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Differentiating yourself is more important than ever.

With more schools going test optional, college essays can help you stand out from the rest, and they can often make the difference between a rejection and acceptance.

Essays are 25% of your application

Grades alone won’t get you accepted to your dream school. The college essay is an extremely important piece of your college application. Essays help you stand out from the rest.

Show your personality

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The Write Stuff: 4 College Admissions Essay Editing Services Reviewed

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Looking for good news about the college admissions process these days? You won't find much of it. Not only has the cost of attending college doubled on average since the 1980s, but also it's gotten considerably harder to get in. The majority of colleges in America have witnessed a plummeting acceptance rate as the number of student applications has exploded. Fifty years ago you had a 20 percent shot at getting into Harvard (all things equal, of course). Now the Crimson's acceptance rate is about 5 percent. In the last 10 years alone, the acceptance rate at many major universities has been cut in half . It's almost enough to make a kid consider trying out for the rowing team .

As if applicants didn't have enough to stress about, colleges have been making it more onerous to apply—requiring additional interviews, recommendations, and SAT Subject Tests. But the most burdensome of them all is an old standby: the application essay.

Essay requirements vary widely from school to school. The 150-plus members of the Coalition for College (which includes Harvard and Vanderbilt) requires a single 500-word essay selected from prompts such as "Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution." Those with eyes on the University of California system must write a whopping four essays, with prompts such as "Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced."

Students can reuse essays with other colleges if the prompts are similar enough—or if the schools happen to be members of the same application partnership—but you'd be surprised how seldom this occurs. My daughter found that out the hard way, when she learned that she'd have to write 12 separate essays to cover just five schools.

What's a kid to do who doesn't have parents who both work full-time as writers and editors? Just run their essay through Microsoft grammar check and hope for the best? Good luck. The acceptance rate at the University of Chicago has dropped 81 percent in the last 12 years. It doesn't take a Rhodes scholar to know that if you don't put your best foot forward, you may as well not even bother.

All of this led me to the curious world of online editing services. While you can hire a consultant to help guide your child through this overwhelming maze, these consultants are expensive and much of their work involves managing the complex application process, figuring out which colleges are a good fit, and brainstorming essay topics. If you just need help whipping an already written essay into better shape, an online editor might be a better (and much cheaper) fit.

To be sure, some of these services are exorbitantly expensive. Services like EssayEdge and TopAdmit can run you close to $200 for editing a single essay of fewer than 400 words. I've seen prices as high as $379 after various upsells. Word for word, that's more than what my editor at WIRED makes. (Hi, Mike!)

The good news is there are plenty of more affordable options available. I tested four of them, all reasonably priced and seemingly legitimate. Most of these services charge based on a combination of the word count of the original essay and the turnaround time required. I used the same raw essay from my daughter as a test piece for each of the four services, and requested the slowest turnaround time each of them offered to minimize the cost. I submitted her 383-word raw essay at the same time to each of the services, on a Wednesday afternoon. I gave all the services minimal guidance with my submission, noting only (when prompted) that this was a college application essay. All four of the services allow you to upload a Microsoft Word document and receive a red-lined and comment-filled Word document in return.

When I received the revised essays, I reviewed them along with my wife (also a professional writer) and my daughter, the author. The reviews were done blind, without indicating the source of any of the edits, and we all rated each essay on a 1 to 10 scale. I also threw in a copy that I roughly edited. For the sake of comparison, the raw essay scored an average of 4.8, while my edit garnered a 6.9.

Here's what the various services cost, and how well they performed.

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Total price: $13.91, 48-hour turnaround promised. Edit received within 24 hours.

Scribendi offers seven different turnaround time tiers, but its 72-hour and one-week turnarounds were the same price as the 48-hour turnaround. A four-hour turnaround was quoted at $28.53. Scribendi returned both a changes-tracked version of the document and a "clean" version with all edits accepted. Scribendi's edit was not just the fastest, it was incredibly thorough—almost nitpicky—with 16 comments or prompts to the writer suggesting avenues for additional content or revisions that were beyond the scope of a simple edit. Oddly, the final edit didn't resonate with readers, who largely felt it was somewhat awkward and clunky in its overall flow. That said, the editor's notes and the service's overall speed were a big plusses.

