How to Write a Stand-Out Personal Statement

Webinar Transcription

Lydia: [00:00:00] Hello, hello, hello. Good evening, everyone. My name is Lydia Hollon. Welcome to “How to Write a Standout Personal Statement Essay.” Tonight I’m gonna be your moderator, and I am also a senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor, and have been with the company for about four years now. And in addition to being an advisor, I’m also a proud graduate of New York University.

To orient everyone with the webinar timing for tonight, we’re going to start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q&A. On the sidebar, you can download our slides and start submitting questions in the Q&A tab. We’ll also be recording this session so that you can review the webinar again later.

Now, let’s meet our presenter.

Samuel: Hi,

everyone. My name is Samuel Day. I am a former assistant director of international admissions at Purdue University, and I am a former admissions officer here with CollegeAdvisor going into my second year. During my time at Purdue, I read about 7 to 8,000 applications [00:01:00] ranging from everything from fermentation sciences to engineering, uh, computer science to psychology, hospitality and tourism management to construction management.

You name it, I probably read it. I’m really excited to get to speak with you all today, and thank you all for being here

Lydia: Awesome. So before Samuel gets started with the presentation, we’re gonna do a quick poll to figure out what grade you are in. So I will go ahead and open that up, and if you’re a parent, just feel free to click that other option.

So while I give everyone a chance to answer that question, Samuel, I would love to hear from you. What did you write about for your personal statement?

Samuel: So I actually just found what my college essay was, and I wanted to make sure I had it right. I wrote a very dramatic retelling of a time that I overcame a struggle, um, where I had been in the running to win a trip to Germany through a German test, [00:02:00] that I had made it to the final round and then was cut the first time and had that big success at the very end.

And looking back about 11 years later, wow, was I dramatic. Definitely feel for the AOs that had to read this. I’m glad I now know how to tell kids how to do it a little bit better.

Lydia: I don’t think a dramatic flair is too bad. That’s always a little bit, little bit helpful. It’s, it’s a part of your personality, right?

Valuable to share. Um, looking at our responses… Hmm, I don’t know why I’m not seeing them pop up. Oh, there we go. Uh, we have 1% in ninth grade, 8% in 10th, 21% in 11th grade, 56% in 12th, and 14% in that other or parent category. So lots of upperclassmen, especially seniors, which isn’t super surprising because those are the ones that [00:03:00] should be thinking about this right now.

So I will go ahead and pass it over to you, Samuel, to kick us off with the presentation.

Samuel: All right. So before I begin talking about what makes a standout essay, I do want to talk a little bit about the overall process When we talk about holistic review, and that is a term that colleges love to talk about, but they don’t always remember to explain other than holistic review means everything is taken into consideration.

Well, everything is a lot. So I like to break it down a little bit and make it a lot more, little bit more approachable. I promise we’ll get to the essays in a second, and there’s a reason I’m talking about this. But when we talk about your application, we’re looking at it from three main lenses. We’re looking at it from the academic perspective, your grades, your test scores, the types of classes that you took.

That’s where rigor comes into play, how many APs, et cetera. But we also look at your test scores. So, you know, did you take the SAT or ACT? How did you do? How did you compare to other people in your area? [00:04:00] We’ll look at you as a member of your community, which is going to give us an idea of how you’re going to be on campus.

So what activities did you get involved in? Were you involved in any leadership? What were the types of things that you really spent your time in outside of class? And I say outside of class because an activity can be literally anything. I once had a student tell me that they breathe outside of class as their activity.

I’ve also had students tell me that they tried to cure cancer, so everything really falls into the middle. And then we look at your letters of recommendation, which are people outside of your, uh, outside of your parents typically, who are in your community, who have an opinion on how you’re doing and want to share that with universities.

And then we get to the essays. The essays are the most personal, and they’re also how we get to know you as an individual. So I sort of break it down as you in the classroom, you in your community, and then you on your own The essays are also the topic of this webinar, but also in my opinion, the most interesting part of the application because [00:05:00] they are the most unique portion.

I have seen more applications than I can count with amazing grades, top test scores, activities that would blow your mind. Seriously, I saw this so often that I can use it as an example without it being an identifying activity. Students, with documentation, YouTube videos proving this, building prosthetic limbs for their friends.

Like I said, a little bit insane, but at the end of the day, the essay is the only bit that is gonna be truly unique because it is incredibly personal. Personal, and it’s the only way that we, we really get to hear your voice. Yes, like I mentioned, some students will include YouTube videos or other sort of documentation, but at the end of the day, in the standard application, the essay is the only part that we as AOs have the opportunity to really get to know you.

And in a lot of ways, it’s the most unique portion because while you may have had similar experiences to other students doing applications at the same time, [00:06:00] the essay is going to be the only time where I get to hear your voice, and it’s also the only time where your individual experiences and your thoughts on those individual experiences are going to get to shine I’m going to be talking a lot about you, your individual experiences, your thoughts on your individual experiences a lot.

So get ready, you’re gonna hear it a bunch

Now College, uh, college admissions essays can be a little bit difficult, um, because they’re such a different type of writing from the standard that you might be used to. Now, when we write in high school, we are typically writing a type of writing that is going to be focused more on the analytical side.

You’re typically gonna be writing about something else, giving analysis, doing a persuasive essay or an informative essay, or trying to push an argument forward. Your [00:07:00] college application essay should not be that

The thing that the college essay is supposed to be is going to be a memoir or a biography, or a sign of who you are. It’s going to give us a, the ability to just get an idea of what you o- bring to the table and how you think about the world, giving us an idea about your personality. It’s one of my…

That’s also why it’s my favorite, is because it’s the time that I get to know who I’m actually potentially gonna be bringing to campus. Now, we always recommend to think of it as a memoir or a biography or a short story. Give us, you know, a beginning, a middle, and an end. But it should be reflective and it should be person- personal.

