Writing your personal statement for your college application is an undeniably overwhelming project. Your essay is your big shot to show colleges who you are—it’s totally reasonable to get stressed out. But don’t let that stress paralyze you.
This guide will walk you through each step of the essay writing process to help you understand exactly what you need to do to write the best possible personal statement. I’m also going to follow an imaginary student named Eva as she plans and writes her college essay, from her initial organization and brainstorming to her final edits. By the end of this article, you’ll have all the tools you need to create a fantastic, effective college essay.
So how do you write a good college essay? The process starts with finding the best possible topic, which means understanding what the prompt is asking for and taking the time to brainstorm a variety of options. Next, you’ll determine how to create an interesting essay that shows off your unique perspective and write multiple drafts in order to hone your structure and language. Once your writing is as effective and engaging as possible, you’ll do a final sweep to make sure everything is correct.
This guide covers the following steps:
#1: Organizing
#2: Brainstorming
#3: Picking a topic
#4: Making a plan
#5: Writing a draft
#6: Editing your draft
#7: Finalizing your draft
#8: Repeating the process
feature Image: John O’Nolan/Flickr
Step 1: Get Organized
Start Early
Determine What You Need to Do
Decide Where to Start
Example: Eva’s College List
College | Essay Prompt |
November 15 650 words | 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 | Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the UW. |
November 30 350 words each | (SELECT 4) 1. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time. 2. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side. 3. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time? 4. 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 you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement? 6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you 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 admissions to the University of California? |
November 1 (submitted with Emory app) 650 words | (SELECT 1)
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, then please share your story.
2. 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?
3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
4. 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?
5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
6. 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?
7. 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 own design. |
November 1 200 words | What academic areas are you interested in exploring in college? |
Emory University November 1 150 words | (SELECT 1)
1. Reflect on a personal experience where you intentionally expanded your cultural awareness.
2. When was the last time you questioned something you had thought to be true?
3. If you could witness a historic event (past, present or future) first-hand, what would it be, and why?
4. Share about a time when you were awestruck.
5. Which book, character, song, monologue, or piece of work (fiction or non-fiction) seems made for you? Why? |
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? |
Colored paper clips: functional and fun! (At least if you love organization.)
Step 2: Brainstorm
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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 individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the UW.“
This question is basically asking how your personal history, such as your childhood, family, groups you identify with etc. helped you become the person you are now. It offers a number of possible angles.
You can talk about the effects of either your family life (like your relationship with your parents or what your household was like growing up) or your cultural history (like your Jewish faith or your Venezuelan heritage). You can also choose between focusing on positive or negative effects of your family or culture. No matter what however, the readers definitely want to hear about your educational goals (i.e. what you hope to get out of college) and how they’re related to your 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 basically just people who you want to get to know you.
The essay questions can make a great jumping off point, but don’t feel married 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, you’ll have a higher bar to clear.
Of course if you have a more serious part of your personal history—the death of a parent, serious illness, or challenging upbringing—you can write about that. But make sure you feel comfortable sharing details of the experience with the admissions committee and that you can separate yourself from it enough to take constructive criticism on your essay.
What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Think About How You See Yourself
The last brainstorming method is to consider whether there are particular personality traits you want to highlight. This approach can feel rather silly, but it can also be very effective.
If you were trying to sell yourself to an employer, or maybe 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, but after a bit of 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 important events, Eva’s parents got divorced when she was three and she’s been going back and forth between their houses for as long as she can remember, so that’s a big part of her personal story. She’s also played piano for all four years of high school, although she’s not particularly good.
As for personal traits, Eva is really proud of her curiosity—if she doesn’t know something, she immediately looks it up, and often ends up discovering new topics she’s interested in. It’s a trait that’s definitely come in handy as a reporter for her school paper.
Step 3: Narrow Down Your List
What to Look for in a College Essay Topic
Once you have a bunch of ideas, you have to decide which one really stands out.
Consideration 1: Does It Matter to You?
Consideration 2: Does It Tell the Reader Something Different About You?
Consideration 3: Is It Specific?
Consideration 4: Can You Discuss It in Detail?
You don’t have to know exactly how many dewdrops there were on the leaf.
Consideration 5: Can It Be Related to the Prompt?
