I Read 10,000+ College Essays...Here Are 10 Things I Learned

Main ideas / lessons (overview)

• The speaker draws from reading and working on 10,000+ college essays and shares five “not recommended” approaches and five “better” approaches for writing an effective college personal statement.
• Core theme: admissions readers want to understand who you are—your skills, qualities, values, and interests—and they respond best to essays that are specific, contextualized, and thoughtfully connected to your growth rather than generic or formulaic.
• The video also emphasizes:
  • Topic generation techniques (uncommon topics; combining interests/identities)
  • Writing moves (specificity, collaboration, showing “heart/why”)

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Method / list of recommendations

What tends to not work as well (5 tips)

1. Avoid making your main topic a common extracurricular or overused subject

   • Examples mentioned: common sports (basketball/football/volleyball), common instruments (violin/piano/flute), Boys & Girls Club, debate, etc.
   • Guidance:
     • Don’t make these the main personal statement topic (they can go in your Activities List and supplemental essays).
     • Reason: readers have likely seen these “path” narratives many times and need something fresher.

2. Don’t turn the personal statement into a “highlight reel” of all activities

   • Guidance:
     • Keep your activities in the Activities List (framed as your “brag sheet”).
     • In the personal statement, focus on deeper meaning rather than itemizing achievements.
   • Process tip: create your Activities List first before brainstorming the personal statement.

3. Avoid the “single moment essay” approach

   • Why it’s difficult:
     • It’s hard to show your full range of skills/values/interests with just one moment (example: “eating cereal and realizing life lessons”).
     • The ending carries a lot of pressure (the start can feel mundane unless the ending is exceptional).
     • It requires high craft (style/tone) to stand out, which may not be the best use of effort.

4. Avoid “day in the life” personal statements

   • Guidance:
     • These often resemble what “pretty much everybody applying to college” does (alarm → school → classes → extracurriculars).
     • If writing in this mode, the speaker suggests it’s best used only as a freewrite for idea generation, not as the final structure.

5. Don’t center the essay on certain “common negative” academic challenges

   • Examples mentioned: getting a C in physics; changing schools.
   • Guidance:
     • These may be a “missing an opportunity” if placed in the personal statement.
     • Instead, many can fit in the Additional Information section, with a few sentences/bullets explaining what happened and what you learned.
   • Reason: admissions readers have seen these before; the personal statement should reveal other dimensions of you.

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What tends to work better (5 tips)

1. Brainstorm uncommon topics

   • Meaning of “uncommon” (as explained by the speaker):
     • Not uncommon because it’s weird, but because it reflects something you love/know deeply that others may not.
   • Ways to generate uncommon angles:
     • Write about what you love/know that’s less commonly discussed (examples: skin; escape rooms).
     • Combine two unlikely things that fit your real interests/knowledge.
       • Example: plants + business → plants taught life lessons that later supported business learning; the essay feels connected, not generic.
     • Write about how your identities and backgrounds shaped you (the speaker promises exercises on this later).

2. Use specificity (not generic claims)

   • Guidance:
     • Don’t just say you’re organized—show it with details.
   • Examples of specificity:
     • Organized Google calendar with color-coded structure.
     • “Marie Kondo” organization, including how you fold/organize (use 1–2 sentences, not a full inventory).
   • Why it matters: specific details demonstrate values and bring authenticity.

3. Don’t obsess over which Common App personal statement prompt you chose

   • Main point:
     • Admissions readers care more about your skills/qualities/values/interests and your story of how you became who you are.
   • Source cited:
     • The speaker references a Colorado College admission officer, Hillary Dickman, who says she generally doesn’t look closely at the prompt and instead reads for what matters: your development, what you care about, and community fit.
   • Contrast:
     • The speaker emphasizes that supplemental prompts (major/diversity/community) matter much more.

4. Include collaboration / relationship-building somewhere

   • Rationale:
     • Colleges want to know if you’ll “play nicely with others” and contribute to community.
     • Many colleges ask directly via supplemental essays (often framed as diversity/community prompts).

5. You’re probably more diverse than you think—use identity intersection

   • Clarifies a common misunderstanding:
     • “Diversity” isn’t only visible factors like race or socioeconomic status.
   • Two arguments against narrow thinking:
     1. Your high school population may not represent the diversity of the wider applicant pool or the whole world.
     2. Students may not consider the complex ways identities intersect and overlap.
   • Exercises to find material (explicitly recommended):
     • Identities exercise (~5 minutes).
     • If you really, really knew me exercise (at least ~30 minutes; longer is ideal).
   • Note from the speaker: these exercises produce strong essay content beyond common topics (like debate/violin essays).

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Additional emphasis (what a personal statement is “for”)

The speaker also states what the personal statement can do that other parts of the application can’t:

• Show your personality (light-footed/fun, not just achievements)
• Contextualize experiences (give what’s underneath the surface—“the iceberg”)
• Provide your “heart” / “the why”
  • Your bigger motivations and how events shaped you, because:
    • Activities lists are too short for that depth
    • Additional Information is often more factual/limited in emotional scope

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Speakers / sources featured

• The speaker/creator: “College Essay Guy” (implied by repeated references to CollegeEssayGuy.com and “I’ll link below”; exact name not given in subtitles)
• Hillary Dickman, admission officer at Colorado College (quoted via email about prompt choice)