how to write a college essay

Summary

Gohar Khan, an MIT senior who applied to college in 2016–2017, shares lessons from writing his own essays and reviewing hundreds of others. His central advice is to make an essay vivid, specific, and recognizably personal rather than trying to sound impressive or following a formula.

Main Advice

1. Show rather than simply tell. Support claims about yourself with a scene or story. Instead of stating “I like biology” or “I work hard,” describe yourself doing a biology experiment and let the reader see what matters to you. Use imagery, but don’t overload the essay with adjectives and adverbs. Some direct explanation can still help later in the essay.

2. Try the “pickup test.” Imagine your essay is anonymous in a pile. If a friend couldn’t recognize it as yours, replace generic details with ones that are distinctive to your experience. For example, name the store and explain where or why you were walking there, rather than writing only, “I walked to the store.” Specific details help an essay feel memorable and individual.

3. Avoid generic, sweeping truisms. Phrases such as “live life to the fullest” or “you only live once” can weaken an essay if they dominate it. They may make the writing feel generic or as though you’re trying too hard to impress.

4. Write in your real voice. Don’t use a thesaurus to make every word sound more sophisticated, force long or complicated sentences, or add irrelevant quotations. Aim for conversational writing that gives admissions readers a genuine sense of who you are. Contractions and occasional one-sentence paragraphs are fine; the essay need not follow a standard five-paragraph format.

5. Be thoughtful about your topic. Topics such as sports injuries, death, divorce, or mission trips can be difficult to distinguish because many essays use similar approaches. Unusual subjects can work, too, if they genuinely connect to you. Khan gives his essay about volcanoes as an example: he linked the subject to AP Environmental Science and used it to express his interest in nature. The topic should have personal meaning, not be chosen just because it seems unusual.

6. Check for common grammar problems. Khan notes that dangling modifiers appeared frequently in the essays he reviewed and recommends looking carefully for grammar mistakes.

7. Ask someone to review the essay. Have a friend, family member, or teacher read it, and ask whether it sounds like you. Khan also mentions Next Admit as an option for essay review by him or another Harvard or MIT student.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Gohar Khan — The sole speaker; he draws on his college-application experience and his review of hundreds of essays.
• Other people mentioned, but not heard speaking: friends, family members, teachers, admissions officers, and potential reviewers through Next Admit.