The Truth About College Essays

“Given all the uncertainty that Covid brought, I was horrified by the thought that I wouldn’t make it out of the operating room alive.” This is an excerpt from my college essay, a unique piece of writing that’s different for each high school senior around the globe. A common misconception of the college application process is that it’s a stressful voyage through a storm that is nearly impossible to weather. You spend countless autumn nights cramming things into your Common App or UC PIQs, anxiously trying to beat the clock and meet application deadlines. But what if I told you that this process isn’t as stressful as it seems? What if I told you you can effectively avoid stress throughout your process? 

I am a journalist. I have spent the majority of my life enamored with writing. As a journalist, I am a creative and colorful storyteller. These values are also reflected in the prompts of every college essay, whether it be for the Common App, UC Application, or a college’s supplemental essays. Each prompt is meticulously designed for a senior to show, not tell, to be descriptive, and to forge a relationship with the admissions officers reviewing your application. I fell in love with college essays during my application process over the past year, eventually leading me to Chapman University and the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Thanks mostly in part to several friends of mine from the Class of 2023, I successfully implemented strategies such as showing instead of telling, colorful descriptions, and rich detail, among other things in my application, which bore great fruit for me throughout the fall and winter. I also took the liberty of getting all of the writing done over the summer, a tactic that prepared me well in advance of application deadlines and took away the stress that would come for most seniors in the fall. I choose to highlight these strategies not to show off how I succeeded throughout the application process but to inspire underclassmen who read this article to implement these pieces of advice in their respective applications.

I went to the PBL Pathway division of Samo for the past four years. Over the past year, I was assigned to conduct a senior thesis project that related not only to my passion for journalism but also to an important need in the PBL community. After months of research, I found that the lack of support given to students with their college applications was highly alarming. According to an August 2023 report by University Business and the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, the 2018-19 cycle for the Common Application saw almost 25% of high school seniors applying to Common App colleges fail to submit applications they started. With this information in mind, I began orchestrating a college essay workshop for PBL’s Class of 2025, using all of the important tools listed above. My main message was that everyone has a unique story to tell. Whether it’s a story of passion, overcoming challenges, or virtually anything, there’s always a story that’s so good that the admissions officers reading it can’t ignore it. And that’s how we spent almost every Wednesday collaborating on essay drafts. 

The college application process isn’t as stressful as most high school students think. It’s hyped up to be an excruciating process with a plethora of work so the college essay coaching industry can profit off of the anxiety and irrational fears of thousands of teenagers across America. Using this article as a blueprint for crafting a college application will put almost any incoming senior in the same position to succeed as I was last year. The support of teachers, graduating friends, and all of the important strategies listed above will take you a long way to get into the college of your choice in a year. That said, I implore you: Do not ignore this article if you’ve already begun considering applying to colleges in the fall. Important advice is something that I believe every senior should leave behind before they graduate high school and I feel that this is the best way to make an impact before becoming an alum.