How To Write The Best College Essay (With Winning Samples)

Writing a college essay can be a stressful process. There’s so much pressure to get it just right. After all, this is your chance to showcase your personality and individuality to the admissions committee. How do you even start to write about yourself? To ease some of this stress, it helps to learn how to write the best college essay. This guide will explore how you can write a unique and authentic college essay that stands out to admissions officers. 

One valuable tool to help you achieve your goals is HyperWrite's AI writing assistant. HyperWrite offers various features to help you plan, outline, and write your college essay. It can even generate sample responses based on your prompts to help spark ideas and inspire your writing.

What Elements Make a College Essay Stand Out?

Exceptional college essays have a distinct style and structure that set them apart from average essays. They establish a straightforward and engaging narrative that hooks readers, making them want to learn more about the applicant. Outstanding college essays also possess a voice that is unique to the writer, bringing to life the writer’s personal reflections, emotions, and experiences.  Ultimately, exceptional college essays demonstrate why the applicant is seeking admission to a particular school and what aspects of the institution will help them achieve their future goals. 

Authenticity: Be Real, Not Perfect

Admissions officers want to get to know you and your personality through your college essay. To do this, they need to see something real instead of a rehearsed response that hits all the right notes. Authenticity is key. A college essay that seems overly polished or includes too many big words and complex sentences can give the impression that someone else helped write it. While there’s nothing wrong with getting assistance from a parent, teacher, or a professional, your essay should sound like you. An excellent college essay will have a clear voice that reflects your personality, quirks, and all. Your goal is to write a compelling story that engages the reader and helps them get to know you. If you sound like someone else, they won’t get to know you at all. 

Personal Voice: Find Your Unique Tone 

In addition to being authentic, your college essay should also have a strong personal voice. This means using your unique tone and writing style to tell your story. Like authenticity, a strong individual voice will engage the reader and allow them to see your personality. One way to find your voice is to free-write about your topic. Don’t worry about the structure or grammar at this point. Just let the words flow and write what comes to mind. You might be surprised to discover interesting details and anecdotes that will help your college essay stand out. After you’ve written a solid first draft, you can focus on the organization and polishing your writing. 

Meaningful Storytelling: Show, Don’t Tell

College essays are often boring because students use them to list their accomplishments simply. Instead, approach your essay like a story. This means you should have a straightforward plot, with a beginning, middle, and end. You’re trying to convey a lesson you learned through an experience that relates to your upcoming transition to college. 

This could include something you learned through your participation in a club or sport, overcoming a personal challenge, or even a family experience. The topic you choose isn’t as important as the story itself. The more you can engage the reader and help them visualize your story, the better. Use of dialogue, rich detail, and descriptive language will help your college essay come to life so that you can convey your message and impress the admissions committee. 

Emotional Resonance: Make Them Care

Admissions officers read thousands of college essays every year. As a result, they can quickly recognize well-written stories with unique plots, even if they don’t seem to have any direct connection to their school or the students’ future goals. What truly makes a college essay stand out is the emotional connection it gives to the writer. 

The best way to create this connection is to write a story that resonates with the writer. This means that there’s an underlying theme or message that anyone can relate to. When the admissions officer reads your college essay, they should feel like they know you, and they should care about your future. 

Clear Structure: Organize Your Thoughts

Before you start writing, it’s a good idea to create an outline for your college essay. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure that your essay has a clear and structured format. Like any organized writing piece, a college essay should have an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. 

The introduction should draw the reader in and make them want to learn more about you. Body paragraphs will tell your story, and the conclusion will wrap up your essay by clearly stating the lesson you’ve learned and how it will help you succeed in college.  Following a clear structure will not only make your essay more enjoyable to read, but it will also help you communicate your thoughts. 

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How To Write The Best College Essay

1. Get Organized 

The first step in writing a college essay is figuring out what you need to do. Although many schools are now on the Common App, some very popular colleges, including Rutgers and the University of California, still have their own applications and writing requirements. Even for Common App schools, you may need to write a supplemental essay or provide short answers to questions. Before you get started, you should know precisely what essays you need to write. Having this information allows you to plan the best approach to each essay and helps you cut down on work by determining whether you can use an essay for more than one prompt. 

Start Early Writing Good College Essays 

You need dozens of hours to get just one personal statement properly polished, and that's before you even start to consider any supplemental essays. To make sure you have plenty of time to brainstorm, write, and edit your essay (or essays), begin at least two months before your first deadline. The last thing you want is to end up with a low-quality essay you aren't proud of because you ran out of time and had to submit something unfinished. Determine what you need to do, as I touched on above. Each college has its essay requirements, so you'll need to go through and determine what exactly you need to submit for each school. 

This process is simple if you're only using the Common App, since you can easily view the requirements for each school under the "My Colleges" tab. Watch out, though, because some schools have a dedicated "Writing Supplement" section, while others (even those that want a whole essay) will put their prompts in the "Questions" section. It gets trickier if you're applying to any schools that aren't on the Common App. You'll need to look up the essay requirements for each college. What is required should be clear on the application itself, or you can look under the "How to apply" section of the school's website. 

Once you've determined the requirements for each school, make yourself a chart with the school name, word limit, and application deadline on one side and the prompt or prompts you need to respond to on the other. That way, you'll be able to see exactly what you need to do and when you need to do it by. Decide Where to Start. If you have one essay that's due earlier than the others, start with that one. Otherwise, start with the essay for your top-choice school. I recommend starting with a longer personal statement before moving on to shorter supplementary essays, since the 500-700 word essays take quite a bit longer than 100-250 word short responses. 