Again, it’s all about you at the end of the day. It is not just about what you experienced, but how you experienced it and how you reacted to that moment[00:08:00]

The big thing to remember is that if your best friend read your essay from a stack of nameless essays, they should still be able to know it’s yours. Even if they pull it out from the middle and have no clue that you’re the one who submitted it, it should still be clear to your best friend who knows you better than anyone else, “Yeah, that’s my best friend.”

Because again, it’s all about you, and it should be reflective of you and who you are and how you think. Like I said, it is narrative. It is not argumentative, informative, or persuasive. You’re not trying to make an argument for us admitting you, you’re not trying to persuade us to admit you, and you’re not trying to inform us about you.

You’re trying to tell us a story about you. What is that memory or that moment from your experiences that really shines and gives us an opportunity to get to know you? There should also be a key takeaway. When we think of a short story, what is the moral? Well, when we think of a admissions [00:09:00] essay, what is the takeaway?

What is the thing that you want your admissions officer to walk away with after they have finished that essay? There’s no set rubric. Some of the best essays that I have ever read have been drastically different. I’ve had essays that have made me cry. I’ve had essays that have made me laugh. And one of the first essays that I ever read, I can remember almost word for word because of how good it was.

But all of those essays are wildly different, and there’s no set formula for success. There are some set standards that we recommend, like writing a regular essay. Poetry, theater, these are maybe not the ones that you should be focusing on for a college admissions essay, unless you’re really confident in those skills, because it’s hard to tell who your audience is gonna be

Now, let’s take a quick look at what the Common App essay prompts are. The Common App is going to be the sort of main platform that most schools, uh, [00:10:00] use, although a couple big exceptions, like the UCs or MIT, do exist and have their own platforms. Within the Common App, there is the main Common App essay, and that is gonna be what we’re gonna be talking about here.

Now, each one of these prompts is going to be something that you can respond to, but you only have to respond to one. You have about 650 words maximum, 250 words minimum that you can use, and I will admit, most of the really good essays that I remember typically fall on that longer side. Now, what are the prompts?

One: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. Two: The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure.

How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? [00:11:00] That’s the one that I did when I first did my college essay. We’re not gonna talk about how long ago that was, though. Three: Reflect on a time when you questioned a, questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking, and what was the outcome?

Four: Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you? Five: Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understa- uh, standing of yourself or others.

Six: Describe a topic, idea, or concept that you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more? Seven: Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one that you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Now, these are all different prompts [00:12:00] trying to get at different assets of one key topic: you. We want to get to know your story from a different lens or a different angle, and these are all different ways to think about it. Some of these do have pitfalls, though, and we’re gonna talk about those next Pitfall number two: forgetting to tell the full story, which is most commonly seen with prompt number two.

Or pitfall number one, prompt number two. Forgetting to tell the full story. This is what I often associate with the idea of you want to tell about your worst day to tug at your AO’s heartstrings so that they have to admit you. Well, here’s the problem, is that as an AO, I was reading 50 to 75 applications every day.

If I only read about the worst moment that you’d ever had, I would’ve been reading a lot of really bad moments, and so they stop really standing out. Instead, the question that I want students to ask [00:13:00] themselves when they do this essay is to think of more than just what happened, but how did things get better?

What changed? And if things didn’t change, how did you grow from this experience? It is okay to have bad days and to have struggled and overcome those struggles or not overcome those struggles. But just sharing those struggles is not the full story. These essays are designed to give us an insight into who you are, and so we want to have an idea of what the takeaways and growth that you have from these experiences are.

How did that failure cause you to rethink things? How did that struggle change the way that you view the world? What did you learn and how did you grow from this? Remember, that final question, how did it affect you and what did you learn from this experience, that’s the key question here. It’s not just the challenge, the setback, or the failure, but it’s what you u- how you [00:14:00] turn that into a springboard into something else.

And that springboard doesn’t always have to go up. It can go sideways, but it’s about what you learned and how you changed as a result of that experience

Now, pitfall number two. The prompt number four fit- pitfall, forgetting to be the main character of the essay I love this prompt because it has meant that I have read some really amazing essays about some really amazing people in different students’ lives. The problem with this prompt though, is that students sometimes forget to talk about themselves.

The kindness of others is amazing, but don’t forget that you are writing about yourself, not somebody else. At the end of the day, even if your grandmother was an amazing figure in your life and had a very, very influential role in changing the way that you view the future

I’m [00:15:00] not the one admitting your grandmother. I’m admitting you at the end of the day. And so it’s great that you have that story, and it’s great that you’ve had those experiences and have grown from the kindness that others have shown you. But remember that we’re admitting you. You have to be the main character of the story.

If you’re counting, I have probably said you about 100 times already, and that is only gonna get… That number is only gonna get higher, because if you can’t tell, the main through line of all of these prompts, all of these stories, is that we want to focus on your experience, get to know you, get to know who we’re bringing to campus.

If we go back to that idea of the academic, the community, and the personal, it’s all about you. You may have an awesome grandmother, and I’m glad that she’s fantastic, but you can’t spend your entire essay talking about how awesome your grandmother’s kindness was, because it’s not gonna give us an, an insight into who you are and how you’ve grown as a result of that kindness[00:16:00]

This prompt is the one that I have seen most of the students that I’m working with this year do, and it is forgetting, and it has resulted in my third pitfall. The prompt number six pitfall: forgetting to be a character at all. This essay is challenging because it asks you to describe a topic, idea, or concept that you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time as the first question.

