Crafting Your College Essay: A Comprehensive Guide Inspired by College Essay Guy

The college essay, often called the personal statement, is a crucial component of the college application process. It's your opportunity to showcase your personality, values, and writing skills to admissions officers. College Essay Guy (CEG) provides numerous resources and strategies to help students navigate this challenging task. This article synthesizes CEG's advice, incorporating insights from their podcasts, guides, and exercises, to offer a comprehensive guide to crafting a compelling college essay.

Introduction: The Purpose and Importance of Your College Essay

The college application is a recounting of things past-past grades, old classes, activities the student has participated in over several years. The essay is a chance for the student to share who they are now and what they will bring to campus communities.

Jennifer Blask, Executive Director for International Admissions at the University of Rochester, puts it beautifully: “So much of the college application is a recounting of things past-past grades, old classes, activities the student has participated in over several years. The essay is a chance for the student to share who they are now and what they will bring to our campus communities.”

College admission officers are looking for three takeaways in your college essay:

Who is this person?
Will this person contribute something of value to our campus?
Can this person write?

The importance of your essay depends on the selectivity of the colleges you're applying to and the strength of your academic profile. Essays carry more weight at highly selective institutions (acceptance rates below 15%) and when your academic record is not as strong as other applicants. They are also crucial for competitive programs or when applying out-of-state to public universities.

Tom Campbell, a former Assistant Dean of Admissions at Pomona, noted that around 80% of applicants were academically admissible. This highlights the importance of the essay in distinguishing yourself from other qualified candidates.

Choosing Your Topic: Uncommon Connections for a Stand-Out Essay

At the start of the essay process, I ask students two questions:

Have you faced significant challenges in your life?
Do you want to write about them?

Even if you’ve faced challenges, you do not have to write about them in your personal statement.

Many students believe they must write about challenges to stand out, but this isn't true. Incredible essays can be written without focusing on a central challenge. You do not have to write about trauma in your college essay to stand out.

Challenges exist on a spectrum. On the weaker end of the spectrum would be things like getting a bad grade or not making X sports team. On the strong end of the spectrum would be things like escaping war. Being extremely shy but being responsible for translating for your family might be around a 3 or 4 out of 10.

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It’s possible to use Narrative Structure to write about a challenge anywhere on the spectrum, but it’s much, much harder to write an outstanding essay about a weaker challenge.Sometimes students pick the hardest challenge they’ve been through and try to make it sound worse than it actually was. Beware of pushing yourself to write about a challenge merely because you think these types of essays are inherently “better.” Focusing myopically on one experience can sideline other brilliant and beautiful elements of your character.

Common personal statement topics include extracurricular activities (sports or musical instruments), service trips to foreign countries (aka the “mission trip” essay where the author realizes their privilege), sports injuries, family illnesses, deaths, divorce, the “meta” essay (e.g., “As I sit down to write my college essays, I think about…”), or someone who inspired you (common mistake: This usually ends up being more about them than you).

While I won’t say you should never write about these topics, if you do decide to write about one of these topics, the degree of difficulty goes way up. Essentially, you have to be one of the best “soccer” essays or “mission trip” essays among the hundreds the admission officer has likely read (and depending on the school, maybe the hundreds they’ve read this year). So it makes it much more difficult to stand out.

A boring personal statement chooses a common topic, makes common connections, and uses common language. A stand-out personal statement chooses an uncommon topic, makes uncommon connections, and uses uncommon language. Examples:

Boring personal statement: I want to be a doctor (common topic) because I’m empathetic and I love helping people (common connections) and I really want to make the world a better place (common language).

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Better personal statement: I want to run a tech-startup (more uncommon topic) because I value humor, “leading from the battlefield,” and stuff that makes me cry (uncommon connections for an essay on this topic), and because my journey to this place took me from being a scrawny 12-year-old kid to a scrawny 12-year-old man (uncommon language).

Important: I’m not saying you should pick a weird topic/thread just so it’ll help you stand out more on your essay. Be honest. But consider this: The more common your topic is … the more uncommon your connections need to be if you want to stand out.

What do I mean? For example, tons of students write doctor/lawyer/engineer essays; if you want to stand out, you need to say a few things that others don’t tend to say. How do you figure out what to say? By making uncommon connections. They’re the key to a stand-out essay.

