Kim Pasculli-Festa and Jake Gursaly, Founding PartnersAt first glance, absolutely nothing. But dig a little deeper, and they have everything in common. Not only might these conversation topics dazzle a room full of strangers at a dinner party, but they could also command attention in a pile of tired college admissions essays.
As college essay coaches, we often get asked about the unwritten rules of crafting standout application essays. Quite often, applicants reach out to us with the same concern: how will admissions truly understand who I am? Many students feel as if their lives and experiences are not interesting enough, and they often worry that their ideas have been written about thousands of times before. But we tell them that there is no secret formula or complex set of rules to follow. The truth about the best college essays is remarkably simple: tell the story only you can write.
From grade point averages to standardized test scores, everything about the common application screams statistics. While all of that quantifiable data is essential in sizing up a potential candidate, the essay represents the only human pulse of that entire application that numbers cannot measure. The essay serves as an opportunity to transform cold, hard statistics into resonant stories, allowing admissions officers to peel back the layers to see who applicants are in their truest light.
Typically, we find that so many of our students believe that their essay needs to be written to simply impress admissions officers. In fact, they often show up to their first essay coaching sessions ready with a padded list of ideas lifted from an impressive résumé of accomplishments. Rather than encouraging applicants to write essays echoing those accomplishments, we push them to write about something that is not revealed within those Common Application checked boxes: an obsession with finding treasures at estate sales, crocheting through chronic pain, and even how an abstract drawing of a pineapple taught an applicant something about what it means to be real.
The desire to reach beyond the résumé, however, also means redirecting students away from those tired admissions narratives. Should athletes write about cliché injury comeback stories to showcase their resilience? Does an essay about why a grandparent is a great role model fully capture who an applicant is and what they bring to a college community?
Probably not.
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The truth about the best college essays is remarkably simple: tell the story only you can write.
The problem is not because these topics are overused and predictable; even a familiar story can become compelling when told from an unexpected angle. Instead, students should tell a story as if the most interesting guest at that dinner party has arrived and everyone at the table wants to lean in and listen. It’s not about finding and telling the strangest story, but paying attention to the ones that hide in the everyday. That story should highlight an ordinary moment that challenged students to grow, to learn, or to take initiative to create meaningful change. An application without that story would perhaps rob admissions officers of the chance to learn something new about the person behind the numbers.
So what do being a Harry Styles superfan and perfecting a stuffed zucchini flower recipe have in common after all? Both dare to find the extraordinary truths in the ordinary moments, prompting admissions officers to take a closer look at the real person underneath the application.
After all, Veritas is not only our business’s name, but ultimately what the college essay is all about: the truth.