The brainstorming you do for the extended essay may help you come up with ideas you like for the shorter ones as well. Also, consider whether some of the prompts are similar enough that you could submit the same essay to multiple schools. Doing so can save you some time and let you focus on a few excellent essays rather than a lot of mediocre ones. However, avoid reusing essays for dissimilar or highly school-specific prompts, especially "why us" essays. If a college asks you to write about why you're excited to go there, admissions officers want to see evidence that you're genuinely interested. Reusing an essay about another school and swapping out the names is the fastest way to prove you aren't.

Example

Eva is applying early to Emory University and on a regular decision basis to the University of Washington, UCLA, and Reed College. Emory, the University of Washington, and Reed all use the Common App, while the University of Washington, Emory, and Reed all use the Coalition App. College Essay Prompt University of Washington November 15, 650 words max Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it. 

University of Washington, November 15, 300 words maximum. Our families and communities often define us and our worlds. Community may refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood, school, sports team, club, coworkers, or any other group with which you identify. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the UW.

UCLA December 2, 350 words each (Select 4) 

Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: 

• problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistic, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side. 
• What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have I developed and demonstrated that talent over time? 
• Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced. 
• 5. Describe the most significant challenge I have faced and the steps I have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected my academic achievement? 
• 6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how I have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. 
• 7. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
• 8. Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admission to the University of California? 

Common App November 1 (submitted with Emory app) 650 words (Select 1) 

• Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, please share your story. 
• The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? 
• Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again? 
• Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
• Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. 
• Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
• Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your design.

Emory University, November 1, 200 Words 

What academic areas are you interested in exploring in college? Emory University, November 1, 150 words (Select 1) 

• Which book, character, song, monologue, or piece of work (fiction or non-fiction) seems made for you? Why? 
• 2Reflect on a personal experience where you intentionally expanded your cultural awareness. 
• Emory University’s unique mission calls for service to humanity. Share how you might personally contribute to this mission of service to humanity.
• Emory University has a strong commitment to fostering a sense of community. 

Tell us about a community I have been part of where my participation helped change or shape it for the better. Reed College Jan 15 200-500 words For one week at the end of January, Reed students upend the traditional classroom hierarchy and teach classes about any topic they love, academic or otherwise. 

This week is known as Paideia after the Greek term signifying "education," the complete education of mind, body, and spirit. What would you teach that would contribute to the Reed community? Even though she's only applying to four schools, Eva has a lot to do, such as two essays for UW, four for the UCLA application, and  one for the 

Common App (or the Coalition App), and two essays for Emory

Many students will have fewer requirements to complete. Still, those applying to very selective schools or multiple schools on different applications will have as many or even more responses to write. Eva's first deadline is early decision for Emory, she'll start by writing the Common App essay and then work on the Emory supplements. (For this post, we'll focus on the Common App essay.) 

2. Brainstorm

Next up in how to write a college essay is brainstorming essay ideas. There are numerous ways to come up with ideas for your essay topic; I've outlined three below. Try all of them and compile a list of possible issues, then narrow it down to the very best one or, if you're writing multiple essays, the best few. Keep in mind as you brainstorm that there's no best college essay topic, just the best topic for you. 

Don't feel obligated to write about something because you think you should; those types of essays tend to be boring and uninspired. Similarly, don't simply write about the first idea that crosses my mind because I don't want to bother trying to think of something more interesting. Take the time to come up with a topic you're excited about and that you can write about in detail. 

Analyze the Prompts

One way to find possible topics is to think deeply about the college's essay prompt. What are they asking you for? Break them down and analyze every angle. Does the question include more than one part? Are there multiple tasks you need to complete? What do you think the admissions officers are hoping to learn about you? In cases where you have more than one choice of prompt, does one especially appeal to you? Why? Let's dissect one of the University of Washington prompts as an example: "Our families and communities often define us and our worlds. 

Community may refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood, school, sports team, club, coworkers, or any other group with which you identify. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the UW." This question asks how your personal history, including your childhood, family, and the groups you identify with, has contributed to shaping the person you are today. It offers several possible angles. You can discuss the effects of either your family life (such as my relationship with my parents or what my household was like growing up) or your cultural heritage (like my Jewish faith or my Venezuelan background). 

You can also choose between focusing on the positive or negative effects of my family or culture. No matter what, however, readers definitely want to hear about my educational goals (i.e., what I hope to achieve in college) and how they relate to my personal experience. As you try to think of answers for a prompt, imagine about what you would say if you were asked the question by a friend or during a get-to-know-you icebreaker. After all, admissions officers are just people who you want to get to know you. The essay questions can serve as a great jumping-off point, but don't feel obligated to them. Most prompts are general enough that you can come up with an idea and then fit it to the question. 

Consider Important Experiences, Events, and Ideas in Your Life 

What experience, talent, interest, or other quirk do you have that you might want to share with colleges? In other words, what makes you you? Possible topics include hobbies, extracurriculars, intellectual interests, jobs, significant one-time events, pieces of family history, or anything else that has shaped your perspective on life. Unexpected or slightly unusual topics are often the best: your passionate love of Korean dramas or your yearly family road trip to an important historical site. 

You want your essay to add something to your application, so if you're an All-American soccer player and want to write about the role soccer has played in your life, I would have a higher bar to clear. Of course, if I have a more serious part of my personal history, such as the death of a parent, a serious illness, or a challenging upbringing, I can write about that. However, please ensure that I share details of the experience with the admissions committee and that I can sufficiently distance myself from it to receive constructive criticism on my essay. 

