Writing is, for all, a hard endeavor. Writers often share that their biggest fear is a blank page. This is certainly true when it comes to writing college application essays. Students applying to college are asked to write about who they are and their defining life experiences through a creatively written narrative. To compound the stress of staring at a blank page, what students write about in their college application essays may very well determine their future. Or so they may feel.

There are plenty of experts who have their own insights and suggestions about how to write these essays. Admittedly, I imagine this article on college application essays is, in some respects, more white noise among the thousands of books and articles out there. My one hope, is that the insights I share here connect with those few folks who cannot seem to find the guidance they need and are looking for.

How To Begin Writing College Application Essays

Step 1: Forget the Word Count

Forget about the word count and just write. Sometimes focusing on the word count restrictions also restricts the writing. So either in the pre-writing or drafting phase, just write. Let your thoughts, ideas, and words flow. Whether its stream of consciousness writing or bullet points, you should only stop when the creative energy stops. Afterwards, students can go back and pick out the “good stuff”.

Step 2: Breakdown the Prompt

Picking out the important pieces of the prompt is crucially helpful in directing a student’s creativity AND maintaining their focus on answering the question being asked. Personally, I highlight the important elements and use those as headers in the pre-writing/brainstorming stages. From there students can quickly see if they are staying on topic, and it helps create a foundation of ideas from which they can build upon.

Find a Hook for Your College Application Essays

Step 3: Find Your Hook

It is so common for students to craft a great hook–though it is typically buried in a paragraph towards the end. I have even found hooks as the last sentence in the last paragraph. Often by the end of a draft students have found a rhythm to their writing, but then suddenly stop because they’ve reached word count (see step 1). So many times the best stuff is towards the end, because a student has found creative inspiration.

School Specific College Application Essays

Step 4: Make Them Feel Special

While I’ve included this step, if you aren’t writing a school specific essay (Why Tufts, for example), feel free to skip to Step 5. When schools pose prompts specific to their institution, it’s a gift. It’s a student’s chance to flex by showing the detailed research they’ve done on that school. The response needs to make the school feel special by avoiding hyper-generalized statements like “<school name> has a great biology program.” Instead write, “I welcome the opportunity to study with Professor Smith, because her research on northeastern salamanders aligns with my long term goals of going to veterinary school and increasing the populations of endangered amphibians.” (Yes, I totally made this up…hopefully you get the general idea).

Editing College Application Essays

Step 5: Get to the Point

Hurry up and get to the point! At the end of the day these college application essays do have a word or character limit, so there generally isn’t a lot of space available for fluff, descriptions, or generalizations. While this may seem counter to the advice in Step 1, please remember this is the editing stage. Students will need to identify the most important and key details, themes, and ideas. From there, they can trim away the pieces which don’t truly add much to the story they are telling. By the end, they may find there is a little extra space in the essay to elaborate on those key areas of their college application essays.

Step 6: Keep It Simple Silly

Try using 3 words instead of 5. This is also a great way to help with meeting the college application essays’ word count limit. I guide students to combine three sentences into one or take a particularly verbose sentence and simplify it. Again, this advice should be focused on the components of the essay that are needed to provide context, but aren’t overly critical to the overarching message, theme, or point.

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