It's the time of year when we are looking at piles of application essay drafts by our students and offering our perspective and guidance. While this important piece of the college application is on our mind, we thought we'd offer some key pointers for making the most of it. The ten points below reflect the concepts that most frequently arise in our conversations, and we have linked to good examples of what we mean from some outside expert voices, including the Essay Hell blog by writer Janine Robinson, and the writing of two guys we have brought to CA to speak with seniors: College Essay Guy Ethan Sawyer, and Harry Bauld, teacher at Horace Mann in New York and author of the classic book on application essays.

In our experience, and from feedback from our college admission counterparts, an effective 650-words-or-less personal essay:
1. Answers an identifiable prompt but ultimately is about the student and what is important to him or her: their story. Here are the five prompts on the Common Application, with some outstanding advice about tackling each topic.
2. Is not an academic essay-- forget the 5-paragraph model of introduction, 3 points, and conclusion. Jump into a real-life story to hook the reader! Find a problem or conflict to bring a narrative arc to your writing... this brings it to life and keeps your audience engaged from beginning to end. Listen to The Moth podcast for storytelling inspiration, and This I Believe to read examples of short essays that make a point with specific examples (anecdotes.)
3. Uses anecdote to SHOW instead of explaining, with just the right balance of telling to tie the essay together.
4. Uses real life, every day language of a 17-year old. It doesn't try to impress an imagined audience. Beware "English-ese:" confusing, stilted, knotty, passive-voiced overly formal construction. Also, it is honest and true to the writer... if you are making stuff up, you're headed the wrong way...
5. Is not a resume recap or a professional cover letter. (An example of English-ese is in the link, too.)
6. Reflects what's important to you: your core values.
7. Is often best thought of as a film. As you write it you are editing: cutting and splicing scenes and providing just the right amount of voice-over.
8. Is careful of the cliches that the form can easily lead to... but throws out the rules if it has something good to say...
9. Discovers something as it unfolds... and the writer should discover something and the essay itself in the process of drafting and re-drafting! In other words, let the subject find you...
10. May make parents nervous... but we are here to help with the perspective of college admission readers!