College essay examples help. I know they do. In fact, I recently plucked off my bookshelf a weathered copy of Curry and Kasbar’s Essays That Worked for light reading. I laughed out loud when I saw the copyright date. 1986. Not kidding. I didn’t use it to write my own college essays, I swear, but I did use it to teach high school seniors in 1994. Funny, all these years later and college applicants are still asking me the same question: How do I write my college essay?
It strikes me as curious that today, even with infinite resources at their fingertips, students still feel stumped when writing their college essays. In part, it’s because of the infinite resources. Thirty years ago I copied a few college essay examples and handed them to my students in English 12. Today a senior’s search of “best college essays” triggers an onslaught of information, and cookies keep delivering sources long after. The gift that keeps on giving, I suppose. Even Alexa is on the case. The result, I contend, is not feeling more confident but less.
Still, the overwhelm of online tips and tricks (well beyond your pointed search of “best college essay examples”) is only part of the problem. The rest is age-old.
What do I say? Will I do it right? Do I need a college admissions counselor? Should I pay for college essay services? Is my school counselor giving me enough? Enough information? Enough direction? Enough time? Enough of whatever everyone is telling me I need?
Chances are you have everything, or almost everything, you need. People are in your corner. Your school counselor is on a diet of college admissions updates. Your parents are doing their homework. Naviance is pointing you in a thoughtful direction. Scattergrams are telling you your chances. You know what goes into a resume. You know which teachers you'll ask for recommendations. Your test dates are set.
So what’s missing? Why so unsettled?
You might be feeling insecure because you sense so much pressure. Now add that you can’t pinpoint its source. It feels as though everyone around you is worrying while still knowing more than you. And the icing on the cake? You’ll have to conjure college essay topics out of thin air and don’t know where to start.
Does it help to know that rising seniors felt similarly 36 years ago when Curry and Kasbar published their first edition? In the introduction, the authors write, “We first created Essays That Worked in 1986, when we came to learn how intimidated most high school students were by the college application process.” They continue, “As college admissions became increasingly competitive, the essay often became the deciding factor. Good essays were putting borderline students into the ‘admit’ pile. Bad essays were ruining even the best applications.”
Heck, that is scary. So Curry and Kasbar collected 50 essays that worked. Obviously many more than 50 have gotten the job done, long before and long after 1986, and reading a few college essay examples that worked for inspiration is smart.
But before you start reading enviably clever or creative college essays, I recommend you shift your thinking about the task of writing your college essay. With a new mindset, you might enjoy reading examples rather than feel desperate as you search for equally poignant themes or imaginative ideas or worse — fear your writing will be woefully inadequate. Seeing the entire college essay process through a fresh lens can turn your nebulous, uncomfortable feelings around. In short, if you can get to glass-half-full and I-got-this thinking, you’ll feel lighter and better equipped to learn from college essay examples that worked.
Try this: If you agree that a good college essay can be, as Curry and Kasbar claim, the “deciding factor,” and that decision eventually works in your favor, then what a boon! There’s power in that realization! Your transcript and scores are what they are, but you have wiggle room in your writing. Your writing is in your control. There’s agency and strength and opportunity in that truth.
Try this too: Believe me when I say admissions readers are real people. Respect that. Write for them. Write for a reader who deserves your respect. What does that mean? It means be direct, be clear, and be yourself. Don’t write what you think they want to hear. Write what you want to say in a way they want to hear it. Read that again.
After talking with admissions officers, Curry and Kasbar discovered (and we’ve heard the claim a thousand times since) “all they wanted were honest, creative, expressive statements.”
Remember, you are not a grade or score or activity or award. They matter, but they are two-dimensional. You are a person with curves and contradictions. You have depth. The essay is the place where you can breathe life into your application. It’s where your voice lives.
So go ahead and read college essay examples that worked, but as you do, remind yourself that you cannot write your neighbor’s college essay any more than they can write yours. Isn’t that wonderful? What a gift! I suggest you use it.
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