College Essays

• At highly selective & selective colleges
• Borderline candidate
• Merit scholarships
• Honors program
• Competitive major
• Out of state spots

• At less selective colleges & strong academic applicant
• In-state student at public college
• Less competitive major

The "main" college essay

Common App Personal Essay prompts (Choose 1 of 6, 250-650 words); One essay works for all colleges; not all colleges require

UC Apply Personal Insight Questions (Choose 4 of 8, 350 words)

Cal State? No essay required

Additional essays/short answers that are school-specific

Found with College Questions in the Common App

Demonstrate talents, skills, and extracurriculars

Common App Activities: 10 max; 150 words

Common App Honors: 5 max; 100 characters

Optional, not required

"What else would you like us to know?”

Use when there is a significant circumstance requiring clarification

Create working document with all prompts

Group similar questions for “Super-essay” (one essay for 1+ prompts)

Recommended writing order:

1. Activity List & Honors
2. Personal Statement
3. Supplemental Questions
4. Additional information

Before you write your essay, do the necessary pre-work. 

Use the College Essay Guy's 5 brainstorming exercises to explore and inspire your chosen topics.

Choose topic, structure, & opener

Outline, draft, revise, refine

Use the College Essay Guy's How to Structure and Outline a College Essay

From self – read out loud

From others – CCC, Family, Friends (but not too much!)

Copy/paste into application

Preview (formatting check)

• Answer the prompt/question

• Write an awesome hook and ending 

• Share something we haven’t learned about you yet

• Tell a story only you can tell - keep it personal

• Write about yourself, not someone else

• Use your informal voice and writing style -this is not a formal paper

• Focus on small moments - no need for monumental events

• Show, don’t tell; make the reader feel something

• Connect your essay to your values​ & goals; show growth over time

• Be specific to the institution - show that you’ve done your research

• Read it out loud

• Restate the essay prompt​

• Rehash your activities or resume

• Tell schools what you think they want to hear

• Be a cliché, use care on these topics (e.g. sports injuries, volunteerism, winning state, moving to US, summer camp, covid-19)

• Stray off topic, stay focused

• Use a thesaurus on every word​ (use words you'd speak)

• Let AI write your essay for you

• Let your parent/counselor/consultant write or over-edit your essays

• Have too many people edit

• Paste an essay for another school’s prompt (yes, they can tell!)

• Forget to check for spelling and grammar