But the part that your AO is going to be interested in is the second and third question. We want to get to know you at the end of the day, not what you know. We already believe you’re smart. That’s what the rest of the application is for This is where we actually get to know your personality, though. And so if you give me an essay info dumping about the cool facts that you know or the things that you’ve learned, that’s great, and I’m happy that you know all this information, but it’s also not what I’m asking for, and it’s not really addressing the prompt of the assignment either.

It’s [00:17:00] about you, not the information that you know. And so I often find that with this prompt, the information that you know can be a great motif to help you weave through the essay, but it’s not the actual essay itself. You’re not trying to inform me about the mating habits of penguins or the fiery depths of a volcano, or the scientific topic that I still don’t understand what that one student was writing about, but they wrote it really well.

At the end of the day, it’s about what they do with that information and how they connect with it personally. Why does it captivate you is the real question that I want to know, and how does it relate to you as an individual? The essays that I’ve seen with the students that I’ve been working on, I’m really proud of them, ’cause they have done a really great job of taking these ideas and this cool knowledge that they have and weaving it through in an informative way.

I’ve learned a lot about a lot of different topics, but still focusing on the individual and how they relate to these different topics that they’re sharing. [00:18:00] I’ve learned about words I don’t actually know how to pronounce. I’ve learned about all sorts of different experiences that they’ve had as it relates to these different ideas.

But it’s been really cool to get to see how they’re weaving these ideas together through the lens of something that they’re passionate about. But remember, you do have to be a character in your own essay. It can’t just be the cool penguin facts that you know

So let’s review. Your background, your identity, your interest, or your talent, it’s not just going to be the background story, but it’s going to be how that relates to you now, and how you continue to grow and how it’s shaped you. The lessons that you’ve learned as a result of that interest, talent, background, or identity.

It’s not just the challenges, the setbacks, or the failures, it’s gonna be the way it affected you and the growth that you have as a result of having experienced these things. It’s not the belief or idea that we want to write about, but the experience of challenging it [00:19:00] and growing as a result of the questions that you asked.

Maybe your o- opinion changed, maybe it didn’t, but at the end of the day, that thought process is gonna be the most interesting part of that essay. It’s not about just what something, something or some- something that was done for you or who did that something, but it’s going to be how that made you feel, how you grew and how it caused you to change your view on the world.

It’s not just the accomplishment, event, or realization. This is not your resume, but it’s how you felt about that and how it caused growth that ultimately resulted in a big change. Like I said, it’s not just the topic, idea, or concept that you’re excited about, but it’s why it excites you and how you relate to that idea Now we get to the final topic, and this one can be a little bit tricky for some students.

The essay of your own choice. I always find that this option is best for students who don’t quite [00:20:00] know what to write about in the context of the frame that we’ve been given with the other six prompts, but they know that it could fit one or two of them. What this isn’t though, is an opportunity for you to submit a research paper.

This is not going to be an academic paper if you’re doing it right. Yes, that is an open end. It’s allowed within the framework of the question, but it’s not what your AOs are looking for, and if you want to have a really, uh, sort of impactful essay as a part of your application, we want to get to know you, not the knowledge that you know, just like I said with number six.

I had a really memorable experience where a student had submitted a paper on, I think it was, like, Pompeii. Now, they may had, have had a temper like Vesuvius, but they were not the volcano, so it wasn’t really that useful for me as an AO trying to get to know who they are. That story was completely made up, by the way.

I always have to be careful not to give too much that is directly tied to the students [00:21:00] that I worked with, but something similar definitely did happen. The other thing that you have to remember is that you can’t just free write. This should have a takeaway at the end of the day, and so there should be a main direction or a theme present that you want your AO to ha- remember at the end of the essay.

One of my favorite essays ever was about defiance and refusing to bow down in the face of challenge. Another essay that had nothing to do with any of the other prompts had the takeaway of a butterfly can change the world, and no, I cannot say more. At the end of the day though, the prompt choice is not significant.

We are reading to get to know your story, not following a rubric. There’s no points involved, we just want to get to know who you are. Have you noticed that I have said you even more in this presentation? I think there might be a through line Now, when it comes to how do we actually write this, which is what many of my seniors on the call might be interested in, [00:22:00] think of it as a beginning, a middle, and an end.

You’re telling a story. You can give us some background that tells us your story and your experiences, but then also give us the growth and the lessons that you want us to know as a result of those experiences. If you decide to have your entire essay be a narrative, you also have to build in the experiences that you’ve had and how you’ve reacted to them.

What did you learn? What changed about you? Has your worldview changed? Have you grown as an individual or as, as a result of the topic of this essay? And at the end, how have you chosen to continue these lessons? How will you take them on into the future? Why was your growth important, and how will you demonstrate it moving forward?

Instead of summarizing the past, it’s about the present and the future. I’ve had students ask, “Can I write essays about things that happened to me in seventh or eighth grade?” And if they were really influential and changed who you are [00:23:00] to the point that they still are something that you point at to this day as something that was a life-altering experience that has had an impact on your high school experience, absolutely That is an example of an awesome essay topic potentially.

But at the end of the day, it’s going to be less about what you’re writing about and more how you’re writing it and using it to introduce yourself to an audience that doesn’t know you Now, here’s an example that I often see my fellow AOs recommend students don’t do, and why I think that that’s not always the best advice.

Now, sports can be a very difficult topic to do well, because a lot of students get lost in either the big win or the big loss. Life-altering experiences in both categories, for sure. But like I said with the, uh, challenge for prompt two, you have to tell the full story [00:24:00] If you suffered a big loss and it was a horrible experience, I’m sorry you had that, but a lot of people have had that experience.

What not everyone has done though, is taken that loss and turned it into fuel for something more

Similarly, having a great win, I’m really happy you had a great day. But at the end of the day, to an AO, that’s just going to be another good day that a student’s talking about. It’s not going to have something that we’re gonna take away and remember at the end of the essay. That is why with both sides of these, I recommend focusing more on the training montage.