Readers' rating: 5.0

Total price: $13.90, three-day turnaround promised. Edit received after two days.

Elite Editing has an Advanced Editing service for $40, but the $13.90 plan I chose offers only "basic editing," which doesn't include "suggested rewrites to eliminate awkward phrasing, repetition, passive voice, etc." and "taking into account your original assignment." Three days is the standard turnaround; one-day turnaround for the Basic Editing plan would have cost $19.90. The site crashed when I checked out, but my payment and submission both went through successfully. As promised, Elite's edit was indeed basic. Its editor made the fewest changes of any of the services and left only three comments, one of which was about whether the use of indentations and double-spacing was appropriate. While Elite's edits were correct, they weren't terribly deep—although that was enough to propel it to a second-place finish from the readers.

Readers' rating: 5.7

Total price: $15.32, five-day turnaround promised. Edit received after four days.

Wordvice has eight different pricing tiers, with rates as low as 4 cents per word for a seven-day turnaround, though that tier was limited to materials longer than 3,000 words. The five-day turnaround tier was only marginally more expensive. When I received Wordvice's edited document, I was offered an upsell for a "second look" (basically another edit) for 30 percent off. Wordvice's embedded commentary was nearly as thorough as Scribendi's, though Wordvice was less obsessive over grammar and more focused on overall clarity. Turns out that was the right move: Wordvice's edit was the overall favorite of the quartet, and the finished draft reads cleanly and clearly.

Readers' rating: 6.3

Total price: $31.33, seven-day turnaround promised. Edit received after four days.

Scribbr initially quoted a price of $25.36, but I shelled out an extra $6 for both the "structure check" and "clarity check" options, despite not really understanding what those were. Prices include a 2 percent surcharge for using a credit card. For those in a hurry, 24-hour turnaround doubles the price. Scribbr seems more focused on editing academic coursework essays than admissions essays, with a relatively formal structure applied to its edits (removing contractions completely, for example). Editor's commentary was sparse, though on target. This draft was the most divisive of the services, earning high marks from my wife but very low marks from my daughter, who thought it stripped the writing of her voice.

Readers' rating: 5.3

Any good college essay has to end with a conclusion, so here are a few takeaways. First, all of the services sent back essays that were, on average, felt to be an improvement over the original draft, with all of them catching numerous spelling and grammatical errors—so students with no professional editing help may do well to consider them, especially given how affordable these services are. That said, also remember that when you engage with an editing service, you're really engaging with a single (anonymous) editor who you won't ever meet or be able to interact with. That editor won't have any level of understanding of the writer's personality beyond what's on the page, and quality will necessarily vary from one editor to another, even within a given editing service.

Further still, remember that editing quality is always going to be subjective, just like any piece of writing. Except for this story, of course. It's amazing.

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8 Best Essay Writing Services According to Reddit and Quora

Today, legitimate essay paper writing is a regular part of every student’s college education. In fact, the college experience often comes with students being overwhelmed by the number of assignments that can be assigned at any given time.

The average US college student spends around 14-16 hours per week studying, doing homework, working on assignments, and writing essays and research papers. When you look at the hours spent, it often leads to a traumatic and overwhelming work/life balance.

Considering these facts, it becomes evident that written assignments can grow to be pretty stressful. This is why so many students opt for essay writing services online.

Whether you’re struggling with a tight deadline or you just need to make sure your essay is written with professional help, university essay writing services can be very valuable. Over the years, they have actually become very popular.

The best essay writing and editing services are available to any student, and they are not just specific to literature and arts majors. Finding a reliable college essay writing service is also helpful for common homework or assignments.

According to a review and analysis of Reddit essay writing companies, it turned out that some of them manipulate the voting system and use Reddit as a way to promote their sites. These companies create multiple accounts and use them to upvote and comment on their own posts.

