what kind of essay do colleges want

The 5 Things Colleges Want You To Include in Your Admissions Essay

Your college application essays – and you’ll probably write more than a few of them – may be as short as 150 words or up to a few pages. It can be one of the most stressful parts of the application process because it’s the most open-ended.

And those words can mean the difference between a “yes” and a “no” from the college you’ve been dreaming of.

Admissions essays are designed to tell an admissions committee – the folks responsible for deciding who gets in to a particular college or university – how students are different from each other. These people read hundreds of essays from students with similar experiences, so when it comes to your essay…

You need to stand out.

WATCH: Wyzant<5

Wyzant Under Five  is a video series featuring tutors on Wyzant doing what tutors do best:  fitting a ton of learning into a short time!

We challenged tutor  Nick S, The College Guy  to tell us the five things top-tier colleges want to see in your admissions application essay. Watch it below, and check out all the other videos in Wyzant<5.

The One Thing ALL Colleges Want to See in Your Application Essay is Good Writing

You can write conversationally, but your grammar, spelling, and word count still need to be correct .

Remember: good writing is invisible. It’s about what you’re saying , not how impressively you say it. 

When you’re in the middle of something truly great, you don’t sit there saying “Gee, this sure is well-written.” You just read it. 

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What’s On the New Reading & Writing Section of the Digital SAT?

While the SAT has had a constant presence in the college admissions process for over 60 years now, it has by no means been consistent in its presentation. The way it tests students’ reading and writing skills bears little resemblance…

Be clear, be focused, and be honest . Don’t worry about saying “the right thing”; worry about saying “the you thing”. Schools read enough of these to recognize when someone is just saying what they think they’re supposed to say. 

Be creative and push the boundaries, not just for the sake of being different but because you don’t fit into any one box.

Colleges Want to Understand Your Motivations

They want to see that you have a plan and the drive to bring it to life.

The more specific you can be about your plan, the better. Colleges know that people with a plan tend to be the most motivated, the most effective, and the most resilient. Don’t just say you want to study psychology or computer science. Say that you want to “learn about the psychological effects of ingroup bias so you can apply them to marketing”, or that you want to “study software analytic methods for optimizing peer-to-peer lending”.

The beautiful part of plans is that they can change. And, in reality, they nearly always do. Colleges know this as well.

You’re not binding yourself to any one trajectory for your future by being specific in what you would like to explore.

You’re simply demonstrating that you have a course, and that you can adjust over time.

Be sure to stay on message

Your essays should all contribute in some way to show how you plan to pursue your stated goals. For your personal statement, be sure your essay reflects the way that your chosen topic has propelled you towards your chosen path. Think of your essay like a string connecting your past and your future.

Go Ahead and Brag

Your drive and motivation will likely be reflected in your past accomplishments. Don’t be afraid to talk about those experiences and show that you have the chops to make your plan a reality. 

Ideally, your past accomplishments relate to your future goals, but, even if they don’t exactly, showing enthusiasm, experience, and commitment goes a long way.

Most Schools Want to See that You Contribute to Your Community

As much as you’ll take away from your college experience, you’ll also give a great deal.

This doesn’t only mean volunteering and formal extracurriculars at school. You probably contribute to your community in a lot more ways than you realize. Do you help friends and classmates to study? Do you make people laugh?

After you finally get your acceptance letters and head to campus next fall, you’re going to be part of a huge community that will expect a lot from you academically and personally. No school wants a student who hides in their dorm waiting to collect a degree. Schools want students who will put themselves out there and make the university a better place.  

Remember: those with the most to offer are the ones who offer the most to other people. And, if you need a selfish reason for doing it, the more you give, the more you get. Show colleges that you’re one of the people with the most to offer.

Colleges Also Want to See Diversity of Experiences

As important as it is to stay on message, it’s also important to balance it out with other aspects of your experience, so colleges don’t see you as one-dimensional.

Thinkers, leaders, and doers take ideas from anywhere they can get them. Show schools that you’re willing to explore far-ranging and surprising places in order to learn and improve.

Sharing quirks or a sense of humor is a great way to show that you’re not a robot, but sharing information about your background that makes you who you are can also help bring your personality to life for an admissions committee.

You’re Different Than Every Other Applicant

Whether you realize it or not, you are unique in important ways from every single other applicant applying to the school of your dreams. It’s your job to discover and express what makes your background unique.

Try to think beyond ethnicity, religion, and geography. These are certainly important parts of who you are, but what combination of influences meet in you and you alone?

Observe your friends, family, and other people in your community. How are you alike? How are you different? This can help to get you started thinking about what makes some of the people close to you who they are and, in turn, what that means about you.

And Lastly…Remember to Be Succinct

Admissions officers are human. If you send them a Tolstoy novel of information about every gold star you’ve gotten since 2 nd grade and excuses for why each and every tiny thing didn’t go perfectly, they’re going to feel overwhelmed and unmotivated to read your application when they still have 200 to get through that night. 

Don’t worry about saying “the right thing”; worry about saying “the you thing”.

Keep it concise. Keep it focused .

This is as much for your own sake as it is for theirs! By choosing your words and application materials carefully, you will stay focused on your message better and present an overall more cohesive picture of you as an applicant.

Both your personal statements and school-specific essays should have one, single, cohesive point. It’s often best to express this thesis statement directly right at the beginning of your essay. If you don’t know what your thesis is, you’re not done with your essay.

Sometimes it takes a few tries and a few drafts before you narrow in on what you really want to say. But, when you find it, make sure you can express it in a single sentence.

Get More College Admissions Help

Five important things you should consider in your own college admissions essays will get you started, but for the rest of your college admissions journey, connect with a tutor on Wyzant, and check out all the other videos in Wyzant<5 .

For 10 years, Nick has been a leading test prep expert and essay specialist in sunny Southern California. He’s the author of the legendary “College Guy” curriculum and the tutor of choice for students who are committed to getting into the college of their dreams. Year in and year out, his students earn admission to Stanford, MIT, Georgetown (his alma mater), Duke, Northwestern, and other top-ranked institutions. Request Tutoring from Nick

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What Do Colleges Want to See In An Essay?

Writing a college essay that satisfies the application requirement is relatively easy. Crafting an essay that can be the tipping point in the application process, though, is quite another matter. And, for students in search of a “winning essay,” finding creative solutions often proves to be a vexing challenge.

So, what is it that admission officers are looking for? More importantly, what makes the difference between a good essay and one that is truly impactful?

While they want to see evidence of good technical skills—have you mastered the basics of good writing(?)— admission officers are particularly interested in learning more about you.

• Are you creative?
• Can you think critically and reflectively?
• Are you comfortable taking risks—will you settle for a “safe” approach to your presentation or will you risk making yourself vulnerable in telling your story?

Your academic record and extracurricular profile will reveal the facts of your life. Rather than repeating them, the essay should serve as an effective complement that reveals the person behind the numbers. Reliance on such insight during the credential review process will be especially critical this year as the “data” normally associated with applications is limited due to the coronavirus.

Coming up with a compelling essay, though, can be a challenge largely because the inspiration for such essays is hard to find! I’ve often maintained that the actual drafting and editing of an essay is easier than landing on messaging that will carry the day. If you expect to sit down and crank out a winning 650-word essay on a Saturday afternoon, good luck.

Brainstorm Your Essay: Here's How to Start

Crafting good essays— really good essays —starts with reflection (brainstorming).

• What do you care about most in life—and why?
• What word would best describe you—and why?
• If you could interview anyone in the world, who would it be—and why?
• Can you recall a revelation or “aha” moment—how did it change your perspective?

The key is to tap into an intensely personal perspective, to reach beyond the superficial to a deeper understanding of who you are and the life experiences that define you.

Brainstorming in this manner can require a certain amount of courage because it might take you to times in your life that you’d rather forget. Your ability to process them, however, is important to establishing your sense of self. In the end, your ability to make yourself vulnerable is what will make you—and your message—strong.

Tap into Your Emotions

When talking with students, I listen for voice inflections that reveal an emotional response. Excitement, frustration and even anger are often indicators of a deeper, underlying story that the student either fails to recognize or is uncertain about how to approach.

Notice that, in the previous section, each question has two parts. Exploring the “why” and “how” of a response is essential to greater understanding. If you focus only on the “what,” “when” and “where” of a story, you fall short of revealing the sense of humanity that readers want to see.

Conceptualize Your Story

Once you determine the story or message you want to convey, focus on creating an appropriate concept for the telling of your story. Will it be a conversational narrative? A metaphor? Do you want to employ drama or self-effacing humor? I’ve even read poems that powerfully and/or playfully conveyed the character of the author!

In the case of prose, put the reader at the point of revelation with you at the outset of the essay. Share the emotion of the moment. Then, create a narrative that reveals the contextual backstory and, finally, the lessons learned or the resolve taken from the situation.

It might be helpful to approach this step of essay development as an artist would approach an empty canvass. After all, your final “work product” will be your creation, your art. The last thing you want is for your essay to look like a five-paragraph essay written for an English or History class! As an artist, you want to create an impression with your work. What will your art say about you?

Don't Overthink Your Essay Topic

The questions of topic and concept are particularly relevant this year given the unique, life-changing circumstances introduced by COVID 19. The fact that many students will understandably reflect on the impact of the coronavirus in their lives has led to rampant speculation that the topic would not be a good one for college essays—add it to the list of “taboo” essays.

You might be surprised to know that admission officers don’t agree. They don’t see taboo topics, but they do see taboo approaches—generic essays on the same topic that could have been written by anyone. The events of the past year have presented challenges unlike any other. Has time stood still for you? Or have you found opportunities to reimagine yourself—to explore new interests or to respond to needs in your community? The manner in which you responded will define the approach you take to your essay. Whether yours is an essay drawn from a COVID 19 experience or something completely unrelated, if the story is intensely personal and artfully presented, you’ll be fine.

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What Do Colleges Look for in an Essay? Examples & Tips

What is a College Essay?

The college essay is an essential element of the college application process. It presents an opportunity for students to personalize their college application, beyond grades and scores. It can also be one of the more nerve-wracking parts of the application process. 

If you are reading this article, you are like applying to college and taking the process seriously. The quality of the college you attend will have a big effect on your entire life, and taking a few hours to make your application the best it can possibly be may be the most lucrative time investment you will ever make.

What do colleges look for in an essay from applicants?

So, what do colleges look for in an essay? The answer is similar to what colleges look for in an applicant. To hit the right notes, you need to consider the perspective and even the mission statement of the college, which of course values intelligence, a good work ethic, and the type of personality that will represent the school. 

Therefore, the core aspects that admissions officials at any institution look for in an essay are:

·         Intelligence

·         Strong communication skills

·         Ambition and goals

·         Creativity

·         Proactivity and self-direction

·         Interest in education and self-betterment

These elements are not based on any abstract moral consideration–colleges want students who will make their institution stronger. They will look for evidence of these traits in your personal essay, as grades only reflect a few of these core aspects and abilities. 

Beyond these considerations, remember that an admissions officer (an actual human being) will read your essay and respond to it both rationally and emotionally. In many cases, that emotion is boredom. Keep in mind that these officials read hundreds of application essays each admissions season. But if your essay can successfully win them over, then you’ll be getting a letter that begins with a “We are delighted to announce…”

Qualities Colleges Look for to Include in Your Essay

Most achievements that colleges are looking for will be reflected in your college application, and therefore, these have been left off of the list below. The achievements showing your passion and drive, as well as your internal and external motivations, will be the ones to include in your application essay. 

Challenging extracurricular activities

Colleges want to see students who stretch themselves beyond the limits of the classroom. The kinds of activities you choose say a lot about your personality and even your morals. Whether or not you stick with your chosen undertakings exhibits your ability to commit to important projects in the long term.