When you talk about that loss, what did you learn from the loss, and how did it change your attitude towards your sport? How did it change your attitude towards yourself or your discipline? Did this light a fire under you to make sure that you could win at the end of the essay or at the end of high school?

Remember, life is not just an essay [00:25:00] What happened internally that resulted in actions that you decided to take? H- that gets us to the growth section, that training montage. How did you change your approach? The lessons that you learned, how did you apply those? And then finally, it’s totally fine to end with the big win so that everyone has a smile on their face by the end of the essay.

Looking forward, how will you keep those lessons alive? I’ve also seen some essays flip this around. Start with a big win, and then end with a loss and the reflection on that loss Don’t get over self-confident. Sometimes you’ll have los- losses even after you think that you’re untouchable. That’s a lesson too that I’ve seen some students share in their essays.

At the end of the day though, it’s more about the lesson than it is the actual story, which is why the majority of your essay should focus on the training montage or the reflection section, and not the win or the loss[00:26:00]

Now, how can I make my writing strong and unique?

If you’ve been paying attention during this seminar, I’m willing to bet that you can probably guess the answer to this is talk about yourself, and you’d be right

What we want to know is your personal growth and your identity. At the end of the day, I will read a lot of very similar essays. When I was reading kinesiology essays, for example, every single essay was talking about a broken bone or a torn ACL

But not every essay turned that into a lesson and a reflection on what that injury changed internally. So say, for example, talking about a torn ACL, I do see that’s one of the questions in the Q&A. Talking about a torn ACL, sure, you might not have turned that into a big success, but it would [00:27:00] have potentially changed the way that you thought about your mobility, your access to continue playing sports, and what that will mean for you going forward.

There are questions you can ask yourself as a result of that injury that would make it really interesting and would still give us an opportunity to see how you’ve grown, even if it doesn’t have anything to do with a success. It still has something to do with you

One of my favorite essays this year talked about going from being a runner to breaking your leg, to reflecting on what life will look like after that injury has healed, and your relationship not only with running, but with yourself as a result. Some amazing growth can be found in the wildest places, and w- that’s what your AOs want to get to know.

The emotional impact and the feeling of these essays is what really is going to stay with your AOs, because we may not remember every single word of every single essay. [00:28:00] In fact, I would be willing to bet that most of my colleagues, and I know for myself, don’t. But we will remember the essays that made us feel something, the m- essays that made us root for those students because they shared something that really made us hopeful for the future.

They may have shared what they felt or what they realized, what they challenged or what they, uh, innovated. There are so many different ways to approach this, but focusing on yourself, your reactions, your insights, and making that the core heart of your essay is probably going to result in a fantastic essay.

Can’t make any promises, but I can speak from experience that the essays that have landed the best have always been including a personal hook

Sorry. Now, with that personal element though, it’s important to be authentic, and authenticity is not what is always unique. Authenticity is simply true to you. [00:29:00] It is your story, not what you think we want to hear, because at the end of the day, all we want to hear is your voice

It’s probably unlikely that you’re gonna have a truly unique essay. But what will be unique is the individual experiences that you bring and the way that you word those. The way that you talk about your experiences is going to be something that I’ve never read before, no matter how many essays that I read, because you’re gonna be the only one who actually has those experiences in your own words.

In short, how do you make your writing strong and unique? From a narrative perspective, you focus on yourself. Now, it’s true, it also needs to be a good essay. Make sure you have paragraphs, make sure you run it through spellcheck, but the ultimate focus of this essay should be you. I don’t know how many more times I can say it, and to be honest, I’m probably gonna say it a lot more.

Now, how do I start the writing process? [00:30:00] Ask yourself, what do you want admissions to know about you? Is there something that you want to highlight? Are you particularly curious? Are you resilient? Is there something about you that you think is truly the quintessential part of who you are? When I wrote my essay, it was about my love of the world.

I speak a couple different languages, and so I wrote about the fact that I co- wanted to be remembered, and I thought about that. I wrote about the challenges that I had overcoming the German contest and how I wanted to get to experience the world on the world’s terms. That’s why I learned German in the first place.

Because at the end of the day, I wanted to be remembered not for the different languages that I spoke, but for the love of the world that I had. You may have something similar. You may have a curiosity that never ends, and you want to be known as the student who will never stop learning. Or resilience, something that you’ve overcome.

The [00:31:00] runner who broke their leg, and that didn’t stop them from training, so they became a swimmer instead. Because at the end of the day, you’re not going to give up in that fight for the physical activity that you love. Think about experiences based on the takeaway that you want to be remembered by. The example I gave was my trip to Germany or the change in sport, but all of those tie back to that key idea Connect to those ideas then to why that matters.

The growth, the change. And if you’re having trouble finding something that can be good, think about how have you changed in high school, and how do you plan on keeping that change moving into college? At the end of the day, you are a s- not a static, uh, being. You are going to change and grow. You are dynamic, and that is going to be true throughout high school and throughout college.

How have you changed can be a great way to ask- [00:32:00] start asking yourself how do you get to the core of who you are

Before I go on, I do want to acknowledge there’s no such thing as a bad essay topic. I have read all sorts of different things. Really, the number of topics is kind of insane, but when you think about how many different moments you’ve lived, it’s not that wild. It’s just about you. Now, let’s talk about timeline

When should you start writing? Realistically, if you’re a senior, you probably should’ve started earlier this summer, but if you haven’t started yet, then you should start right after this webinar. Now, you should be thinking about the meaningful values and the experiences that you have. Like we said on the last slide, reflect on those traits and those characteristics about yourself that matter to you.