Of course, the tough part is to wade through the spam and find authentic responses.

On the brighter side, we have done the hard work for you and narrowed down the best paper writing services among students. Writing an essay may be a real problem if you’re pressed for time, and trying to find a trustworthy essay site is not any easier. Students who juggle work and school will understand.

If you are trying to impress your professor, you can find your essay writer on one of these well-known educational sites.

Need the Best Essay Writers? Look No Further!

When looking for the top essay writing services, we went over multiple sites and did face some fraud and poor customer service.

But this is exactly why we decided to embark on this journey in the first place – to make sure you don’t have to struggle when looking for the best essay writer for you.

To find the best college essay writing service we ordered a paper from every platform that we reviewed and we made all the orders absolutely the same to then see the differences in execution. This has given us a lot to think about, though.

There were multiple sites that tried to make the most money by providing a service of poor quality. Although it is understandable that these online companies are hard to trace, hence, they can do whatever they want.

But if you really want to make a name for yourself and earn a lot, why not work with integrity and provide good quality service?

So, we took our time, did some research, and looked for truly the best writing services on the internet. The ones that do their job well, really look into your instructions, care to ask questions if anything is unclear, and submit papers in time.

What’s even more important, though, is that we checked all the final papers for plagiarism and only those with minimal percentages have made it to this list. This is how you know you can trust the following services.

1. Coursework Writing Service

In the matter of finding essay services for students, the trick to find a site that can offer you original work for affordable prices.

In that regard and more, Coursework Writing Service has managed to tick off the right boxes according to popular opinion. Their prices start at $10 for a unique and non-plagiarized paper that will meet any challenging requirements of your curriculum.

Apart from essays, students can also use their services for research papers, theses, reviews, and reviews.

Besides, it is also possible to hire someone to edit and proofread your article as well. The best part is that you do not have to pay anything extra for any revisions.

2. EssayService

EssayService has made its way into almost every essay service list recommended by students on Quora.

The platform works with professional freelance writers who have established their expertise in their respective writing domains.

Even before preparing for the SAT and ACT tests, you can find writers who graduated from top universities in the US, and the US, who is familiar with the academic expectations of your lecturer.

Regardless of whether you are pursuing your Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree, if you need to write or rewrite an essay you will find a writer who can offer you insight and provide a commendable assignment to ace your exam. These guys really have your convenience as their top priority.

3. EssayPro

As one of the longstanding custom writing services online, EssayPro has built a wealth of positive reviews from users.

This essay writing service will help you tackle any complex topic of your course with the help of an expert essay writer in the field.

An undergraduate can get some quick help to meet the course requirements of the next lecture – and a Master’s student can find a researcher to help with their final research semester.

In addition, you also get to choose your writer based on customer reviews and their educational background. As you can correspond with your writer, it is also easy to discuss your assignment as it progresses.

Overall, EssayPro’s fame seems to be fairly justified based on what they have to offer.

4. Write Paper

WritePaper.com approaches each essay from a unique standpoint, ensuring that every assignment they receive and each written research paper is tailor-made to the student and their specific requirements.

The system is efficient, allowing you to process your order fast and any guidelines you have for writers. In fact, you can even avail of their services to receive your paper as quickly as 6 hours.

Write Paper also guarantees 100% anonymity for your order, as well as your personal information.

Students can benefit from their insight on any semester assignment, coursework, or help with research to help them prepare to pass an exam.

Free essay writing tools seem to be another favorite among Reddit and Quora users among reliable essay writing services.

Studyfy is a one-stop shop for students. The platform provides a lot of useful content for students of different levels: from literature study guides, writing guides, helpful tools, essay samples, to money blog – with useful tips, general information about ACT and SAT standardized tests, professional student help services. It’s a perfect place to address in case you are totally confused with your home assignment and have questions. They can do it all: proofreading, editing, homework help, tutoring, and a lot more. The website is growing quickly and adds more and more useful information.

