Pushing Past Writers Block: How to Start a College Essay
Starting a college essay is one of those tasks that can turn even a creative genius into a fish out of water. It’s not just another assignment, a short story written in the comfortable confines of your journal; it’s your one opportunity to show your dream school who you are in your own words. The essay is your chance to showcase your unique voice and perspective, your personality and passions, and prove that you belong at these institutions.
But how do you start your college essay? How do you compete with thousands or even hundreds of thousands of students for an admissions officer’s attention? What do you include, and what do you avoid? This blog post will answer these questions and more, covering everything from brainstorming and finding your unique angle, to crafting a compelling hook, to avoiding common mistakes. So let’s jump in!
Starting Your College Essay: What’s Your Story?
The most important thing to keep in mind when starting your college essays is to be authentic. Readers can tell when you are making things up, writing about something that isn’t important to you, or trying to write what you think they are looking for. So, rather than asking others what you should write about or copying examples online, look inwards.
To brainstorm, think about your personal experiences, passions, interests, and hobbies. Imagine you are trying to outline your autobiography – what would belong on that outline? Do you have any strong memories or stories coming to mind? Any challenges and stories of overcoming them? What sets you apart from the crowd? What could you offer to the college community that nobody else could? These answers will all be helpful for starting your college essays.
There are no right or wrong answers; just let the ideas flow freely. The most important part of this step is to write it down. Analog style – just a paper, a pen, and your thoughts. You can use mind maps, bullet points, or lists to organize your thoughts. Come up with things that genuinely matter to you, even if it’s a risk with admissions officers. Readers will resonate more strongly with honest depictions of your traits or experiences rather than a rewording of your resume.
How to Start Your College Essay Off Right
By the time your essay reaches their desk, chances are your reader has already read a ton of essays. Your first sentences set the tone for your entire essay, so don’t write a hook that tells the admissions officers “You can go back to sleep now.” Surprise them, describe a scene that forces them to use their imagination, make them stop and reflect for a moment. Show them that your essay is going to be different. Use your first sentence to build some tension.
If you are starting your college essay with a memory or experience, use the first few sentences to set the scene. This doesn’t mean you should start listing off the scene like you’re talking to a set designer. Think about the impression you have of your experience. Is the memory fuzzy or precise? What colors, smells, or sounds stick out to you? How has the experience changed you? What is the purpose of this story?
If you are starting your college essay about a hobby or passion, you might want to begin with an anecdote, a project you can’t stop working on, or a thought that you can’t get out of your head. The admissions officers won’t care about your passion for, say, creating pixel art in Minecraft, deep-sky astrophotography, or amateur forensic odontology if you don’t tell them why they should. So take a minute to think about why you care, and use that to craft your hook.
Beware: Common Mistakes To Avoid When Starting Your College Essay
So you have your idea, you have your hook, and now you’re off to the races. But before you get too far into starting your college essay, it’s a good idea to know the minefield you are getting into. This is well-trodden territory, many millions of people have completed college essays in the last few years alone, so it would be smart to learn from their mistakes. Here are some common ones and tips on how to avoid them:
Lack of Focus
You may be starting your college essay with a lot of ideas, or no single one that you think is ‘good enough’. So you decide to combine them all into one essay. Many students try to cover too many topics or ideas in their essay, making it difficult for the reader to understand their main point. To avoid this mistake, choose one specific topic and stick to it throughout the essay. Have someone proofread your work, and if they think you’ve gone on a tangent then cut it.
Clichés and Overused Topics or Phrases
It can be very difficult to find ideas when starting your college essays, but there are some that you want to, at best, tread lightly with and, at worst, avoid entirely. Unless you have a truly unique achievement or story, sports would fall into this category. Almost every athlete tries to write this essay, so use your essay to show you have more to offer the university than just your athletic prowess.
The same goes for international community service trips. Feel free to write about your personal stories, how you navigated through cultural differences, etc. But if you write about how you learned about privilege, learned to appreciate living in a rich country, or anything of the sort you risk coming across as unempathetic, clueless, or condescending. If you want to write about this sort of topic, have a trusted adult read it and be willing to listen to their feedback.
Writing Errors
Failure to proofread can detract from the quality of your essay and make it appear unprofessional – not exactly the first impression you want to make. This could include weird spacing or wording, poor punctuation, grammatical or spelling errors, going over the word limit, or repeating the same thing over and over again. To avoid these mistakes, proofread your essay multiple times and consider having someone else review it as well.
Lack of Personality and Voice
A college essay is an opportunity to showcase your personality and voice, but many students write in a formal, impersonal tone. Remember, this is not your standard “should we have school uniforms” AP English Language essay – you actually want to use your personality, sense of humor, or personal details in this writing. To avoid this mistake, try writing in a journal before starting your college essay to switch out of the typical ‘essay mode,’ and use specific examples and anecdotes to showcase your personality.
Starting a college essay can seem daunting, but with the right approach, you can produce a strong and compelling essay that showcases the unique strengths you could bring to these institutions. By brainstorming ideas, crafting a compelling hook, focusing your essay on one topic that isn’t overused or tone-deaf, and proofreading your work, you can create an essay that stands out and impresses college admissions officers.
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