What are you proud of in yourself? Not that you’ve accomplished, but that you’ve grown [00:33:00] into In August, so this month, spend that time brainstorming, drafting, and revising at least once a week. Free write. Create ideas. Expand your writing, and don’t worry too much about grammar. You can cut words back. That’s never, uh, that’s not impossible.

This essay is not going to be one that you’re gonna write once or only edit once and be done. You are gonna have to spend some time with this. Like I said, this is not a type of writing that you’ve done in a very long time most likely, and so this is gonna be something that you haven’t had a chance to do in high school.

You’re gonna need to practice a little bit, and that first attempt may not be fantastic. But that final result, you’re paying attention to this webinar, I know it’s gonna be great. In September, you should be revising, and in October, that’s when you move to finalize. Aim to be done before Halloween. A, this is the [00:34:00] night, uh, Halloween is often, Halloween or November 1st is often the deadline for a lot of early action decisions.

But it’s also a scary enough night that you don’t want to have to worry about college admissions and college applications on top of the spooky, scary skeletons that are waiting for you Halloween night. But in general, it’s also a good idea to get it done earlier so that it’s not hanging over your head for the rest of senior year

But also remember, this is going to take time. It’s not going to be a one and done. It’s a bit of a marathon, much less a sprint

Now This is a question the sort of big AI bubble that exists over all of us. This is something that is pretty controversial in the field. Do admissions officers use technology and AI to read your application? AI is not and [00:35:00] never will be the sole evaluator of your writing, most likely. I can’t speak with 100% certainty, but I do know my colleagues, and they will go down fighting before they let AI replace them fully.

Some admissions offices are implementing AI as a tool, potentially to help calculate GPAs or check that you have the minimum course requirements, but it is not going to be a substitute for people who care about you and your success reading your essays. There are humans on the other side of the screen who want to learn about you.

More than that, there’s people on the other side of the screen who want to see you succeed. That’s why I love reading a good essay, is it’s a student getting to show off how much they’ve learned about themselves throughout high school in a really cool way. That’s what makes us excited, is that it’s getting to watch you succeed.

Now, we can and we will guess when an essay is AI-generated. [00:36:00] It’s pretty easy to recognize that when an AI… when an essay lacks depth or emotional reflection. AI can produce a perfectly okay essay with a bunch of narration, but it doesn’t do a great job providing the depth and reflection that comes from having actually lived the experiences that you’re going to be writing about.

Does that mean that I can tell when an essay is AI-generated? No. Does that mean I can tell when an essay is not the greatest? Absolutely. I’ve read a lot of these. I know what I’m looking for. You’re unique for a reason, and when you think about it, the experiences that you’ve had and the thoughts that you’ve had about those experiences are not something that AI has been trained on in the corpus that developed the large language model that you might be interested in using

Whether it’s ChatGPT or Claude or any of the others, they haven’t trained on you. They have trained on the data that is out there, and as far as I know, none of you have uploaded your brains into the internet yet. [00:37:00] AI can be a powerful tool, but it is not a replacement for your critical thinking. Can it be useful in editing essays or polishing up things that you have already done?

Maybe, but it cannot replace the inter- the base narrative that you are trying to share. Do your AOs a favor and write your essays yourself, please. Now, opinions on AI in this review process differ because the human component of review is so important, but some offices may have different opinions. I do know my colleagues though, and I know that much like myself, we love a good essay.

It’s the best part of the entire year because we get to see the students that we’ll be bringing to campus, and it makes us excited. So you can pry the essay review from our, uh, hands, and we will go down fighting Probably. I can always speak for myself, but I [00:38:00] do know many of my colleagues feel the same way Now In closing, some final advice.

Be kind to yourself. You have probably not written in this genre since elementary school. After all, when was the last time you were asked to write about something that you- happened to you that made your day? Or the time that you were, last time you were asked to write about your day at all? These essays are not meant to be quick.

They’re not meant to be rushed, and it’s okay to get stuck. Coming back after a day of rest can be helpful. Practice writing out things like I, my, your emotions, your descriptive words. Make it personal. But also remember, like I said, this is a marathon. It’s not a sprint. Conserve your energy and make sure you’re taking care of yourself as well.

And when you’ve crossed that finish line, when you’re done, when you- you’ve finished your essay, be completely [00:39:00] done. You’ve finished. No more. Try, try, try your hardest not to nitpick and revisit your writing repeatedly. I know this was something I struggled with when I was doing the process. It’s only one of the many elements in your application.

We’ll be taking everything into consideration, and so it’s okay if you end up at that final moment submitting what you have Still do the best that you can, but remember, you are going to be the most important part of this entire process, of the essay, but also of the application, and you need to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself.

That’s my only non-negotiable. If you have two takeaways from this entire process or entire webinar, number one, be the main character of your own essay. It’s the key to a good essay. And number two, take care of yourself. This is a long process, and it’s going to be tiring, but we want to watch you [00:40:00] succeed, and we want to watch you run through the finish line.

And with that, that’s everything I have

Lydia: Awesome. So that concludes the presentation portion of our webinar. Now we’re gonna transition into the Q&A. Hope you found that information helpful. So as we move into the Q&A, I encourage you to continue submitting questions in the Q&A tab. We’re gonna try and get to as many as we can.

I saw some of you asking about recordings and how to access this information after the session. This session is being recorded, so if you go to the CollegeAdvisor website, you will be able to find this recording again, um, here later. Uh, additionally, you can download the slides that were used for tonight’s presentation in the handouts and download those for your reference as well.

So without further ado, we’re gonna go ahead and transition into the questions. Again, you can feel free to continue submitting them. As of right now, I think we might be able to get through all of the ones that have been submitted in some form or [00:41:00] fashion, um, and we’ll continue to try and make that the, the goal.

