Approaching your College Essays!

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Hey y’all! When I started writing college essays, I was very stumped and had absolutely 0 clue on how to approach them, so hopefully, this kinda helps whoever is in a similar position:)

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I felt like my essays needed to fit a specific structure or style of writing that the admission officers were looking for, and so I'd look at essays that people had posted. I soon realized that doing this would subconsciously make me try to follow their style of writing that that wasn't who I was and what I wanted to communicate about me! Reading other people’s essays to get an idea of how they presented themselves can definitely help spark ideas, but also realize those essays are unique to that person and you have your own moments, passions, and voice that make you unique!

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So the best advice I could give about writing your college essays is before reading anyone’s essays, sit down and come up with 3-4 main topics that “define” who you are/what your background and perspective is on your life/what your passions and interests are- the things you absolutely want to communicate in your application essays!

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I don’t think there’s really any right format or template your essays need to follow or topics you must cover- in fact, I feel like colleges are truly looking for what unique background and voice you can bring to their school, and so the more “you” your essays are, the more you'll stand out!

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Once I stopped focusing on what I thought admissions would want to see, and rather focused on what was really meaningful to me and communicated it through my own voice and style of writing (even if they was so so different from any of the other essays I'd seen), it was so much easier to write my essays and I felt so much better about them!! As long as you use proper grammar, I don't think there's any "right” way of writing your essays- for instance, I love puns, and I punned a whole lot in my essays, and they didn’t reject me for that 😂- so just focus on what's your voice and what you want to share!

 

Hope this helps whoever is in a similar position rn, and also more than happy to read over essays:)