While placing an order, you have the ability to specify your academic level, from high school to Ph.D. This way, you will get a paper that will match the requirements to your education level in terms of vocabulary and the depth of research. There are also writers who specialize in theses and dissertation writing.

In case the final result doesn’t match your expectations, Studyfy also offers three revisions. Send your comments back to the writer to make sure the end result is just right.

Every paper provided by Studyfy also comes with the guarantee of originality , it is said to pass any plagiarism detector, like Turnitin and SafeAssign.

6. Paper Writer

Another one of the leading providers of academic essay writing services is Paper Writer .

You can order a paper with a deadline from 3 hours to a fortnight, so you can leave ample time for the writers in case it is a detailed project or thesis.

All writers have proven academic backgrounds and relevant experience in writing as well.

The site also gives you free formatting, including the title page, bibliography, and a citing style while using their services.

And for those who are on tighter budgets , you can even find installment payment options on the site, which is indeed a convenient tool for students.

7. DoMyEssay

Reddit reviews seem highly supportive of DoMyEssay. Some commentator said: ‘This is one of the best places to do my assignment .’ There are multiple customer reports of receiving satisfactory papers from the service at reasonable prices.

DoMyEssay offers you custom-written papers, created from scratch based on each customer’s individual guidelines. This allows you to customize your essay based on the outlines provided by your lecturer.

With over a decade of experience in the educational industry, Essay Reviews has built quite a reputation and a team of outstanding writers. Customers can also avail of unlimited revisions, or their editing services if you already have your draft completed.

8. EssayHub

With a strict selection policy, EssayHub has hired brilliant writers with expertise in almost every academic niche. When it comes to “ write my essay for money ” services, this one is in the top-10.

If you are struggling to comply with your deadlines or seem to need some help with a complex topic, EssayHub can easily connect you to a professional writer in the relevant field.

You can also attach any notes, textbook copies, or your research data while placing an order. This will help the writer to personalize the paper to your writing style.

One good thing about EssayHub is that the payment is taken only after the job is completed. This ensures that you get a chance to check the completed work and release the funds only when you are fully satisfied.

Essay Writing Service Reviews Based On Experience

Here at Essay-Reviews , we take our job of finding the best paper writing services seriously. And we want to hold those who don’t accountable.

While looking through all the writing services to review we really wanted to do a good job and to make sure you only end up with a list of the most reliable and helpful services.

This is why we took our time and spent several weeks just on research alone.

Apart from reading up on the websites presented here, we placed orders with each of them. The instructions and requirements were the same for each order to have a clear and unbiased trial.

In addition, we searched the internet for essay writing service reviews to see what other people think about the services that we’ve chosen as the best ones.

Since we place integrity at the top of our priority list, we wanted to review every aspect of the service to ensure that the best ones are the best all-around.

Although having a cheap essay writing service on standby is important, you also need to get your papers in time and have them be original. This is why it’s so vital to analyze every single side of the service and not just papers’ quality.

We wanted to make sure that if we recommend a site to you, we are certain that the essays provided by it are original, are submitted in time, and follow all your instructions.

And since the writers are the backbone of every academic help website, we took our time to talk to each one of them, making sure they are trained on proper customer service.

Talking to a writer before getting your essay is also a good way to see if they are a native English speaker and if they are familiar with your topic.

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11 Places to Find Great College Essay Examples

College Essays

 Sure, you might know the theory behind what a college essay is supposed to sound and look like . But just like reading a description of the Golden Gate Bridge pales in comparison to seeing it in person, there’s no replacement for seeing actual college essays written by students just like you. Well, almost like you – they’ve since gotten into college.

But where do you find good sources for reading sample college essays? How can you make sure that these resources will actually strengthen and improve your writing? And what is the best way to use the college essay examples that you do find? In this article, I’ll go over the best books and websites for finding essays, I’ll point out a few to avoid, and I’ll explain how to make the most out of other people’s essays while avoiding common pitfalls.

Why Look At College Essay Examples?

There are some very good reasons for wanting to check out how other people have handled the college admissions essay.

