Writing your college application essays can feel overwhelming, especially when you're staring at that blank page wondering where to begin. But starting is often the hardest part, and once you understand the unique nature of college essays, you'll have a clear path forward.
The college application essay “genre”
Before we dive into the “how”, let’s examine the “what”. College application essays are completely different from the 5-paragraph essays you write in a traditional English class. You can think of it as a totally different genre from anything you’ve likely written before.
You're crafting a personal narrative that reveals who you are beyond your grades and everything else on your application. It’s supposed to be more creative and casual than most essays you’ve written. Admissions officers aren’t as concerned with your writing ability as your English teachers – they’re more interested in learning who you are and what you’d bring to campus, if admitted.
What will get you admitted to your dream college is conveying your character, values, and potential contributions to their campus community in a strategic way. Your essay should be deeply personal, specific to your experiences, and focused on demonstrating growth.
How to find your story
Every strong college essay starts with identifying the right story to tell. This is where many students get stuck, thinking they need to have won at the Olympics or single-handedly helped their family escape poverty. The reality is much more encouraging: everyone has meaningful experiences worth exploring.
Your story doesn't need to be extraordinarily impressive nor filled to the brim with traumatic events, but it does need to be authentically yours. The key is specificity. Instead of writing about "leadership" in general, zoom in on the specific moment when you helped a struggling teammate during practice. Instead of discussing "community service" broadly, focus on the conversation you had with one particular person you helped.
If you're struggling to identify your story, especially if you feel like you only have "generic extracurriculars," don't panic. Every experience, no matter how ordinary it seems, contains potential for a compelling narrative. The trick is learning to look for the smaller, more human moments within your broader activities, and we have a more detailed post about that here.
Choosing your essay structure
Once you've identified potential stories, you'll need to decide how to structure your essay. There are two approaches that work consistently well:
The Espresso Essay focuses intensely on a single experience, diving deep into one moment or activity that sparked personal growth.
The Smoothie Essay blends multiple experiences into a cohesive narrative around a central theme.
Neither approach is inherently better – the choice depends on your experiences, strengths, and the story you want to tell. We have a handy-dandy quiz for you to take if you’d like to find out which structure might work best for you, and here’s a blog post exploring these structures in depth.
How to start writing
Now comes the practical part: how do you actually start writing? Here's a step-by-step approach:
Step 1: Brain-dump your story.
Don't worry about essay structure yet. Just write down everything you remember about your chosen experience or experiences. Include sensory details, conversations, emotions, and outcomes. You can use bullet points if you’d like. And don’t be afraid to go way over word count – you want to make sure you have all the information laid out so you can later select the best details to include.
Step 2: Identify your "so what?"
Ask yourself why this experience matters. What did you learn? How did you change? What does this reveal about your character or values? These insights will become the backbone of your essay.
Try to dig deep and go past common lessons like “I learned the power of resilience”. What, specifically, did you learn about resilience? How has that shaped the way you’ve approached challenges since?
Step 3: Find your hook.
Look through your brain dump for a specific detail, moment, or image that could grab a reader's attention. This might be a piece of dialogue, a vivid description, or even an unexpected object. This will become your hook.
Step 4: Map your narrative arc.
Whether you're writing an Espresso or Smoothie essay, you need a clear progression. Start with your hook, and then outline your story paragraph-by-paragraph. Make sure you conclude by connecting back to your broader insights or growth.
Step 5: Start writing your first draft!
Now that you have a hook and outline, you can start writing! Don’t strive for perfection – strive for getting something written down. This is only the first draft, after all!
Make yourself some tea or get comfy on the couch – it’s important to make sure you’re in a relaxed state where you can think freely.
Common pitfalls
As you begin writing, watch out for these frequent mistakes:
- The highlight reel: Don't just list your achievements. Focus on moments of growth, challenge, or realization.
- The generic topic: Even if your activity seems common, find the specific angle that only you could write about.
- The lesson-first essay: Avoid essays that read like "I learned that teamwork is important." Instead, show your growth through specific actions and reflections.
Your Next Steps
We believe each and every student has a story that can set them apart in the admissions office. It’s not always easy to find that story, but with enough probing, you can always find some fantastic options and learn more about yourself in the process.
At Essay Cafe, we have an amazing team of essay consultants from Stanford, Columbia, UPenn and other top schools. If you’d like professional help brainstorming or improving your essay drafts, book a brainstorm session or essay review with us!
About Kelsey
Kelsey Wang is an essay consultant at Essay Cafe with a B.S. in Data Science and a minor in Creative Writing from Stanford University. She approaches essay editing from both a data perspective (applying successful patterns from hundreds of essays read) and a creative perspective (making each individual student stand out) and has personally helped students get into top schools like Princeton, Yale, Brown, UCLA, Duke, Stanford, Columbia and many more.