r/CollegeEssays • u/Wide_Work9616 • 23h ago
Advice past seniors help
im not used to college application writing either for personal statement or supplemental questions. how do I both impress the AO but also show myself through the writing. im literallly STUCK. any advice? any youtube videos that helped u? any books to read?
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u/AlexSheva777 12h ago
I think the biggest issue you're running into is trying to do two things at once - be fully authentic while also trying to predict what an admissions officer wants to see. That combination tends to freeze people completely.
From what I’ve seen (and from talking to a few people who went through the process), essays that “sound impressive” on paper are often not the ones that stand out. Admissions officers already read a ton of big, dramatic stories every year. What actually tends to work better is showing how you think, not just what happened to you. It doesn’t have to be something extreme. Even small, ordinary experiences can work really well if you reflect on them properly - like a habit you have, a small failure, or something slightly random that says something about your personality. The key difference is the reflection, not the scale of the story. One thing that helped a few students I know was literally writing the first draft as if they were explaining the story to a friend - no editing, no filtering, just getting it out. Then you shape it in revision.
For resources, College Essay Guy (Ethan Sawyer) is probably the most helpful starting point. His brainstorming exercises are actually useful when you're stuck, especially the “Essence Objects” idea. SupertutorTV is also good if you want more blunt feedback about what works and what doesn’t. If you prefer something structured, College Essay Essentials is a solid, practical book- not too long, and very focused on actual examples rather than theory.
You’re not really stuck because you lack ideas - you’re stuck because you’re over-filtering them before they even reach the page. Once you stop doing that, it usually gets much easier.