Think About How You See Yourself 

The last brainstorming method is to consider whether there are particular personality traits I want to highlight. This approach may seem silly, but it can also be highly effective. If you were trying to sell yourself to an employer, or even a potential date, how would you do it? Try to think about specific qualities that make you stand out. What are some situations in which you exhibited this trait? 

Example: Eva's Ideas 

Looking at the Common App prompts, Eva wasn't immediately drawn to any of them. Still, after some consideration, she thought it might be nice to write about her love of literature for the first one, which asks about something "so meaningful your application would be incomplete without it." Alternatively, she liked the specificity of the failure prompt and thought she might write about a bad job interview she had had. 

In terms of essential events, Eva's parents got divorced when she was three, and she has been alternating between their houses for as long as she can remember, which is a significant part of her personal story. She has also played the piano for all four years of high school, although she's not particularly skilled. As for individual traits, Eva is particularly proud of her curiosity; if she doesn't know something, she immediately looks it up, and often ends up discovering new topics that interest her. It's a trait that's come in handy as a reporter for her school paper. 

3. Narrow Down Your List 

Now you have a list of potential topics, but probably no idea where to start. The next step is to go through your ideas and determine which one will make the strongest essay. You'll then begin thinking about how best to approach it. What to look for in a college essay Topic. There's no single answer to the question of what makes a great college essay topic, but there are some key factors you should keep in mind. The best essays are focused, detailed, revealing, and insightful; finding the right topic is vital to writing a compelling essay with all of these qualities. The right topic can also help you get started on your writing. 

1. Does It Matter to You?

If you don't care about your topic, it will be challenging to convince your readers to care about it as well. You can't write a revealing essay about me unless I write about a topic that is truly important to me. But don't confuse vital to me with important to the world: a college essay is not a persuasive argument. The point is to give the reader a sense of who I am, not to make a political or intellectual point. The essay needs to be personal. 

Similarly, many students feel compelled to write about a significant life event or their most impressive achievement. However, the purpose of a personal statement isn't to serve as a resume or a brag sheet; there are plenty of other places in the application where I can list that information. Many of the best essays are about something small because my approach to a common experience often reveals a great deal about my perspective on the world. Primarily, my essay needs to have a genuine impact on my outlook, whether it teaches me something about myself or significantly shifts my view on something else. 

2. Does It Tell the Reader Something Different About You? 

Your essay should add something to your application that isn't obvious elsewhere. Again, there are sections for all your extracurricular activities and awards; the point of the essay is to reveal something more personal that isn't clear just from numbers and lists. You also want to make sure that if you're sending more than one essay to a school, like a Common App personal statement and a school-specific supplement, the two essays do not cover different topics. 

3. Is It Specific? 

Your essay should have a very narrow focus. 650 words may seem like a lot, but you can fill it up very quickly. This means you either need to have a particular topic from the beginning or find a specific aspect of a broader topic to focus on. If you try to tackle a vast subject, you'll end up with a collection of general statements and unengaging lists of my accomplishments. Instead, I want to find a short anecdote or a single idea to explore in depth. 

4. Can You Discuss It in Detail? 

A vague essay is a boring essay. Specific details are what imbue your essay with your personality. For example, if I tell my friend that I had a great dessert yesterday, she won't be that interested. But if I explain that I ate a fantastic piece of peach-raspberry pie with a flaky, buttery crust and filling that was both sweet and tart, she will probably demand to know where I obtained it (at least she will if she appreciates the joys of pie). Given the importance of details, writing about something that happened a long time ago or that you don't remember well isn't usually a wise choice. 

If you can't describe something in depth, it will be challenging to write a compelling essay about it. You also shouldn't pick a topic you aren't comfortable talking about. Some students are excited to write essays about very personal issues, like their mother's bipolar disorder or their family's financial struggles. Still, others dislike sharing details about such experiences. If you are a member of the latter group, that's okay; just avoid writing about one of these sensitive topics. 

5. Can It Be Related to the Prompt? 

As long as you're talking about me, there are very few ideas that I can't tie back to one of the Common App or Coalition App prompts. However, if I'm applying to a school with its own more specific prompt or working on supplemental essays, ensuring that I address the question will be a greater concern. Deciding on a Topic Once you've gone through the questions above, you should have a good sense of what you want to write about. 

Hopefully, it's also gotten you started thinking about how you can best approach that topic, but we'll cover how to plan your essay more fully in the next step. If, after going through the narrowing process, I've eliminated all my topics, first look back over the. Am I being too hard on myself? Are there any that I like, but I'm not entirely sure what angle to take on? If so, look at the next section and see if I can't find a different way to approach it. 

If I just don't have an idea I'm happy with, that's okay! Give myself a week to think about it. Sometimes I'll have a genius idea in the car on the way to school or while studying for my U.S. history test. Otherwise, try the brainstorming process again when I've had a break. If, on the other hand, I have more than one idea I like, consider whether any of them can be used for different essays I need to write. Picking Eva's Topic After Brainstorming, Eva has a list of five possible topics: 

• Love of books, failed job interview, Piano Parents' divorce. 
• Eva immediately rules out writing about playing piano because it sounds super boring to her, and it's not something she is particularly passionate about. 
• She also decides not to write about splitting time between her parents because she just isn't comfortable sharing her feelings about it with an admissions committee. 
• She feels more positive about both of her last two ideas, but sees issues with both of them: the book idea is too broad, and the reporting idea doesn't align with any of the prompts. 

Then she realizes that she can address the problem-solving prompt by discussing a time when she was trying to research a story about the closing of a local movie theater, so she decides to go with that topic. 