The following two-part exercise will help you do this.

2-minute exercise: Start with the cliché version of your essay.
- What would the cliché version of your essay focus on?
- If you’re writing a “Why I want to be an engineer” essay, for example, what 3-5 common “engineering” values might other students have mentioned in connection with engineering? Use the Values Exercise for ideas.
- Collaboration? Efficiency? Hands-on work? Probably yes to all three.
- Once you’ve spent 2 minutes thinking up some common/cliché values, move onto the next step.
8-Minute Exercise: Brainstorm uncommon connections.
- For example, if your thread is “food” (which can lead to great essays, but is also a really common topic), push yourself beyond the common value of “health” and strive for unexpected values. How has cooking taught you about “accountability,” for example, or “social change”?
- Why do this? We’ve already read the essay on how cooking helped the author become more aware of their health. An essay on how cooking allowed the author to become more accountable or socially aware would be less common.

For instance, if your thread is "food," push beyond the common value of "health" and explore unexpected values like "accountability" or "social change."

A typical "activist" essay might discuss public speaking or how the author learned to find their voice. A stand-out essay would go further, demonstrating, say, how a sense of humor supports activism. Perhaps it would describe a childhood community that prioritized culture-creation over culture-consumption, reflecting on how these experiences shaped the author’s political views.

Finding Uncommon Qualities/Skills/Values

Here are four places:

The Values Exercise
- This is basically a huge list of qualities/skills/values that could serve you in a future career.
O*Net Online
- Go to www.onetonline.org and use the “occupation quick search” feature to search for your career. Once you do, a huge list will appear containing knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for your career. This is one of my favorite resources for this exercise.
Sometimes they’ll briefly summarize a major in terms of what skills it’ll impart or what jobs it might lead to. Students are often surprised to discover how broadly major-related skills can apply.
Real humans
- Ask 3 people in this profession what unexpected qualities, values, or skills prepared them for their careers.

Structuring Your Essay: Narrative vs. Montage

CEG introduces two primary structures for college essays: Narrative and Montage.

Narrative Structure: This structure works well for essays describing challenges, connecting story events chronologically.
Montage Structure: This structure is ideal for essays that aren't about challenges, connecting story events thematically.

In Narrative Structure, story events connect chronologically. In Montage Structure, story events connect thematically.

Here’s a metaphor to illustrate a montage approach: Imagine that each different part of you is a bead and that a select few will show up in your essay. They’re not the kind of beads you’d find on a store-bought bracelet; they’re more like the hand-painted beads on a bracelet your little brother made for you. The theme of your essay is the thread that connects your beads.

One way we’ve seen students find great montage threads is by using the 5 Things Exercise. I’ll get detailed on this a little bit later, but essentially, are there 5 thematically connected things that thread together different experiences/moments/events in your life? For example, are there 5 T-shirts you collected, or 5 homes or identities, or 5 entries in your Happiness Spreadsheet.

And to clarify, your essay may end up using only 4 of the 5 things. Or maybe 8. But 5 is a nice number to aim for initially.

The Importance of Vulnerability

I call this part “vulnerability training,” because I find it’s more specific than “warm-up exercise." Also, “warm-up exercises" are expendable, while I believe these exercises are essential.

A Quick Word on Vulnerability:

Why am I asking you to be vulnerable? A few reasons: Vulnerability is one (of four) qualities of an excellent personal statement (in fact, it’s the “personal” part). I’ll share the other three qualities as we go…

Vulnerability is a great life-skill to learn, and
It’s one you can get better at as you practice.

If you’re in a workshop, your facilitator (teacher/counselor) will let you know which one to do. If you’re working alone, pick one of those below. If you’re bad at making decisions, do the first one.

