COMMENTS

  1. 21 College Essay Topics & Ideas That Worked

    Here's a list of essay topics and ideas that worked for my one-on-one students: Essay Topic: My Allergies Inspired Me. After nearly dying from anaphylactic shock at five years old, I began a journey healing my anxiety and understanding the PTSD around my allergies. This created a passion for medicine and immunology, and now I want to become ...

  2. 35+ Best College Essay Tips from College Application Experts

    Use your essays to empower your chances of acceptance, merit money, and scholarships.". This college essay tip is by Dr. Rebecca Joseph, professor at California State University and founder of All College Application Essays, develops tools for making the college essay process faster and easier. 15. Get personal.

  3. 53 Stellar College Essay Topics to Inspire You

    Once you've chosen a general topic to write about, get out a piece of paper and get to work on creating a list of all the key details you could include in your essay. These could be things such as the following: Emotions you felt at the time. Names, places, and/or numbers. Dialogue, or what you or someone else said.

  4. Choosing Your College Essay Topic

    Give a brief snapshot of your role model's positive character and their influence on you. Maintain focus throughout the rest of the essay, giving examples of your own new actions, outlook, and goals. A traumatic experience or death in the family. Negative and may seem like you're trying to win sympathy points.

  5. 27 Outstanding College Essay Examples From Top Universities 2024

    This college essay tip is by Abigail McFee, Admissions Counselor for Tufts University and Tufts '17 graduate. 2. Write like a journalist. "Don't bury the lede!" The first few sentences must capture the reader's attention, provide a gist of the story, and give a sense of where the essay is heading.

  6. 5 Awesome College Essay Topics + Sample Essays

    Awesome College Essay Topics + Sample Essays. The truth is that a "good" college essay topic varies by individual, as it really depends on your life experiences. That being said, there are some topics that should work well for most people, and they are: 1. A unique extracurricular activity or passion.

  7. Ultimate Guide to Writing Your College Essay

    Sample College Essay 2 with Feedback. This content is licensed by Khan Academy and is available for free at www.khanacademy.org. College essays are an important part of your college application and give you the chance to show colleges and universities your personality. This guide will give you tips on how to write an effective college essay.

  8. How to Write a College Essay

    Making an all-state team → outstanding achievement. Making an all-state team → counting the cost of saying "no" to other interests. Making a friend out of an enemy → finding common ground, forgiveness. Making a friend out of an enemy → confront toxic thinking and behavior in yourself.

  9. The 13 Best College Essay Tips to Craft a Stellar Application

    13 College Essay Tips: Key Takeaways for a Great College Essay. To recap, here's our 13 tips for the best college essay ever: College Essay Planning Tips: Create a plan of attack for all of your essays so you can keep track of everything. Start early—at least two months before the due date, if not more. Choose the right prompt and topic for ...

  10. 16 Strong College Essay Examples from Top Schools

    First things first, this Common App essay is well-written. This student is definitely showing the admissions officers her ability to articulate her points beautifully and creatively. It starts with vivid images like that of the "rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees, who could glide through tick-infested meadows and emerge ...

  11. 12 Strategies to Writing the Perfect College Essay

    Don't Repeat. If you've mentioned an activity, story, or anecdote in some other part of your application, don't repeat it again in your essay. Your essay should tell college admissions officers something new. Whatever you write in your essay should be in philosophical alignment with the rest of your application.

  12. Writing tips and techniques for your college essay

    Don't summarize. Avoid explicitly stating the point of your essay. It's far less effective when you spell it out for someone. Delete every single "That's when I realized," "I learned," and "The most important lesson was...". It's unnecessary, unconvincing, and takes the reader out of the moment.

  13. 177 College Essay Examples for 11 Schools + Expert Analysis

    Technique #1: humor. Notice Renner's gentle and relaxed humor that lightly mocks their younger self's grand ambitions (this is different from the more sarcastic kind of humor used by Stephen in the first essay—you could never mistake one writer for the other). My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver.

  14. How to Get the Perfect Hook for Your College Essay

    5. Just Start Writing. Sometimes the hook of your college essay isn't clear. Rather than getting hung up, start developing your essay and see if it adds clarity as to how to best implement a hook. Some students even find that it's easiest to write a hook last, after writing the body of the personal statement.

  15. 14 College Essay Examples From Top-25 Universities (2024-2025)

    College essay example #6. This student was admitted to UC Berkeley. (Suggested reading: How to Get Into UC Berkeley and How to Write Great UC Essays) The phenomenon of interdependency, man depending on man for survival, has shaped centuries of human civilization.

  16. Things to Include in Your College Application Essay

    Admissions committees want essays to be concise - you want to make your point in about 700 words or less. You should also make sure that your essay is coherent - that your ideas flow and your arguments make sense. Don't be afraid to show off your writing skills, but don't do anything that takes away from your core message.

  17. How to Write a College Essay Step-by-Step

    Step 2: Pick one of the things you wrote down, flip your paper over, and write it at the top of your paper, like this: This is your thread, or a potential thread. Step 3: Underneath what you wrote down, name 5-6 values you could connect to this. These will serve as the beads of your essay.

  18. How to Come Up With Great College Essay Ideas

    Use the magic power of time. One of the best things you can do with your stack of college essay topics is to forget about them. Put them away for a couple of days so that you create a little mental space. When you come back to everything you wrote after a day or two, you will get the chance to read it with fresh eyes.

  19. 8 Things To Include In Your College Admission Essay

    The admission committee wants to read about the strong, positive information that makes you who you are. You should be able to write about experiences that have brought out a part of your character, built your mindset, or become an important lesson. Demonstrate qualities that will make you a great addition to their campus.

  20. How To Start a College Essay: 9 Effective Techniques

    For many, getting started is the hardest part of anything. And that's understandable. First, because it turns whatever you're doing into a reality, which raises the stakes. Second, because where you start can easily dictate the quality of where you end up. College essays have their own special brand of DTDT.

  21. How to Start a College Essay to Hook Your Reader

    Do a Freewrite. Give yourself permission to write without judgment for an allotted period of time. For each topic you generated in your brainstorm session, do a free-write session. Set a time for one minute and write down whatever comes to mind for that specific topic. This will help get the juices flowing and push you over that initial bit of ...

  22. NYS bills call to add suicide prevention number to college IDs

    According to experts, suicide is the second leading cause of death for the college student population. But a bill sitting on Governor Kathy Hochul's desk could offer a new tool for students.

  23. What Should I Go To College For? Exploring Your Options

    Think about your college major High school students may want to start considering their college major early. Think about subjects you enjoy and at which you excel. For example, a computer science degree might be appropriate if you love technology and problem-solving. You can also talk to your teachers and school counselors to get their insights.

  24. Getting College Essay Help: Important Do's and Don'ts

    Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College) Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay.

  25. College Essentials: Everything You Need According to College Students

    T&C's very own summer 2024 intern Sofia Yadigaroglu—an Amherst College junior majoring in English/Art History—says she uses them "to lock in and study without hearing anything else."