Um, so I know, Samuel, you said that there isn’t such… there’s no such thing as a bad topic for a personal statement. Do you have examples of some good topics for personal statements? I see some students asking that

Samuel: Because it’s so personal, it’s hard to come up with an individually good topic. I also, I want to edit my statement a little bit on there’s no such thing as a bad topic.

Your essay is not your diary, and people will read these. So don’t write about something that you’re not comfortable having someone read. Yeah. Now, has that made for some very interesting essay topics? Potentially, but that doesn’t always mean it’s gonna be a good type of interesting. With the idea, though, of a good, of an interesting essay topic or a good essay topic, I always ask a student, “What excites you?”

You know, “What is the f- your favorite part about your life?” Start there. [00:42:00] I have had some amazing essays about sports, but I’ve also had, like, one of my favorite essays ever was genuinely about a butterfly landing on someone’s nose. That small of a moment. So is this sort of a roundabout answer and definitely not actually answering the question?

Maybe. But what I would say is that it’s easier to focus on smaller things than trying to make something massive fit into the 650-word limit. Really dive into those individual experiences instead of trying to fit an entire life’s narrative into that little, uh, short amount of work. Again, I’m sorry, that’s probably not the answer you were hoping for, because one topic that you…

Everyone is gonna be different, and no one has the same topics that they can write about.

Lydia: Yeah. I, I think what you said about, like, picking something that really fascinates you is great. I think any topic that somebody who knows you would say, “Yeah, that’s exactly how I imagine you. That’s exactly how I understand [00:43:00] you to be,” I think that is a great topic, right?

So if there’s a specific story or a specific focus area that, like, everybody who knows you knows, like, you’re the one who’s really into that thing, or you are the guy who’s always gonna stand up for someone, and you have a story about how you stood up for something that you believed in. Like, I think that those topics that just really capture the essence of who you are in some form or fashion are gonna be the strongest ones.

If you’re trying to pick a topic because you think it’s trendy, you’re picking a topic because you think that’s what they want to hear, usually that’s not gonna land so well because you’re not showing the truest form of who you are. And when you’re getting to the most authentic version of yourself, it’s going to, by default, be something that is not easily replicated or not super overlapping, um, with the other topics that some students…

Um, another question that we have is about hooks and making s- essays stand [00:44:00] out. How important is that opening line, that opening sentence? And are there, like, certain things or strategies that students can use to make their opening statement of their essay stand out?

Samuel: I have definitely heard some people say you don’t need a hook.

This isn’t a YouTube video where you only have like, five seconds to capture your audience. We have to read the full essay.

Lydia: Um- Captive audience.

Samuel: Uh, and so I focus more on having a good story and an interesting narrative than an interesting beginning. I’ve read some essays that start off really strong and absolutely tank by the end of it.

And so I’m not as worried about hooks, um, because if you’re telling a good story, the story will be what I remember, not how you got my attention in the first place. To be completely honest, by the time I’m at the end of your essay, if it’s not something that has got my [00:45:00] attention in the story that you’re telling, if I’m on the last paragraph, I don’t remember what you said in the first paragraph, I’m sorry.

Um, at, you know, at the end of the day, the, again, bit of a joke, um, but, you know, the… We have to read these, so trying to capture our attention like a YouTube video or another type of hook isn’t necessarily something you have to worry too much about. Um-

Lydia: Yeah …

Samuel: tell a good story and the rest will follow.

Lydia: Yeah. I, I can, I, I think for opening sentences, like, yeah, don’t get too hung up on it.

I’ve read some amazing essays that I really could not tell you how they started, but just the overall story and the way that they let things unfold was really interesting to me. Like, if you think about your favorite book, like, there are a handful of books that the opening sentence was just, like, so iconic that people remember it.

But for the most part, you like the book because you like the book, not because the opening [00:46:00] sentence was amazing, right? Um, so don’t worry about it too much. It, it’s, it’s not, it’s not the end of the world. Um, another question that we have, and this is more about, like, the role that essays play in decision-making, which is if someone has mediocre grades, like, and not fantastic, not terrible grades, can their essay save them?

Can they still get into a selective college even with that?

Samuel: So every school is gonna be different. That being said, you… I always think of the, you know, having been on the other side of things, your AOs want you to succeed, and grades that are not the strongest at a highly selective school make me worry that you’re going to struggle in the classroom

When I’m on the fence, an essay can definitely help sway into the yes category. But if I don’t think that you’re going [00:47:00] to be able to have a rewarding experience in the classrooms that you’re gonna be stepping into, I’m not going to be likely to be swayed just by the essay because I want to see you succeed.

You know, at the end of the day, that’s the entire p- you know, purpose of this, is to showcase how you’re going to do well, through the grades, through the writing, you know, through all of these different components. I don’t wanna set you up for failure, so can you save yourself? Depends on the grades that we’re talking about.

You know, if you’re straight Cs and Ds, I’m probably not going to be super convinced, just because I don’t want you to come to college and spend a lot of money on tuition and not pass your classes. But, you know, if we’re talking about being on the cusp of, you know, eh, this is a strong student. Could, it could go either way, and it’s a great essay, it could definitely go closer to the yes bin for me

Lydia: Yeah.

[00:48:00] Um, another question that we have is about whether the essay should focus on activities that are really important to you or have shown really high impact, or should you talk about something that’s maybe unrelated or not as highly touched on in other parts of your application, like your culture, for example?

Samuel: I have an infuriating answer for you. Yes. The reality is, is that, you know, I have read some amazing essays. Uh, yeah, I worked at an engineering school. I have read some amazing essays that dive into engineering topics and how they’ve done robotics. I’ve also read some amazing applications that had nothing to do with engineering, but were still engineering-oriented, and the essays had like…

They were like singing and dancing. It was like High School Musical, which probably doesn’t mean anything to this audience, and that makes me kind of sad. Um, but the reality is, is that if you can write 600 words on a topic that excites you, go for [00:49:00] it. That could be the activity that you really want to highlight.