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Deciding on a Topic
Once you’ve gone through the questions above, you should have 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, you’ve eliminated all your topics, first look back over them: are you being too hard on yourself? Are there any that you really like, but just aren’t totally sure what angle to take on? If so, try looking at the next section and seeing if you can’t find a different way to approach it.
If you just don’t have an idea you’re happy with, that’s okay! Give yourself a week to think about it. Sometimes you’ll end up having a genius idea in the car on the way to school or while studying for your U.S. history test. Otherwise, try the brainstorming process again when you’ve had a break.
If, on the other hand, you have more than one idea you really like, consider whether any of them can be used for other essays you need to write.
Example: Picking Eva’s Topic
- Love of books
- Failed job interview
- Piano
- Parents’ divorce
- Reporting
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 the other three, so she decides to think about them for a couple of days. She ends up ruling out the job interview because she just can’t come up with that many details she could include.
She’s excited about both of her last two ideas, but sees issues with both of them: the books idea is very broad and the reporting idea doesn’t seem to apply to any of the prompts. Then she realizes that she can address the solving a problem prompt by talking about a time she was trying to research a story about the closing of a local movie theater, so she decides to go with that topic.
Step 4: Figure Out Your Approach
If you’re struggling or uncertain, try taking a look at some examples of successful college essays. It can be helpful to dissect how other personal statements are structured to get ideas for your own, but don’t fall into 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 touched on above, the narrower your focus, the easier it will be to write a unique, 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, say a student was planning to write about her Outward Bound trip in Yosemite. If she tries to tell the entire story of her trip, her essay will either be far too long or very vague. Instead, she decides to focus in 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 without reaching the top in detail, while touching on other parts 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 an especially meaningful 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 times she was supported by other hikers: them giving tips on the trails, sharing snacks, encouraging her when she was tired, etc. 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 what part of your topic to focus on, try to find whatever it is about 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.
To be fair, even trying to climb Half Dome takes some serious guts.
Decide What You Want to Show About Yourself
Remember that the point of the college essay isn’t just to tell a story, it’s to show something about yourself. It’s vital that you have a specific point you want to make about what kind of person you are, what kind of college student you’d make, or what the experience you’re describing taught you.
Since the papers you write for school are mostly analytical, you probably aren’t used to writing about your own feelings. As such, it can be easy to neglect the reflection part of the personal statement in favor of just telling a story. Yet explaining what the event or idea you discuss meant to you is the most important essay—knowing how you want to tie your experiences back to your personal growth from the beginning will help you make sure to include it.
Develop a Structure
It’s not enough to just know what you want to write about—you also need to have a sense of how you’re going to write about it. You could have the most exciting topic of all time, but without a clear structure your essay will end up as incomprehensible gibberish that doesn’t tell the reader anything meaningful about your personality.
There are a lot of different possible essay structures, but a simple and effective one is the compressed narrative, which builds on a specific anecdote (like 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 your story starts to get interesting. (I’ll go into how to craft an intriguing opener in more depth below.)
Briefly explain what the situation is. Now that you’ve got the reader’s attention, go back and explain anything they need to know about how you got into this situation. Don’t feel compelled to fit everything in—only include the background details that are necessary to either understand what happened or illuminate your feelings about the situation in some way.
Finish the story. Once you’ve clarified exactly what’s going on, explain how you resolved the conflict or concluded the experience.
Explain what you learned. The last step is to tie everything together and bring home the main point of your story: how this experience affected you.
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 you’re going to structure your essay around a single theme or object, you need to begin the essay by introducing that key thing. You can do so with a relevant anecdote or a detailed description.
Touch on 3-5 times the focus was important. The body of your essay will consist of stringing together a few important moments related to the topic. Make sure to use sensory details to bring the reader into those points in time and keep her engaged in the essay. Also remember to elucidate why these moments were important to you.
Revisit the main idea. At the end, you want to tie everything together by revisiting the main idea or object and showing how your relationship to it has shaped or affected you. Ideally, you’ll also hint at how this thing will be important to you going forward.
To make this structure work you need a very specific focus. Your love of travel, for example, is much too broad—you would need to hone in on a specific aspect of that interest, like how traveling has taught you to adapt to event the most unusual situations. Whatever you do, don’t use this structure to create a glorified resume or brag sheet.