Volunteer and work experience

Any experience you have that shows true commitment, leadership qualities and an interest in community is beneficial to your application. Include the organizations or companies you worked for and what your responsibilities were at each one. If you received any promotions or special recognitions, be sure to mention those as well.

Talents and passions

More colleges are moving away from accepting students who did the most “stuff” to looking for those who focus their energy in specific areas that they’re passionate about. Schools want to see what makes you special and how hard you’re willing to work at the things you care about.

Obstacles or challenges you have overcome

One of the most important aspects of a good college student is their ability to learn from mistakes and overcome challenges in order to achieve success. This is especially true for Common App Essay prompts . In your essay, focus on what exact difficulties or challenges you faced, how you overcame them, and what you learned from this experience. After all, admissions officials are more impressed by a student who came from an adverse situation and still achieved success than they are with a student who had every advantage handed to them and skated by on position and intelligence.

What is a well-written essay?

Admissions officers read a lot of essays, and a well-written one can make a refreshing change. Students should check their essays to make sure they clearly meet these criteria:

• Does the essay provide a direct answer to the essay question?
• Does it have a strong opening paragraph that captures the reader’s interest?
• Does it put forth a comprehensive argument or narrative? Does the student make a point and stick to it?
• Does it have a natural style that’s comfortable for the student and appropriate for the subject matter?
• Did the student use effective word choice, syntax, and structure?
• Does it contain correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling?
• Is it succinct? Did the student pay attention to the recommended length?

How to Write About Positive Qualities in an Application Essay

The rule of thumb here is always “Show–don’t tell.” When writing a college essay, skip generalized information. Instead, provide real, specific examples to support your statements. Your attention to detail will help make you more memorable to an admissions officer who has to read hundreds, if not thousands, of essays. 

For example, instead of “I love hiking,” you could say, “After reaching the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, I decided my next adventure would be climbing Mt. Everest.” What’s the difference between these two sentences? The first says you like something, while the second one illustrates that you do—but not only that, it also shows your level of commitment and your desire for challenge. Of the two example sentences, which do you think maximizes your use of words and would be more interesting to admissions officers?

Bad example: Claim without proof My teacher once told me that I was the most skilled and intelligent student she’s ever taught, and I believed her. When I set a goal, there’s no stopping me. I’ll work at it until it’s achieved—even if it’s to my own detriment.

Good example: Showing with concrete evidence In sophomore year, I decided to set a goal to raise more money for Relay for Life than any other student involved. I asked my neighbors, family, teachers, and even my paster, who sat through my 20-minute prepared speech about why donating to this campaign would be the best use of his money. I spoke to community groups. I did three straight weekends of door-to-door fundraising. And in the end, my efforts paid off—I succeeded in raising over $500 more than any other student.

Showing initiative and ambition

Initiative and ambition are top qualities that colleges look for in an applicant. Students who exhibit these traits will bring a positive and driven attitude with them to college, where it will help them contribute to the campus and succeed in their academic endeavors.

The college essay should always show how you took some kind of action—it shouldn’t just include things that happened to you as a passive individual. For example, rather than simply writing about how it was emotionally difficult when your older sibling got sick, discuss specific coping strategies you developed during that time or ways that you contributed to helping your sibling and family.

Showing self-reflection and growth

Personal growth is one of the most popular topics to write about since it represents what the admissions essay is all about: helping the college gain better insight into your personality and character. Some schools ask targeted questions — “What was the most challenging event you have ever faced, and how have you grown from it?” — while others leave the topic open: “Describe an event that has had great meaning for you. Explain why and how it has affected you.”

One of the most successful strategies is to use a past event as a lens through which you can assess who you were and the person you became, how you have grown and changed, and your transformation. Most children are curious, but were you the one who asked your teacher what caused the change of seasons of the year and then created a solar system model and explained the concept to your classmates? Though you may think that your topic needs to be bold and unique, this is not necessary to craft an effective essay. Instead, success lies in painting an accurate and vivid picture of yourself — one that will show admissions officers that you have much to offer their school.

Structure your essay with a clear beginning, middle, and end

When you include the basic plot elements of setting, introduction, conflict, and resolution, not only will your essay be more fun to read, it will be easier to write. And when writing is easier, you are usually having more fun and pouring more of yourself into your writing. You will find that this often translates into a more compelling story as well since passion and interest are hallmarks of any good story told to a friend or included on the page of an adventure or romance novel. When structuring your narrative arc, include the lessons you have learned from these experiences: How did you change? What did you learn? What did/do you plan to do differently because of these experiences? Anyone can write about how they won first place in a competition or spent a fantastic vacation in Europe. The important stuff is not in the itinerary, but rather in the diary–what you learned from the experience and how it impacted you.

Essay Introduction #1: Focus on Your Personal Qualities

One approach when beginning your application essay is to start by describing positive character traits you possess and then showing examples of times you demonstrated those traits.

Starting with your qualities A student wants to show that he is determined and tenacious. He thinks about times when he went above and beyond what was necessary to succeed in high school. He thinks of how he became the only student at his school to participate in three or more AP classes while also being involved in multiple sports and extracurricular activities. He also thinks of his volunteer work with his church at a local homeless shelter, where he made friends and connections with shelter guests and high-profile members of the community. These are the qualities around which his essay is focused.

Essay Introduction #2: Focus on a Personal Story

Another way to approach your essay topic is to start with a story and then work show examples that demonstrative your positive qualities.

Starting with a story A student’s sibling has been fighting cancer for the past three years, and he feels that this is an important experience that has shaped who he is today. He considers how the difficulties of this experience have changed him and help distinguish him from other applicants. 

From introducing his story at the beginning of his essay, this applicant can tie in the positive qualities he exhibits with the finer details of his personal story: 

• He is independent, as he needed to deal with taking care of a loved one in a serious and sustained way that his peers did not need to deal with.
• He is focused, as dealing with regular medical emergencies has not deterred him from achieving good grades and being part of his community.
• He is empathetic, as he understands personally how hard times can impact people.

Whatever essay topic you choose, your essay should provide admissions officers concrete evidence that you are an ideal candidate for their school. Your essay should have a memorable introduction that grabs the reader’s attention and guides the rest of your essay.

Repeat Your Qualities in the Essay Conclusion

Although your essay introduction is crucial in starting your essay off in a clear and impactful direction, how you end your essay is also important as it is the last thing that will remain in the reader’s mind. One surefire way to write a strong essay conclusion is to repeat the important qualities you discussed earlier. Recall details about your personal story or repeat the qualities you introduced at the beginning of the essay. Here is an example of what a good conclusion can capture what colleges are looking for in an essay: 

Concluding your essay by repeating your qualities During my high school years, my qualities of leadership, initiative, and hard work have help shape me to become the strong student I am today. As the head of our school’s volunteer group, I showed that even a teenager can make a big impact. As a student achieving high grades in all three of my AP courses, I demonstrated my dedication to education about all. Finally, as a daughter of working-class immigrant parents, I have used my value of hard work to achieve things my parents never thought possible. These values have contributed to making me the conscientious and successful student and person I am now, and they will surely continue to assist and guide me in my academic and professional career.

Interesting Essay Topics to Write About

There are hundreds of resources available online about writing college essays (including How to Write the Common App Essay ). And while you can find dozens of interesting and fruitful essay topics that have worked, here are just a few more that are not too specific and can be molded to fit your unique profile and personal story. 

1. A unique extracurricular activity or passion 

2. An activity or interest that contrasts heavily with your profile

3. A seemingly insignificant moment that speaks to larger themes within your life 

4. Using an everyday experience or object as a metaphor to explore your life and personality 

5. An in-the-moment narrative that tells the story of an important moment in your life

Additional Tips for Writing an Essay Colleges Will Love

Choose a strong essay topic.

First, whichever structure you will use, you need to ask yourself what you actually want to accomplish in life (esp. in terms of career) . This gives you your goals. You need to choose a program that helps you reach these goals—otherwise, you should seriously reconsider whether you should even be applying!  

If you are using the “Story” structure…

The story is going to be your topic, so make it an engaging tale… but remember you are not here to show that you are the next Shakespeare. There are three ways to go here: a story/description about yourself that shaped who you are and shows who you are. A story/description of something completely different that inspires you or is a metaphor for who you are.

If you are using the “Conveying passion for a subject” structure…

In this case, you have your topic (the subject you are passionate about), but remember the essay should be about what it means to you (don’t get bogged down in describing the subject itself). Use each subsequent paragraph to illustrate how you show passion for the subject or topic you have chosen. Be sure to use concrete details within the paragraph, but begin each paragraph with a “mini-thesis statement” that gives the reader a clear and concise summary of how you demonstrate your passion in a particular way.

Engage the Reader with Your Essay’s Narrative

The admissions officer will not be interested in a mere list of your personal qualities, extracurriculars, or accomplishments. This information is included elsewhere in your application. Instead, focus on showing who you are in your essay through a narrative that includes concrete details. 

But how can you plan the topics included in your narrative essay? First, grab a pen and jot down important experiences that spring to mind. Your experience could be something negative that eventually turns out to be positive or vice-versa. The most intriguing part of a negative experience is how you handled it and, hopefully, came out on top. Give your reader a setting to help them feel like they’re a part of your story and experience this moment of change with you.

Focus on what you care about most

Consider this a kind of brainstorming exercise. Close your eyes and imagine what drives you, motivates you, excites you, and inspires you to pursue great things (or at least fantasize about doing them). This might include a hobby, a genre of music, an important person in your life, a pivotal memory or experience, a book—anything meaningful that you consider part of your identity or that defines you. 

Start by listing these items and creating a word web of other relevant or secondary aspects of this one idea, person, object, or experience. Write some brief sentences about exactly why it is important to you. Once you have your list and a few sentences written, it should be a bit easier to narrow your topic to just one or two things at most.

Essay Editing for College Application Essays

One thing all schools look for in an essay is a document that is free of errors in grammar, punctuation, mechanics, and style. Admissions essay editing services are ideal for international students who struggle with English or simply want to take their essays to the next level. Students should take care to choose a company that’s reputable and employs highly qualified editors .

Check out Wordvice’s array of professional English editing services and proofreading services , including essay editing services, to learn how our editors can improve your essays and help you get into your dream school.

Character Counts: What Are Colleges Looking For?

Find the right college for you..

What Character Traits Do Colleges Look For?

What do colleges look for besides grades when they read your application? They take into account more than your GPA and test scores. Your character and the personal qualities you can bring to a college are important, too. That's why you need to think about your goals, accomplishments, and personal values. Then, you can figure out how you can best express those in your applications.

Top Character Qualities Colleges Want

"What is it that makes you unique, and how will you contribute to the life of our campus?" That's the answer to what do colleges look for in essays, according to Earl Johnson of the University of Tulsa. University applicants who demonstrate the following qualities of a good college student have more to contribute to a school:

• Willingness to take risks
• Sense of social responsibility
• Commitment to service
• Special talents or abilities

Overall, colleges want a mix of students to create a rich campus community. They want the class valedictorians, says Marty O'Connell, executive director of Colleges That Change Lives. However, they also are looking for "students who are going to be involved in a lot of activities, and students who are musicians, and students who are athletes, and everything in between."

Your College Application Shows Your Personality Traits

So how do you show colleges what's special about you? The positive characteristics of college students are not easy to measure. Nonetheless, admission officers look at the items listed below for clues about what makes you unique.

Extracurricular activities : What you do outside the classroom reveals a lot about you. That’s why some applications ask for details about extracurricular activities . But remember, it's not the number of activities that counts. Then, what do admission officers look for? It's more about what you've learned and how you've grown from participating in these activities.

Summer jobs and activities : Your summer experiences provide insight into your character. Holding a summer job at a fast-food restaurant can build as much character as attending a prestigious summer learning program . Even staying at home to help out with babysitting or household chores like cooking for the family shows character. It's all about what you've gained, what you've learned and how you communicate that.