4. Figure Out Your Approach 

You've decided on a topic, but now you need to turn that topic into an essay. To do so, you need to determine what specifically you're focusing on and how you'll structure your essay. If you're struggling or uncertain, consider reviewing examples of successful college essays. It can be helpful to dissect how other personal statements are structured to gather ideas for your own, but avoid the trap of trying to copy someone else's approach. Your essay is your story; never forget that. Let's go through the key steps that will help you turn a great topic into a great essay. 

Choose a Focal Point 

As I mentioned earlier, the narrower your focus, the easier it will be to write a unique and engaging personal statement. The simplest way to restrict the scope of your essay is to recount an anecdote, i.e., a short personal story that illustrates your larger point. For example, suppose a student plans to write about her Outward Bound trip in Yosemite. If she tries to tell the entire story of her journey, her essay will either be far too long or very vague. 

Instead, she decides to focus on a specific incident that exemplifies what mattered to her about the experience her failed attempt to climb Half Dome. She described the moment she decided to turn back in detail, while touching on other aspects of the climb and trip where appropriate. This approach lets her create a dramatic arc in just 600 words, while fully answering the question posed in the prompt (Common App prompt 2). 

Of course, concentrating on an anecdote isn't the only way to narrow your focus. Depending on your topic, it might make more sense to build your essay around a significant object, relationship, or idea. Another approach our example student from above could take to the same general topic would be to write about the generosity of fellow hikers (in response to Common App prompt 4). 

Rather than discussing a single incident, she could tell the story of her trip through the times when other hikers supported her: they gave tips on the trails, shared snacks, encouraged her when she was tired, and so on. A structure like this one can be trickier than the more straightforward anecdote approach, but it can also make for an engaging and different essay. When deciding which part of your topic to focus on, try to identify the aspect of the topic that is most meaningful and unique to you. Once you've figured that part out, it will guide how you structure the essay. 

Decide What You Want to Show About Myself 

Remember that the point of the college essay isn't just to tell a story, it's to show something about myself. I must have a specific point I want to make about who I am, what kind of college student I aspire to be, or what the experience I'm describing has taught me. Since the papers I write for school are primarily analytical, I probably amn't used to writing about my feelings. 

As such, it can be easy to neglect the reflective part of the personal statement in favor of just telling a story. Explaining what the event or idea I discuss meant to me is the most important aspect of the essay. Knowing how I want to tie my experiences back to my personal growth from the beginning will help me ensure that I include it. 

Develop a Structure 

It's not enough to just know what I want to write about, I also need to have a sense of how I'm going to write about it. I could have the most exciting topic of all time. Still, without a clear structure, my essay will end up as incomprehensible gibberish that conveys nothing meaningful about my personality to the reader. There are numerous possible essay structures, but a simple and effective one is the compressed narrative, which builds on a specific anecdote (as seen in the Half Dome example above). 

• Start in the middle of the action: Don't spend a lot of time at the beginning of your essay outlining background info; it doesn't tend to draw the reader in, and you usually need less of it than you think you do. Instead, start right where my story becomes interesting. (I'll go into how to craft an intriguing opener in more depth below.) 
• Briefly explain what the situation is: Now that I've got the reader's attention, go back and explain anything they need to know about how I got into this situation. Don't feel compelled to include everything; only include the background details that are necessary to either understand what happened or illuminate my feelings about the situation in some way. 
• Finish the story: Once I've clarified exactly what's going on, explain how I resolved the conflict or concluded the experience. 
• Explain what I learned: The last step is to tie everything together and bring home the main point of my story: how this experience affected me. 

The key to this type of structure is to create narrative tension; you want your reader to be wondering what happens next. A second approach is the thematic structure, which is based on returning to a key idea or object again and again (like the boots example above): 

• Establish the focus. If I'm going to structure my essay around a single theme or object, I need to begin the essay by introducing that key thing. 
• I can do so with a relevant anecdote or a detailed description. 
• Touch on 3-5 times, and the focus was important. 
• The body of my essay will consist of stringing together a few crucial moments related to the topic. 
• Ensure that you use sensory details to transport the reader to those specific points in time and keep them engaged in the essay.
• Remember to elucidate why these moments were important to me. 
• Revisit the main idea. 

Ultimately, I bring everything together by revisiting the main idea or object and demonstrating how my relationship with it has shaped or influenced me. Ideally, I'll also hint at how this thing will be necessary to me going forward. To make this structure work, you need a particular focus. My love of travel, for example, is too broad; I need to hone in on a specific aspect of that interest, such as how traveling has taught me to adapt to even the most unusual situations. 

Whatever I do, I don't want to use this structure to create a glorified resume or brag sheet. However, when I structure my essay, I want to make sure that it lays out both the events or ideas I'm describing and establishes the stakes (i.e., what it all means for me). Many students become so focused on telling a story or recounting details that they forget to explain what it all meant to them. 

Example Eva's Essay Plan

Eva decides to use a compressed narrative structure to tell the story of how she attempted and ultimately failed to report on the closing of a historic movie theater. Open with the part of her story where she finally gave up after calling the theater and city hall a dozen times. Explain that although she started researching the story out of journalistic curiosity, it was important to her because she'd grown up going to movies at that theater. 

Recount how defeated she felt when she couldn't get a hold of anyone, and then even more so when she saw a story about the theater's closing in the local paper. Describe her decision to write an op-ed instead and interview other students about what the theater meant to them. Finish by explaining that although she wasn't able to get the story (or stop the destruction of the theater), she learned that sometimes the emotional angle can be just as interesting as the investigative one. 

