Another mistake to avoid in your college essays is narrating your resume (listing all of your experiences with little regard to the prompt).

This is problematic because when you introduce many tangential points, they dilute and detract from your main one.

To counter this, you must focus exclusively on (1) the most meaningful experience or (2) multiple, related experiences that build on each other (covered in greater detail in the next section).

Note: I use the word “experience” as an umbrella term to encompass both extracurricular activities/work experience AND personal experiences. However, the latter will only be used to refer to lived experiences.

Related: Check out part two to learn how to choose an approach that is compatible with your writing style.

Before you start

Keep in mind that your essays serve as the canvas on which you paint your life story and the journey you have taken so you must show us your life through your eyes.

However, you defeat the whole purpose of even writing an essay if you instead use it as an opportunity to restate the exact same information as your college application or resume. 

This is because your readers learn nothing about YOU as a person and can only assume what your values are based on your experiences. 

You also put your readers in the uncomfortable position of making connections for you when that’s your job!

Note: The line between writing about your life versus narrating your resume is a subtle but critical one.

Approaches you can take

There are two valid approaches you can take to structure your essays.

In a nutshell, you can focus on either your most meaningful experience or multiple, related experiences that fit your narrative.

Note: I will refer to these approaches using the words “option” and “approach” interchangeably.

Approach #1: Focus on your most meaningful experience

Your first option is to only focus on an experience that is the most meaningful to you and has had the greatest impact on your life.

Tip: Your goals can be inspired by having done something (extracurriculars/work experience) or having gone through something (personal experiences).

This can include a significant barrier you overcame, an inspiring or life-changing event, or lessons you learned from an extracurricular or work experience.

I would say this is generally the best approach since it tends to make college essays more personal and in-depth given that all of your efforts will be spent on one thing.

This option will require you to deeply and thoughtfully reflect on this experience and talk about what it means to you, the lessons you learned, and its impact on your life.

Pros:

• Story-focused (take us through your life)
• More personal
• More depth
• Easier to stay on topic
• Best for when you want to highlight your personal qualities

Cons:

• Hard to do
• More likely to experience writer’s block
• More likely to feel burnt out
• More likely to write garble

It works best in situations where you want to add a personal touch or highlight who you are as a person (personal qualities, values, etc).

However, the biggest hurdle of using this approach is overcoming writer’s block, which can tempt many students into writing garble or whatever comes to mind.

But what separates strong versus weak writers is how one deals with this burnout period or plateau: strong writers work through it without sacrificing quality or creativity. 

These students also break up the writing process over multiple months so they come back refreshed and engaged each time.

What you can do: Decide whether you want to take a more personal approach by making who you are as a person (personal qualities, values, etc) the focal point. Write about an experience that has had the greatest impact on your life then reflect on it and the lessons you learned.

Approach #2: Focus on multiple, related experiences

The second option is to focus on multiple experiences (extracurriculars and/or personal experiences) that build on each other and are relevant to the prompt (“relevant” is the operative word).

This appears to be the preferred approach among students since they naturally have more content to write about and are thus less likely to experience writer’s block.

Pros:

• Theme-focused
• Easier and more intuitive
• More breadth
• Less likely to experience writer’s block
• Best for when you want to establish your expertise (ex: leadership, community service)

Cons:

• Hard to master
• Easier to go off-topic or narrate your resume
• Quality of essay will depend on the synergy of each part

Other benefits of this approach include establishing your expertise and conveying a message or theme, such as leadership, community service, or academic achievement.

However, despite its popularity, it is also the hardest one to master, which is supported by the fact that many students who use it make the mistake of introducing loosely related experiences (narrating resume).

Another significant limitation is the reduced impact of each experience given that this approach relies heavily on the synergy of its collective parts rather than the value they bring individually. 

This should be expected and makes sense because more things are competing for the same amount of space in your essay so each item would obviously not get the same level of emphasis as it would in the first option.

What you can do: Be deliberate and strategic in which experiences you choose to write about. Ensure that they build on each other and tie back to the prompt and your overall message. Most importantly, each new experience you introduce must progress your story.

What you can do

Decide whether approach #1 or #2 is the best way to structure your essay. Be selective in what you choose to mention and definitely do not dump your resume into it.

Keep in mind that colleges are NOT asking for an exhaustive list/description of your extracurriculars or work experience because they will already have this information.

What they do want, however, is an essay that presents information that is relevant and meaningful to the story.

Simply put, they just want the important and personal stuff.

Dig deep and consider what motivates you to do whatever it is you want to do and leave breadcrumbs in your essay for your readers to follow.

Consider these questions:

• How can I demonstrate who I am as a person?
• How can I demonstrate what my values are?
• What lessons or skills did I learn?
• What reflections did I have?
• What were my thought processes?
• What motivates me to do what I want to do?
• How has each experience made me a better person?
• How does each experience relate to the other?
• How does each experience expand my main idea or progress my story?