College essay : The college essay gives you the opportunity to show the admission officers who you are and how you will contribute to the college campus. What are admission officers looking for in a college essay? Creativity, self-awareness, and a good command of grammar top the list.

Mike Sexton, vice president for enrollment management at Santa Clara University, says that when admission officers read student essays, they ask themselves, "Would you like this person to be your roommate? Would you like to work on a group project with this person?" The essay can reveal the answers to these questions more than any test score can.

Letters of recommendation : Recommendation letters can tell a lot about the kind of person you are. A teacher who knows you well can give insight into your leadership ability or your collaborative approach to team projects. A school counselor or administrator can also offer valuable information about your service to the school community.

What characteristics are important to colleges?

Admissions officers are looking for academic excellence and character strength. When you look at a list of characteristics of college students, you probably recognize many of them in yourself. Colleges are looking for leaders who are compassionate and caring about others. They want innovators who are passionate about their pursuits and willing to take risks. So, what do admissions officers look for? They want students who have clear goals and can demonstrate that they can achieve them.

What kind of students do colleges want?

Colleges are looking for students who will succeed academically, be involved, and use their talents to help others. When college admissions specialists review your application, they are asking themselves, "What qualities best describe this applicant?" It's your job to give them the clues they need to make a favorable decision.   

How can I stand out to colleges?

The essay you write as part of the application process is one of your best chances to stand out. What do college admissions look for in an essay? Reveal your passions, talents, and character with a well-written essay. Ideally, your college essay will illustrate a project or situation that contributed to your personal growth. Many applicants find that taking the time to write a thoughtful essay also helps them figure out what to look for in a college they have been considering. 

When they review your application, admissions officials will also look closely at your extracurricular activities and what you did with your time during summer breaks. They are seeking evidence that your presence will positively impact the campus community. 

Related Articles

Admissions Officers Discuss 3 Common Essay Topics

A college essay topic doesn't have to be unique to be a good choice for applicants, experts say.

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Admissions officers look at much more than the topic students select when assessing college essays.

Grades and test scores may measure a student's academic potential, but those factors fail to capture his or her personality. That's where the college essay comes in. The college essay offers students the chance to tell their own story to admissions officials.

How important is the college essay? It ranked as the fifth most important factor in the admissions process in a 2019 National Association for College Admission Counseling survey. The essay followed other factors: high school GPA , grades in college prep courses, strength of curriculum at a student's high school, and SAT and ACT scores.

High school students may worry about not having an original topic for their college essay – that anything they write about will be something admissions officers have read countless times before.

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Aug. 10, 2023

But admissions deans and directors from several colleges told U.S. News that it's OK if applicants write about a common subject.

"Overuse of a topic doesn't make it a bad topic," says Whitney Soule, senior vice president and dean of admissions and student aid at Bowdoin College in Maine.

How common an essay topic is matters less than a student's ability to express something significant about himself or herself.

"It's not just about the topic, but why it's important to you and how you can showcase who you are as a student and an individual through that topic," says Jennifer Gayles, director of admission and coordinator of multicultural recruitment at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

Here are three examples of common college application essay topics that admissions officials say are fine for students to write about as long as they do so thoughtfully.

The Big Game Essay

Many high school students play sports, so it's understandable that athletics comes up fairly often in college essays.

One potential pitfall of a sports-focused essay is that students spend too much time describing what happened in the game, meet or competition and not enough time on how it affected them personally, some experts say.

Laura Stratton, director of admission at Scripps College in California, says she remembers reading a well-written sports essay in which the author wrote about being benched. The student was a senior and had played throughout the season, but she found herself on the sideline during the final game.

"The self-awareness the student showed of being a good team member and showing up for her teammates and continuing to be positive even though it wasn't the personal experience that she wanted to have, it said a lot about her character and about the type of roommate she would be or classmate she would be," Stratton says, "and that landed really well with the readers."

It's also fairly common for students to write about a sports-related injury in response to a college essay prompt about overcoming a challenge or failure, says Christoph Guttentag, dean of undergraduate admissions at Duke University in North Carolina. One of the 2019-2020 essay prompts for The Common Application – an application platform that allows students to submit their materials, including the essay, to multiple colleges at once – focuses on overcoming obstacles, according to the platform's website.

"If that's what has really mattered to the student, if that's something that has generated a lot of thought on their part, then I think it's a great essay topic," Guttentag says.

Essays That Focus on Service-Based Activities

College essays about service to others, either at home or abroad, can be moving to read but difficult to effectively write, given the short amount of space students are allotted for a college essay, some experts say. The Common App essay is limited to 650 words, for example.

"The idea of other people who are less advantaged being used as the vehicle for someone's increased self-awareness is how that can come across sometimes," Guttentag says, "and I think that can be difficult to pull off."

A student's motivation for choosing this topic also matters. If applicants decide to write about service, they should do so because their experience has led to thought and reflection, not because they feel like this is a topic admissions officers expect them to write about, Guttentag says.

Essays That Focus on a Meaningful Relationship

Students don't have to write about a major turning point in their essay, Soule says. They can instead reflect on something from their day-to-day life that they find meaningful. For some students, this may mean writing about a relationship with a parent, grandparent or other key figure in their life.

"I think that those can be great essays if the student is keeping top of mind that at the end of the essay we should know something about them as a person and how that relationship has affected and shaped them," Stratton says, "not just the great things about their grandma."

For example, Soule says she remembers a strong essay in which a student wrote about being a sibling. The student talked about what his relationship with his younger brother was like at different points throughout his life.

There wasn't any big, dramatic moment that the story hinged on, Soule says. The essay just reflected on how the student and his brother had grown up and evolved in relation to one another.

"That was really personal," Soule says, "and it also demonstrated a person who could see himself in relationship to other people, which is a hugely important quality, particularly when we're building a community of people who are going to be living together and learning together."

While students may ask themselves, "How important are college essays?" the answer is simple: important enough for college admissions that they should invest the time and effort to do their best and make the topic their own – even if it's common.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, what do colleges actually look for in application essays.

So, the main question plaguing me right now is: What are colleges actually trying to find out through our essays? I get that they want to know us better, but are there specific qualities or experiences that they prefer to read about? Or is it all about how well you can write? Just trying to understand the mindset behind the admissions process a little better.

It's wonderful that you're seeking to understand the college admissions process more deeply. Essays are a crucial opportunity for you to showcase your individuality beyond grades and test scores. Admissions officers are looking for authenticity and a clear sense of self. They're interested in how you reflect on your experiences, your values, and how you overcome challenges. It's not merely about showcasing a 'perfect' experience; rather, it's about the learning and growth that result from your experiences. Your ability to communicate effectively and write well is important, but the content is just as critical. They want to see that you're thoughtful and capable of introspection. An essay that might delve into how you’ve pursued a particular passion, for example, could illustrate dedication, creativity, or problem-solving skills. The key is to be genuine and to let your unique voice shine through.

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

What Are Colleges Looking for in Application Essays?

Jackson Schroeder

After four years of classes and multiple Saturdays spent taking the SAT or ACT , the college application essay may seem like a big drag. But don’t give up now. Essays are a very important factor in the college admissions process, as they are your opportunity to set yourself apart from the crowd and show college admissions committees what you are truly passionate about.

Grades, strength of curriculum, and admissions test scores still take the cake as the most important factors in college admissions , but application essays are not to be dismissed or downplayed.

If you’re a middle-of-the-road applicant, your college essay can make or break you.

But we at The University Network (TUN) understand how stressful and difficult it can be to put together a powerful, unique essay. So, to help you out, we spoke with an admissions expert and conducted extensive research.

Here is what we gathered:

#1 — There are 4 different types of essays

Throughout the application process, you will likely come across many different essay questions. But, typically, they can be boiled down into four categories: the “ who are you? ” essay, the “ personal growth ” essay, the “ what inspires you? ” essay, and the “ why this school? ” essay.

1. The “ who are you? ” essay

With good reason, the “ who are you? ” essay is one of the most common. Grades and test scores can only tell so much about an applicant. The “ who are you? ” essay gives admissions officers the opportunity to learn something unique and personal about the students applying. Generally, these types of essays encourage students to spotlight their academic or personal interests.  

Here are some past example essay questions from the Common App and Brown University :

The Common App essay prompt

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Brown University essay prompt

Tell us about the place, or places, you call home. These can be physical places where you have lived, or a community or group that is important to you.

What you should consider when writing “ who are you? ” essays

It’s important to remember that you shouldn’t explain your life story in these types of essays, for that could cause you to ramble and fail to ever get to the meat of your essay. It is better to take a deep dive into one specific event, idea or thing and explain how that has shaped or influenced you.

2. The “ personal growth ” essay

Colleges and universities use the “ personal growth ” essay to gauge how resilient and driven applicants are. Generally, by way of these questions, applicants will have to recall a time where they overcame adversity or faced a fear. College isn’t easy, and schools want to guarantee that the students they admit have the mental strength to graduate.

Here are some past example essay questions from the Common App and Stony Brook University :

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Stony Brook University essay prompt

Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?

What you should consider when writing “ personal growth ” essays

Students who choose to write a “ personal growth ” essay should remember to be honest and modest. Don’t spend your entire essay giving background information or boasting. The meat of your “ personal growth ” should come from explaining what effect a specific event or challenge had on you.

3. The “ what inspires you? ” essay

The “ what inspires you? ” essay is a college admission department’s attempt at seeing the intellectual and creative aspirations of applicants. Generally, these questions are best fit for students who already have an idea of what they want to study in college and pursue after graduation.

Here are some past example essay questions from the Common App and Yale University :

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Yale University essay prompt

What inspires you?

What you should consider when writing “ what inspires you? ” essays

When answering “ what inspires you? ” it is easy to get sidetracked and bounce around to moments throughout your life. But, again, the best essays are stories about one specific event, person, place, or thing that had a deep, lasting impact on your life.

4. The “why this school?” essay

Many colleges and universities want to know why each applicant wants to attend their school. Each school has a unique culture and focus, so they want to make sure applicants will fit in and excel once admitted. Additionally, many prestigious schools want to guarantee that they only admit students who are deeply committed and eager to attend.  

Here are some past example essay questions from Columbia University and Yale University :

Columbia University essay prompt

Please tell us what you value most about Columbia and why.

What is it about Yale that has led you to apply?

What to consider when writing “ why this school? ” essays

When writing “ why this school? ” essays, it’s important to be sincere. Don’t just ramble on about how great a school is. Instead, tell an honest story about what motivated you to apply. And if you are just applying for the sake of applying, maybe think again. College is expensive, and can be difficult. Don’t waste four years of your life at a school you aren’t passionate about attending.

#2 — Past essays can shed some light on what works

Sometimes the best way for applicants to gauge what makes a good college application essay is to take a look at what worked in the past.

Students don’t always have to follow a set path, but the essays below, which were written by students in the past, can give today’s applicants a good idea of what a successful essay looks like.

Johns Hopkins essay examples

• Essays written by the Johns Hopkins Class of 2021
• Essays written by the Johns Hopkins Class of 2020
• Essays written by the Johns Hopkins Class of 2019
• Essays written by the Johns Hopkins Class of 2018

Connecticut College essay examples

• Essays written by the Connecticut College Classes of 2017–2020

Hamilton College essay examples

• Essays written by the Hamilton College Class of 2018

#3 — Some universal tips to apply when drafting any type of application essay

Schools differ in the questions they ask applicants to answer. But, generally, they all look for similar aspects in responses. Here are some universal tips that you should apply, so you can draft the perfect essay.

1. Write about yourself

Application essay questions may vary in wording and topics, but nearly every question you encounter is centered around the theme of individual interest, passion and drive.

“Schools are really trying to gain insights into what the passions and interests of a student are,” said Rodney Morrison , the Associate Provost for Enrollment and Retention Management at Stony Brook University.