5: Write a First Draft 

The key to writing your first draft is not to worry about whether it's any good, just get something on paper and go from there. You will have to rewrite, so trying to get everything perfect is both frustrating and futile. Everyone has their own writing process. You may feel more comfortable sitting down and writing the whole draft from beginning to end in one go. You could jump around, writing a little bit here and a little there. It's okay to have sections I know won't work or to skip over things I'll need to include later. Regardless of your approach, there are a few tips that everyone can benefit from. 

Don't Aim for Perfection 

I mentioned this idea above, but I want to emphasize it again: no one writes a perfect first draft. Extensive editing and rewriting are vital to crafting an effective personal statement. Don't get too attached to any part of your draft, because you may need to change anything (or everything) about my essay later. Additionally, at this stage of the process, the goal is to capture my ideas. Wonky phrasings and misplaced commas can easily be fixed when I edit, so don't worry about them as you write. Instead, focus on including lots of specific details and emphasizing how my topic has affected me, since these aspects are vital to a compelling essay. 

Write an Engaging Introduction 

One part of the essay I do want to pay special attention to is the introduction. My intro is my essay's first impression. I only get one. It's much harder to regain my reader's attention once I've lost it, so I want to draw the reader in with an immediately engaging hook that sets up a compelling story. 

There are Two Possible Approaches

• The "In Media Res" Opening: You'll probably recognize this term if you've studied 
• The Odyssey: It means that the story starts in the middle of the action, rather than at the beginning. 

A good introduction of this type makes the reader wonder both how I arrived at the point I'm starting from and where I'll go from there. These openers provide a solid, intriguing beginning for narrative essays (though they can certainly be used for thematic structures as well). But how do I craft one? Try to determine the most interesting point in my story and start there. If I'm not sure where that is, try writing out the entire story and then cross out each sentence in order until I reach one that immediately grabs my attention. Here's an example from a real student's college essay: 

"I strode in front of 400 frenzied eighth graders with my arm slung over my Fender Stratocaster guitar, it actually belonged to my mother, and launched into the first few chords of Nirvana's 'Lithium.'" Anonymous, University of Virginia. This intro throws the reader right into the middle of the action. The author jumps right into the action: the performance. You can imagine how much less exciting it would be if the essay opened with an explanation of what the event was and why the author was performing. 

The Specific Generalization 

Sounds like an oxymoron, right? This type of introduction sets up what the essay will discuss in a slightly unexpected way. These are a bit trickier than the "in media res" variety, but they can work really well for the proper essay, generally one with a thematic structure. The key to this type of intro is detail. Contrary to what I learned in elementary school, sweeping statements don't make powerful hooks. If I want to start my essay with a more overall description of what I'll be discussing, I still need to make it specific and unique enough to stand out. Once again, let's look at some examples from real students' essays, such as "Pushed against the left wall in my room is a curious piece of furniture." 

Neha, Johns Hopkins University. "My name is Brontë, and if you ask me, I'll tell you my favorite book is Jane Eyre. This may or may not be a coincidence." Brontë, Johns Hopkins University. Both of these intros set up the general topic of the essay (the first writer's bookshelf and the second's love of Jane Eyre) in an intriguing way. The first intro works because it mixes specific descriptions ("pushed against the left wall in my room") with more general commentary ("a curious piece of furniture"). The second draws the reader in by adopting a conversational and irreverent tone with asides like "if you ask me" and "This may or may not be a coincidence." 

Don't Worry Too Much About the Length 

When you start writing, don't worry about my essay's length. Instead, focus on including all the details I can think of about my topic, which will make it easier to decide what to include when I edit. However, if my first draft exceeds the word limit by more than twice and I don't have a clear idea of what needs to be cut out, I may need to reconsider my focus. My topic is likely too broad. I may also need to revisit my topic or approach if I struggle to fill space, since this usually indicates a topic that lacks a specific focus. 

Eva's First Paragraph

I dialed the phone number for the fourth time that week. "Hello? This is Eva Smith, and I'm a reporter with Tiny Town High's newspaper, The Falcon. I wanted to ask you some questions about " I heard the distinctive click of the person on the other end of the line hanging up, followed by dial tone. I was about to give up: I'd been trying to find out whether the Atlas Theater was closing to make way for a big AMC multiplex or if it was just a rumor for weeks, but no one would return my calls. 

6 Edit Aggressively 

No one writes a perfect first draft. No matter how much I want to be done after writing a first draft, I must take the time to edit. Thinking critically about my essay and rewriting as needed is a vital part of writing a great college essay. Before I start editing, I'll put my essay aside for a week or so. It will be easier to approach it objectively if I haven't seen it in a while. Then, I'll take an initial pass to identify any significant picture issues with my essay. 

Once I've fixed those, I'll ask for feedback from other readers; they'll often notice gaps in logic that don't appear to me, because I'm automatically filling in my intimate knowledge of the situation. Finally, I'll take another, more detailed look at my essay to fine-tune the language. I've explained each of these steps in more depth below. 

First Editing Pass 

I should begin the editing process by identifying any structural or thematic issues with my essay. If I see sentences that don't make sense or glaring typos, I will, of course, fix them. However, at this point, I'm focused on the significant issues, as those require the most extensive rewrites. I don't want to spend time crafting my sentences beautifully only to realize I need to remove the entire paragraph. This phase is really about honing my structure and my voice. As I read through my essay, I need to consider whether it effectively draws the reader along, engages them with specific details, and shows why the topic matters to me. 