First, because you'll be able to get a better sense of what colleges are looking for, you will necessarily broaden your own topic brainstorming past your first, easiest, and most c lichéd i deas . It's one thing to hear that a completely mundane topic is way better than one focusing on your greatest sports moment. But once you see other students writing about a family meal, or an obsession with a particular board game, or a love of cultivating cacti, you'll be convinced to find your essay in the small moments of your life.

Second, you'll see how your life and writing compares to that of your peers . The great diversity of voices, topics, tones, points of view will show you just how many things you could possibly write about, and how to keep the essay connected to your personality and your voice.

Finally, if you really do have a good story to tell about something that gets written about a lot, like divorce, pet death, a community service trip, or winning the big game, you can get ideas for how to approach a potentially lackluster essay topic in a novel and striking way .

What Makes A Good Sample College Essay Resource?

First, the basics. A source is only as good as its content, so make sure you're reading  college essays that worked, from people who actually got into the schools they applied to . Also, it's best to focus on new essays (not older than 10-15 years), so you are reading what has worked in the most recent past, rather than seeing outdated ideas and historical perspectives.

Next, what you really want is diversity in voice and perspective . Make sure the essays featured come from many different kinds of students: either from applicants to both top and lower-tier schools; or from students with different ethnic, economic, and racial backgrounds; or from writers using both formal and more experimental essay techniques.

Finally, the best sources of admission essays will feature explanatory material . This will give each essay some kind of context: commentary on what makes the essay good, explanations of the drafting process, or, at least, biographical information about students. Without commentary or context, it’s hard to know what you’re supposed to learn from the essays you read.

Where to Find Great College Essay Examples

Here are my recommendations for excellent resources, as well as some warnings about resources that I think you should avoid. 

College Essays Collected in Books

I've taken a look at many of the books that collect college essays, so here are my recommendations. I've divided them into three categories:

• Excellent  – meaning  having really diverse essays or very helpful commentary on each essay, or both
• Worthwhile  – meaning either a helpful collection of essays without a lot of context or commentary, or some great advice but a narrow selection of essays geared toward one particular type of school
• Don't Bother   – not useful either as a source of college essays or as a source of essay-writing advice and explanations

Also, please note that although I’ve listed the Amazon prices for all the books, you should definitely check your school and public library for copies before buying them. And even if your library doesn't have a copy, ask them to request one either from another library in the same system or even from the Library of Congress through interlibrary loan .

Excellent Books

Heavenly Essays: 50 Narrative College Application Essays That Worked

Written by Janine W. Robinson, who blogs about college essays at EssayHell , this book features great sample essays. But it's Robinson's precise and clear explanations of how to use a narrative style in your essay to tell a story about your life that make the book really outstanding. Through long and detailed commentary on each essay, Robinson shows why narrative is exactly the kind of structure that works best for personal essays. You can check out sample sections from the book on her blog. The book retails for $10 new on Amazon.

On Writing the College Application Essay, 25th Anniversary Edition: The Key to Acceptance at the College of Your Choice

Harry Bauld used to be an admissions officer at Brown, so he certainly knows what he is talking about when he writes about  how and why to avoid clichés and explains how to find and keep your specific voice . Bauld demonstrates his points with sample essays, showing how they go from first to final draft. The book is easy to read, uses humor to make points, and his advice will carry over into your college writing as well. It is $12.50 new on Amazon, but there are much cheaper used copies available there as well.

The Berkeley Book of College Essays: Personal Statements for California Universities and Other Select Schools

This compilation features college admissions essays written by seniors from Berkeley High School (which is not affiliated with UC Berkeley). Because the city of Berkeley is economically, racially, and ethnically very diverse, these essays are about many different interests, perspectives, and experiences, and are written in many different styles and tones . Although there is no commentary for the essays, this collection is a great way to get a sense of the broad array of essay possibilities.

Also, because many of the students from Berkeley High apply to UC schools, this collection separates out UC application essay packages. (If you are interested in UC, also check out our own guide to writing excellent UC essays !) This book is currently $15 on Amazon. 

