Some Practical Thoughts on Writing Your Personal Essay

As we approach another end of a school year, many of our high school juniors will begin drafting their personal essay. This essay, which has a 650 word limit, will be written once and submitted to most – if not all – of the colleges juniors will be applying to this fall. I’ve been working with high school students on these essays for the last eight years and if I’m being honest, I’ve noticed a concerning trend – each year students seem less prepared to write compelling essays than the year prior.

There are of course exceptions to this trend – I still see students who write beautifully and craft essays that are so authentic, I hesitate to apply any edits. But again, this is the exception.

I’m sure there are many different variables and causes leading to this discomfort with writing, and I’m not here to speculate on those reasons or point fingers. But I do want to highlight some tips for my less than comfortable writers (and their parents) as they wade into this portion of the application process.

1. A strong essay is going to take longer than you think. It will not happen on the first draft (and probably not on the second, third, or fourth drafts either). The secret to good writing to re-writing (I stole that line from somewhere, but it’s completely true).

2. It’s called the personal essay for a reason! You (the student) should be the central figure in the essay! As we think about what interests or experiences or relationships to highlight in the essay, remember that these are just prisms through which we need to learn more about you, the writer.

3. What are the 3-5 words that best describe you? This is a question that I find high school students struggle with. But it’s really important that we have an answer to the question before we begin writing. These words should be reflected in the essay to ensure colleges walk away having a better sense of who the writer is and what makes them tick.

4. In my opinion, it’s silly to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that AI doesn’t exist! Use AI as a tool to think through various ways to frame ideas and structure. Do not use it to write your essay – unless you want something that is inauthentic and generic (and will probably get flagged by admissions offices in the application review process).

5. Make the mundane interesting. Most students will be inclined to jump straight towards the big emotional event in their life as the topic to write about – the sports injury, the big achievement, the tragic family event. These are all fine to write about, but quite frankly, they are pretty common as stories go. As a result, it is difficult to reflect something about these kinds of events that admissions officers haven’t seen many times. Another approach – one that I have seen yield some of the strongest essays – is to pick that kind of weird and mundane thing you do on a frequent basis. Explain why it’s actually interesting and why it’s a critical thing to understand if we want to better understand you.

For those interested, we will be holding a free webinar focused on the personal essay on June 4th! Grab your free ticket here: Writing a College Application Essay that Stands Out!