So, before drafting an application essay, it’s very important to self-reflect and consider who you are, what you care about, and what separates you from your peers.

You don’t need to have gone through a life-shattering experience or have a burning desire for change in order to write a compelling essay. Even those who consider themselves a “typical high school student” likely have an intriguing story to tell.

Passion — no matter how deep it may be buried — exists in everyone. Take an honest look into yourself and find out what you care about the most.

2. Write about what is important to you

Students will commonly make the mistake of catering their writing to admissions officers, instead of writing from the heart. Disingenuous writing is easy for admissions officers to see through. After all, they read thousands of essays.  

“Don’t write about what you think the admissions office wants to hear. Really write about the things that are important to you,” said Morrison. “That’s really what (admissions officers) want to get out of it . . . the things that are important to the students, not what the student thinks the admissions officers want to hear.”

3. Don’t use humor if you aren’t funny

Students shouldn’t stray from their stylistic comfort zone when writing their application essays. Just because you heard somewhere that admissions officers like humor in the essays they read doesn’t mean you should squeeze an awkward joke in your writing.

Plus, you never know how an admissions officer will receive a joke. It could be perceived as confusing or even offensive.

“If you’re not a humorous writer . . . now is probably not the best time to try it,” said Morrison.

Forced writing is easy to recognize. Don’t make someone wince while reviewing your entry.

4. Don’t fake a sophisticated vocabulary

“Don’t try to use really big SAT words if you don’t typically use them,” Morrison said. “You really want it to sound like it’s coming from you.”

Even more so than failed humor, a forced vocabulary can kill an application essay. Synonyms aren’t interchangeable; every word has a distinct nuance to its meaning — and there is a time and place for every word.

Application officers have read enough essays to know when writing is organic and when it isn’t. Big words don’t impress admissions officers, but deep thoughts do.

5. Answer the question

Although this may seem obvious, according to Morrison, one of the biggest mistakes students can make while writing their application essay is failing to answer the question.

Commonly, students will receive an essay question, dive into it, and submit it without answering it fully. Incomplete answers are detrimental to a student’s response, because essay questions are carefully worded and intended to encourage students to explore and explain a specific thought or belief.

Answering only part of the question is essentially like missing the boat, and good writing will likely not be able to save you.

Take this Common App question for example: “The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?”

The meat of this question lies in the second half. If you spend the entire time giving background, you may get sidetracked and miss out on explaining what you learned — the most important part of the question.

6. Be unique, not generic

You should view your application essay as your opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

“Most schools — particularly competitive schools — they are really trying to pick and choose between a lot of qualified applicants,” Morrison said. “If you’re generic and (admissions officers) can’t tell the difference between you, someone else, and the other thousands of applicants, it doesn’t do you a good service.”

Again, you don’t need to have endured a traumatic or life-altering experience to draft a unique essay. You should consider your application essay as a time to explain what makes you special and worthy of being accepted — something that the numbers in your transcript can’t describe.

7. Use your space wisely

Typically, application essays shouldn’t exceed 650 words. And some schools, including Yale , ask applicants to answer questions in as few as 35 words.

Application officers are busy people with mountains of essays to read through, so it is important you are concise in your writing. Your application essay isn’t the time to explain your life story. Instead, maybe explain one specific moment that had a huge impact on you.

Additionally, it is pivotal that you use your space wisely. Don’t use up too many words on background or wait too long to get to the meat of your essay. This can be done by acknowledging your most compelling point during the brainstorming period prior to writing.  

8. Don’t let proofreaders change your tone or theme

Proofreaders are great. And, in fact, Morrison even encourages them. However, peers, teachers — whoever it may be proofreading —  should not alter or suggest any changes other than punctuation and grammar.

“In other words, the parents shouldn’t be writing it, the friends shouldn’t be writing it, it should really come from that person,” Morrison said.

In conclusion

There is a lot to consider before writing your application essay(s), so don’t wait until the last minute. To the procrastinators out there, don’t ignore this advice. Application essays are not like a nightly homework assignment, and they shouldn’t be treated as one. You need time to brainstorm, write, make edits, and have a peer or teacher review. Plus, the more time you allot yourself to draft your essay(s), the more relaxed you will be when it’s time to write.  

For more college application advice, check here .

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The Ten Most Common Types of College Essays and How to Approach Them

It’s time for high school senior to get started on their college essays! Beyond the personal statement, which is required for The Common App, most schools require college specific supplements. If your student is applying to 10-12 schools, that could mean writing upwards of 30 supplemental essays. Before you and your student freak out about having to write 30 essays, fear not — you will discover that most schools ask a variation of a few different questions. And, once students craft their answers, they will be able to adapt them for each school. 

1. The Personal Statement

This essay, sent to all schools via The Common App , is your student’s chance to introduce themselves to the admissions committee, tell your story, and what makes you unique beyond your grades and scores.

2. Why “This School” Essay

These essays are looking for details that show in depth knowledge of the school, program curriculum, school life, and how it might be a good fit for your student. It’s a good idea for your student to mention specific courses they are interested in taking and programs in which they’d like to be involved. 

Ex: Please describe why you are interested in attending Tulane University (50-800) – Tulane

3. Academic Interest Essay

These essays require your student to write about an area they wish to study. Since 80% of students change their major at least once, don’t worry that your student will be required to study what they write about. 

Ex: For applicants to Columbia College, please tell us what from your current and past experiences (either academic or personal) attracts you specifically to the areas of study that you previously noted in the application. (200 words or fewer) – Columbia University

4. Community Essay

There are lots of versions of this essay question, but in general colleges want to understand the impact you have made on your community (be it family, activity, job, school etc) to better understand what type of community member you will be at their college.

Ex: Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it (300 words) – Michigan

5. Interest/Activity Essay

Colleges want to know how your students spent time outside of school and how you have been challenged and grown from the experience. Depth and longevity are key. Besides sports and school sponsored activities this essay includes anything meaningful or time consuming for your student, e.g.part-time jobs, family responsibilities, hobbies, etc.

Ex: Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (150-400 words) – Vanderbilt

6. Personal Challenge Essay

These essays ask students to discuss a challenge and how they have overcome it (It doesn’t matter what the challenge is)

Ex: Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement? – UC PIQ

7. Social Consciousness Essay

These essays include questions about how you have embraced, faced, taken action or been exposed to issues of social justice, diversity and inclusion. 

Ex: Villanovans are known for “holding doors open” because inclusion is at the core of who we are. Take us on a journey through your background and describe how your life experience has shaped your understanding of the word “inclusion” (250 words). – Villanova

8. Interpersonal Essay Questions

These essays often ask students to describe themselves as a roommate and seek to understand how they would fit into the campus life. 

Ex: Virtually all of Stanford’s undergraduates live on campus. Write a note to your future roommate that reveals something about you or that will help your roommate – and us – get to know you better (250 words)  – Stanford

9. Totally Unique Essays

Some schools like University of Chicago and Georgetown have out-of-the-box and often wacky questions designed to understand how students think. 

Ex: What can actually be divided by zero? —Inspired by Mai Vu, Class of 2024 (1 or 2 page response) – University of Chicago

10. Program Specific Essays

If you plan to apply to a specialized college or program within a university like Business, Film, Performing Arts, Music, Engineering, you should be prepared for specific questions, requirements and possibly a portfolio supporting your interest. Double check the admission requirements pages for these additional essays. 

Ex: Choose a current event or issue in your community and discuss the business implications. Propose a solution that incorporates business principles or practices. The review panel will look for creativity, drawing connections, and originality. Please limit this response to approximately 500 words. – Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

We hope this early insight into college applications help you and your student plan meaningful and fulfilling experiences that will serve as the foundation for their essays. 

If you would like to schedule a free thirty minute consultation to discuss the college admissions process, please contact [email protected] ..

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the 7 things that really look good on a college application.

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What looks good on a college application? It's the question nearly every high school student will ask at some point while applying to college. But is there a clear answer?

Fortunately, the answer is yes! Read on to learn what colleges look for in applicants, what looks really good on a college application, and what kinds of myths there are about good things to put on a college application.

What Are Colleges Looking for in Applicants?

Everyone applying to college has wondered, "What exactly are colleges looking for in applicants?" In other words, what looks good on a college application?

While all colleges are different, of course, with some valuing certain qualities or skills more or less than other schools, all colleges generally look for smart, studious, ambitious, and passionate students.

Therefore, your college application should emphasize your best, most impressive qualities. For example, if you play the violin and want to study music in college, you'll want to touch on this interest you have in different areas of your application.

A good college application will also showcase your sincere interest in the school. You wouldn't be applying to a college unless you had a reason to want to go there, right? Make sure to explain (especially if you need to write a "Why This College" essay ) exactly how you became interested in the school and why you think it's a good fit for you and your goals.

You don't need to be the next Marie Curie or Stephen Hawking, but you should be open to new opportunities and willing to challenge yourself.

Overall, the basic point of a college application is to make you stand out from other applicants in a positive, memorable, and unique way.

This fact is especially important in light of how many first-year applications colleges receive each year. According to the 2019 report by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) , the number of first-year applications received by US colleges increased by 6% from fall 2017 to fall 2018.

The report found that "the average number of applications for each admission office staff member (excluding administrative staff) for the Fall 2017 admission cycle was 1,035 for public institutions and 461 for private institutions."

These trends indicate that your application will definitely need to leave a lasting impression on the admissions committee if you hope to get into that school.

The degree by which you must stand out from other applicants will depend on how selective a particular school is. In general, the more selective a college is, the more impressive and unique your application will have to be.

Finally, what looks good on an application will vary depending on the college and what the college values. For instance, at colleges that don't place a big emphasis on standardized tests, a high SAT score likely won't be much of a factor in admissions.

This is just a general overview of what colleges look for in applicants. So what looks really good on a college application? Up next, we look at the specific qualities you should strive to include on your application so you can raise your chances of getting accepted.

What Looks Good on a College Application? 7 Key Elements

In addition to key personality traits, such as ambition, passion, genuine interest, and academic curiosity, what looks really good on a college application?

In general, a great application will have most or all of the following elements:

• A high GPA (relative to what admitted students have) and a rigorous curriculum
• Strong test scores (relative to what admitted students have)
• A specific, honest, and well-written personal statement and/or essays
• A unique extracurricular interest or passion (a "spike," as we like to call it)
• Volunteering experience with measurable impact
• Compelling letters of recommendation written on your behalf
• Work experience, particularly jobs related to your academic or professional interests

It's OK if you don't have every single quality listed above, but if you do, your chances of getting accepted to the college of your dreams will go way up!

Now then, let's take a look at each of these qualities in more detail.

#1: Excellent Grades in Challenging Courses

The first important part of the college application is the transcript, which consists of your GPA and the names and types of classes you've taken in high school.

Most people believe a high GPA (the definition of which can vary at different colleges) will make an application stronger. And this is true!

According to NACAC, 75% of colleges ranked grades in high school classes considerably important. In fact, this factor was ranked the most important of any in the report.

What's truly important, though, isn't that you simply have a high GPA overall but rather that you have a GPA that's higher than the average GPA of admitted students at the college you're applying to.

To find a college's average GPA, search "[School Name] PrepScholar admission requirements" on Google and then click our database link to that school. This page will show you what the school's average GPA is, in addition to other admission requirements.

For example, if you want to apply to Notre Dame, you would search for "Notre Dame PrepScholar admission requirements" and click the link to our Notre Dame admission reqs page , which looks like this:

As you can see, Notre Dame's average (weighted) GPA for admitted applicants is 4.06. As a result, if you're applying here, you'll want to have a GPA of at least 4.06, preferably higher so you will be an above-average applicant.

