Sitting down to write my college essay was just about the most daunting thing I’d done in high school. Staring at a blank document, the cursor felt like a personal affront, blinking in and out of the screen. Somehow, with only around six hundred words, I was supposed to tell my dream schools exactly who I was—even though I hadn’t figured it out for myself.
As I began to write, though, I came to understand that this was exactly the point: the personal essay presents a space for us to talk about the building blocks of who we are and examine the foundations of our identity. Things that go beyond a transcript or a specifically crafted list of extracurriculars. The voice, perhaps, that’s in our heads, or the song that plays on our best days, or the things we craft in our rooms. It’s not just the topic of the essay that carries our spirit, but also the way we write it.
The personal essay gives us a lot of freedom: students can choose from six prompts, one of which is an open question allowing them to write about anything. While there’s room to process your essay creatively, choosing to follow a specific prompt (particularly any prompt apart from the choose-your-own-topic) requires you to answer certain specific questions. This way, the essay also gauges the manner in which you’re able to construct a response that is organized and clear. A first draft might work very well as a place for you to pen down your thoughts and explore every story you wish to, but your final draft will be more polished and follow a framework built on your thought process and the prompt. Doing this well allows admissions officers to understand how you construct a narrative and develop an argument.
Clearly, the personal essay always did a lot—it was a space for telling your story, and doing so with creativity and precision. However, the landscape of college applications has changed rapidly in the past few years: the number of applications each student submits has increased, with top U.S. schools receiving tens of thousands of applications each year. An admissions committee that could spend significant time on each applicant’s personal essay is now forced to decide within minutes. Admissions boards have also started exploring different ways to evaluate applications, given that several students may submit nearly identical ones. Short-response prompts, timed writing exercises during interviews, video essays, and other such methods are being incorporated into college applications.
The future of college applications will likely follow this trend: writing will be compressed into formats that are easier to skim, admission decisions will be forced into a time-and-attention crunch, and essays will be judged with greater particularity. Reflection, the most important part of any personal essay, is what will be prioritized even further: evidence of growth and change will be emphasized. The reason reflection and growth are such important parts of a personal essay is also that they accomplish exactly what the personal essay is meant to: they act as a direct window into who you are, as an individual. They grant you and your application a certain degree of authenticity and integrity. With the rise in AI use, this authenticity is often at risk, and essays cannot be relied upon as the sole means of understanding the student. Since admissions officers will not want to risk artificiality in reflection, essays are often placed alongside other parts of the application that work together to build an image of you.
It’s important to note that these changes don’t mean a student must attempt to ‘stand out’ with a particularly unique event or situation—in fact, this is a common concern we hear in our College Essay Program. What still matters is picking an essay topic that defines who you are and writing about it in your own narrative voice. All that’s changed is the need to accomplish this with rigor, precision, and honesty. Today, the college essay isn’t meant to signify how impressive you are, but to show you as an actual human being. Through a detailed narrative that’s specific to you, it’s important to build your own genuine style of writing.
This isn’t easy—I’ve spent nights racking my brain to think of what parts of my life I could write about to tell admissions officers who I am. And it’s at this stage, at the very beginning of your journey writing the personal essay, perhaps even without any topic in mind, that organizations like Write the World come in. The College Essay Program helps you navigate this process of writing your personal essay even before you’ve read the prompts. The activities ask you to identify what actually matters to you, make particular decisions about your narrative, and develop your voice. And after you have a rough draft ready, our College Essay Advisors are always there to help you build upon it with intensive feedback.
The college essay is often called the ‘personal’ essay because that’s exactly what it is—personal, sometimes uncomfortable, and truthful. Admissions officers aren’t expecting a grand narrative or fairytale; they’re looking for your story written in a manner specific to you. And yes, that means you have to sit down to make several decisions about what matters to you and put in the effort to write about it in a singular, reflective way. The good thing, though, is that by the end of it, not only will you have written something wonderful, but you’ll also have gotten to know yourself better than you could have imagined.
About the Author
Antara Kulkarni is an Expert Advisor at Write the World. She’s currently working on earning her BA degree in English from Ashoka University, where she’s an active member of the writing scene through clubs, academic societies, theatre, and university publications and newspapers. She’s always had an editorial leadership role in newspaper publications at academic institutions, and intends to follow through on her passion for writing to a career in the publishing industry. Her interest for developing forms of literature unlimited by the norm has sharpened her skills for being analytical around all methods of writing and structuring. She has a vested interest in helping writers craft the most personal, impactful college essay they can.
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