But remember, we have your activity list. But if your culture is something that is really important to you and you feel like your application would be incomplete without, go for it. I tend to lean away from telling students do one or the other, and simply ask students what do they, what are they excited to write about?

Because at the end of the day, this is going to be something that you’re going to have to actually produce. If you get stuck trying to write about one, try the other. Um, but there’s nothing inherently better about writing about culture or writing about activities or writing about a recipe. Um, you know, one of the coolest wr- essays a student talked to me about writing was about lemon chicken and what it meant to them.

You know, everything can be done, uh, well. The question is, are you going to do it well?

Lydia: Yeah. I, I definitely agree. I, I think it’s, it’s all about thinking about, th- this kind of relates to some other topics that we’ve done in [00:50:00] other sessions about, like, identifying your brand as an applicant, right? So think about if you had to just sum up who you were in, like, 10 words or, or less, who are you?

What kind of person are you? What kind of student are you? Sometimes there’s gonna be a really great story from your culture or your personal life that captures that. Sometimes it’s gonna be a story from your extracurriculars. But also, like, and this kind of relates to another s- question that I saw another student ask about whether or not their personal statement should talk about the major that they’re interested in, and I think that’s kind of a similar question.

There are some students that do use their personal statement to, in some capacity, talk about, you know, their major that they want to pursue or why they want to do pre-med or something like that. But also keep in mind, s- if you’re gonna talk about a specific extracurricular or talk about, um, the major that you’re interested in, some schools do also have the supplemental essay where you get to go deeper into that.

So if you’re going to talk about those things, that’s [00:51:00] fine, but you want to make sure that every part of your application is kind of highlighting a different piece. So it… that’s why it’s great to kind of create your college list now, look at the questions that each of those colleges ask, and make sure that whatever you’re talking about in your personal statement doesn’t too heavily overlap with some of the things that you’re gonna talk about in other parts of your application.

Uh, I saw someone ask what AO stands for. That’s admission-

Samuel: Admissions officer. Sorry. Um, building off of that, I would say, A, yes to everything, um, what, that Lydia just said, but I would also add that remember this is not trying to convince me. This is trying to showcase yourself and let that speak for itself.

So if you’re writing about your major and the relationship that you have with it, go for it. But you are not going to have a compelling Common App essay if you spend 650 words trying to say, “Well, this is why I should do engineering,” because that’s not really the [00:52:00] genre that we’re, that you’re writing in.

You’re not arguing something or persuading something. You’re simply showing yourself, um, showcasing yourself. That’s, you know, giving you ch- giving yourself a chance to give an insight to who you are.

Lydia: So we’re gonna take just a brief pause to tell you a little bit about CollegeAdvisor and some of our success stories. So the first one is DJ, who grew up wanting to be a physician. He was active in relevant extracurriculars and sought out challenging coursework. And as a scientist, writing narratively was just a challenge, so this college essay style just didn’t come naturally to him.

He signed up to work with CollegeAdvisor and was accepted by five colleges, including Johns Hopkins, where he received an institutional scholarship of around $61,000 a year. And then we have another student named Abby, who reached out because she was an aspiring first-generation college student. Her immigrant parents had no experience applying to US colleges, and she wasn’t receiving much support from her teachers or school [00:53:00] counselors, so she felt alone in the process.

She was thinking ahead and connected with CollegeAdvisor as a sophomore. She ended up applying early decision to Cornell, where she was accepted and received full financial aid. These are just two examples of the 10,000-plus clients that CollegeAdvisor has guided through the application process. Our team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts is ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process in one-on-one advising sessions and essay editing.

To learn more about how you can get started with CollegeAdvisor, scan the QR code to sign up for a free 60-minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team. During this meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with the initial– some initial recommendations on what you can do to stand out.

At the end, you’ll also learn more about the premium packages we offer that pair you with an expert who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays, and much more. We’re here for the whole. [00:54:00] Here’s that QR code. Okay. So, um, another question that we have is about whether it’s a good idea to draft a response to all of the Common App prompts and then just choose the personal best choice, or should you choose a prompt first and then start drafting?

Samuel: If you wanna put yourself through drafting six of these or seven of these essays, not gonna stop you. Um, but, you know, I often recommend to students try and come up with a takeaway for each of the prompts and come up with, you know, what takeaway are you most excited about? Which do you think fits each question the best?

If you want to outline one or two or three, or for one of my really excited, really, really eager students, closer to five, um, you’re welcome to do that, but we wanna maintain the– we wanna be careful of your energy as well. So I personally recommend looking at the questions [00:55:00] list and seeing which ones resonate with you more than trying to fit yourself into every box that the questions offer.

Um, you may find that one is a little bit easier to do, and that’s typically an easier– that typ- typically is a sign that that’s a better prompt for you

Lydia: Yes. Um, another question that we had was about how many people should review your essay. Any guidance on how many people we should ask to look over the essay?

Samuel: I have been thinking about this question since I saw it in the chat. Um I would recommend, you know, don’t overdo it. Two to three is typically my sweet spot, maybe four.

Um, but at a certain point you do have too many cooks in the kitchen, and it starts to be more hindrance because everyone will have a different opinion. Um, uh, but at the end of the day, having too many people look at it can actually be more [00:56:00] harm than help. Um, for me, that was closer to, you know, three or four people.

I had, uh, my parents, I had a teacher, and I had some class… uh, uh, a classmate that knew me really well. Um, and from my experience, that kinda tends to be pretty similar. Um, but be careful not to overdo it. There, it definitely gets a point where you stop having, uh, the same amount of returns as you would, um, with a smaller number

Lydia: of people. Mm-hmm. So, um, another question that we have is about, I saw one student asking about if they should talk about having a disability, another student asking if they should talk about mental disorders. So is, is it good to talk about things that you struggle with? Is it good to talk about maybe a hardship or, um, maybe s- a, a situation that you weren’t super proud of?

What is the line to [00:57:00] show resilience?

Samuel: The line is different for every student, but I would say it’s different for how every student talks about it. Remember, at the end of the day, it is not the challenge that you went through, it is how you o- grew from it that will be interesting for your AO. Because we will read about co- ch- students going through these challenges constantly.

Um- Can you write about that and have a really good essay? Absolutely. Can you write about that and lose yourself in the topic that you’re trying to write? Absolutely, and I see that more often than I see the standout essays. If it is something that y- has truly changed your outlook on life and has, is something that you can talk about now, that’s a sign that you might be able to write a really good essay on it.

But if I were to ask you how has this changed you, and you don’t know how to put that into words yet, that might be a sign that it [00:58:00] might not be the best topic to approach. Because remember that you’re going to have to not only identify how you’ve grown, but then put that into words. So, you know, it’s going to be a personal experience, and we can’t tell you one way or another, um, unless we’ve read the essay.

Great reason to join CollegeAdvisor. Um, but at the end of the day, it’s gonna be a personal decision on whether you choose to write about that. I did see someone ask, you know, what if this doesn’t land with an AO who is receptive to talking about mental health? I don’t know of anyone in the field like that.

I’m su- I’m sure they’re out there, but at the end of the day, we get into this field ’cause we wanna see students succeed. Um

When it comes to your reviewer, I recommend things like avoid humor, ’cause that’ll land differently with everyone. But a good story is pretty universal in my experience.

Lydia: Yeah. I think w- with, with talking about a disability or mental health and things [00:59:00] like that, it’s not that you can’t talk about it, but make sure that you’re not digging a hole that you have to pull yourself out of in the sense of, like, you talk so much about how it’s negatively affected you or it’s been a really big struggle for you, that you have to over-explain yourself for the remainder of the essay just to convince someone that it’s not gonna be something that’ll make it hard for you to succeed.

Like, that’s what I think what Samuel has been really driving home throughout this, is that your essay should give them confidence that if we admit you, you’re going to be able to do well. No one wants to set you up to fail. So just make sure that you’re not portraying yourself in that way. And also, yes, resilience is a good thing to highlight in your essay, but I think sometimes students interpret that as like you need to come ready with a sob story, you need to come ready with, like, all the things that have gone wrong in your life, and that’s really not true.

Like, you, you don’t have to share all the, all the negative things in your life to have an essay that’s really compelling. The last question that I have for you, Samuel, is are there [01:00:00] gimmicks that students should avoid? Like, I saw some students talking about, “Oh, I’m thinking about doing, like, an ingredient list,” or, “I’m thinking about writing a poem for my essay.”

Is that a good idea? Is that a bad idea? Can it help to stand out, or is it too big of a risk?

Samuel: Ca- I’ll start with can it help to stand out, uh, because that’s a little easier to answer. Will you stand out? Yes. Will you stand out in the way you’re hoping? Maybe not. The ingredient list one could be really, you know, that…

I saw that question, I was like, ooh, if you do that well, that would be really interesting. But remember that it’s not about the ingredient list, it’s about how you relate to those ingredients. Um, you know, it- I tend to recommend avoiding gimmicks, um, mostly because I had one that was, like, 10 pages of poetry that still fit under the word count, but never again, uh, please.

Um, [01:01:00] that, you know, at the end of the day, don’t rely on something flashy that is outside of who you are to get our attention. I don’t know how many times I’ve said, I’m sure somebody is counting or in the re- in the replay we can count how many times I’ve said, “Listen, it’s just about you.” Um, but it, it truly is your story, and if your story happens to fit into an ingredient list, fantastic.

If you want to write an epic poem about your experience and you can do it well, good luck. Um, but at the end of the day, this is just another story that you’re trying to tell, and we want to see you do it well. That’s part of why we do these webinars. Um, sometimes the best stories speak for themselves, though.

Um- And I think that sort of is where I would end on that one.

Lydia: Yeah. I, I would say don’t, don’t do something that you don’t normally do. So if you are not a [01:02:00] poet, you don’t enjoy writing poetry on a regular basis, and this is the first time that you really sat down to write a poem outside of English class, this is probably not the time to, to, to do that, you know, when applying to college.

And for an ingredient list, make sure it feels natural. Like, maybe your essay is about baking, and that’s why you’re incorporating it, but don’t just start the essay with, you know, “Sugar, spice and everything nice. That’s how you bake a cake. If you were baking me.” Like that, something like that is just gonna feel a little bit cliche, um, even though you are trying to do something that’s unexpected.

So yeah, usually just sticking with, with the status quo structure is gonna get you farther, because it’s gonna be the most natural way that you normally communicate, which allows you to more effectively express who you actually are. Mm-hmm. Okay. Any final advice for our audience before we conclude, Samuel?

Samuel: I think I’m gonna go [01:03:00] back to how I ended it. Write about yourself, and take care of yourself. This is such a long process, and the application can really feel like a marathon. Be kind to yourself. And join CollegeAdvisor. You’ve got some great advice on there. Yes.

Lydia: Yes, definitely. So if you didn’t get a chance to scan that QR code, feel free to just hang on.

Once this webinar ends, it should take you to that scheduling link on our website. But thank you so much, Samuel, for another exceptional presentation. I know we all learned a lot. We had so many questions in the chat, so thank you for being such an engaged audience. I hope that all of you have a wonderful night, and thank you for joining us.

Bye.