Writing Your College Essay
Written by Jo Macaluso
There’s nothing more universally capable of bringing a grimace to the face of high school students than the blinking cursor at the top of a blank Word document, counting the wasted seconds before starting in on an essay. Writing is hard; it requires intentionality, clarity of thought, communication of ideas, and some skill of style. The start of any writing assignment proves a daunting endeavor, but none perhaps as much as a college admissions essay. After all, only your grades and teacher’s opinion ride on your class papers—that’s pretty low stakes compared to facing a future four-year, multi-thousand dollar destination. Rarely, if ever else in life, can 500 words drastically determine so much.
Your college essay must indicate your understanding of the prompt by clearly, creatively, and thoroughly addressing it in a grammatically and stylistically correct way, offering nuanced insight into the question at hand and about yourself. Tall order, but there are several steps you can take to ensure that you write a successful, memorable college essay.
First, rephrase the prompt in your own words. Make it clear to yourself what question you seek to answer. Consider all possibilities. If you’re struggling with this, perhaps dust that dictionary off your shelf (or whip out your phone) and clearly define any words that aren’t crystal clear in your mind. To accurately answer any question, you must first entirely understand what the question asks of you.
Second, write an outline. Figure out the process that works best for you—do you already know your conclusion and should thus work backwards? Would you prefer to let your thoughts flow through the introduction and gently suggest a main idea? Do you do your best thinking when you start with your thesis “in media res” and fill in the gaps once you determine your point? Regardless of what order works for you, taking time to organize your thoughts before you begin writing tends to yield an overall more organized end product and a more efficient process.
Third, just write—don’t worry about word count or editing as you go along–simply get all your thoughts out onto the page so that you have a complete essay to polish and improve later. From there, you can better discern what’s just ‘fluff’ and what’s essential.
Fourth, take a mental break from your writing, even over the course of a day or several, and return after the given lapse of time with the intention of finding creative ways to say more succinctly what you’ve already said. This is the first and most important part of editing: getting to the final words you intend to share.
Fifth, edit. In every sense—grammatically, syntactically, stylistically, vocally, and, ultimately, for clarity. Wait a few days, then edit again with fresh eyes.
Then, voila! You will find before you, after these five steps, a commendable college essay. Remember, you are writing to first, clearly answer the prompt at hand and, second, to convey yourself—your personality, thoughts, passions, and ideas—to the colleges considering you as a prospective student. Your college essay should introduce them to how you think (which is, after all, the primary function of writing: thinking publicly).
A few other general tips, especially for those of you who still have some years of high school ahead of you: practice writing well now by reading well. Reading good books—books universally upheld and renowned as classics—can help inform and shape your understanding of reality. You can also practice writing well now by, well, writing well now. Treat every assignment with the same fervor and view each as an opportunity to hone and tone your voice and thoughts. And, of course, practice editing. Training yourself to look for and see opportunities for betterment in other’s writing will only mean you do the same for your own. Become your own harshest critic and your biggest fan. Learn what you think by practicing how to think, then sit down and move that cursor along the page. It doesn’t have to be daunting—just begin.
Jo Macaluso is a Cincinnati native who graduated from Hillsdale College in 2021 with a B.A. in religion. She and her husband, Nick, (also a Hillsdale grad) currently live in Pensacola, FL, where Nick is training to be a Marine Aviator and Jo helps recruits the next class of Hillsdale students.
Published in October 2023