As colleges place less importance on test scores, they’ll look even more closely at students’ activities and college essays, as they try to really figure out who you are and how you’ll contribute to their campus community.
There are a lot of resources out there about college essays, but we’ve compiled our top tips and advice here.
- Here are the Ten Commandments of college essays! They may not be a religion to you, but to us they are!
- Did you know that college essays have six distinct phases? If you’re just getting started with your college essays, this might help you get going.
- Should you have your English teacher read/revise/comment on your college essays? Why are English teachers not necessarily the right person to ask? Here are five ways your college essays are very different from the essays you’ve been writing for your English classes.
- How deep do your college essays need to be? What’s the actual purpose? Should I restate something from my resume that I think is really important? Here are the five questions you should ask about your college essays before you consider them “final.”
- We recently posted a short video and article to help you transition your passive voice sentences to be more active, and more about YOU. The passive voice is not your college essay’s BFF.
Your college essays should really give readers a sense of how you will contribute to their specific campuses. As you research colleges and dig into your college essays, think about the stories you’d like to tell from your life. Think about your successes and failures, large and small, and the effort it took you to achieve or overcome them. It’s ok to be vulnerable in your college essays. Show them the human side of you.
We hope this helps!