Growth: 5 Tips for Writing a Stand-Out College Essay

In addition to becoming ever-more competitive, applying to college has recently changed in ways that give college essays more weight in the admissions process. 

First, most schools have opted to remain test-optional even now that pandemic quarantines are a thing of the past. Lifting that requirement has opened the field to any student who cannot either score high on their own or with the aid of expensive test prep. That means students with good grades and extracurriculars but low test scores have a greater chance of admission to selective and highly selective (so-called “elite”) schools, particularly if they are strong writers.

Second, in June of 2023, a Supreme Court ruling ended affirmative action in higher education, leaving students without a means of disclosing their race and ethnicity unless they write about it in their essays. Since most campuses still wish for greater diversity, many schools’ admissions officers wrote new supplemental essay prompts following the ruling, asking students to describe their identity or community. 

And finally, Chat-GPT has changed the way we look at student writing. A perfectly composed essay with generic observations and stock emotional reactions will seem robotic to some admissions readers. Readers are now looking for students who write with their unique voice, giving an edge to creative students who may not necessarily be the best on paper but can employ strong critical thinking skills and experiment with form.

In this article, I will draw from my personal experience as an essay coach to give you some tips for writing a stand-out college essay. I will also demystify the process and let you know what kind of help is available for you or your child. 

A Brief Overview of What to Expect This Admissions Season

The Common Application, or “Common App,” is the portal where students submit the majority of their college application essays. In addition to hosting the prompts for the personal statement — that all-important 650-word essay required by most schools — the Common App has sections where students submit their test scores, official transcripts, and extracurricular activities. There is also an optional essay in the “Additional Information” section for students adversely affected by community disruptions. This could be a place to address the Covid lockdowns or other natural disasters that impacted school performance. When students download their list of schools into the Common App portal, the supplemental essays for each individual school will automatically appear as fields in the Common App as well. Not all schools have supplemental essays, making it all the more important that you write an amazing personal statement. 

Not every school uses the Common App. The University of California system, for instance, has its own portal and set of four 350-word “personal insight questions” for students to complete.

Application season officially opens on August 1, when the Common App opens the portal for students to begin submitting applications. Prompts for the season’s personal statement have already been posted and are available to the public. 

The next big deadline is November 1 (though this deadline varies by school and can be as early as October 15). This is when students need to submit applications for their early decision (ED) and early action (EA) schools. 

Early decision is usually a binding decision — if the student is accepted, they must go to that school — so families should make sure they can afford or are eligible for enough financial aid to attend. Early action, on the other hand, is non-binding. Many students apply to EA when pursuing a competitive major, like computer science, because it conveys a small advantage. 

Unless your school has a rolling deadline, most regular deadlines are in late December or early January; some fall as late as February. Regular admission deadlines are designed to give students enough time to recoup and reevaluate their college list should they be rejected from their ED and/or EA schools. 

Do You (or Your Child) Need Professional Help Writing Your College Essays?

If a student is confident about their ideas and has strong writing and time management skills, writing the essays solo is totally doable. There is a wealth of free information online to help students brainstorm, draft, and write. 

Students who benefit from hiring an essay coach are those who have difficulty making deadlines, have a low opinion of their writing, or want professional advice when applying to elite schools such as U of Chicago, Princeton, and Rice. Neurodivergent students may also benefit from the stability of having someone help chart their progress forward with patience and a lack of judgment. 

Parents who can afford to hire a coach — or whose child qualifies for pro bono coaching — often tell me they enjoy the peace of mind that comes from not spending the fall semester of their child’s senior year nagging them about college applications. 

Essay Specialist vs. College Counselor

Although there is some overlap, there are two areas where students typically seek help when applying to college. An essay coach, or essay specialist, is precisely that — someone with an advanced degree and/or professional background in writing, teaching, or editing who can help students produce strong essays. Essay specialists often assist students with other areas of the Common App, strategizing to make the best use of every section without unnecessary overlap.

A college counselor, whether they work for your school or have an independent practice, is usually a certified or degreed professional with a background in college admissions. They understand the needs of various schools and may have developed relationships with some admissions officers. Thus, they are able to build college lists based on statistical and insider information about the schools, finding a range of good, plausible matches for the student.  

Tips for Writing a Stand-Out Personal Statement 

1. Be Yourself

This is by far the most important thing. Admissions readers don’t want to read perfect essays written by model students. Such essays tell them very little about the person who will attend their school. Instead, they are looking to see who you are as a person. Whether you compare your life to Don Quixote's quest or Disney’s Tarzan movie, talk about baking macarons, recount the outfits you’ve sewn, or conceive your essay in the style of an interview set in the future — all actual topics students used effectively — your personal statement should be authentic and written in your own voice.  

While you don’t want to divulge personal information that could make schools nervous about your ability to succeed in college, you should be vulnerable and honest in this essay. It is a place for analyzing motives and reflecting on challenges.  

It can help to brainstorm before sitting down to write. College Essay Guy teaches you how to find symbols in your everyday life with this useful “essence objects” exercise. Finding big meaning through small concrete objects gives you a good place to start. Another good source of inspiration is reading successful college essays written by other students. 

2. Lean into Values

Are you honest to a fault? Does family matter more to you than success? Both of these questions can lead to an essay grounded in values, provided that you find concrete examples to show when honesty got you in trouble, or you chose to put family over personal advancement. Awareness of values not only as a motivating force but also as part of your cultural heritage or social class can give you an interesting angle on viewing your place in the world.

The VIA character survey is a good place to see what you value most.

3. Find a Unique Angle

One of my daughter’s classmates wrote a personal statement that earned him acceptance to Stanford — the admissions officer wrote to tell him — by showing how the lyrics of Taylor Swift songs influenced his development from boy to man. The reason his essay was successful isn’t because he wrote about Taylor Swift. It was successful because he wrote about using a woman’s take on the world to develop his own brand of masculinity and social consciousness.

The more unusual and specific both your topic and your perspective on your topic are, the more effective your essay will be. 

4. Document a Human Being, Not a Human Doing

Your activities and awards list is where you get to show schools that you were class president or led your team to victory. So don’t make the mistake of recounting your achievements one more time in the personal statement. It’s not a place to showcase what you’ve done but to showcase who you are. This is one of the hardest sells for my high-achieving students, who are so wrapped up in their extracurriculars that they don’t know what else to write about. 

Last season, students who admitted failure, talked about work-life balance, and openly stated that they were undecided outperformed students who were more achievement-focused. 

5. Read Your Essay Aloud and Have Other Readers Look at It

I tell my students they will probably go through 3-5 drafts of the personal statement before they realize their best work. Revising draft after draft can be harder than brainstorming the initial great idea, however, and it is much more frustrating. 

One way to make the revision process easier is to read your own work aloud. You will catch awkward phrases and sentences that don’t make sense more readily this way. By the same token, having other people read the essay and provide feedback is a good way to see if the points you are trying to get across are clear and effective.  

Final Thought

I can’t promise that, if you follow these tips, you will get into the school of your dreams. But you will be better prepared to take on the personal statement, and that’s some of the battle right there.