College Essay Writing Tips

What is a College Essay?

Most colleges requires students to submit a 650 word personal narrative essay (about 2-3 pages double spaced) as part of their application for admission. A personal narrative is an essay that students write about themselves, so it is very different from essays they write for school/classes.

For some colleges, submitting an essay is optional, however, we always recommend that students do submit an essay for these colleges as well, as oftentimes, application essays are also considered for scholarship selection.

College Essay Guy

College Essay Guy is created/run by Ethan Sawyer. His website offers tons of helpful information and support for writing both your personal narrative essay and supplemental essays required by some colleges.

See some of his resources below.

https://www.collegeessayguy.com/

College Essay Guy on essay topics:

Your topic is not your topic. You are your topic.

College Essay Guy’s Free Guide to Writing a Personal Statement https://www.collegeessayguy.com/the-free-guide

Read Sample Essays

- Johns Hopkins “Essays That Worked”
- https://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/college-essay-examples

Common App Essay Prompts

Each year, the Common Application publishes 7-ish essay prompts that students may choose from for their personal narrative. You can view the Common App essay prompts here: https://www.commonapp.org/apply/essay-prompts

Supplemental Essays

Supplemental Essays are shorter than the personal narrative and are used by colleges to obtain "extra" or supplemental information from students that is often more specific to their college campus. See below for some of College Essay Guy's advice on these essays.

One of the most common supplemental essay prompts your students will see this year is some version of:

Who are you, and how will you contribute to our campus community?

Here’s the 4-step method I recommend (using the Roles & Identities Exercise).

Pick 3-5 identities/roles you’d like colleges to know about (e.g. advocate, maker, artist). Important: Make sure these aren’t already coming through clearly in your personal statement.
Research… yourself: Write down 2–3 specific examples of how each role shows up in your life.
Research… colleges: Look for opportunities where those roles/identities might thrive—clubs, programs, classes, etc.
Connect the dots: Choose 1–3 identities for each essay and link them to school-specific opportunities. Example: “As a maker, I can see myself thriving in The Garage Makerspace at Northwestern because…”

5 Essay Topics to Avoid

Even though students can write about anything, there are some things to avoid. In this article from Advantage College Planning, explore 5 essay types students shouldn’t write.

5 College Essay Topics to Avoid

Should students discuss mental health challenges in their application?

Main takeaways (for students):

If you’re trying to decide whether or not to disclose mental health challenges in your college application, ask yourself: Will disclosing this information help the reader understand the skills, qualities, values, and interests I’ll bring to a college campus?
The personal statement may not actually be the best place to disclose. You can instead use the “Additional Information” or “Education” section of your application — see the blog guide linked below for examples — and in fact, some college admissions officers prefer when students use these sections for disclosures.
Another option is to ask your college counselor to mention your mental health challenges + what you’ve done + what you’ve learned in a paragraph of their recommendation letter to colleges, allowing you to use your personal statement to focus on sharing the skills/qualities/values/interests you’ll bring to a college community.
If you do decide to use your personal statement, consider devoting around ⅓ of your word budget to the challenges you experienced and their effects, ⅓ to what you did about it, and ⅓ to what you’ve learned about yourself.

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