like a compelling story about overcoming adversity—self-inflicted or otherwise.
I Can Guide You
You don’t have to go through this process alone, nor should you. Let’s work together. As your college application essay specialist, I will:
. . . brainstorm topic ideas with you, asking compassionate, probing questions about your background, interests, achievements, mistakes, and skills.
. . . provide guidance during the writing process, sharing more than two decades of experience as an essayist, editor, and mentor about what makes a good story; when you should “show” what happened; when you should “tell” how it affected you; how to find the structure; and what to focus on, cut, or expand to make your essay stand out.
. . . proofread your essay for grammatical errors, repetition, word choice, spelling errors, and other mechanics.
. . . act as an adviser and cheerleader, highlighting your strengths and where your writing works best, as well as which sentences can be improved and how.