You’ve written your first draft. Now what? Don’t immediately start fixing grammar or replacing words with fancier ones. First, look at the ideas. A strong college essay isn’t created by adding more words. It’s created by making sure every word is doing useful work. Read your draft again and ask these five questions. 1. Where … Read more
You have your topic. You know what story you want to tell. You even have a rough structure. Then you open a blank document and suddenly… Nothing. You write a sentence. Delete it. Write another. Delete that too. Twenty minutes later, you’ve changed the font three times and written 47 words. If this sounds familiar, … Read more
Think of your college essay as a mini-movie about your life, not a résumé written in paragraphs. Your grades, awards, activities, and achievements already appear elsewhere in your application. Your personal statement has a different job: Show us who you are, how you think, and what matters to you. But how do you actually structure … Read more
You’ve brainstormed. Now you have five possible topics. Maybe one is about winning a competition, one about your grandmother, one about a hobby, one about a difficult experience, and one about something so ordinary you’re not even sure it counts as an essay topic. Which one should you choose? Probably not the one that sounds … Read more
Most students think brainstorming means sitting in front of a blank document and asking: “What should I write my college essay about?” That is usually the wrong question. A strong college essay topic is rarely hiding in a list of impressive achievements. It is more often buried in an ordinary object, an awkward moment, a … Read more
In our first post, we looked at six common college essay mistakes, including the mistake of faking “show, don’t tell.” But here’s the problem: “Show, don’t tell” is only half the advice. A strong college essay needs both. Show us what happened. Then tell us why it matters. That balance is what turns a nice … Read more
In our first post, we looked at six common college essay mistakes. In the second, we explored how to make your essay personal by replacing generic statements with specific details. Now let’s tackle another common mistake: turning your personal statement into a résumé in prose. You won the championship.You became student body president.You founded a … Read more
In our previous post, we looked at six common college essay mistakes—including the tendency to rely on broad, “profound” statements instead of revealing something genuinely personal. This post takes a closer look at that first mistake: how to stop writing generic truths and start writing about the details that make you, you. Because the goal … Read more
Your college essay doesn’t need to sound profound, dramatic, or impressive. It needs to sound like you. Here are six common mistakes that can make a personal statement feel generic—even when the student behind it is anything but. 1. Writing “Truths” Instead of Writing About You “Living on a farm taught me the importance of … Read more