50 Successful Harvard Application Essays: What Worked for Them Can Help You Get into the College of Your Choice

Edited by the staff of the Harvard Crimson, this is a great collection of essays from a not particularly diverse group of students. It is very useful to see how the very top students approach the college essay, as long as their best effort neither intimidates nor stymies you. The contextual material is excellent, with helpful explanations of what makes each essay work well. This book retails for $12 new on Amazon, with much cheaper used copies also available.

Worthwhile Books

College Essays That Made a Difference, 6th Edition

This Princeton Review guide is mostly distinguished by its introductory material, which has detailed interviews with many different colleges at many different tiers about what role essays play in college applications, what kind of mistakes are okay, and what to write and not to write about. The sample essays themselves come without commentary, but each features a very short bio of the student, including test scores, GPA, a list of colleges where the person applied, and a list of colleges where the person got in. Right now, it's $11.50 new on Amazon, but there are cheaper used copies as well.

50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays

This collection of of college essays that worked, edited by Gen and Kelly Tanabe, has somewhat spare, but insightful, commentary explaining what each essay does well and what it could have done better . It also includes an interview with an admissions officer explaining how essays are used in admissions decisions and some comments from students about the writing process. The link above is to a downloadable PDF file.

50 Successful Stanford Application Essays: Get into Stanford and Other Top Colleges  

If you like the Tanabes' approach (they are the authors of the previous book), then you will find this one useful as well. The narrow diversity of essay content and the style of commentary (thoughtful, but not particularly detailed or expansive) is very similar. It's priced at $13.25 new on Amazon with some used options as well.

Fiske Real College Essays That Work  

The "Fiske" of the title is Edward Fiske, who used to be the Education editor of the NY Times, and who therefore has some experience with what colleges want from their applicants. The book itself features an introduction with some helpful essay-writing tips, a diverse selection of essays built around narrative, but unfortunately has very little commentary to go with each essay . It retails for $12.50 new on Amazon, with cheaper used options available.

2015 Elite College Application Essays

Although there's almost no commentary or discussion of what makes these essays work, this book is a reasonably good collection of essays from students who are now enrolled at Ivy and other top-tier schools. What's particularly appealing about this college essay compilation is how very new these essays are: all are from students who became freshmen in 2015 . The book is $14 new on Amazon.

Don't Bother

100 Successful College Application Essays

I'd recommend not spending your time on any of the editions of this collection. The essays are decades old in some cases, the topics are clichéd and boring, and there is little to no commentary to make any of them useful. 

College Essays Published Online

I'll split my recommendations here into "worthwhile" and "don't bother" categories. There aren't any truly great collections of sample college essays online.

Individual College Websites . There are many essays published online by the various colleges where these students now go. This means these essays are guaranteed to be real, authentic, and to have worked on someone's application . Some of the essays even come with brief commentary by admissions officers about what makes them great. (The link will take you to our list of over 130 essays from more than 15 different colleges.)

Teen Ink Magazine . Teen Ink publishes all sorts of writing by teens, including college admission essays, which are split off into their own section on the site. The essays necessary feature a wide range of experiences and perspectives, so this is a great place to get a broad sense of what other students are writing about. The essays don't have any context except comment sections that run the gamut from generic “this is good” comments to some insight. Readers also get a chance to vote on which essays are featured as #1, #2, etc., which may be misleading because readers of Teen Ink aren't admissions officers.

Don't Bother 

Watch out for paid websites like AdmitSee, CollegeMapper, and Acceptional, which claim to give you access to college essays for a monthly or fixed fee. Because of the paywall, there's no way to verify the quality of the essays these sites have. Also, there are enough books that you could borrow from your library that you don’t need to pay monthly fees to these places. Finally, I would particularly stay away from AdmidSee, which uses Amazon reviews for other essay resources as a marketing platform.

The Best Ways To Use College Admission Essay Samples

So now that you've rounded up a bunch of sample college essays, what should you do with them? Here are some tips for your next steps.

When Should You Read Essay Examples?