Does the intro make you want to read more? Is the progression of events and/or ideas clear? Does the essay show something specific about me? What is it, and can I identify it in the essay? Are there places where I could replace vague statements with more specific ones? Do I have too many irrelevant or uninteresting details clogging up the narrative? Is it too long? What can I cut out or condense without losing any important ideas or details? Give myself credit for what I've done well, but don't hesitate to make changes when things aren't working. 

It can be tempting to hang on to what I've already written. I took the time and thought to craft it in the first place, so it can be hard to let it go. Taking this approach is doing me a disservice, however. No matter how much work I put into a paragraph or how much I like a phrase, if it isn't adding to my essay, it needs to be cut or altered. If there's a significant structural issue or the topic isn't working, I may need to discard this draft and start from scratch. Don't panic! Starting over can be frustrating, but it's often the best way to address significant issues. 

Consulting Other Readers 

Once I've fixed the problems I found during the first pass and have a second (or third) draft that I'm happy with, I'll ask some other people to review it. I'll check with people whose judgment I trust, such as parents, teachers, and friends, who can all be great resources. However, the helpfulness of someone will depend on the individual and my willingness to accept their criticism. 

Also, keep in mind that many people, even teachers, may not be familiar with what colleges look for in an essay. My mom, for example, may have never written a personal statement, and even if she did, it was most likely decades ago. I'll give my readers a sense of what I'd like them to read, or print out the questions I listed above and include them at the end of my essay. 

Second Pass 

After incorporating any helpful feedback I got from others, I should now have a complete draft with a clear arc. At this point, I want to look for issues with word choice and sentence structure: Are there parts that seem stilted or overly formal? Do I have any vague or boring descriptors that could be replaced with something more interesting and specific? Are there any obvious redundancies or repetitiveness? Have I misused any words? Are my sentences of varied length and structure? A good way to check for weirdness in language is to read the essay out loud. If something sounds weird when I say it, it will seem off when someone else reads it. 

7. Double Check Everything 

Once I have a final draft, I'll give myself another week and then go through my essay again. I'll read it carefully to ensure everything appears accurate and there are no obvious typos or errors. I'll confirm that I am at or under the word limit. Then, I'll go over the essay again, line by line, checking every word to make sure that it's correct. I'll double-check for common errors that spell check may not catch, such as mixing up 'affect' and 'effect' or misplacing commas. Finally, I'll have two other readers check it as well. 

Oftentimes, a fresh set of eyes will catch an issue I've glossed over simply because I've been looking at the essay for so long. I'll give my readers instructions to only look for typos and errors, since I don't want to be making any significant content changes at this point in the process. This level of thoroughness may seem like overkill, but it's worth taking the time to ensure that I don't have any errors. The last thing I want is for an admissions officer to be put off by a typo or mistake. 

8. Do It All Again 

Remember back in step one, when we talked about making a chart to keep track of all the different essays you need to write? Well, now you need to go back to that list and determine which essays you still need to write. Keep in mind your deadlines and remember that some schools may require more than one essay or request additional short paragraphs in addition to the main personal statement. 

Reusing Essays 

In some cases, I can reuse the essay I've already written for other prompts. I can use the same essay for two prompts if both of them are asking the same fundamental question (e.g., "how do you interact with people who are different from you?" or "what was an important experience and why?"), One prompt is relatively specific, and the other is very general (e.g., "Tell us about how your family shaped my education" and "Tell us something about my background"). Neither asks about my interest in a specific school or program. 

If I choose to reuse an essay I wrote for a different prompt, I'll ensure that it addresses every part of the question and fits the word limit. If I have to tweak a few things or cut out 50-odd words, it will probably still work. However, if the essay requires significant changes to meet the criteria, I'm better off starting from scratch (even if I use the same basic topic). 

Crafting Supplemental Essays 

The key to keep in mind when brainstorming for supplemental essays is that you want them to add something new to your application. You shouldn't write about the same topic I used in my statement, although it's okay to discuss something similar, as long as I adopt a different angle. 

For example, if I'm planning to be a pre-med student in college and my main essay discusses how volunteering at the hospital taught me not to judge people on their appearance, I might write my secondary essay on my intellectual interest in biology (which could touch on my volunteering experience). There's some overlap, but the two topics are distinct. And now, you're truly, finally done. Congratulations!

Try our AI Writing Assistant to Write Natural-sounding Content

College essays typically follow a standard structure, with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You can think of this structure like a skeleton: It’s not the most exciting part of the writing process, but it helps your essay stay organized and ensures you hit all the critical points. Most importantly, having a clear structure will help your readers follow your ideas. Before you begin writing, create an outline to help you organize your thoughts effectively. Then, use your outline to guide your writing. Don’t worry; you can change up your structure as you write if you come up with new ideas. 

HyperWrite pairs state-of-the-art AI with deep personalization, so every suggestion sounds like you on your best day. From instant email drafts and blog outlines to in-line sentence rewrites, our writing-focused chatbot and integrated document editor make writing effortless. Students receive accurate, cited content for essays that don't sound like ChatGPT wrote them. Professionals transform rough thoughts into polished content quickly, expressing ideas in more precise language with ensured accuracy. Collaborate directly with AI inside the document editor and discover how fast thoughtful writing can be. Create your free account and start writing with AI that gets you.

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2 Outstanding College Essay Examples From Top Universities

1. The “Burying Grandma” Example College Essay

This essay was written for the Common App college application essays “Tell us your story” prompt. This essay is suitable for prompts 1 and 7 on the common app. They covered the precious mahogany coffin with a brown amalgam of rocks, decomposed organisms, and weeds. It was my turn to take the shovel, but I felt too ashamed to dutifully send her off when I had not properly said goodbye. I refused to throw dirt on her. I refused to let go of my grandmother, to accept a death I had not seen coming, to believe that an illness could not only interrupt, but steal a beloved life. 