However you structure your essay, you want to make sure that it clearly lays out both the events or ideas you’re describing and establishes the stakes (i.e. what it all means for you). Many students become so focused on telling a story or recounting details that they forget to explain what it all meant to them.
Your essay has to be built step-by-step, just like this building.
Example: Eva’s Essay Plan
For her essay, Eva decides to use the compressed narrative structure to tell the story of how she tried and 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 ahold of anyone, and then even more so when she saw a story about the theater’s closing in the local paper.
- Describer 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.
Step 5: Write a First Draft
Whatever your approach, there are a few tips everyone can benefit from.
Don’t Aim for Perfection
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Write an Engaging Introduction
One part of the essay you do want to pay special attention to is the introduction. Your intro is your essay’s first impression: you only get one. It’s much harder to regain your reader’s attention once you’ve lost it, so you want to draw the reader in with an immediately engaging hook that sets up a compelling story.
There are two possible approaches I would recommend.
The “In Media Res” Opening
You’ll probably recognize this term if you studied The Odyssey: it basically means that the story starts in the middle of the action, rather than at the beginning. A good intro of this type makes the reader wonder both how you got to the point you’re starting at and where you’ll go from there. These openers provide a solid, intriguing beginning for narrative essays (though they can certainly for thematic structures as well).
But how do you craft one? Try to determine the most interesting point in your story and start there. If you’re not sure where that is, try writing out the entire story and then crossing out each sentence in order until you get to one that immediately grabs your 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 intro sets up what the essay is going to talk about in a slightly unexpected way. These are a bit trickier than the “in media res” variety, but they can work really well for the right essay—generally one with a thematic structure.
The key to this type of intro is detail. Contrary to what you may have learned in elementary school, sweeping statements don’t make very strong hooks. If you want to start your essay with a more overall description of what you’ll be discussing, you still need to make it specific and unique enough to stand out.
Once again, let’s look at some examples from real students’ essays:
“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 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.”
I wouldn’t recommend this intro—it’s a bit of a cliche.
Don’t Worry Too Much About the Length
When you start writing, don’t worry about your essay’s length. Instead, focus on trying to include all of the details you can think of about your topic, which will make it easier to decide what you really need to include when you edit.
However, if your first draft is more than twice the word limit and you don’t have a clear idea of what needs to be cut out, you may need to reconsider your focus—your topic is likely too broad. You may also need to reconsider your topic or approach if you find yourself struggling 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 was hoping 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 ready to give up: I’d been trying to get the skinny on whether the Atlas Theater was actually 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.
Step 6: Edit Aggressively
I’ve explained each of these steps in more depth below.
First Editing Pass
Unfortunately, some problems can’t be fixed with whiteout.
Consulting Other Readers
Second Pass
At this point you want to look for issues with word choice and sentence structure:
Example: Editing Eva’s First Paragraph
I dialed the phone number for the fourth time that week.
Solution: Cut this sentence and start with the line of dialogue.
Problem: No major issues with this sentence. It’s engaging and sets the scene effectively.
Problem: This is a long-winded way of making a point that’s not that important.
There’s a real Atlas Theater. Apparently it’s haunted!
Step 7: Double Check Everything
Example: Eva’s Final Draft (Paragraphs 1 and 2)
Step 8: Do It All Again
Reusing Essays
Crafting Supplemental Essays
For example, if you’re planning to be pre-med in college and your main essay is about how volunteering at the hospital taught you not to judge people on their appearance, you might write your secondary essay on your intellectual interest in biology (which could touch on your volunteering). There’s some overlap, but the two topics are clearly distinct.
And now, you’re really, truly, finally done. Congrats!
What’s Next?
Now that you know how to write a college essay, we have a lot more specific resources for you to excel.
Are you working on the Common App essay? Read our breakdown of the Common App prompts and our guide to picking the best prompt for you.
Or maybe you’re interested in the University of California? Check out our complete guide to the UC personal statements.
In case you haven’t finished the rest of the application process, take a look at our guides to asking for recommendations, writing about extracurriculars, and researching colleges.
Finally, if you’re planning to take the SAT or ACT one last time, try out some of our famous test prep guides, like “How to Get a Perfect Score on the SAT” and “15 Key ACT Test Day Tips.”
Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We’ve written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:
