College Essay Writing 101

A Preparation Course for

Writing Your College Essays
Welcome to College Essay Writing 101!

Hi, and welcome to the beginning of your college application journey!

Right about now, you’re probably wondering why you’re reading any of this. Good question.

The purpose of College Essay Writing 101 is to fill you in on all the most important things you
need to know in order to write high-quality personal essays. This course will not turn you into
Shakespeare, nor does it wish to. Rather, it’s designed to teach you six crucial tenets of
personal writing and to help you learn to apply those tenets right here, right now, before you
write your essays.

Let’s start with the basics.

What are application essays?

Admissions Officers use both quantitative and qualitative measures to judge your college
applications.
The Quantitative aspects of your application include grades, test scores, and your résumé
(quality and number of activities is often quantified by AOs).

The Qualitative aspects of your application include your letters of recommendation, your
interview, and, most importantly, your essays.

Essays bring your application to life.

● Admissions Officers want to know what kind of person you’ll be on their campus,
beyond your scores and academics, and essays are their best shot at getting to
know you.
● As a result, essays make up somewhere between 10 and 30% of your admissions
decision—a significant portion that you have control over! That’s why we’ll spend so
much of our time on them.

So what’s the point of this course?

Ultimately, you will be paired with one of our highly accomplished Application Mentors who
will be your go-to person on all matters concerning the Common App essay, supplementary
essays, and college interviews.

In the meantime, you’ll complete College Essay Writing 101 on your own, and then get
feedback on your work from your Strategist. College Essay Writing 101 will provide an
excellent introduction into the world of crafting your personal narrative. This course includes
6 essential writing lessons that cover:

1. Tense
2. Cliché
3. Internals vs. Externals + Words = Importance
4. The 5 W’s
5. Dialogue
6. Humility

If you read that list and thought to yourself “I know what those are and this seems pointless,”
trust us: these lessons will be valuable for you, because they’re entirely focused on explaining
the concepts above in the context of writing college essays. Unless you’ve applied to college
successfully in the past (in which case, why are you reading this??), there will be lots to gain
from this curriculum.

At the end of each section you will encounter a prompt labeled Now You Try!. Choosing what
you want to write about can be a daunting task, but as you answer the prompts, ideas will
arise that you had not thought of before, or thoughts you previously dismissed will become
essential to telling your story. As explained above, application essays are meant to be personal
and reflective. Approach these exercises thoughtfully, and use them as a jumping off point for
brainstorming your actual college essays later!

Take each lesson one at a time—don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do too many at once.
At the same time, don’t stress too much over any single lesson. It is in the aggregate that
these lessons will help you improve yourself as a personal essayist.

Your Schedule

Your Strategist will introduce you to College Essay Writing 101 during the same session you’re
sent your Student Handbook and timeline, after which you will be assigned this workbook!

If you haven’t already made a copy of this doc (so that you can complete the exercises!)
and shared it with your Strategist, please do so now!

Complete the workbook on your own during the next month, and review your work with your
Strategist during the next session you have together.
Lesson 1: Tense

What are tenses?

Tenses help your reader navigate the passage of time in your essay. One of the most common
mistakes college essay writers make is choosing the wrong tense when telling their story. This
can interrupt the flow of the essay and distract the reader from the main point you’re trying
to make.

Past tense can help your reader understand the specifics of an anecdote; present tense allows
you to explore your current thinking and reflections; and future tense helps you describe
what you’d like to achieve going forward. These three tenses will establish you as the person
you are today, the journey you took to become this person, and where you see yourself going
in the future.

Don’t make the common mistake of writing your essays all in the present tense. Some
students think that makes it sound more “active,” but in reality it limits you because it makes
describing your reflections and the lessons you’ve learned much more difficult!

Example
Read the example below and identify where the tenses change and mark them with a
comment (highlight the text, click “Insert” on the toolbar above, and click “Comment”). Think
about how the tense changes inform the reader’s understanding of the writer’s journey.

Although I doubt anyone noticed at the time, my worries as a child consumed me. However, as I
got older, I was able to harness these feelings and externalize them, using painting to express
both my nightmares and my dreams.

Now, I use my artistic abilities to show my own experience, which I hope will resonate with those
who view my work. I am excited by the prospect of sharing my passion for painting with others at
the University of Colorado, honing my skills and inspiring others while being inspired.

Now You Try!

Write 4-5 sentences about the scariest experience you’ve ever had. Describe experience in the
past, explain your current reflections and its impact on you, and imagine how you’ll apply the
lessons you learned into the future.
Lesson 2: Clichés

A cliché is a phrase that is overused to describe a certain feeling or experience. The problem
with clichés is that they don’t tell the reader anything about the writer or the writer’s specific
experience. Instead, they generalize, which is exactly the opposite of what you want to do
when writing college essays.

Take, for instance, the phrase, “You can’t judge a book by its cover”. We know what this cliché
means, but to use it in your essay doesn’t tell us anything about your particular experience.
How can we replace it with something more specific but similarly as concise?

Avoiding Cliché: Example 1

Here’s what a sentence that uses the cliché would look like; our author is writing about a
friend of hers named Nick. To be clear, this is what not to do.

One night, I learned Nick wasn’t the guy I thought he was. At first I’d thought that he was a
partier, but you really can't judge a book by its cover.

So how do we fix this?

First, look at what the cliché is attempting to describe.

The meaning behind “You can’t judge a book by its cover” is that the external appearance of a
person or an object is not representative of who or what they are on the inside.

How do you make that experience your own, reflective of your specific experience?
One way to do this is to focus on the subject you are attempting to describe and come up
with a couple details around the experience. Your goal is to write a personal sentence
that pushes the reader towards the conclusion you want them to take away, not
because you told them to with the cliché, but because you showed them through
describing your experience. Let’s try out this method with “You can’t judge a book by its
cover” for the fictional character named “Nick” that we’ve created:

Outside: Inside:
+ dyed blond hair + nervous
+ gets lots of attention + anxious
 + smiles a lot + sad
+ seems to always enjoy himself + unable to tell others how he’s really feeling

Finally, let’s write an example excerpt based on what we know about our character:

There’s not one person who wouldn’t have called Nick the life of the party that night. but the
moment we arrived back at our dorm, his easy laugh fell silent and his bright smile seemed to
wilt as though he’d seen a ghost. He was nothing of the person I thought I’d known.

Note the key differences between this one and the one above: we get relevant details that set
up the takeaway, and then we get the takeaway itself but without using the clichéd
language.

Avoiding Cliché: Example 2

This time, we’ll use the cliché of “living in the moment” and “go with the flow.”

Here’s what a sentence that uses the cliché would look like; our author is a music performer
who has struggled with overthinking and anxiety in the past. This is what not to do.

Before when I got up on stage to play a piece, I would get so nervous about what the judges
might say and about how other kids performed that I would play badly. Now, I’ve learned to live
in the moment, go with the flow, and enjoy the ride. As a result, I play better when I perform and
enjoy my experience a lot more.

The number of clichés in that second to last sentence is painful. So how do we fix this?

First, look at what the cliché is attempting to describe.

Thinking that you should “live in the moment” or “go with the flow” actually means that you’re
trying to be present in your experience. Rather than wishing you were elsewhere or living inside
your mind or worrying about what might or might not happen, you enjoy what is happening
right then and there.

Now, come up with a couple specific details from your experience...

Before my realization: After my realization:

+ couldn’t enjoy myself when performing + I play because I love music, and I try
music because I was so anxious about my to ignore the rest of it!
result + I no longer focus so much on how
 + performed worse because there was no nervous I am or how much I want to
joy in it, only anxiety win

Finally, let’s write an example excerpt based on the details above:

Only a year ago, I was on stage in front of 200 enthusiastic fans of classical music—and a panel
of three judges whose mere presence made me freeze in my tracks and play without feeling.
Now, I play for the love of music, and for those in the audience who are there to listen and enjoy.
My competition is my own anxiety rather than other musicians—and if I can overcome it and
perform with passion, I am victorious no matter what the judges say.

Once again, note the key differences between this one and the one above: we get relevant
details that set up the takeaway, and then we get the takeaway itself but without using the
clichéd language.

Now you try!

Pick a cliché (here’s a list if you need help thinking of one):

List some relevant details (perhaps using a before/after, an internal/external, or some other
contrast):

[[fill in here]] [[fill in here]]

+ +

Now, write 1-3 sentences that capture the details of your story and the takeaway of the cliché,
but without using the clichéd language:
Lesson 3: Internals vs. Externals

Personal essays need to be personal (it’s all in the name!). What does that mean? Well, for
one, it means you don’t spend the majority of the essay describing externals. Externals are
hard facts—what you did, and when and how you did it. Internals are the things you think
and feel.

Let’s say you competed in a Math Olympiad. Externals would include all the actions you took
to prepare (the hours of studying, the study groups, finding a tutor at school, etc.) and the
actual series of events at the competition (you answered one question right, then one wrong,
then one right, etc.).

All that stuff matters WAY LESS than the internals, which is how all those experiences made
you feel. Let’s say you dreaded doing the preparation work because you weren’t sure if
competing was worth it—that’s a description of a feeling you had. Then let’s say you got to
the competition and realized that the other students were stronger in math than you were,
yet instead of being discouraged, you were actually inspired by their boundless passion for
math, and you ended up being glad you competed despite not winning anything because it
made you love math in a way you never had before. All of that is internal—it describes
thoughts and feelings and reflections and insights, rather than just the facts of an experience.

Admissions Officers don’t care that much about the externals. The facts of the case aren’t
going to be that interesting to them, because they’ve pretty much heard it all. There aren’t
many experiences you could tell them about that would surprise them.

Admissions Officers are very interested in the internals, your thoughts and reflections about
an experience, because those are what make you unique. They want to see you be vulnerable,
to see you explore something challenging in yourself, to see you admit to making mistakes
and learning from them. They want to see personal growth and humility!

Now You Try!

Now, try identifying some externals and some internals from one of your own experiences.

Choose an experience that’s meaningful to you and describe it briefly (e.g. “the time I starred
in the school play” or “when I lead swim practice for two weeks”):
Now, identify the externals and the internals:

Externals Internals
Briefly describe what happened in Answer each question below to help identify the internals
chronological bullet points, starting from
before the experience began and ending at How did you feel before the experience? Be honest!
the end of the experience +
+
+ How did you feel after the experience?
+ +
+ +
+ How did this experience challenge you?
+
+
What did you learn from facing these challenges?
+
+
How has what you learned changed who you are now, or
changed your approach (to life, to work, to relationships, to
your own personal development, to learning, etc.)?
+
+

Lesson 3 Corollary: Words = Importance

Notice how we asked you to write a lot more in the internals box above than we did in the
externals box. That’s because internals are much more important in your personal statement.

The lesson here is simple: the number of words you spend on a subject corresponds directly
with how important your reader perceives that subject is to you. The more words you write
about something, the more important it seems. The fewer words you spend, the less
important it seems.

To take our example from above, if you spend 600 words writing about preparing for and
competing at a Math Olympiad, and only 50 words writing about what you learned after you
didn’t get first place, your reader will assume that you didn’t learn much, and that what really
matters to you was the competition itself. Thus, we have the corollary to lesson 3: spend your
words primarily on internals rather than externals. Try to keep externals to a minimum.

Summarizing these two rules and their takeaways:

A. Internals are more important than externals

B. The number of words spent on a topic = perceived importance of that topic
C. Thus, spend more words writing about internals than about externals in order to
make clear that internals are more important to you
Lesson 4: The 5 W’s

It can be tough to look at your story objectively and identify which externals—the basic facts
of what you did, and when and how you did it—need to be included. Part of ensuring that
most of your essay focuses on the internals is deciding which externals actually need to be
included in order for the reader to have a clear picture of the story you’re trying to tell.

As a starting point, you want to tell your reader who was involved in the experience, some
specifics on what happened, when it happened, where it happened, and a detail or two
explaining why it happened the way it did. In other words, the 5 W’s!

Example
We’ll start with how not to do this. We’ll use the example of a student with a passion for
soccer who grew up in Germany and later moved to the United States.

My first passion was writing. It felt like the only thing I enjoyed doing, and was important to me
because it helped me express myself.

Later on, soccer became the main thing I liked spending my time doing. They don’t play as much
soccer in the U.S., though, so I can’t play like I used to.

Above, you see the blandest possible re-telling of facts, with no specifics on who was involved,
no details on what happened, no clear delineation of time, no sense of location, and no
explanation for why events occurred as they did.

Now, read the adjusted version below. It’s longer because it includes the necessary
information! Details on ‘who’ was involved are in blue; specifics of ‘what’ happened are
underlined; ‘when’ things happened is in pink; ‘where’ they happened is in purple; and
explanations for ‘why’ they happened are highlighted. For the heck of it, we’ve also included a
couple reflective statements (internals), which are in red. We recommend reading through
one time for comprehension (ignore all the colors and markings!), and then reading through
again where you identify each part.

I began writing when I was in first grade. My family still lived in Germany at the time, and we
only spoke English at home, so I was often uncomfortable speaking no matter where I was. But
writing felt safe. My first story was about an alien from Mars who couldn’t communicate with
earthlings.

During primary school, I discovered soccer, quickly losing interest in writing stories. In retrospect,
 I wonder if it was easier for me to communicate wordlessly, using my body to show what I was
feeling as I ran across the soccer field, trying to keep the ball in my control.
The summer before I began 7th grade my family moved to Ohio for my father’s new job. It was
supposed to be an exciting time, but my new American school didn’t have a soccer team. Kids in
class found my accent amusing, and my parents couldn’t understand why I didn’t seem to make
any friends. Once again, it seemed I had nowhere I could comfortably communicate and just be
myself.

Let’s dissect that a little. Notice how the first sentence opens with an essential detail—that the
author was a writer, and when they became one. The second sentence contains a reflection
(the second half of the sentence) and an explanation for why that reflection would be true
(the first half of the sentence). Within that explanation are details about who was involved,
and where and when the experience occurred. The paragraph ends with another poignant
detail.

The second paragraph tells us another critical detail: that the author discovered soccer, which
explains why the author lost interest in writing. We also find out when that occurred, and are
given an interesting insight into the author’s present thinking on the subject.

In the final paragraph, we’re told when, where, and why the author moved. We’re told critical
details about their experience (no soccer team!), and the two groups of people (other kids
and the author’s own parents) who led the author to have a keen insight at the end.

Now you try!

Write about a time when you experienced change in your personal life. This can be an
internal or external change (or both!). Make sure to include details on ‘who’ was involved in
blue; specifics of ‘what’ happened, underlined; ‘when’ things happened in pink; ‘where’ they
happened in purple; and explanations for ‘why’ they happened, highlighted. Feel free to
throw some reflection in as well.

Write below.
Lesson 5: Dialogue

When writing about an important experience, one way to make it accessible and entertaining
is to use dialogue. Dialogue can also help give more insight into your internal world—it allows
you to frame scenes with other people’s words, and then to respond with your internal
monologue. However, there are some rules you should follow when using dialogue in your
writing.

+ Don’t use dialogue to explain something simple that can more efficiently be explained through
exposition. For example, don’t start your essay this way — The manager at McDonald’s turned to
me and said, “Would you like a job here, son?” and I said “Absolutely!” So began my employment
at McDonald’s. — because that’s a pointless use of dialogue. You could much more easily say it
this way — I began working at McDonald’s my Freshman year of high school. — and in doing so,
you communicate more information more efficiently.

+ Don’t use dialogue for the sake of it. Just because you CAN use dialogue doesn’t mean you
SHOULD. It’s not necessary to ever use dialogue; rather, it should be used when it helps you to
better define the externals and 5 W’s, or when it provides helpful contrast or validation of your
internals.

+ Use identifier “tags” (“he said,” “she said,” “my friend John shouted,” etc.). Remember: the reader
does not know the people in your story as well as you do.

+ Make sure your dialogue is connected to a larger scene. It does not work to have free-floating
dialogue when the reader is unaware of who’s speaking, where they are, and why they are there.

+ Make sure your dialogue sounds like a person is actually talking. If you are having trouble with this,
go to a coffee shop and listen to peoples’ conversations. You will notice that people don’t always
speak in full sentences, or say exactly what they mean. Most conversations are much less formal
than writing, so don’t sound too writerly if you want to use dialogue! For example, don’t do this:
Then Sarah turned to me and said, “The nature of our challenge is such that I cannot possibly
fathom how we’ll circumvent it.” Instead, try this: Sarah looked at me hopelessly. “I just don’t
know how we’re gonna get through this,” she said quietly.

Example

Read the example below and note how the dialogue is used to make the scene more
interesting and engaging, and to give the characters some dimension. Note how the author
incorporates the dialogue, keeping it to a minimum while focusing mostly on his own
internal monologue and narration.

“It’s easy,” the foreman said after showing me how to work the machine. “Just watch your fingers.”
 I looked in his eyes, trying to see if he was joking, but I couldn’t get a read on him. Bald, rosy
cheeked with harsh features and thick black eyebrows that hinted he’d seen easier days, I found
his entire demeanor a bit frightening.

I stared at the machine I had been assigned to, at the gears and switches that could compress
metal or maim my fingers. It was my first day at my summer job, working at a machine parts
manufacturer that my father had connections to. I was hired without an interview. I supposed I
could be fired just as easily.

I must have looked lost because the guy working at the machine next to mine walked over.

“I’m Colin,” he said jovially. He wore the same uniform as I did, but his sleeves and pant legs were
rolled up. Standing next to me I saw that he was almost 2 feet shorter than I was. The rest of his
skinny body was stained with grease.

I introduced myself without any of my credentials. For the summer I was a worker, not a student
interested in coding and robots.

“Good to meet you,” he said, sticking out his small dirty hand. I took it in mine and was surprised
by the strength of his grip.

“I’ve been working here for 15 years,” he said, answering a question I hadn’t asked.

Now you try!

Think about a time when you were challenged to learn a new skill or perform beyond your
abilities. Ideally, this would be a time when others were also present! Regardless, craft a scene
(which can be true or partially fictionalized) that incorporates dialogue similar to the example
above, helping to give the scene depth and dimension. Focus mostly on internal monologue
and narration, using dialogue selectively.

Write below.
Lesson 6: Humility

You’ve spent years working hard towards your goal of going to college. Maybe you’ve won
competitions, successfully represented your school on the debate team, been class president
two years in a row, or programmed a robot after inventing a new code that is now being used
by NASA. Or maybe you’ve accomplished a ton at home, helping to take care of your family
during difficult times. Perhaps you’ve raised money for your community, or volunteered
extensively. Or perhaps you’re one of the best students in your school.

Regardless of what you’ve accomplished, when it comes to writing your essays, you need to
show that you are a humble and likable person, rather than full of yourself or impressed by
your own accomplishments. There are other sections of your app that will objectively describe
your achievements (your transcript and extracurricular activities section!); your essays are an
opportunity to show how you’ve grown, what you’ve learned, and what you have left to learn.
That speaks volumes about what kind of person you are, much more than going on and on
about your accomplishment will!

Example
Let’s start with what not to do. In the bad example below, the author brags about their own
importance and the role they played in their debate team’s win.

After our team won the debate, I could hardly contain my excitement: through sheer will, I had
led our team to victory, overcoming the odds and our weaknesses relative to our competitors.

It hadn’t been easy. It was all I could do to get my teammates to show up for practice; doing the
scheduling myself and preparing the lessons late at night after finishing my homework had
almost pushed me over the brink. But I knew that our only chance was if I pushed the team
beyond their comfort zone, and inspired them to perform beyond what they’d achieved before.
The experience taught me always to trust my instincts, to believe in myself, and to lead from the
front.

This is terrible. And it’s terrible not because it’s badly written, or even because it’s boring. It’s
terrible because it’s one, long boast about the author’s own accomplishments as a leader and
hard-worker, without any perspective or humility or recognition that others played a role. The
‘lesson’ that the author says she learned is really just another boast: I was right, I was capable,
and I learned that I will always be right and always be capable. Good personal essays will not
sound anything like this.

Contrast that with the example below.

After our team won the debate, we went out for icecream. As the team’s leader, I wanted to say
something profound, something to sum up our shared experience, something to show that I was
still their leader and that I was proud of them.

But it was hard to put it all into words. I thought back to when my teammate Dave had
scheduled rehearsal and led it when I was sick. I remembered how Lily had shown up early
before every rehearsal and worked out our bus schedule in her free time. And I recalled how Jack
had put together a reel of great moments in debate history to inspire and educate us. They had
done that not because I’d asked, but for love of debate and love of our team

So I posed the question to the table: “Alright team: thinking back on this whole experience, what
was your highlight and your lowlight?” The group smiled at the question—they knew it was all I
could come up with. But as each teammate went around answering, I understood that this was
the only way to sum up the experience, because it belonged to all of us, not just to me.

In the example above you will see that although the narrator has made clear he is the leader
of his debate team, neither his actions or his telling of this accomplishment make him sound
overly proud or self-congratulatory. Instead, he shows the reader his internal thoughts, how
he struggled to figure out what to say, and how he recognized that this achievement was by
no means his own. This shows his humility, his thoughtfulness, his capacity to reflect—and it
makes clear that he truly is a good leader.

Now you try!

Think of a time when you were most proud of yourself—when you knew you had done an
excellent job at something or led yourself or a group of people to victory.

Write about this time in a way that acknowledges your accomplishment, but does not focus
on how pleased you are with yourself. Focus on your internals—your thoughts, feelings,
reflections, and lessons you learned. Don’t be afraid to mention the achievement, but don’t
focus on impressing the reader with it.

Write below.
Writing Your Essays

Congratulations! You have finished the exercises, and you are ready to start drafting your
Common App Essay topic proposals, and eventually the essays themselves! If any of the
prompts above have inspired you, you can expand your answers into a full essay.

There’s more to writing than just writing, however. Once you’ve finished a draft, it’s time to
edit and proofread—and the best way to proofread is to re-read your essay through each of
the lenses in this workbook.

Use the checklist below to help you edit your essay before you submit it to another reader,
like your App Mentor. Each box below corresponds with one read-through (we call it a
“Read”).

❏ Spell check
This is the most basic read. Use spell check on your computer and implement any
changes that need to be made. If you’re feeling fancy, try using Grammarly for an even
better spelling and grammar check!

❏ Tense Read
For this edit, you will read through your essay focusing solely on tense. Make sure you
review the tense lesson first.

❏ Cliche Read
Read your essay again focusing only on your descriptions. Ask yourself: have I heard this
before? Am I using certain phrases because they are familiar, or am I describing my
experience in my own way? Wherever you find a cliche, replace it with an original
observation.

❏ Internals vs Externals x 5 W’s Read

For this read, scan your essay to make sure you’ve spent the majority of your words
describing internals—how your experiences made you feel, your reflections, the lessons
you learned, etc. Also be sure that the externals you did include sum up the 5 W’s—who
is involved in the experience, the specifics of what happened, when it happened, where
it happened, and why it happened the way it did.

❏ Dialogue Read
When reading over your dialogue, make sure it sounds realistic, is necessary to tell your
story, and uses “tags” to identify who’s speaking.

❏ Read Aloud
Last, but definitely not least, read your work aloud, or have a friend read it to you. Listen
to how your sentences sound, and pay attention to how you have phrased them. Focus
on the length of your sentences, and see where you might combine ideas, cut them, or
expand them.