How to Write a College Essay

Approaching the writing process

You’re not alone if you feel overwhelmed as you begin this writing journey! Consider these reminders and recommendations for approaching the writing process with less stress:

There is no perfect rubric or template for a college essay.

No one knows you as well as you know yourself. Trust that you have a unique story within you to share, mold, and craft.

Give yourself ample preparation time to be intentional about the story you share and how you share it.

Consider your writing process as an opportunity for you to get to know yourself better, too! You may be surprised at the clarity you gain from taking time to reflect on your goals, values, and life experiences.

Stay motivated by taking the writing process one step at a time, such as the steps we outline on this page.

Brainstorming a topic

Download our College Essay Brainstorming Worksheet to reflect on what you may share in your essay, such as:

The context in which you have grown up
How you have formed your aspirations and find inspiration
Challenges you have encountered and how you have grown from them
Your successes and how you have accomplished them

As you reflect on these topics, what stands out to you as unique aspects of your story? What connections or throughlines do you notice within your reflections? What feels most energizing and authentic for you to write about? These questions may help illuminate what you’d like to focus on in your writing.

Challenges and extenuating circumstances

Students from low-income backgrounds may have encountered many challenges in life. As you consider whether or not you’d like to share these challenges in your writing, ask yourself the following questions:

Can I demonstrate clear growth from the challenge?
Have I reflected significantly on what I’ve learned from the challenge?

If you answer no to these questions, you may want to consider focusing on other unique aspects of your life experiences, interests, and goals in order to select a topic that effectively demonstrates some of your qualities, characteristics, and growth. All kinds of essays can be compelling and impactful, regardless of whether they describe significant challenges.

Completing a draft

Continue utilizing our College Essay Brainstorming Worksheet as a template and foundation to help you craft a strong college essay. The college essay format explored in the worksheet is one of many ways to ensure your essay goes beyond a chronological explanation of your life or an expansion of your resume.

Additionally, review our tips for completing a draft:

Before drafting, create an outline to strategize how you’ll incorporate unique parts of your story into one cohesive essay that demonstrates your values, how you’ve grown, and lessons you’ve learned.
Don’t forget to structure your essay with separate paragraphs! Each paragraph should have a clear purpose that is easy for the reader to follow.
As you decide on each paragraph’s purpose, consider what descriptive detail or specific anecdotes you can incorporate to bring life to the message.
Prioritize getting your thoughts down on paper, no matter how messy it may feel at first. It's okay if each sentence is not perfectly worded the first time through – keep going! When you revise your writing afterward, you can then go line-by-line to assess flow, sentence structure, word choice, and grammar.

Writing about challenges

If you’ve decided to incorporate challenges you’ve encountered into your essay content, below are some helpful reminders and strategies to keep in mind when writing about obstacles.

Focus on your growth — remember that the focus of your essays should be you, not just your obstacles and/or challenges.
Highlight what you’ve learned as a result of your challenges, incorporating ways you may have applied what you learned to further exemplify your growth.
Lean into a more positive tone. Application readers want to feel that you are ready for college, and demonstrating your emotional maturity and character development will show us that you are ready for that challenge.

Tip: After reading what you’ve written, reflect on the overall tone and emotions your writing creates. Do you feel inspired? Motivated? Proud of yourself? These can be good signs of an essay that effectively describes challenges you’ve faced!

Revising your essay

A strong college essay demonstrates a student’s academic preparedness through compelling writing that illuminates their unique perspective and life experiences, and authentically reflects their character and qualities.

Download our Revising Your Essay Worksheet to help you evaluate, improve, and polish your essay draft. Ask yourself the following questions to consider where there may be room for improvement:

Are my experiences, perspective, character, and qualities shining through in my essay?
Does my essay demonstrate maturity and a strong writing ability?

As you revise your writing, ask teachers, mentors, family, or friends for feedback. Reach out well in advance of any deadlines, and try to give them at least two weeks to provide feedback. Download our Essay Feedback Request Template for example language you can use.

After receiving feedback, revise! Keep in mind:

You do not have to incorporate all feedback. Accept what you think is most helpful.
Edits and revisions should not remove your voice or completely alter your writing style.
Pay attention to spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting.
Read your essay out loud to catch mistakes or awkward phrasing that you might otherwise miss.
Imagine you're a college admissions officer who just read your essay. What two to three things did they learn about you? What are the main takeaways from your essay?

Learn more

Apply to College

Explore our programs, robust resource library, regularly updated event calendar, 50+ college partners, and more.

Events

Join an upcoming event to learn something new, get your questions answered, and expand your network.

AskQB

Visit our online help portal to get your questions answered about QuestBridge programs.