What Admissions Officers Look For in College Essays

When students ask me for college admissions essay tips, what they’re actually asking is: what do colleges really care about? What are they looking for in my essay?

And the answer, in a word, is passion. Colleges want to see that you’re passionate. That you actually care about something, anything. It doesn’t matter what. That you’re a specialist. Because it is a myth that colleges are looking for the most well-rounded students who’ve done a little bit of everything and checked all the boxes. What they’re really looking for is the most well-rounded student body.

They want to put together the most passionate students and have them meet, cross-pollinate, and become greater than the sum of their parts. So when you’re thinking about your extracurricular activities, think about the depth of your passions rather than the breadth of all the boxes you can check.

Colleges are looking for intellectual curiosity. They want to know that when you get into something, do you really explore it? Did you do a research project? Did you do a summer camp on it? Did you read some books or watch some documentaries or some TED Talks? They want to know that you are confident about these things.

So speak confidently in your essay. Show them that when you get to college and things are tough, you don’t just buckle, you don’t just give up. That you work hard and you overcome. And that you can, and you will, achieve.

And if you have some leadership along the way, it’s certainly great to highlight that. But ultimately, what colleges are looking for in your application essay is you. They want to get to meet the you who you are, the you who they’re going to get if they accept you and you decide to enroll and become a part of their student body.

Are you going to be a good egg who’s going to help make the community better, possibly through service? Are you going to work well with others and get along well with your fellow classmates? What do you bring to the table?

And so this is why I encourage students to write a story in their essay that highlights four key qualities about them, which are: motivation, determination, perseverance, and achievement.

Motivation means that you were internally motivated to do a thing. The motivation came from you. Not just you put your name on the list when it came around the classroom, not that your parents made you do it, not that you did it because you thought it would look good to colleges, but that you actually cared.

Determination means maybe it wasn’t going to be easy, maybe it was going to take time, but you were determined to see it through.

Perseverance means at some point things got tough, but you didn’t let it deter you. You persevered through it.

Achievement, actually the misnomer on the list, doesn’t actually mean that you necessarily achieved what you set out to achieve. Certainly, if you did, you can write about that. But there is achievement in failure as well. If you learn from the experience, if you learned what to do or what not to do, if you learned what you want to major in or what you don’t want to major in. If you became better through this experience, that can be an achievement. And the students who recognize achievement when they see it are the kinds of students who succeed in college.

So think about all of these things when you write your application essay. See how many of these boxes you can check.

And if you’re looking for more college admissions essay tips, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at 732-556-8220. We are here to help.