Successful essays, while addressing completely disparate subjects, share many common characteristics - this is what we found after analyzing the large number of essays widely available online from applicants who were admitted to many of the highly selective colleges.

There is no such thing as one essay type working for one college and a different essay type working for another one. While many of the essays available to read online tell you which college the applicant was admitted to, the essay’s successful characteristics apply across the board to all the colleges. The reasons why an applicant was admitted to that one college are complex, and the essay was only one of the inputs into the decision.

Here is what we found to be the most important characteristics of a successful essay:

Provides insight into a different aspect about you consistent with the rest of your application

While there are few constraints on what you can write about in your essay, so long as it responds to one of the 7 prompts in the Common Application, an essay with a theme that fits in with the rest of your application will be more powerful and effective than one that is random. Write about something that has not been mentioned elsewhere in your application that adds perspective on who you are.

Read Top Colleges Want a Great Essay, Period!

Your activities and achievements reveal a lot about your qualities and who you are as a person. Your essay should reinforce these qualities and expand the college’s perspective of who you are.

For example, if the common thread through all your activities and achievements demonstrate that you are a highly driven self-learner, who takes the initiative to acquire knowledge and skills that enable you to pursue an activity with passion. Your essay could elaborate on this theme, and address how or why you came to be this way and give anecdotes and experiences that reinforce your qualities of entrepreneurial spirit, passion and drive. Your essay, however, should not repeat information that is available elsewhere in the application.

Make the essay highly personal and all about you

The application already contains information about your activities and achievements, but it does not have any personal anecdotes about yourself. The essay is the best place to deliver the additional insight about you that the college wants to know.

The college is interested in the impact of your experiences in shaping the person that you are. They are not interested in the mechanics of your experience, so you do not need to give a blow by blow account of it. All you need is to describe enough of the experience to create context, and the rest of the essay should be about how you responded to the experience and its impact on you.

According to a Harvard reader “Average essays ruin top applications, strong essays boost average applications.”

Authentic not formulaic

An essay that demonstrates maturity, self-awareness and authenticity will be more compelling than one that is formulaic in drawing conclusions about lessons learned from past experiences. The colleges want applicants who will enrich the college environment through their curiosity and ability to drive new ideas, adapt outside of their comfort zones, and who value hard work and accountability.

The most effective way to transmit that you possess these qualities is by being as candid as possible with how your experiences have shaped you. There is no such thing as oversharing in a college essay, and relating highly personal experiences is acceptable. The essay is supposed to be about you, and no one else.

The colleges also want honesty. Do not write what you think the college wants to hear. Be authentic, creative, weird, awkward, geeky, funny! Be you!

If you decide to include a sporting experience to demonstrate resilience as part of your essay theme, you should avoid drawing straight lines between how a tough match helped build your resilience - that is cliched and a rather ordinary experience for anyone who is an athlete and will not say much about you as person. But, if you instead elaborated on how the dynamics of a complicated match you played raised your awareness of how important team co-operation and leadership is to winning, then you have revealed something about your ability to learn and adapt in a tough environment, qualities that colleges will view positively.

Pitzer College has some sage advice on this:

“Ask yourself: is this an essay anyone could write? If the answer is yes, you may want to reconsider.”

No experience is too trivial

From playing cards with your grandmother, to knitting a cap, to accompanying your parents to Costco every weekend, no experience is too trivial to write about in the essay. Colleges are looking for insights into who you are, and anecdotes about your life are a rich source of information about you.

There is no need to find the biggest experience in your life to demonstrate your qualities. Most frequently, your qualities show up in inconsequential incidents that highlight what your values are and what you stand for.

Here is some very wise advice from Pitzer College about the essay:

“There is a common misconception that you need to have lived a life worthy of the Hallmark Channel in order to write a slam dunk college essay. Not so! Memorable essays typically stand out either because they take a creative approach or because they contain compelling content.”

The essay must emphasize that you possess the qualities that the colleges want

There are certain qualities the colleges want in their applicants that cannot be compromised. The essay, no matter what subject or theme you choose, must clearly demonstrate that you possess these highly desired qualities that the colleges want.

Be clear about what you want to convey about yourself in the essay

This ties back to finding the common theme for your application and essay, using the essay as a method to convey an additional dimension about yourself. Whether you are someone who is ready to push boundaries, or someone who takes initiative to make a difference or someone who pursues excellence with a passion, the essay is where you can reinforce these qualities about yourself to the college.

Check out Where to read the best examples of essays that worked from admitted students?

Check out one of the best essay writing hacks HERE

Admitted students possess the qualities top colleges value!

Find out with examples what these qualities are to get you admitted to the Ivy League and top colleges.

Get the FREE Guide Now