Every summer, while my three kids are romping off to sports camps and swim team practice, I’m hunkering down into essay coaching mode. It’s an exciting season in counseling, when I get to support my students through the process of translating their life experiences into compelling stories for admissions readers. Draft after draft, they pour their hearts into the daunting task of distilling their most personal efforts and insights into bite-sized blurbs, agonizing over which details to include and which to sacrifice to the almighty word limit.
I’ve noticed a surprising trend among some of my strongest students. Each year, one of my highest fliers proves to be the most boring writer of my bunch. They’re paralyzed by the very thing that makes them such exceptional applicants: the belief that every accomplishment, award, and leadership role deserves a place on the page. Instead of inviting the reader into one meaningful story, they try to capture everything they’ve done in 650 words in a polished but forgettable memo. Here are five mistakes I often see:
Mistake 1: Writing a Resume in Paragraph Form
After receiving years of writing instruction to give evidence to support their claims, strong students diligently go through each of their extracurricular activities and achievements to furnish proof that they’re accomplished leaders. But admissions officers don’t need another recap of the résumé sitting beside the essay; they’re hoping to discover something about the motivation, perspective, or growth behind it.
Mistake 2: Choosing the “Impressive” topic over the Honest One
Many strong students assume that the best essay topic is the one that sounds the most extraordinary on paper: a mission trip abroad, the death of a loved one, a state championship, or another objectively significant experience. The result is often an essay that describes an impressive event without revealing anything particularly memorable about the person who experienced it or showing how the author will contribute to a college campus because of it.
Mistake 3: Polishing Away the Voice
Whether consulting thesaurus.com, AI editing tools, online troves of “Essays that Worked,” or parents, counselors, and any cousin or uncle who attended their dream school, strong students often seek too much guidance, ceding the reins to the army of cooks in their proverbial kitchen. The resulting essay muffles their voice and obscures their original vision, doing little to introduce admissions readers to the real person behind the file.
Mistake 4: Mistaking Vulnerability for Weakness
“But doesn’t that make me look bad?” is a common question I hear when I encourage students to write about how they responded to a setback, or a perspective they later realized was shortsighted. High-achieving students are reluctant to admit uncertainty or failure. Admissions officers aren’t looking for flawless teenagers; they’re looking for reflective ones. Vulnerability is relatable, and it paves the way to show growth.
Mistake 5: Saving the Real Story for the Last Line
Strong students are often so faithful to recounting their experiences that they are obligated to document every last detail, often burying the most compelling insight at the very end of the essay. They’ll spend 600 words explaining what happened in painstaking chronological order before finally arriving at their realization or perspective shift—the very heart of the essay. For admissions officers who are quickly skimming thousands of essays, it’s easy to tune out and miss the gist.
What a Strong Essay Actually Does Instead
The strongest college essays don’t strive to impress; they reveal how a student thinks, what they value, and how they’ve changed. What topic the essay centers on is secondary to whether it offers admissions readers a clear picture of how a student will contribute intellectual enthusiasm and civic awareness to a college community.
Strong essays share a few common characteristics. They begin with a compelling scene that draws the reader in, anchor ideas in personal experiences or identity, build toward a moment of intellectual or personal discovery, and illustrate passions through concrete action rather than abstract claims. Most importantly, they leave readers with a sense of forward momentum, showing not only who the student has become but how they hope to continue growing and contributing in college.
It’s natural to worry about finding the “perfect” topic or wonder whether you have done enough to stand out. In my experience, those are rarely the questions that determine whether an essay succeeds. The best essays don’t chronicle the most extraordinary events; they help an admissions officer understand the intellect and perspective behind high school experiences.
It helps to remember that the essay isn’t meant to carry an application on its own. It is one piece of a much larger story, read alongside the transcript, activities, and recommendations. Its purpose is simple: to help the admissions reader finish the application feeling that they’ve met not a resume or an adult editor, but a real high schooler.
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Anita holds a BA in Philosophy from Princeton, where she is an alumni class officer and former interviewer, and an MA in English from Middlebury. At Princeton she also contributed her drive and competitiveness to the women’s lacrosse team, winning an NCAA Division I National Championship and three Ivy League Championships while earning national scholar-athlete academic distinction and the Connie McAllister athletic department award for “effort, selfless dedication, enthusiasm and heart.” She brings these qualities to her relationships with students as she helps to bring out the best in them.
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