I'd advise waiting until after you've done some brainstorming of your own before you start immersing yourself in other people's work and ideas. (If you're not sure how to brainstorm, check out our guide to coming up with great college essay topics .)

This way, you can use other people’s essays to think about different possibilities for writing about your own topic. For example, looking at how other people tackled their life experience can show you:

• how to focus on a different detail in your own story
• how to change the insight you want to draw from your story
• how to think about different ways to start and end your narrative

What Can Good College Essays Teach You?

There are both broad and specific learning opportunities to be found in reading other people's work.

Broadly speaking, seeing how other people are approaching the problem of writing a college essay can jog your own creative process. Likewise, reading a diversity of thoughts and voices will show you that even the most normal and boring seeming experiences be made into riveting essays.

More specifically, if you find essays from applicants to your target school, you can get some sense of the level of sophistication they expect to see from your writing. 

Finally, good context and commentary on the essays can show you how they are put together and what makes them work. You can then put this advice to use when rewriting your essay later.

Pitfalls To Avoid

Of course, being surrounded by other people's work, especially when some of that work is much better than what you think you can manage, has its share of temptations. So what do you need to guard against when looking at sample essays?

Plagiarism. This one is basic and obvious. Do not copy these sample essays! Admissions officers have seen them all, read them all, memorized them all – you will not get away with it.

Copying and mimicry. Think of this as a softer kind of plagiarism. Even if you really like someone else’s style, don’t borrow it. Even if someone’s life sounds more exciting than yours, don’t steal a piece of it for your own essay. Why? Because if you don’t sound like yourself, it will be visible to an experienced reader (and guess what, admissions officers are very experienced readers). Also, if you’re writing about experiences that aren't yours, your unfamiliarity will show through the lack of believable details.

Resources for Essay Writing Advice

In researching this article, I came across books and websites that don't necessarily feature a lot of sample essays, but that give really excellent advice on writing your own college essay. I strongly recommend you spend some time checking them out.

Essay Hell blog . This great resource is written by Janine Anderson Robinson, an English teacher and a journalist, whose book Heavenly Essays I recommended above. The blog posts feature lots and lots of well-explained, detailed, easy to understand advice about how to write your essay, and are broken down into easy to understand, bite-sized nuggets of usefulness.

Slate 's Getting In podcast . The entire series is an interesting look at the college application process, with useful tips and explanations about all aspects what seniors are going through. Check out Episode 2: The Essay , in which a student gets feedback in real time on their essay from a former Princeton director of admissions and a panel of experts talk about essay dos and don’ts. The episode is 26 minutes long.

The College Essay Trap: Rescue Your College Application Essay From the "Maybe" Pile

This is incredibly concise and excellent explanation of what not to do and what to avoid when writing your personal statement. It's short, sweet, to the point, and is praised to the skies by legendary Princeton admissions dean Fred Hargadon. Currently $12 new on Amazon.

The Bottom Line

• Look at college essay examples to broaden your own topic brainstorming and get ideas for fixing lackluster topics.
• Look for resources with diverse and recent essays, from many different kinds of students and with explanatory material that explains what makes each essay good.
• Look at essay samples after you’ve generated some of your own ideas to think about different possibilities for writing about your own topic.
• Seeing how other people are approaching the problem of writing a college essay can jog your creative process.
• Avoid both actual plagiarism and “borrowing”: don’t use someone else’s style, voice, or life experiences as your own.

What’s Next?

If you’re starting to work on college essays, check out our article laying out every single kind of essay prompt out there and a step by step guide to writing a great college essay .

Are you working on the Common App essay? Read our breakdown of the Common App prompts and our guide to picking the best prompt for you.

Or maybe you're interested in the University of California? Check out our complete guide to the UC personal statements .

Working on other pieces of your college applications? We’ve got guides to choosing the right college for you ,  writing about extracurriculars , and requesting teacher recommendations .

Thinking about taking the SAT one last time, or prepping for your first run at it? Read our ultimate guide to studying for the SAT and make sure you're as prepared as possible.

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

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