Tips for Writing a Winning College Essay

“I was trying to write it like I was a Harvard grad,” said the young woman with whom I met recently to talk about her college essays. “I wanted to take a kind of lofty tone.”

That’s a common mistake kids make, one my own son made a few years ago when he was applying for college. Writing an admissions essay is a different kind of writing for high school students, falling somewhere between a Facebook status update and a paper for English class.

Plus, the whole college application process can be so wrought with anxiety that the essay becomes overwhelming and the students barely know how to begin. The essay is a critical part of any college application, and even more so if a student is looking at colleges where acceptance rates are below 50 percent. It's a way to set themselves apart from the thousands of others who have high SATs and are in the top 10 percent of their classes.

Colleges received record numbers of applications last year. Here are just a few figures: Columbia: 34,000; Duke: 29,500; Harvard: 35,000; University of Virginia: 24,000

But once students understand what admissions counselors are looking for in an essay and what writing style to use, they relax and may actually enjoy the process.

Here are just a few tips for writing a winning college essay.

1. Choose the topics carefully.

Find topics that you can write about with passion and that reveal what you are like as a person. They don't have to be about how you will cure cancer one day or adopt 15 children. One of my favorite essays that I share with students is about a girl’s efforts to pet a cow.

There are also topics that should be avoided. Two of these are “My Big Moment in Sports” and “My Mission Trip.” Once admissions counselors have read thousands of essays on these same topics it’s hard to generate any interest in them.

2. Write in your own voice.

Admissions counselors don’t expect you to write like Hemingway, Fitzgerald or even a Harvard graduate. They expect you to write like a 17- or 18-year-old; one who writes a well-thought-out essay and spells everything correctly. And of course, don’t let anyone else write your essay or edit your personality out of it.

3. Allow enough time.

It’s a good idea to draft your essays, put them aside for a while, then come back to them. Have other people read them and get input, then incorporate that if you believe it’s right for your essay.

I did work with a student who wrote all seven essays at one sitting just a few days before they were due for early decision. He got into one of the top schools in the country, but I don’t recommend this method.

As for my son's essay? It all turned out in the end and he got into the school of his choice. But let's just say there were some stressful moments in the kitchen over that one. (You can read about it on my College Essay website here.)

But it was as a result of what I went through that I talked with college counselors at high schools and admissions staff at colleges and began working with other students to help them create their own winning essays.