How to Write College Application Essays — from Format To Style
What is a College Application Essay?
Unlike other essays, personal statements, whether it be Common App (or Coalition) essays or College-specific supplemental essays, are all about you.
College application essays are the writings you submit to colleges to give them extra information about you. When students think about “essays,” they typically think about the ones they had to submit for their classes. These essays have certain rules with specific formats and styles. However, academic essays are very different from personal statements. There are four different types of writing styles which are:
- Descriptive writing style
- Narrative writing style
- Persuasive writing style
- Expository writing style
The writing styles many students are used to are persuasive writing style and expository writing style. These writings have specified purposes, and optimal structure and rules to follow. Writers are often advised against being too descriptive or personal.
In that sense, college application essays require students to write something that they are not trained, or used to do. Personal statements often follow descriptive writing style and narrative writing style. Basically, you have to tell a story about your life.
Things to Keep in mind when writing College Essays
- It is okay to use “I”s — in fact, lots of it.
- Describe, don’t analyze.
- Be creative, personal, and honest.
Types of College Application Essays
- List Question
- Personal Statement
- Supplemental Essay (Short Answers & Essays)
List Questions — Universities & Colleges — 50~100 words each
Personal Statement — Application Portals — ~650 words
Short Answers & Essays — Universities & Colleges — 250 ~ 700 words
Popular College Application Essay Prompts
- “Why us” Essays
- Extracurricular & Work Experience
- Identity, background, and challenges
- Field of Interest
- Personality
- Intellectual Passion
How Long Should a College Application Essay Be?
Personal Statements typically range between 500 to 650 words. Supplemental essays are a bit more complicated. Supplemental essays can be:
- List Question: 50 ~ 100 words
- Short Answer: 150 ~ 300 words
- Essays: 300 ~ 700 words.
Creating Outlines for your College Essays
Outlines of college application essay includes figuring out what to write and how to write it.
Understanding the subject of the essay
The content of your essay should be based on understanding the prompt, discovering what the question is asking you to do. No matter how dramatic and mind-blowing your essay ends up being, it does not matter if it does not answer the question that is being asked.
Once you have a solid understanding of the prompt, look into your life to see which aspect of yourself you want to put into writing. Do not forget- the subject of your application should always be you. Even if the essay asks you to talk about your mentor or inspiration, the essay should end up being about you.
Don’ts of Writing College Application Essays
Below are the topics mentioned in Yale Admission’s Podcast. They called these topics “a missed opportunity.” Generally, these topics did not capture who the writers are as a person enough. These are the choices that did not quite work out.
- Writing an essay in the 3rd person. Then having it end with “…and that person was me”
It makes sense as a storytelling element. However, the AO always knows that it’s you. It’s unsurprising and is generally predictable.Drama for the sake of drama. This gets in the way of something that is possibly just simple and clear. Don’t overdramatize something to get AOs “hooked.” It doesn’t always have to.All storytelling. Generally has a beginning, middle, and end in a storytelling fashion and is usually interesting but is often overdramatized. Instead of being about self-reflection and introspection, it’s just a story. Thus, it feels impersonal and isn’t very strong.
2. Don’t be stuck in the past
Don’t write about an experience that happened when you were 5 or 6 years old. It can be a starting point to show growth but don’t stay stuck in that timeline.
3. Don’t write cover letter essays
Don’t just write about your activities list just like a cover letter accompanied by your resume.Not using the space wisely. You don’t need to waste your essays rehashing something you’ve already stated. If you write your activities in one spot, you don’t need to write about it again.
4. Don’t write death of a grandparent essay
It’s a challenging experience, yes. However, what doesn’t make it work is that it comes off as predictable. It can work but try to include death early in the essay. It can be used as a bridge to get to something else to leave you space for self-reflection and to show your growth.
5. Don’t write another person’s biography
When you write about a relationship with another person, don’t just write their biography. Connect it back to you.
6. Going for the “shock” factor
You can’t shock AOs. They’ve seen it all.”Unlike most people….” It gives off an exceptionalism vibe and almost always feels pretentious. When you define yourself in opposition towards other people, the AOs think you won’t blend well with the class they’re trying to create. Writing as a letter to someone. Letters to future roommates or your future self. It’s good as a fun writing exercise but feels gimmicky to AOs.
7. Story of failure without redemption
If you spend the entire essay writing about a failure without redemption or reach the redemption part too late, it won’t work. Don’t dwell too much on the experience itself. Show how you ended up where you are afterward. What did you learn based on that experience? So you’ve been through this, so you’ve failed, so what? What’s the result of that experience?
8. An over-thesaurus-ed essay
An essay that isn’t in a natural language. The AOs would prefer if you sounded authentic over sounding “smart.” Aim for a conversational tone rather than an over-edited tone.
