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Crafting a compelling Common App essay is vital to standing out in the admissions process. Making your essay personal to your story is a great way to help the reader connect more deeply with your narrative and make your essay feel more authentic. This guide outlines some practical tips on how to make your essay more personal and memorable.
How To Make Your Common App Essay More Personal
Personal Reflection and Key Values
Reflect on your experiences: Think about experiences that have shaped your beliefs, interests, and goals. What makes you "YOU"? These experiences should be events that helped you grow as a person to demonstrate positive qualities in your essay.
Identify key values: Make a list of what values drive you. This could include creativity, perseverance, empathy, problem-solving, critical thinking, etc. and should be evident in your story. Choose values that you have learned or developed through your lived experiences.
Focus on growth and learning: Show examples of how you have changed or grown as a person due to a challenge, opportunity, or failure. What have you learned from these experiences? How has this helped you grow as a person?
Sharing Personal Stories
Take examples from daily life: You don’t need to discuss something grand to have a compelling story. Focusing on the quieter moments of life can help make your story more personal if the experience is unique to your life rather than talking about grand milestones that other people may also have achieved.
Use anecdotes: Provide detailed examples and anecdotes to bring your story to life. This will help make your essay more personal if you show examples of the experiences you are describing.
Avoid clichés: Avoid talking about clichéd topics as these will not make your essay stand out. Don't try to copy phrases or topics from your friends or topics that are commonly found online. Instead, write a creative narrative that focuses on your personal experiences. For an in-depth guide on how to avoid clichés, check out this post here.
Be honest: Talk about authentic experiences and your emotions during these experiences. This will make your essay personal to you as it will describe things that occurred in your life. Do not make up any details to exaggerate your story or make it seem more grand.
Connecting to the Future
Link to the future: Explain how your lived experiences have influenced your goals and how you plan to apply the skills you've gained through these experiences in college. This creates a cohesive narrative that links your past to your future.
Link to your major: If applicable, talk about how the skills you've learned as part of your lived experiences will help you succeed in your major at college. For more information on how to discuss your major in a Common App essay, check out this post here.
Writing Style
Use your own voice: You should write the essay in a tone and voice that you usually use. Don’t try to impress admissions officers with complex words or overly formal language as this will make your narrative feel forced and less natural.
Be focused: While it's important to provide details to support your essay, you should not provide too many unnecessary details as this will distract from the main focus of your essay. Instead, stick to only discussing the anecdotes/examples that are the most relevant to your essay.
We hope that this guide has helped you see how to make your Common App essay more personal. Good luck with your college applications!
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