It's not just about getting a high GPA, though; you must also take a range of challenging courses throughout high school if you really wish to impress an admissions committee. According to the NACAC report, 73 percent of colleges rated grades in college prep courses as considerably important. This means you'll want to take not just basic-level classes but also some AP, honors, and/or IB courses, particularly in subjects you are good at and might want to continue to study in college or major in.

The 2019 NACAC report found that a whopping 84% of colleges ranked an applicant's rigor of curriculum moderately or considerably important.

Think about it: though a perfect 4.0 might look great at an initial glance, if you got this high GPA by only taking the easiest classes available and didn't challenge yourself with higher-level coursework, your transcripts aren't likely to impress college admissions officers that much.

Even if you started high school with lower grades, an upward grade trend is a great point to emphasize on your application. This suggests that you're capable of bouncing back from any difficulties you might face and are willing to put in the work necessary for excelling in college.

#2: High Test Scores

Test scores, mainly SAT/ACT scores, are another key part of college applications (unless, of course, you're applying to colleges that don't require test scores ).

On the NACAC report, 83% of colleges believe admission test scores are at least moderately important. This is why it's vital that you try to get as high an SAT/ACT score as you can, ideally one in at least the 75th percentile for your colleges.

The 75th percentile means that 75% of admitted students at a particular school achieved this score or lower. Reaching (or surpassing) this threshold means that you're scoring higher than most other admitted applicants are—and well above that college's average score.

To find the middle 50% (that is, the 25th and 75th percentile SAT/ACT scores) for a school, search on Google for "[School Name] PrepScholar admission requirements." Click the link to our page for the school to see its requirements, including its average SAT/ACT scores.

For example, say you're planning to apply to NYU. Here's what the SAT scores section on NYU's PrepScholar admission reqs page looks like:

Here, we can see the average SAT score for NYU is 1440—that's pretty high, in the 95th percentile nationally !

To really stand out as an applicant, though, you'll want to aim for at least the 75th percentile. For NYU, that's 1510, which corresponds to the 98th percentile, or the top 1% of test takers.

Since you're likely applying to more than just one school, you'll need to set an SAT / ACT goal score , that is, a score high enough to get you into all the colleges you're applying to.

To set a goal score, start by making a chart of all the schools you're applying to. You can make your own chart or download a blank template .

Below is a sample SAT goal score chart:

Next, look up the 25th and 75th percentile SAT scores for each of the schools you're applying to using our PrepScholar admission requirements pages. (Follow the steps above for NYU to learn how to do this.)

Once you've got these scores, write them in your chart as so:

Now, look at all the 75th percentile scores in your chart. The highest score will be your goal score, as this is the one most likely to get you into all the schools you're applying to.

With our example chart, the highest score is 1480, or the 75th percentile score for the University of Illinois and UW Wisconsin. By getting a 1480 or higher, you'll be getting an impressive score not just for these two schools, school but also for Marquette and MSU, thereby raising your chances of getting into all colleges you're applying to.

#3: Sincere, Specific, and Well-Written Essays

The personal statement is an important part of your college application as it's one of the only areas where you can really showcase your personality.

According to the 2019 NACAC survey, 56% of schools consider application essays moderately or considerably important. While some colleges don't require essays , those that do usually place at least moderate importance on them.

So how can you ensure your essay will impress the admissions committee? Generally, colleges are looking for three main qualities in a personal essay:

• Honesty: What you write about should have actually happened to you and should be how you actually feel. Exaggerating details and outright lying are big no-nos here!
• Specificity: Using concrete details to effectively convey your thoughts, views, and experiences will make your essay a lot more memorable, personable, and—most importantly—unique.
• Eloquence: Don't expect to get accepted anywhere if your essay is poorly written and full of grammar and spelling errors. A great personal statement has a sensible organization, tells a compelling story, and is completely free of technical errors.

Below are some steps you can take to guarantee that your essay will have all three qualities.

Step 1: Brainstorm Significant Moments From Your Life

What you write about for your college essay will vary depending on the prompt(s) you're given from your school or the prompt you choose (for example, the Common App and Coalition App allow you to choose from among several prompts for your essay).

In general, you'll want to pick a topic that meets the following criteria:

• It really happened and was significant to you: If you're writing about a specific incident, it should be something that actually happened and that had a large impact on how you define yourself, your goals, and/or your interests.
• It's specific and interesting: Don't write about a broad, universal topic that can apply to tons of other applicants as well. Instead, focus on an event, issue, person, or struggle that's unique to you and your life.
• It reveals something important about you: The essay is meant to highlight something you think the admissions committee should know about you, such as a personality trait you have, how you overcame some sort of challenge, or how you became interested in a field of study.
• It has a positive lean: While you don't need to pick a topic that's overly light or cheery, it should still have an ultimately positive lean that reveals something good about you rather than something bad, controversial, or immoral.

Step 2: Write Your Essay

The next step is to actually begin writing your essay. Don't worry too much about grammar and flow at this point; just get down your ideas and start deciding which details and examples might work well in your essay.

As you write, remember to channel your inner voice. This essay should sound like the real you, not an imitation of what you think colleges want to hear. So if you're the sarcastic type, you might want to include a joke or two, for instance. Don't forget that the essay is a way for the admissions committee to learn more about you, so don't shy away from your true self!

On that same note, it's OK to get creative here. The essay isn't an academic essay you'd write for English class—it's a story. Feel free to inject your writing with various literary techniques , such as a non-chronological organization, realistic dialogue, and memorable imagery.

Lastly, make sure you're sufficiently answering the prompt and are abiding by all technical requirements (such as length). You can check a college's essay requirements by referring to its application requirements page or by reading the instructions on the Common App, Coalition App, or Universal College App websites (if submitting your application through one of these platforms).

An essay that's too long might get cut off when you submit it electronically, so be sure it adheres to all the requirements.

Step 3: Edit and Proofread Several Times

Once you have a rough draft of your college essay, it's time to polish it up for submission.

The best way to edit is to put your essay away for a few days. This will give you some distance away from your writing, allowing you to look back at your essay later with a fresher perspective.

As you reread your essay, mark any areas in it that are unclear, awkward, or irrelevant to the main point you're trying to make with it. You should also correct any obvious typos or errors, such as mistakes in grammar, spelling, or punctuation.

Once you've done this process a few times, give your essay to someone to read. Ideally, this will be a person you trust, such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or tutor. Have the person you choose offer clear feedback on your essay and check that you've met all requirements. Edit your essay as needed in accordance with the comments you get.

After you've finished all of this, you should now have a perfect college essay to submit with your application!

#4: A Spike in Your Extracurriculars

Almost every college will want to know what kinds of extracurricular activities you do or have done in your spare time.

Indeed, 49% of colleges surveyed regard students' extracurricular activities moderately or considerably important. Ask yourself: what are your interests outside of school and how do you engage in them?

The trick here is to provide not a list of all the random activities you've done but rather a detailed overview of one to two of your most passionate interests and any big achievements you've made in them.

In other words, you need to figure out what your "spike" is, a concept which PrepScholar co-founder and Harvard alum Allen Cheng describes in his expert guide on how to get into the Ivy League .

To put it simply, a spike is deep accomplishment in and knowledge of a particular field.

As an example, say you plan to major in biology. You'll stand out as an applicant if you have tons of biology- or science-related experiences under your belt. Maybe you're part of your school's biology club, or maybe you volunteered at a local research lab, which taught you the basics of handling lab equipment.

In addition to having a variety of experiences and sufficient background knowledge in the field, you want to highlight any relevant major accomplishments you have. For instance, maybe you won a science fair your sophomore year of high school; most recently, you submitted an award-winning invention idea to a national science contest. All of these accomplishments illustrate your deep accomplishment and knowledge in the field of science!

As you can see, this concept of the spike is the opposite of being well rounded, which most students assume they need to be (read the next section to learn more about this myth).

If you're not sure what your spike is just yet, take some time to try out new activities and explore any interests you have, both in and outside of school. Over time you should start to get a feel for what you're passionate about and what you can see yourself committing to in the future.

#5: Compelling Letters of Recommendation

Most colleges require at least one letter of recommendation from either your high school counselor or a high school teacher (or both).

The 2019 NACAC survey indicates that 54% of colleges consider teacher recommendations at least moderately important, while a higher 55% consider counselor recommendations the same. Therefore, we can say it's pretty important to secure great recommendation letters for your application.

If you're asking for a letter from a teacher , make sure to choose someone whose class you got a high grade in (ideally an A) and who is familiar with your abilities, ambitions, and interests. Typically, you'll need to submit at least one letter from a teacher who taught a core class (so math, English, science, or social studies/history).

It's a good idea to also get a letter from a teacher who works in the field you plan to major in. So if you got an A in AP English and plan to major in English, asking that teacher for a recommendation letter would give a great boost to your application.

While you don't have to be best buddies with the teacher you ask, they should definitely know you well , beyond the classroom, so they can effectively explain to admissions committees what makes you special, that is, what makes you worth admitting.

For example, if you did research with a particular teacher, are part of a club this teacher coaches or leads, or helped out this teacher with a project, this would be a good person to ask to write a letter for you.

Once you've secured a recommendation letter writer, be sure to provide them with any materials or information they might need to help them craft a compelling letter .

#6: Volunteering Experience With Measurable Impact

Colleges love it when an applicant has not simply volunteered but has also made a measurable impact with their volunteering efforts. What does this mean exactly? If you have volunteered somewhere or for an organization, your assistance should have resulted in a noticeable, positive change to the group, community, or area you were aiming to help.

For instance, say you volunteered at a local library. Maybe the library was struggling to get funds to continue operating, and you came up with the idea to hold a 24-hour reading marathon in order to raise money. The fundraiser ended up making more than $5,000, a figure that would be a concrete indicator of the positive impact your service had on the library. With your college application, then, you could specifically mention how your initiative allowed the library to remain open.

Note that you don't need to have assumed a leadership role in order to have made a positive impact through your service. That said, college admissions committees are often very big fans of students who show evidence of their budding leadership skills.

#7: (Relevant) Work Experience

Although you're certainly not required to work a part-time job in high school, having some work experience on your college applications, especially any jobs that are related to what you want to study or do professionally, will help you stand out in a positive way.

Even if your job isn't connected to a long-term academic or career goal you have, any (part-time) work experience you have will be great to put down on your application because it emphasizes your sense of responsibility, maturity, and willingness to work for your goals, key qualities that are usually considered important for success in college.

Also, if you have any room on the application to elaborate on your job, I suggest explaining why you initially took the job and what values or skills it's taught you, such as the importance of responsibility or how to work with certain equipment that you'll likely use again in the future.

4 Myths About What Looks Good on a College Application

What looks really good on a college application? Many students think they know, but the truth is that there are a lot of myths out there about what you should include on your application.

Below, we introduce to you the top four myths about what looks good on college applications.

Myth 1: Being Well Rounded Is Critical for Success

One of the most pervasive myths out there about what looks good on a college application is the idea of being well rounded.

Many students assume they'll need to have tons of extracurricular activities on their applications; this, they believe, will emphasize their array of interests as well as their knowledge of a variety of fields. But all this really tells admissions committees is that you're stretching yourself too thin and (most likely) lack focus on a specific endeavor in your life.

What colleges actually want to see is a spike, that is, a single passion. This allows colleges to get a clearer feel for who you are, what you're interested in, and what your goals are. Having a spike lets you stand out in a truly meaningful way, whereas being well rounded will make you forgettable and seem too similar to other applicants.

Spikes are especially important at highly selective colleges and universities , such as Harvard, Yale, and other Ivy League-level schools . You can read more about how to develop a spike in our guide to getting into the Ivy League . Alternatively, if you're interested in pursuing education at a liberal arts school , check out our article on how to figure out what to go to college for .

Myth 2: Essays Aren't That Important

After Time published a 2014 article on why college application essays don't actually matter all that much , students began to fear that all their hard work on their statements wouldn't mean much in the end, if at all.

