After working hard through high school to get a perfect record and the right set of extracurriculars, a college essay seems like an afterthought. But it’s the one thing that sets you apart from other applicants and helps the admission board decide if you’re the right fit for the school. If you’re not desperate enough to pay for essays and want to tackle the task on your own, this quick guide will uncover the basics of how to write a college essay about yourself.
Study essay requirements
This first piece of college essay advice will define the rest of your admission journey. You must read college essay requirements carefully and ensure you understand them in full. Even something as innocuous as the format of the uploaded file can disqualify you from the application process. At the same time, understanding the question or topic (if one is available) is critical for all the other steps of the writing process.
If you’re unsure how to write a college essay about yourself or if you have doubts about the requirements, discuss them with your parents, classmates, and teachers. Getting another perspective can help you clear things up and ensure you understand the topic correctly. Researching school values and mission can also help you make sense of the requirements and identify personal traits to highlight in your application.
Brainstorm an idea
Even if your dream school provides a generic topic or question for you to cover in your essay, you shouldn’t dive straight into writing. Instead, our college essay advice is to take a few days to brainstorm ideas and pick the best.
For example, if you need to describe your role model, don’t jump straight to your older sibling, parent, or school teacher. These are the obvious choices that won’t set you apart from thousands of applicants. Try to think of other people who have influenced your choices like a doctor who treated you and inspired you to pursue Medicine. Even if you decide to go with the tried-and-true classics, you can make things interesting by using anecdotes to emphasize your admiration for your role model. For instance, you can tell a story about how your brother’s service in the military moved you to dedicate your life to helping others through social services or nursing.
Unlike debate topics for college students, application requirements are typically generic enough to give you creative freedom, so don’t stop at the first idea that springs to mind. Create a list of at least ten ideas that fit the narrative, weigh their pros and cons, and decide which one will give you the best chance of getting into your dream school.
Tell a story
Although a college essay is neither a creative piece nor a short story, it’s also not a purely academic paper. It’s a deeply personal narrative that may decide your future for years to come. The biggest mistake you can make with this paper is turning it into a summary of your school records or an academic resume. Remember that the admission officers will have access to your full application package and will be able to assess your grades and extracurriculars. You don’t have to restate the same facts in your application essay. In contrast, it should highlight your personality and personal experiences that shaped you into the person you are today
At the same time, you shouldn’t turn the application into an autobiography starting with getting born. The word count requirements won’t allow for that. If you don’t know how to start a personal essay for college, start in the middle of the story, with the most exciting piece of action or the biggest conflict you’ve faced. You can backtrack from there to provide context and wrap up the story with your current standing.
Use your voice
Writing a personal college essay is extra challenging for students who have only ever worked on academic assignments. Teachers spend years training you to be objective, find credible sources, and use formal language in your papers. Unfortunately, all of that will only harm your chances of getting into college, as it will make your application look stilted and faceless, identical to thousands of other essays.
So how to write a college essay to sound authentic and personal? You need to weave your catchphrases into the narrative and let it reflect the way you talk to your peers. Finding the right balance between informative and informal is critical, as you don’t want to sound too casual or offensive. Besides, admission officers may not be familiar with the current lingo. You will likely need to rework the paper a few times to find the right word choice, but it will be worth the effort.
Prove your claims
There’s a fine balance between bragging and highlighting your best traits in an essay about yourself. To find the happy medium, list your biggest achievements and prominent qualities and work out a way to weave them into your story without being overly direct. For example, saying “I’m a hard worker” is nothing but an empty and unsupported claim, but explaining how you spent two months getting ready for a state debate competition will show the admission board your dedication and hard work without sounding boastful.
Essentially, your college essay should follow the age-old advice of “show, don’t tell”. You need the application committee to see you in the best light but do it inconspicuously. Of course, you cannot simply start each sentence with “One time, I…” It will turn your essay into a jumbled mess. Instead, you want to weave your wins and accomplishments into a single narrative, sprinkling evidence of your best traits throughout. That’s the secret to how to write a college essay without sounding arrogant.
Simplify your story
Students often struggle with how to write a college essay because the word count is typically limited to 500 or 1,000 words. That’s nowhere near enough to tell your life’s story. Luckily, that’s not what a college essay is about. It’s a creative sales pitch, trying to sell you as a perfect candidate for a specific program, and you need to treat it as such for the best results.
Here are a few ways to keep your essay within the word count while sounding authentic:
- Don’t use thesaurus to look smarter
- Replace wordy phrases with one-word alternatives (“I decided” instead of “I made a decision”)
- Skip lengthy introductory phrases (i.e., “it may seem obvious”)
- Try Hemingway editor to reduce passive voice, adverbs, etc.
Edit and revise
The most underrated and overlooked piece of college essay advice is mandatory editing and proofreading. While the post-writing cleanup is essential for any assignment, including a mission essay, it’s critical for a college application. After spending so much time on this piece, it’s easy to skip over any mistakes and typos. That’s why ideally you want a second pair of eyes on your essay about yourself to catch errors your eyes will gloss over. You can ask a friend, a relative, or a professional editor to take a look and give their feedback. Just remember to take their editing advice with a grain of salt. Otherwise, you may end up in an endless editing cycle.
Using advanced spellcheckers is also a good idea, especially at the final stages before submitting your application package. Professional software like Grammarly is more likely to catch small typos than your run-of-the-mill text processors. After that, all you need to do is format the paper, save it in the appropriate format, and upload it for consideration.
Tips
Now that we’ve covered the basic steps, here are a few extra tips on how to write a college essay about yourself you might find helpful:
- Do not submit AI-generated essays. They are always formulaic and impersonal, easy to recognize for experienced admission officers.
- Do not lie or exaggerate in your college essay. While it is a creative writing piece, it should be based on facts and real experiences, not fiction.
- Start working on your essay early. Even a short two-page paper will take you a few weeks to complete if you follow our advice.
- Do not get stuck reading application samples. Your essays won’t look anything like that, as each person’s experience is unique, and agonizing over samples will make you nervous and unsure, wasting precious time.
- Start and finish strong. A surprising opening is the only way to grab the admission officers’ attention, while a strong ending is a must to make them remember your application.
- Keep yourself at the center of the story. Even if a school asks about the most important person in your life, your experiences, challenges, and changes should be the focus, as you’re applying for college, not your mum, brother, or teacher.
- Engage all five senses to make the story vivid. Include descriptions of sounds, smells, textures, and tastes where appropriate to give your narrative extra layers and help paint a solid picture of your experiences.
Keep this checklist at hand when working on your college application to avoid common mistakes and save time on editing and revising the paper after you’re done.
Need more help with college applications?
Now you know how to write a college essay about yourself without sounding too formal and tell a compelling story that will catch the admission officers’ attention and urge them to choose your application over others. As long as you remember to brainstorm creative ideas, use your voice, support your claims with anecdotes, and edit the college essay before submission, your chances of getting into your dream school should be solid.
Still, if you’re too nervous to think of a good idea or out of time for dealing with your applications, getting professional help is always an option. Write paper for me experts are here to support you every step of the way. You can get them to come up with exciting ideas, write your application essay, or edit and proofread it to take your essay to the next level. All you have to do is reach out.
