I had a meeting this week with a mom to discuss the college essay. On the Common App, you can put in an admissions essay, also called a personal statement, to enhance your application. Every spring, they post what the 7 essay topics are. Here is a link to the 2025-26 Essay prompts. They typically don’t change much from year to year.
Here are some of the tips I tell parents and students for writing the college essay.
Tips for Writing the Admissions Essay
- Make it sound like yourself, a high school senior applying to college.
- Use some good vocabulary words, but don’t sound like you ran every word through a thesaurus.
- Start it with a hook, an interesting story or a question right off the bat.
- Answer the essay prompt as soon as you can – what is your answer about, and then flesh out the details
- Make sure it’s interesting and not dry.
- Tell them something about yourself that can’t be seen in the other parts of your application.
My kids usually chose to write their admissions essay about how they’ve faced and overcome a challenge, setback, or failure. I loved this time of parenting because, as I read their college essays, I got to see their heart and who God was shaping them to be. God is not random. I believe there is no such thing as a coincidence. He brings things into our lives to shape us and transform us. I thought you might like to see one of the college essays we used for college applications.
An Essay on Overcoming a Challenge
Music has followed me my entire life. My parents’ musical genes passed down to me — my parents met in the high school marching band, where my dad was a drummer and my mom played clarinet. One way or another, music has been a constant in my life and raised its head when I needed it the most. I began taking piano lessons at five years old. In those early years, although I rarely practiced and dreaded each Tuesday lesson, my parents supported me with it.
Two years later, I became my mom’s “Mini Me” and started taking band classes, learning to play the clarinet. I progressed into the intermediate and then advanced band, earning first chair and section leader. A new piano teacher, intimidatingly dressed in a suit and tie each week, motivated me to practice as well as encouraged me to develop my musical talent and interest.
The next avenue I explored was musical theatre when I was nine. Although my first role was a small ensemble part, I was in many of the big scenes of the show, which I loved. I would go on to perform in fourteen additional musicals and shows in the next several years. However, in 2017, everything musical in my life came to a stop. I had joined a theater company, and with every new show, I would eagerly audition, expecting great results. But after six shows, I was cast in only average parts. I was discouraged, convinced that I did not have enough talent as a singer to earn a lead role. So I pulled myself out of musical theatre, stopped piano, stopped dancing classes, and that was the end of my relationship with music, or so I thought.
But music doesn’t leave a life. Instead, I found myself considering a different approach and began to learn to play my mom’s old guitar. It gave me a new relationship with music, and I love hearing the strings as I pluck, strum, or fingerpick.
Last summer, a friend invited me to hang out at the park (because of COVID-19, they were meeting outside); the gathering, with guitar-accompanied singing and heartfelt communication, was special and meaningful, and I left feeling different. So I kept coming back. One day, someone asked who was going to play guitar next week. Everyone looked around at each other, and I got this weird feeling in my gut. Before I could stop myself, I offered, “I am probably not the best guitar player, but if you need someone, I can do it next week!”
So the next week, I was playing guitar for a group of teenagers at a park. The following week, I offered to sing. That was how I began to publicly sing and play guitar. It was challenging to put myself out there again after being discouraged, believing that I was not talented or good enough. But my friends encouraged me. Their kind words spoke to my heart and pushed away the thoughts that held me back.
The current state of my musical journey is that I play guitar and sing at my local church; I play for the high school and middle school mid-week services, and sing in both Sunday morning services. If not for an impulse to offer my small talent a year ago, I would not be where I am now. I certainly did not anticipate that I would be leading almost 300 students in music each week.
After going through these experiences, I have learned to be confident in my desire to improve as a performer and musician. I am so thankful for teachers who have taught me music and recognized my strengths. I am especially grateful for those who have encouraged me to help me believe that I have something to contribute musically. I know that these lessons will be useful for the rest of my life.
Hopefully, that gives you a picture of what an admission essay could look like. Maybe I’ll post some more in the future. I loved hearing my kids tell the stories of how they have grown. Sweet memories!
What about you? What are your kids writing their admissions essay about?
Blessings,
Michelle
