A Complete Guide to Writing a College Essay

A college essay is a vital part of your application. It contributes largely to its success or failure. College essays let you personalize your application and provide more than grades and scores. When writing your essay, you must ensure it makes you stand out from other applicants.

A few components make your essay stand out. They include a unique topic, well-structured content, clear, concise, and creative writing, and a reflection of who you are. A comprehensive and unique essay needs time. Therefore, before writing, you must create enough time to brainstorm, write, revise, and get feedback from others.

In this article, we discuss comprehensively how to write a college essay.

Table of Contents

1. The importance of having a standout essay
2. Early organization
3. Choosing a topic
4. Outlining your essay
5. How to write a captivating introduction
6. How to write like an expert
7. How to conclude your essay

The Importance of a Standout Essay

A university application mainly comprises your academic results and grades. However, a college essay gives you the opportunity to share your personal information and give the university a reason why you would be a good addition to their institution. Before writing, find out what colleges look for in an essay.

Most college essays account for about 25% of the application. However, in some, the figure increases, allowing you to skip SAT and ACT tests. For most competitive schools, there are many applications, a majority of them from students with exemplary grades. In these institutions, it all boils down to college admission essays. These are what set the students apart.

When reading essays, admission officers want to understand your personality and what you stand for based on the content you have compiled. What is your background? Are you authentic? How good are your writing skills? If you tick all these boxes, an admission officer will determine whether you are the right fit for the institution.

Early Organization

Although a college admission essay may not be as bulky as other essays, it requires a lot of time to plan and compile before you can hand over the final draft. For this reason, it’s advisable to start working on your essay as early as possible.

School timelines vary from student to student. Nevertheless, you must aim to spend a reasonable amount of time on each stage of writing. These stages include brainstorming, writing, revising, and getting feedback.

Spend about a week to three brainstorming and writing the first draft of your essay. Writing your essay will require you to compile several drafts that you must edit before you decide on the final one. Spend two to four weeks revising the drafts. Before handing over, ensure you get feedback from another party.

Choosing a Topic

There are various college essay topics to choose from. You must ensure that you choose one unique topic instead of common essay topics. This is because a unique topic is easier to personalize and present in your own way.

If you decide to write on a common essay topic, you must brainstorm ideas to help you make it personal and unique, unlike anything seen before. A good topic should be meaningful to you and have an unusual angle. It must also reveal something outside the rest of the application.

Outlining Your Essay

Once you’ve chosen your topic, create an essay outline. An essay outline keeps you focused, and you can refer to it to track your progress. Contrary to academic essays, college essays do not follow a specific structure. You are free to be as creative as you can and show off your storytelling techniques while at it.

There are two common approaches you can decide to use in your essay.

• Vignettes Structure

In this approach, a student includes different stories weaved together by a common theme. Each story should highlight one of your values or character traits and end with a future outlook or insight. By using this structure, an admission officer can see your personality and how your qualities appear in different scenarios.

• Single Story Structure

The single-story structure follows a chronological order to depict how a student’s personality appears over time. These kinds of essays either use a brief event or one that spans over several months. Using this structure is advisable if you want to demonstrate personal development.

How to Write a Captivating Introduction

Students send thousands of applications every day. Therefore, admission officers have several essays to read at a time. Your introduction needs to grab their attention enough for them to want to continue reading your paper. Begin with a hook statement, such as an unexpected statement, vivid imagery, or a meaningful conversation from your essay.

How to Write Like an Expert

College application essays give you the opportunity to be as creative as you can and use all forms of grammar styles to achieve that. As you write, use language that will captivate your reader. Show, don’t tell. Instead of simply stating that you play football, use vivid imagery to describe your qualities in the sport. A good college essay should also be dynamic.

How to Conclude Your Essay

Ending your college essay is as important as beginning it and writing the body. It would help if you left your reader with a strong impression. A good conclusion makes your essay memorable. Avoid summarizing content you have already written in your essay or stating how much you want to be accepted at the institution.

You can choose between the two most common strategies in writing conclusions: Sandwich structure and revealing your insight.

In the sandwich structure, you can end your essay with an idea, an image, or a story you mentioned in the introduction. The second strategy allows you to show the insight you gained from your experiences.