But while some colleges don't require personal essays , most colleges do require at least one or two essays—and will place a decent amount of emphasis on it, especially if it is being used as a deciding factor between two otherwise equally qualified applicants.

Even though you should approach the essay seriously, it's still generally rare for an exceptionally well-written essay to make up for tons of low grades and poor test scores. On the flip side, if you have a great application but a badly written essay, that essay alone could get you rejected!

Therefore, make sure that you are following all the steps listed above so you can craft the perfect statement for your application.

Myth 3: An A in an Easy Class Is Better Than a B in a Hard Class

Many students believe it's better to stick to the classes you know you'll get As in, but this piece of advice is misguided when it comes to college applications.

In general, colleges prefer students who challenge themselves by taking an array of difficult classes, such as AP and honors classes. And you don't have to get perfect grades in them. If you get a B in a tough AP class, for example, this will emphasize to the admissions committee that you are willing to take on new challenges and test your limits, traits that are necessary for succeeding in and after college.

On the other hand, getting As in all easy classes, though not totally unimpressive, is not nearly as interesting to colleges, as it suggests you're unwilling to push yourself and further hone your higher-level critical thinking skills.

All of this being said, try to avoid getting very low grades in any classes you take (regular or honors/AP). C and D grades obviously won't look great to an admissions committee, even if you got these grades while challenging yourself in AP classes.

If you can't get at least a B or B+ in a difficult class, it'll probably be better for you to drop it and switch to either the regular version of that class or an entirely different class altogether.

Myth 4: Only Perfect Applicants Get Admitted

Many students assume that if they have one little flaw in their application, such as a below-average test score or slightly low grade in a class, their chances of getting admitted to college will be slim to none.

This just isn't true.

Yes, a very low test score or a very poor transcript may cause you to get rejected from a college, but many colleges use a holistic admission process, meaning they look at and consider each individual applicant as a whole. So even if your application has a not-so-stellar component on it, this doesn't necessarily mean you'll be a reject.

In fact, at particularly selective colleges, such as the Ivy League , you'll often hear of cases in which ostensibly "perfect" applicants got rejected. This is most likely because they didn't have a spike in their applications (i.e., something that made them stand out).

Overall, just try your best to produce the best application you can, and then hope for a good result!

Takeaways: What Looks Good on a College Application

Applying to college is tough, and knowing what to put on your applications to make yourself stand out is even tougher. What looks really good on a college application?

Generally speaking, colleges want to see your passion, intellectual curiosity, willingness to challenge yourself, and academic accomplishments.

More specifically, though, colleges typically prefer applicants who have most or all of the following characteristics:

• Good grades and a challenging course load
• Strong test scores
• Honest, specific, and eloquent essays
• A spike in your extracurricular activities
• Compelling letters of recommendation
• Volunteer experience with clear impact on the groups or places you've helped
• Any relevant or impactful work experience

Finally, as you apply to college and try to think of good things to put on a college application, make sure you're aware of the following truths about the application process:

• It's better to have a spike than to be well rounded
• Essays are important!
• A B in a hard course is more impressive than an A in an easy course
• You can still get into your dream school even if your application isn't perfect

What's Next?

A great college application will get you admitted. Use our college acceptance calculator to get an estimated percentage of your chance of getting into your dream school, based on your SAT or ACT score and GPA.

One thing a great college application can have is a high SAT or ACT score. Get expert tips in our guides on how to get a perfect 36 on the ACT and how to get a perfect 1600 on the SAT .

Need help figuring out which colleges to apply to? Our guide teaches you how to narrow down your college choices so that you're applying to the best schools for you.

Hannah received her MA in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California. From 2013 to 2015, she taught English in Japan via the JET Program. She is passionate about education, writing, and travel.

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Frequently asked questions

What are colleges looking for in the essay.

In your application essay , admissions officers are looking for particular features : they want to see context on your background, positive traits that you could bring to campus, and examples of you demonstrating those qualities.

Frequently asked questions: College admissions essays

When writing your Common App essay , choose a prompt that sparks your interest and that you can connect to a unique personal story.

No matter which prompt you choose, admissions officers are more interested in your ability to demonstrate personal development , insight, or motivation for a certain area of study.

The Common App essay is your primary writing sample within the Common Application, a college application portal accepted by more than 900 schools. All your prospective schools that accept the Common App will read this essay to understand your character, background, and value as a potential student.

Since this essay is read by many colleges, avoid mentioning any college names or programs; instead, save tailored answers for the supplementary school-specific essays within the Common App.

Most importantly, your essay should be about you , not another person or thing. An insightful college admissions essay requires deep self-reflection, authenticity, and a balance between confidence and vulnerability.

Your essay shouldn’t be a résumé of your experiences but instead should tell a story that demonstrates your most important values and qualities.

When revising your college essay , first check for big-picture issues regarding your message and content. Then, check for flow, tone, style , and clarity. Finally, focus on eliminating grammar and punctuation errors .

If your college essay goes over the word count limit , cut any sentences with tangents or irrelevant details. Delete unnecessary words that clutter your essay.

If you’re struggling to reach the word count for your college essay, add vivid personal stories or share your feelings and insight to give your essay more depth and authenticity.

If you’ve got to write your college essay fast , don’t panic. First, set yourself deadlines: you should spend about 10% of your remaining time on brainstorming, 10% on outlining, 40% writing, 30% revising, and 10% taking breaks in between stages.

Second, brainstorm stories and values based on your essay prompt.

Third, outline your essay based on the montage or narrative essay structure .

Fourth, write specific, personal, and unique stories that would be hard for other students to replicate.

Fifth, revise your essay and make sure it’s clearly written.

Last, if possible, get feedback from an essay coach . Scribbr essay editors can help you revise your essay in 12 hours or less.

Avoid swearing in a college essay , since admissions officers’ opinions of profanity will vary. In some cases, it might be okay to use a vulgar word, such as in dialogue or quotes that make an important point in your essay. However, it’s safest to try to make the same point without swearing.

If you have bad grades on your transcript, you may want to use your college admissions essay to explain the challenging circumstances that led to them. Make sure to avoid dwelling on the negative aspects and highlight how you overcame the situation or learned an important lesson.

However, some college applications offer an additional information section where you can explain your bad grades, allowing you to choose another meaningful topic for your college essay.

Here’s a brief list of college essay topics that may be considered cliché:

• Extracurriculars, especially sports
• Role models
• Dealing with a personal tragedy or death in the family
• Struggling with new life situations (immigrant stories, moving homes, parents’ divorce)
• Becoming a better person after community service, traveling, or summer camp
• Overcoming a difficult class
• Using a common object as an extended metaphor

It’s easier to write a standout essay with a unique topic. However, it’s possible to make a common topic compelling with interesting story arcs, uncommon connections, and an advanced writing style.

Yes. The college application essay is less formal than other academic writing —though of course it’s not mandatory to use contractions in your essay.

In a college essay , you can be creative with your language . When writing about the past, you can use the present tense to make the reader feel as if they were there in the moment with you. But make sure to maintain consistency and when in doubt, default to the correct verb tense according to the time you’re writing about.

The college admissions essay gives admissions officers a different perspective on you beyond your academic achievements, test scores, and extracurriculars. It’s your chance to stand out from other applicants with similar academic profiles by telling a unique, personal, and specific story.

Use a standard font such as Times New Roman or Arial to avoid distracting the reader from your college essay’s content.

A college application essay is less formal than most academic writing . Instead of citing sources formally with in-text citations and a reference list, you can cite them informally in your text.

For example, “In her research paper on genetics, Quinn Roberts explores …”

There is no set number of paragraphs in a college admissions essay . College admissions essays can diverge from the traditional five-paragraph essay structure that you learned in English class. Just make sure to stay under the specified word count .

Most topics are acceptable for college essays if you can use them to demonstrate personal growth or a lesson learned. However, there are a few difficult topics for college essays that should be avoided. Avoid topics that are:

• Overly personal (e.g. graphic details of illness or injury, romantic or sexual relationships)
• Not personal enough (e.g. broad solutions to world problems, inspiring people or things)
• Too negative (e.g. an in-depth look at your flaws, put-downs of others, criticizing the need for a college essay)
• Too boring (e.g. a resume of your academic achievements and extracurriculars)
• Inappropriate for a college essay (e.g. illegal activities, offensive humor, false accounts of yourself, bragging about privilege)

To write an effective diversity essay , include vulnerable, authentic stories about your unique identity, background, or perspective. Provide insight into how your lived experience has influenced your outlook, activities, and goals. If relevant, you should also mention how your background has led you to apply for this university and why you’re a good fit.

Many universities believe a student body composed of different perspectives, beliefs, identities, and backgrounds will enhance the campus learning and community experience.

Admissions officers are interested in hearing about how your unique background, identity, beliefs, culture, or characteristics will enrich the campus community, which is why they assign a diversity essay .

In addition to your main college essay , some schools and scholarships may ask for a supplementary essay focused on an aspect of your identity or background. This is sometimes called a diversity essay .

You can use humor in a college essay , but carefully consider its purpose and use it wisely. An effective use of humor involves unexpected, keen observations of the everyday, or speaks to a deeper theme. Humor shouldn’t be the main focus of the essay, but rather a tool to improve your storytelling.

Get a second opinion from a teacher, counselor, or essay coach on whether your essay’s humor is appropriate.

Though admissions officers are interested in hearing your story, they’re also interested in how you tell it. An exceptionally written essay will differentiate you from other applicants, meaning that admissions officers will spend more time reading it.

You can use literary devices to catch your reader’s attention and enrich your storytelling; however, focus on using just a few devices well, rather than trying to use as many as possible.

To decide on a good college essay topic , spend time thoughtfully answering brainstorming questions. If you still have trouble identifying topics, try the following two strategies:

• Identify your qualities → Brainstorm stories that demonstrate these qualities
• Identify memorable stories → Connect your qualities to these stories

You can also ask family, friends, or mentors to help you brainstorm topics, give feedback on your potential essay topics, or recall key stories that showcase your qualities.

Yes—admissions officers don’t expect everyone to have a totally unique college essay topic . But you must differentiate your essay from others by having a surprising story arc, an interesting insight, and/or an advanced writing style .

There are no foolproof college essay topics —whatever your topic, the key is to write about it effectively. However, a good topic

• Is meaningful, specific, and personal to you
• Focuses on you and your experiences
• Reveals something beyond your test scores, grades, and extracurriculars
• Is creative and original

Unlike a five-paragraph essay, your admissions essay should not end by summarizing the points you’ve already made. It’s better to be creative and aim for a strong final impression.

You should also avoid stating the obvious (for example, saying that you hope to be accepted).

There are a few strategies you can use for a memorable ending to your college essay :

• Return to the beginning with a “full circle” structure
• Reveal the main point or insight in your story
• Look to the future
• End on an action

The best technique will depend on your topic choice, essay outline, and writing style. You can write several endings using different techniques to see which works best.

College deadlines vary depending on the schools you’re applying to and your application plan:

• For early action applications and the first round of early decision applications, the deadline is on November 1 or 15. Decisions are released by mid-December.
• For the second round of early decision applications, the deadline is January 1 or 15. Decisions are released in January or February.
• Regular decision deadlines usually fall between late November and mid-March, and decisions are released in March or April.
• Rolling admission deadlines run from July to April, and decisions are released around four to eight weeks after submission.

Depending on your prospective schools’ requirements, you may need to submit scores for the SAT or ACT as part of your college application .

Some schools now no longer require students to submit test scores; however, you should still take the SAT or ACT and aim to get a high score to strengthen your application package.

Aim to take the SAT or ACT in the spring of your junior year to give yourself enough time to retake it in the fall of your senior year if necessary.

Apply early for federal student aid and application fee waivers. You can also look for scholarships from schools, corporations, and charitable foundations.