Option #1: “If you really knew me…”
- This one is simple: Begin with the phrase “If you really knew me…” and share something with your partner that you wouldn’t normally share with someone. Be brave!
- Working alone? Open a blank doc and type “If you really knew me…” then finish the sentence. Bonus points: Record a video of yourself and send it to a friend or post it on social media (#vulnerability). If sharing with a friend, try sharing something that this person really doesn’t know about you. The point of this exercise is to allow yourself to be really known.
Option #2: “I love…”
- This one’s fun too. And simple: Set a timer for one minute and make a list out loud of things you love by finishing the phrase “I love…” repeatedly until the minute is up.
- Two rules for this game:
1. Don’t think ahead to what you’re going to say while your partner is going. Focus on the person doing the “I loves…”. In other words, be interested.
2. If you run out of things to say, just keep going, stream-of-consciousness style (see 0:20 in video when I just repeat "love" because I can't think of what to say), even if you’re worried you’ll say the wrong thing. There is no wrong thing. In other words, be brave.
Option #3: Gratitude check-in
- For this one, take turns with a partner sharing something you’re grateful for. Get as specific and as personal as you can.
15-Second Vulnerability Test: How’d you do?
- On a scale of 1-10, how vulnerable were you in the last exercise? Take a few seconds to think about it.

Many of my favorite personal statements are in the 5-7 range of vulnerability.

Vulnerability is key to creating a personal and engaging essay. CEG provides exercises like "If you really knew me…" and "I love…" to help students practice vulnerability and share something meaningful.

Examples and Case Studies

"Much Ado About Nothing" Essay

In one podcast episode, Ethan and Dr. Greg Ungar dissect an essay titled "Much Ado About Nothing." They analyze the storytelling choices, the deeper ideas beneath them, and how the essay captures a moment in the student's becoming. The discussion covers structure, humor, and the portrayal of different roles and identities.

"My Desk" and "Magic" Essays

Ethan and Amanda McRaven analyze two essays, "My Desk" and "Magic," exploring how these stories reveal truths about the students who wrote them. They discuss techniques for mining meaning from ordinary moments and connecting experiences in honest and human ways.

"Laptop Stickers" Essay

My laptop is like a passport. It is plastered with stickers all over the outside, inside, and bottom. Each sticker is a stamp, representing a place I’ve been, a passion I’ve pursued, or community I’ve belonged to. These stickers make for an untraditional first impression at a meeting or presentation, but it’s one I’m proud of.

Let me take you on a quick tour:

“We <3 Design,” bottom left corner. Art has been a constant for me for as long as I can remember. Today my primary engagement with art is through design. Design means more to me than just branding and marketing; it gives me the opportunity to experiment with texture, perspective, and contrast, helping me refine my professional style.
“Common Threads,” bottom right corner. For years I’ve been interested in the street artists and musicians in downtown Austin who are so unapologetically themselves. As a result, I’ve become more open-minded and appreciative of unconventional lifestyles. TED gives me the opportunity to help other youth understand new perspectives, by exposing them to the diversity of Austin where culture is created, not just consumed.
Poop emoji, middle right. My 13-year-old brother often sends his messages with the poop emoji ‘echo effect,’ so whenever I open a new message from him, hundreds of poops elegantly cascade across my screen. He brings out my goofy side, but also helps me think rationally when I am overwhelmed. We don’t have the typical “I hate you, don’t talk to me” siblinghood (although occasionally it would be nice to get away from him); we’re each other’s best friends. Or at least he’s mine.
“Lol ur not Harry Styles,” upper left corner. Bought in seventh grade and transferred from my old laptop, this sticker is torn but persevering with layers of tape. Despite conveying my fangirl-y infatuation with Harry Styles’ boyband, One Direction, for me Styles embodies an artist-activist who uses his privilege for the betterment of society. As a $42K donor to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, a hair donor to the Little Princess Trust, and promoter of LGBTQ+ equality, he has motivated me to be a more public activist instead…

Supplemental Essays

The podcast also explores supplemental essays, offering insights into crafting effective responses for specific prompts. Alisha, a high school senior, works with Ethan to refine her supplemental essays for Columbia University, focusing on clarity, intention, and personality.

Financial Aid for International Students

Joan Liu, founder of Second Chance, shares practical advice for international students seeking financial aid and for counselors supporting them. The conversation covers what a competitive, full-need international applicant looks like, common mistakes, and strategies for creating a global college list.

College Essay Guy's Resources and Services

College Essay Guy offers a range of resources and services, including:

Personal Statement Resources: Guides, exercises, and examples to help students brainstorm, draft, and revise their essays.
College Application Hub: A central location for all CEG resources, including webinars, courses, and podcasts.
One-on-One Consulting: Individualized feedback and suggestions on college applications from expert consultants.
Workshops and Curriculum: Training for counselors to improve their students' applications.

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