When my parents finally revealed to me that my grandmother had been battling liver cancer, I was twelve, and I was primarily angry with myself. They had wanted to protect me, only six years old at the time, from the complex and morose concept of death. However, when the end inevitably arrived, I wasn’t trying to comprehend what dying was; I was trying to understand how I had been able to abandon my sick grandmother in favor of playing with friends and watching TV. Hurt that my parents had deceived me and resentful of my oblivion, I committed myself to preventing such blindness from resurfacing.

I became desperately devoted to my education because I saw knowledge as the key to freeing myself from the chains of ignorance. While learning about cancer in school, I promised myself that I would memorize every fact and absorb every detail in textbooks and online medical journals. As I began to consider my future, I realized that what I learned in school would enable me to silence that which had silenced my grandmother. However, I was focused not on understanding itself, but on good grades and high test scores. I started to believe that academic perfection would be the only way to redeem myself in her eyes to make up for what I had not done as a granddaughter.

However, a simple walk on a hiking trail behind my house opened my eyes to the truth. Over the years, everything, especially honoring my grandmother, had become secondary to school and grades. As my shoes humbly tapped against the Earth, the towering trees blackened by the forest fire a few years ago, the faintly colorful pebbles embedded in the sidewalk, and the wispy white clouds hanging in the sky reminded me of my small though nonetheless significant part in a larger whole that is humankind and this Earth. Before I could resolve my guilt, I had to broaden my perspective of the world as well as my responsibilities to my fellow humans.

Volunteering at a cancer treatment center has helped me discover my path. When I see patients trapped in not only the hospital but also a moment in time by their diseases, I talk to them. For six hours a day, three times a week, Ivana is surrounded by IV stands, empty walls, and busy nurses that quietly yet constantly remind her of her breast cancer. Her face is pale and tired, yet kind, not unlike my grandmother’s. I need only to smile and say hello to see her brighten up as life returns to her face. Upon our first meeting, she opened up about her two sons, her hometown, and her knitting group, but made no mention of her disease. Without even standing up, the three of us, Ivana, I, and my grandmother, had taken a walk together.

Cancer, as powerful and invincible as it may seem, is a mere fraction of a person’s life. It’s easy to forget when one’s mind and body are so weak and vulnerable. I want to be there as an oncologist to remind them to take a walk occasionally, to remember that there’s so much more to life than just a disease. While I physically treat their cancer, I want to lend patients emotional support and mental strength to escape the interruption and continue living. Through my work, I can accept the shovel without burying my grandmother’s memory.

Tips + Analysis

Make (Narrative structure work for you. This essay uses what we call Narrative Structure, which focuses (in roughly equal word count) on a challenge + effects you’ve faced, what you did about it, and what you learned. Quick tip: one common and easy mistake is to spend most of the essay focused on the challenges + effects, but try to keep that to about a third—what your reader is generally more interested in is what you did about that challenge and what I’ve learned/how I’ve grown. For a more complete guide to using Narrative Structure to shape your personal statement, check out that link.

Show insight and growth. This essay accomplishes this in several ways. One is by recognizing that they were wrong about something / had “done it wrong” (e.g., understand how I had been able to abandon my sick grandmother in favor of playing with friends and watching TV, or how I was focused not on learning itself, but on good grades and high test scores). We’re pointing this out because, fairly frequently, students are worried that acknowledging they were wrong in some way will be looked down upon by readers. Put those worries to rest—showing that you’re capable of reflecting, acknowledging your failings or where you were wrong, and growing through your new understanding is a sign of maturity that colleges value.

Bring us into your world. You can do so through things like imagery (e.g., the towering trees blackened by the forest fire a few years ago, the faintly colorful pebbles embedded in the sidewalk, and the wispy white clouds hanging in the sky) and through illustrating (or sometimes directly naming) your values and how your experiences have shaped them (e.g., I had to broaden my perspective of the world as well as my responsibilities to my fellow humans). A personal statement isn’t simply a list of accomplishments (let your Activities List and Additional Info section do that lifting for you). Instead, it’s about helping a college understand who you are through the values, interests, insights, skills, and qualities you bring to their campus and community.

The Five Families Essay

When I was 16, I lived with the Watkins family in Wichita, Kansas. Mrs. Watkins was the coordinator of the foreign exchange student program in which I was enrolled. She had a nine-year-old son named Cody. I would babysit Cody every day after school for at least two to three hours. We would play Scrabble or he would read to me from Charlotte’s Web or The Ugly Duckling. He would often talk about his friends and school life, and I would listen to him and ask about the meanings of certain words. He was my first friend in the New World.

My second family was the Martinez family, who were friends of the Watkins’s. The host dad, Michael, was a high school English teacher, and the host mom, Jennifer (whom I called “Jen”), taught elementary school. She had recently delivered a baby, so she was still in the hospital when I moved into their house. The Martinez family did almost everything together. We made pizza together, watched Shrek on their cozy couch together, and went fishing on Sunday together. On rainy days, Michael, Jen, and I would sit on the porch and listen to the rain, talking about our dreams and thoughts. Within two months, I was calling them "Mom" and "Dad."

