Summer break is just around the corner, and as seniors prepare to leave for college, juniors will begin the application process. There are many important parts to a college application, but arguably one of the most important is the application essay. The essay provides each student with an opportunity to showcase their authentic voice and personality to the college. If you are stuck on how to write your essay, here is some advice to help.

The first thing to consider is the purpose of the essay. Your essay should portray you as an individual. It should be a portrait of who you are and give colleges a good impression of you. Your writing is a chance to portray yourself in your own words and show what you could bring to their school. Your ability to successfully do so demonstrates self-awareness and reflection.

Before you start writing, you should keep in mind things to avoid. You should never rehash your academic and extracurricular accomplishments because you will discuss these in other parts of your application. You should use the essay to provide dimension to your application and make it more personal and unique.

Avoid writing about a “topic,” meaning that you should explore specific moments that reveal your character in action. Think about a specific scene from your life to write about, to give your essay elements of a story that people would want to read. To ensure your essay is captivating, avoid starting with a preamble. Use a hook to grab the reader, such as setting the scene or beginning with a piece of dialogue. Although it is like a story, you should never end with a typical “happily ever after” conclusion. For example, do not end your essay by saying “That was the day I learned you should always believe in yourself.” If you have successfully shown what you learned from your experience, you should not need to tell the reader what you learned. The reader should be able to draw their own conclusions, so do not try to tell them how to think. Your essay should have more implicit meaning outside of what you directly say.

Also, you should not hold back. Be honest and portray yourself as someone complicated and capable of making mistakes. That being said, try not to highlight your mistakes. This essay is a college’s first impression of you, and you do not want to shock them or scare them away. Regardless, be careful to not get caught up in your thoughts and start rambling. Finally, ask only a few people to edit your essay. You do not want to lose your voice in your essay by changing it based on the opinions of others. For the same reason, you should avoid over-editing your essay.

When writing, you should keep in mind the things that the school values. It can be easy to want to portray yourself as perfect, but schools also value honesty and self-care. They want to see that you are working to improve yourself. Other things to consider including in your essay are academic work, your service and contributions to others including family contributions, extracurricular and summer activities, your interests, and what you can bring to the school.

Here are some topics to avoid:

• Winning a championship – This does not show your capacity to change, and it may come across as not being humble. You should try to show that you are open to growth.
• How you used to be a “bad student” but now you are a “good student” – This is risky, and non-academic topics are generally preferable. You should try to talk about yourself as a person instead of as a student.
• Your hero – Your essay should be focused on you, not someone else.
• An eye-opening trip – This experience is too fleeting, thus it does not show your growth over time or provide a lot of information about yourself.
• Your life story – This is too broad.

Here are some good topics to consider:

• Focus on a precise moment of your life that allows you to incorporate storytelling elements and descriptive word choice.
• Write about things that are not included in other parts of your resume.
• Write about what makes you unique and how changes or experiences impacted you specifically.
• Write about things you care about and your passion will come through in your tone. Especially things that you did for the sake of doing them, rather than just building your resume.
• Tell the story of a specific time you changed or grew significantly.

A good strategy is to create a timeline of major moments in your life, so you can reflect on what had a large impact on your identity and from that choose an event to write about.

Consider the elements of an essay compared to a story. You should try to use storytelling elements in your essay to make it more engaging and accessible for the reader. For example, you should try to start and end with a scene. Attempt to tell an active story, but include moments of meaningful reflection. Be sure to use effective dialogue, imagery, humor, characterization, and tone. Your essay should end up being an engaging story that presents elements of yourself that you want to highlight.

Finally, do not stress yourself out! College applications can seem complicated and scary, but you will get through them. The most important thing is to be yourself in your essay. Just think of it as an opportunity to tell college admissions more about your story, and use this advice to make it a story worth reading.