To maximize your options, you should aim to apply to about eight schools:

• Two reach schools that might be difficult to get into
• Four match schools that you have a good chance of getting into
• Two safety schools that you feel confident you’ll get into

The college admissions essay accounts for roughly 25% of the weight of your application .

At highly selective schools, there are four qualified candidates for every spot. While your academic achievements are important, your college admissions essay can help you stand out from other applicants with similar profiles.

In general, for your college application you will need to submit all of the following:

• Your personal information
• List of extracurriculars and awards
• College application essays
• Transcripts
• Standardized test scores
• Recommendation letters.

Different colleges may have specific requirements, so make sure you check exactly what’s expected in the application guidance.

You should start thinking about your college applications the summer before your junior year to give you sufficient time for college visits, taking standardized tests, applying for financial aid , writing essays, and collecting application material.

Yes, but make sure your essay directly addresses the prompt, respects the word count , and demonstrates the organization’s values.

If you plan ahead, you can save time by writing one scholarship essay for multiple prompts with similar questions. In a scholarship tracker spreadsheet, you can group or color-code overlapping essay prompts; then, write a single essay for multiple scholarships. Sometimes, you can even reuse or adapt your main college essay .

You can start applying for scholarships as early as your junior year. Continue applying throughout your senior year.

Invest time in applying for various scholarships , especially local ones with small dollar amounts, which are likely easier to win and more reflective of your background and interests. It will be easier for you to write an authentic and compelling essay if the scholarship topic is meaningful to you.

You can find scholarships through your school counselor, community network, or an internet search.

A scholarship essay requires you to demonstrate your values and qualities while answering the prompt’s specific question.

After researching the scholarship organization, identify a personal experience that embodies its values and exemplifies how you will be a successful student.

A standout college essay has several key ingredients:

• A unique, personally meaningful topic
• A memorable introduction with vivid imagery or an intriguing hook
• Specific stories and language that show instead of telling
• Vulnerability that’s authentic but not aimed at soliciting sympathy
• Clear writing in an appropriate style and tone
• A conclusion that offers deep insight or a creative ending

While timelines will differ depending on the student, plan on spending at least 1–3 weeks brainstorming and writing the first draft of your college admissions essay , and at least 2–4 weeks revising across multiple drafts. Don’t forget to save enough time for breaks between each writing and editing stage.

You should already begin thinking about your essay the summer before your senior year so that you have plenty of time to try out different topics and get feedback on what works.

Your college essay accounts for about 25% of your application’s weight. It may be the deciding factor in whether you’re accepted, especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurricular track records.

In most cases, quoting other people isn’t a good way to start your college essay . Admissions officers want to hear your thoughts about yourself, and quotes often don’t achieve that. Unless a quote truly adds something important to your essay that it otherwise wouldn’t have, you probably shouldn’t include it.

Cliché openers in a college essay introduction are usually general and applicable to many students and situations. Most successful introductions are specific: they only work for the unique essay that follows.

The key to a strong college essay introduction is not to give too much away. Try to start with a surprising statement or image that raises questions and compels the reader to find out more.

The introduction of your college essay is the first thing admissions officers will read and therefore your most important opportunity to stand out. An excellent introduction will keep admissions officers reading, allowing you to tell them what you want them to know.

You can speed up this process by shortening and smoothing your writing with a paraphrasing tool . After that, you can use the summarizer to shorten it even more.

If you’re struggling to reach the word count for your college essay, add vivid personal stories or share your feelings and insight to give your essay more depth and authenticity.

Most college application portals specify a word count range for your essay, and you should stay within 10% of the upper limit to write a developed and thoughtful essay.

You should aim to stay under the specified word count limit to show you can follow directions and write concisely. However, don’t write too little, as it may seem like you are unwilling or unable to write a detailed and insightful narrative about yourself.

If no word count is specified, we advise keeping your essay between 400 and 600 words.

Colleges want to be able to differentiate students who seem similar on paper. In the college application essay , they’re looking for a way to understand each applicant’s unique personality and experiences.

You don’t need a title for your college admissions essay , but you can include one if you think it adds something important.

Your college essay’s format should be as simple as possible:

• Use a standard, readable font
• Use 1.5 or double spacing
• If attaching a file, save it as a PDF
• Stick to the word count
• Avoid unusual formatting and unnecessary decorative touches

There are no set rules for how to structure a college application essay , but these are two common structures that work:

• A montage structure, a series of vignettes with a common theme.
• A narrative structure, a single story that shows your personal growth or how you overcame a challenge.

Avoid the five-paragraph essay structure that you learned in high school.

Campus visits are always helpful, but if you can’t make it in person, the college website will have plenty of information for you to explore. You should look through the course catalog and even reach out to current faculty with any questions about the school.

Colleges set a “Why this college?” essay because they want to see that you’ve done your research. You must prove that you know what makes the school unique and can connect that to your own personal goals and academic interests.

Depending on your writing, you may go through several rounds of revision . Make sure to put aside your essay for a little while after each editing stage to return with a fresh perspective.

Teachers and guidance counselors can help you check your language, tone, and content . Ask for their help at least one to two months before the submission deadline, as many other students will also want their help.

Friends and family are a good resource to check for authenticity. It’s best to seek help from family members with a strong writing or English educational background, or from older siblings and cousins who have been through the college admissions process.

If possible, get help from an essay coach or editor ; they’ll have specialized knowledge of college admissions essays and be able to give objective expert feedback.

When revising your college essay , first check for big-picture issues regarding message, flow, tone, style , and clarity. Then, focus on eliminating grammar and punctuation errors.

Include specific, personal details and use your authentic voice to shed a new perspective on a common human experience.

Through specific stories, you can weave your achievements and qualities into your essay so that it doesn’t seem like you’re bragging from a resume.

When writing about yourself , including difficult experiences or failures can be a great way to show vulnerability and authenticity, but be careful not to overshare, and focus on showing how you matured from the experience.

First, spend time reflecting on your core values and character . You can start with these questions:

• What are three words your friends or family would use to describe you, and why would they choose them?
• Whom do you admire most and why?
• What are you most proud of? Ashamed of?

However, you should do a comprehensive brainstorming session to fully understand your values. Also consider how your values and goals match your prospective university’s program and culture. Then, brainstorm stories that illustrate the fit between the two.

In a college application essay , you can occasionally bend grammatical rules if doing so adds value to the storytelling process and the essay maintains clarity.

However, use standard language rules if your stylistic choices would otherwise distract the reader from your overall narrative or could be easily interpreted as unintentional errors.

Write concisely and use the active voice to maintain a quick pace throughout your essay and make sure it’s the right length . Avoid adding definitions unless they provide necessary explanation.

Use first-person “I” statements to speak from your perspective . Use appropriate word choices that show off your vocabulary but don’t sound like you used a thesaurus. Avoid using idioms or cliché expressions by rewriting them in a creative, original way.

If you’re an international student applying to a US college and you’re comfortable using American idioms or cultural references , you can. But instead of potentially using them incorrectly, don’t be afraid to write in detail about yourself within your own culture.

Provide context for any words, customs, or places that an American admissions officer might be unfamiliar with.

College application essays are less formal than other kinds of academic writing . Use a conversational yet respectful tone , as if speaking with a teacher or mentor. Be vulnerable about your feelings, thoughts, and experiences to connect with the reader.

Aim to write in your authentic voice , with a style that sounds natural and genuine. You can be creative with your word choice, but don’t use elaborate vocabulary to impress admissions officers.

Admissions officers use college admissions essays to evaluate your character, writing skills , and ability to self-reflect . The essay is your chance to show what you will add to the academic community.

The college essay may be the deciding factor in your application , especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurriculars.

Some colleges also require supplemental essays about specific topics, such as why you chose that specific college . Scholarship essays are often required to obtain financial aid .

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What Type Of Student Do Colleges Want?

Do you know how to improve your profile for college applications.

See how your profile ranks among thousands of other students using CollegeVine. Calculate your chances at your dream schools and learn what areas you need to improve right now — it only takes 3 minutes and it's 100% free.

Here at CollegeVine, we pride ourselves on guiding students to make informed and empowered decisions about their educational futures. Sometimes, this guidance is through a formal mentor program. Other times it’s through a one-time, free consultation, and still more times it’s through thoughtful search queries here on our blog.

One of the questions that we hear time and time again is “What do colleges really want in a student?” Do they want to see good grades? Do they want strong test scores and impressive extracurriculars? How about teacher recommendations? Let’s be honest; it’s very rare that a student has perfect grades, perfect test scores, flawless extracurriculars, and superb teacher recommendations. In fact, it’s a fact of life that no one’s perfect.

So, if you’re applying to colleges, you might wonder where to focus your energy. What few, key traits are colleges really looking for, and where do they look to find evidence of them? How much do test scores or grades actually matter?

In this post we outline how to frame your thinking around what colleges want. There’s no easy answer, but with our insight, based on the experiences of thousands of students, you’ll learn what colleges look for as they evaluate candidates. Here are a few questions to get you started.

Do colleges want specialized applicants or well-rounded ones?

Students often wonder if they should specialize in a particular subject area or extracurricular activity. They may question if having a single, well-defined area of focus will make them a more attractive college applicant. While there is no one-size-fits-all answer, you can get a better idea of what the colleges you’re applying to look for by asking yourself if the college itself, or the particular program you’re applying to, is specialized.

If you’re applying to a specialized college or program, there is a high degree of likelihood that they are looking for candidates who have expressed some interest and aptitude in this field in the past. For example, if you want to study engineering at MIT, it would be smart to take some high-level STEM courses during high school and to reinforce this interest with some relevant extracurricular activities. Similarly, if you want to study business at UPenn, you should have classes and activities that are reflective of this goal.

That being said, there are very few colleges that will overlook a student’s failures in one area in favor of their specialized pursuits of another. For example, if you perform poorly in English class or drop out of all your activities after junior year in order to focus on your STEM curriculum, you will not come off as a student capable of succeeding in multiple fields and might even look like someone who does not follow through on commitments. As you can see, the line between specialized and well-rounded is a tough one to walk.

To learn more about what colleges want from specialized or well-rounded candidates, check out these posts:

• Well-Rounded or Specialized?
• Why Are Students Getting Rejected From Every College?
• Your Comprehensive Guide to Extracurriculars
• Can You Be An Engineer Without Taking AP Physics: How the Classes You Take Affect Your Chances at Admission

Which is better: high test scores or high grades?

Sometimes students wonder if they should focus more on test prep or more on getting their grades up. They want to know which data point is viewed as more reflective of their academic aptitude or given more weight in the college application process. Unfortunately, again, there is no simple answer.

In fact, most selective colleges think of both of these metrics as reflections of your abilities, and a big discrepancy between them can sometimes be cause for concern. For example, if you perform poorly on your standardized tests but do well in classes, colleges might wonder if your academic performance in school is only due to particular resources or support that you have access to, and they may wonder how capable you actually are on your own. If the reverse is true, they might think that you simply don’t try very hard during school despite having a lot of potential as evidenced by your test scores.

Ultimately, competitive colleges want to see both high grades and strong test scores, but don’t worry if they aren’t perfect. Excelling in other areas, like extracurriculars, is also important.

To learn more about how colleges view grades and test scores, check out these posts:

• Which Section of the SAT and ACT is Most Important?
• Should You Retake Your Standardized Tests?
• Can I Get Into a Top College With a C on My Transcript?
• The Relationship Between Grades and Standardized Test Scores
• Can a Good SAT/ACT Score Offset a Bad GPA?

What personal qualities do colleges look for?

Personal qualities and who you are as a person is an increasingly important metric in college applications . Although it might be more difficult to show on a piece of paper, being kind, caring, generous, and committed are all important factors in your college admissions.