After completing the exchange student program, I had the option of returning to Korea, but I decided to stay in the United States. I wanted to see new places and meet different people. Since I wasn’t an exchange student anymore, I had the freedom and the burden of finding a new school and host family on my own. After a thorough investigation of several days, I located the Struiksma family in California. They were a unique group. The host mom, Shelli, was a single mother who had two sons of her own and two Russian daughters whom she had adopted. The kids always had something warm to eat and were always on their best behavior at home and in school. It would be fair to say that this was all due to Shellie’s upbringing. 

My room was on the first floor, right in front of Shellie’s hair salon, a small business that she ran out of her home. In the living room were six or seven huge amplifiers, and a gigantic chandelier hung from the high ceiling. The kitchen had a bar. At first, the non-stop visits from strangers made me nervous, but soon I got used to them. I remember one night, a couple barged into my room while I was sleeping. It was awkward. After a few months, I realized we weren’t the best fit. In the nicest way possible, I told them I had to leave. They understood. The Ortiz family was my fourth family. Kimberly, the host mom, treated me the same way she treated her son. She made me do chores. I fixed dinner, fed their two dogs, Sassy and Lady, and once a week, I cleaned the bathroom. 

I also had to follow some rules, including no food in my room, no use of the family computer, no lights on after midnight, and no rides unless it was an emergency. The first couple of months were tough to adjust to, but I eventually got used to it. I lived with the Ortiz family for seven months like a monk in the deep forest. However, the host dad, Greg, whose asthma had worsened after winter, wanted to move to the countryside. It was unexpected, and I only had a week to find a new host family. I asked my friend Danielle if I could live with her until I found a new place to live. That’s how I met the Dirksen family, my fifth family.

The Dirksen family had three kids. They were all different. Danielle liked bitter black coffee, Christian liked energy drinks, and Becca liked sweet lemon tea. Dawn, the host mom, didn’t like winter, and Mark, the host dad, didn’t like summer. After dinner, we would all play Wii Sports together. I was the king of bowling, and Dawn was the queen of tennis. I don’t recall a single instance where they argued about the games. Afterward, we would gather in the living room and Danielle would play the piano while the rest of us sang hymns.

Of course, those 28 months were too short to understand all five families fully, but I learned from and was shaped by each of them. By teaching me English, nine year-old Cody taught me the importance of being able to learn from anyone; the Martinez family showed me the value of spending time together as a family; the Struiksma family taught me to reserve judgment about divorced women and adopted children; Mrs. Ortiz taught me the value of discipline and the Dirksen family taught me the importance of appreciating one another’s different qualities.

Getting along with other people is necessary for anyone and living with five families has made me more sensitive to others’ needs: I have learned how to recognize when someone needs to talk, when I should give advice and when to listen simply, and when someone needs to be left alone; in the process, I have become much more adaptable. I’m ready to change, learn, and be shaped by my future families.

2. Analysis of the "Five Families" Essay

Remember that movie “The Sixth Sense”? I won't spoil it for you, but I will tell you that there’s a moment toward the end when a crucial piece of information is revealed, triggering a series of realizations in the minds of the audience that have been leading up to this big revelation. He buries a series of hints (one in each paragraph) that he “explodes” in the final section. He buries a series of essence images in his first paragraphs (one per family). He doesn’t tell us what they mean until the end of the essay, when he writes, “I learned and was shaped by each of them”.

Note that each essence image is a lesson, something he learned from each family. When he reveals each lesson at the end, one after the other, we sense how all these seemingly random events are connected. We realize this writer has been carefully constructing this piece all along; we see the underlying structure. And it’s a pretty neat one. 

Also Note

Each of the first five paragraphs works to show. (He waits to tell us what they mean ‘til that second-to-last paragraph.) See how distinct each family is? He achieves this through the use of specific images and objects. The second-to-last paragraph answers the “So what?” question.

• (Q: Why did he just show us all these details? 
• A: To demonstrate what each family has taught him.) He also goes one step further. He answers the “So what?” question once more in the final paragraph. 
• (Q: So what am I going to do with all these lessons? 
• A: I’m going to use them to adapt to my next family--in college.) The beauty of this is that he’s demonstrating (showing, not telling) that he has an extremely valuable quality that will be useful for doing well at any college: adaptability.

Start Writing With HyperWrite AI Today

HyperWrite pairs state-of-the-art AI with deep personalization, so every suggestion sounds like you on your best day. From instant email drafts and blog outlines to in-line sentence rewrites, our writing-focused chatbot and integrated document editor make writing effortless. Students receive accurate, cited content for essays that don't sound like ChatGPT wrote them. Professionals transform rough thoughts into polished content quickly, expressing ideas in more precise language with ensured accuracy. Collaborate directly with AI inside the document editor and discover how fast thoughtful writing can be. Create your free account and start writing with AI that gets you.

Try our AI Writing Assistant to Write Natural-sounding Content

College essays typically follow a standard structure, with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You can think of this structure like a skeleton: It’s not the most exciting part of the writing process, but it helps your essay stay organized and ensures you hit all the critical points. Most importantly, having a clear structure will help your readers follow your ideas. Before you begin writing, create an outline to help you organize your thoughts effectively. Then, use your outline to guide your writing. Don’t worry; you can change up your structure as you write if you come up with new ideas. 

HyperWrite pairs state-of-the-art AI with deep personalization, so every suggestion sounds like you on your best day. From instant email drafts and blog outlines to in-line sentence rewrites, our writing-focused chatbot and integrated document editor make writing effortless. Students receive accurate, cited content for essays that don't sound like ChatGPT wrote them. Professionals transform rough thoughts into polished content quickly, expressing ideas in more precise language with ensured accuracy. Collaborate directly with AI inside the document editor and discover how fast thoughtful writing can be. Create your free account and start writing with AI that gets you.

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