This increasing importance is due in large part to Harvard’s recent Making Caring Common campaign, which strives to encourage selective college admissions to place more emphasis on personal qualities and less on academic performance. In short, many colleges are increasingly looking for students who strive to make the community around them a better place.

You can demonstrate your personal qualities through extracurricular involvement, personal essays, and recommendations. This is an area that you really can’t fudge; it has to be authentic for it to really shine through. Get involved in several causes or activities during your freshman year, then pursue those that really resonate with you on the personal level so that your experiences are relevant to who you are and speak to an honest and authentic commitment.  

To learn more about Making Caring Common, see these posts:

• 5 Takeaways From Harvard Ed School’s “Making Caring Common”
• 4 Common Misconceptions About Making Caring Common

How likely are you to actually attend?

Admissions committees also sometimes consider how likely you are to attend the school should you be accepted. This means that expressing interest in a college you really want to attend is a good idea. Visit the college. Meet with faculty or coaches in your areas of interest. Seek out admissions representatives at college fairs.

Anytime you meet with an individual, whether it’s on campus or at a college fair, be sure to get their contact information and follow up with a quick email to thank them for their time. This will not only show that you’re thoughtful and appreciative, but also serve to reinforce your interest and hopefully make you a more memorable candidate.

Another way to express interest is to apply Early Decision. Many colleges now accept a significant portion of their incoming freshman class through early decision because it essentially guarantees that they will be accepting students who are excited to attend.

To learn more about Early Decision or expressing interest in a college, see these posts:

• How to Express Interest in a College
• How to Decide Where to Apply Early
• EA vs ED vs REA

Ultimately, there is no magic formula to determine who will get accepted to a specific college. Some colleges have different priorities for accepting students and others are looking to fill a particular niche in their student body that varies from year to year, making predictions even harder. Sometimes, you just never know how you will stack up to the rest of the applicant pool. What you can control, though, is how dedicated you are during your high school years. By performing to the top of your abilities and pursuing extracurriculars that you truly care about, your values and personality will shine through on your application.

Curious about your chances of acceptance to your dream school? Our free chancing engine takes into account your GPA, test scores, extracurriculars, and other data to predict your odds of acceptance at over 500 colleges across the U.S. We’ll also let you know how you stack up against other applicants and how you can improve your profile. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to get started!

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What Type of Student do Colleges Want?

Colleges want to see what makes you unique and how hard you are willing to work at the things you care about. this article will provide you a quick overview of the types of things college admissions offices are looking for from your application..

Updated by TCM Staff on 15th April 2020

15th April 2020

“Before everything else, preparation is the key to success.”

Preparing for college is a lesson best learned backward. Students have a need, which is to get into a college that they like and where they will grow and learn. Similarly, colleges also have needs. Colleges do not simply take your admission instead they build a class. Ever wondered, what are the things that a college admission officer is looking for when they have your application? The college admission officer will notice your every mistake, which can suggest a lack of attention and care on your part. The college primarily creates a group of students that reflect the priorities of the college, and that priorities define who they take and whom they don’t take. 

Personal qualities are not easy to measure, but the college admission officer must look for the following to gets some clue about your character,

High School Transcript

A high school transcript is basically a record of your academics accomplishments in high school. Some schools also include a record of your behavior. They may also include details about the number of days you remained absent from school. The college that you are applying for will first look at the grades that you have received and the course you have taken.

College Application Essay

Your college essay is your opportunity to reveal your best qualities and to show an admission committee what makes you different from other applicants. It must be insightful. Do not start your essay with a sweeping, open-ended, broad general statement. Be specific, honest and use proper grammar and spelling. Make sure your style of writing will appeal to a wide group of people. Stories about your personal hardships can be effective, but be careful about how you use them.

Extracurricular Activities

The activities that you do outside your class is something that the colleges are looking for in a student. Colleges look for activities that will build up your group working skills as well as your leadership skills. According to colleges, these activities allow students to become more organized as well as manage their time. With extracurricular, your chances of dropping out decreases. In addition to this, your grades increase, one reason for this is because extracurricular activities reduce stress.

Summer Internship and Activities

An internship makes the classroom’s abstract theories and learned examples concrete by placing the student in a real-life work situation with real live co-workers performing actual professional tasks, which the job encompasses. Include the company or organization you worked for and what your job responsibilities were there. If you received any recognition, be sure to mention that as well.

Letter of Recommendation

A letter of recommendation is a document that adds extra weightage and merit to a college application. Someone who has spent time with the applicant in an academic setting often writes the letter. It includes the qualities and affection of the person being recommended. It can tell a lot about the kind of person you are.

Other than above-mentioned points, colleges also look for the following things:

Your intellectual curiosity

Your unique skills or special talents

Your enthusiasm in attending the college

Your creativity

Your passion

Your risk-taking abilities

Your personality

Your sense of social responsibility

Lastly, think outside the box in terms of how you present yourself. You can better prioritize your time, effort and curriculum into the areas that matter the most. Always be aware of the most important attributes that will impress an admissions officer.

They will look at you as a whole, not just as a student.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom

Who Would Want to Go to a College Like This?

By Tressie McMillan Cottom

Opinion Columnist

The moral panic about “woke” campuses has metastasized into actual legislation, and not just in the swampy idylls of Florida. Last week the governor of Alabama signed a bill that purports to limit the teaching of “divisive” topics in its colleges and universities. The bill is similar to Florida’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in public colleges, which was signed into law last May. Both are all-out attacks on learning by excommunicating liberal ideas from the classroom. Other state legislatures have also been busy. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Republican lawmakers have proposed 81 anti-D.E.I. bills across 28 states. (So far, 33 haven’t become law, and 11 have.)

Because most students attend public universities, state-level threats to higher education are especially troubling. While the federal government has outsize authority, states have more direct political reach. Republican leaders in the most reactionary states are banking that their appeals to moral panics about teaching history, race, gender and identity will attract donors and political favor. Bills already passed in Florida and Alabama are examples of shortsighted, counterintuitive legislative overreach. This political theater lifts up a caricature of college, in which coddled minds are seduced into liberal ideas. Without university leaders, politicians or voters mounting a defense of faculty governance and democratic speech, anti-woke reactionaries can remake college into the very thing they claim it is: cloistered institutions that cannot respond to what their students want and need.

It is hard to combat legislative overreach in states where gerrymandering and the structure of elections favor reactionary Republicans. But unlike in K-12 schools, in higher education, the students hold a tremendous amount of power. Public colleges and universities need students’ tuition dollars. If states become hostile to students’ values, those students could choose to go elsewhere or to forgo college altogether. That would set up a standoff between right-wing political favor and students’ dollars. But first, students would have to be paying attention. They would have to care. And they would have to be willing to choose colleges that match their values.

That is why I read with interest a recent report put out by the Lumina Foundation and Gallup on how policies and laws shape college enrollment. Part of a larger survey about students’ experiences of higher education, the report left me with one major takeaway: The national debate about so-called woke campuses does not reflect what most college students care about. It is worth looking at the report’s key findings. They underscore how unhinged our national debate over higher education has become and how misaligned Republican-led public higher education systems are with the bulk of college students. It isn’t hard to imagine that students could vote with their feet, avoiding schools in states that are out of step with their values.

The report names four reactionary changes in the national policy conversation that might shape students’ feelings about going to or being enrolled in college. First, there’s the group of bills against teaching supposedly divisive concepts, as in Alabama and Florida. Second, there’s a 2022 Supreme Court decision on concealed carry permits for firearms. Students fear that it signals how states with more restrictive gun regulations will change their campus gun policies in anticipation of legal challenges. Third, there are the sweeping changes to the availability of reproductive health care that came after the fall of Roe v. Wade . The Wild West of different abortion bans, legal challenges to Plan B and birth control will shape students’ experiences of college . Finally, there’s the Supreme Court decision in 2023 that effectively ended race-based affirmative action in admissions. States are already broadly interpreting that decision to include scholarships and programming.

If you are applying to college in 2024, you are tasked with not just choosing a major at a college where you can be happy and that may admit you at a price you can afford. You are also considering if you will be safe from gun violence, able to get medical care if you need it, qualified to use some types of financial aid and likely to encounter a liberal arts education that could improve the trajectory of your life.

I read the report closely for takeaways and what some of the fine-grained data points mean. The big context is that most students still choose colleges based on quality, cost, reputation and job prospects. Because I am interested in which of the four reactionary changes matter most (and to whom), I pulled those out of the list of all things that matter to students. Students care about — from most to least important — gun violence, “anti-woke” laws and reproductive health care. Because race-based affirmative action is measured somewhat differently from the other concerns, it is not ranked.

I lived through a campus shooting last year . As I watched college students climb calmly out of windows to escape the building, I realized this is a generation raised on constant shooting drills. That might explain why 38 percent of students who study on campus said they were worried about gun violence at their schools. Campus gun policies mattered at least somewhat to 80 percent of those surveyed. And of those who cared, students who wanted more restrictive gun policies outweighed those who preferred looser policies by five to one, according to the report.

As for those “divisive” concepts? Students want them. A majority of students who cared about those issues, the report notes, said they did not want restrictions on classroom instruction. Even more notable, students’ opinions do not align with the rabid political partisanship that dominates headlines. In a look at the students who care about this issue, some political differences might be expected. And there are some. But the good news is that they aren’t nearly as partisan as one might imagine. Even 61 percent of Republicans who cared about this issue when choosing a college preferred a state that did not restrict instruction on topics related to race and gender. That’s compared with 83 percent of Democrats and 78 percent of independents.

It is remarkable, given these data points, how little politicians and the public are talking about how afraid college students are — not of new ideas but of being shot on campus.

Fears about reproductive health ranked third among these changes; 71 percent of those surveyed said that a state’s reproductive health care policies would influence where they chose to go to college. The gender split here was a mixed bag. While many men cared about reproductive health, women were, by 18 percentage points, more likely than men to prefer states with fewer restrictions on reproductive health care. It is impossible to claim causation, but hackneyed culture wars about gender are not happening in a vacuum. They animate men’s and women’s values. The data suggests that it will be hard to recruit men (who are inclined to want more health care restrictions for women) and make female students feel cared for and safe. There may not be a way for a single college to serve both masters.

The Supreme Court affirmative action decision’s role in shaping students’ college choices is harder to parse than the other reactionary changes. People do not have a common understanding of what affirmative action means or how it works. Even so, 45 percent of those surveyed said the ruling would shape their decision of which school to attend or if they went to college at all.

While the idea of woke campuses may get attention and motivate parts of the reactionary Republican base, the report says that those partisan differences are moderate among students. “Most current and prospective students of all political parties who say these issues are important to their enrollment,” the report notes, “prefer more restrictive gun policies, less restrictive reproductive health care laws and fewer regulations” on curriculums.

Put more simply: Republicans must seem like aliens — if not dinosaurs — to the very college students they claim to be saving from hostile college campuses.

Debates about what happens on college campuses are proxies for partisan politics. They are also convenient ruses for clawing back the nominal democratization that higher education underwent during the last half of the 20th century. Those of us who see education as something more noble than a political football should care about the way partisan attacks and sensational headlines will harm real people trying to make sense of their lives.

Students go to college because they want jobs, they want to be educated or they want to be respected by others (or some combination of all three). A college or university implicitly promises them that it has the legitimacy to allow access, foster learning and confer status. The trick is that when universities play into the con game of moral panics about woke campuses, they become the thing we fear.

The loudest story about American colleges is disconnected from what college students care about. Even so, the nation’s diverse, aspirational college students are trying to make college choices that align with their political values. According to this survey, they are remarkably progressive, fair-minded and unafraid of intellectual challenge. If only our politics lived up to their values.

Tressie McMillan Cottom (@ tressiemcphd ) became a New York Times Opinion columnist in 2022. She is an associate professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science; the author of “Thick: And Other Essays”; and a 2020 MacArthur fellow.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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