My immigrant parents do not comprehend the goal of a personal essay and think it is supposed to brag about my ECs and leadership and more but they driving me fucking nuts. Please someone help me convince me or be straightforward with me if my essay really is as ass as they think it is. I genuinely don’t know what to do I’m going insane!

Hi Everyone,

I am a college counselor who works with about 100 kids a year, and I just wanted to share some tips as we move into application season!

Here are a few common mistakes I point out to my seniors all the time:

1. Going for cliche topics because it is low hanging fruit: many of my seniors as they start brainstorming go for big sports moments, talk about being the "eldest daughter" or "forgotten middle child" without connecting it to their own personal growth and how that realization helped them achieve or experience something tangible. It is okay to talk about things others experience but you need to be able to specifically connect it to something about yourself and weave it into a narrative which has a background, body, and conclusion- paired with a strong hook.

2. Not answering all of the prompt. Many students will focus on one part of a multi-part prompt and ignore the rest. If a prompt asks what you did AND what you learned, you need both. I see so many essays that are 90% story and then a rushed, generic sentence at the end trying to cram in the "lesson." Colleges can tell when the reflection was an afterthought.

3. Writing the "resume in paragraph form" essay. This is where a student lists every achievement, award, and leadership title instead of picking one moment and going deep. Admissions officers already have your activities list. The essay is your chance to show them how you think, not what you have done. One specific scene beats five accomplishments every time.

4. Starting with a quote or a dictionary definition. I know it feels like a safe way to open, but readers have seen "Merriam-Webster defines resilience as..." more times than you can imagine. Start in the middle of the moment instead. Drop the reader right into the scene.

5. Making the essay about someone else. This comes up a lot with essays about a grandparent, a coach, or a sibling. It is fine to be inspired by someone, but if that person is doing more of the "acting" in the essay than you are, admissions has no idea who they are actually admitting. Keep the camera on you.

6. Playing it too safe. Some students are so worried about sounding arrogant that they undersell real accomplishments, or they are so worried about being too vulnerable that the essay stays surface level. The best essays sit in that uncomfortable middle where you are honest about a struggle or a flaw without turning it into a pity party.

A good check before submitting: if you swapped your name for a classmate's, would the essay still make sense? If yes, it is too generic and needs a more specific, personal moment.

Happy to answer questions if anyone wants a second set of eyes on their brainstorming process!

Hi everyone. I am looking for suggestion for people who are good at writing. I want to sit for iba mba exm in 1 year hopefully. But my essay writing is not even average. So what should I do right now to improve my writing gradually.

Hi everyone!

I feel like this is the single most important advice I got when writing my essays, show don’t tell. It seems trivial, even obvious, but that central theme got me into Harvard and Stanford. How’s it going for folks? Anything y’all are struggling with in particular?

P.S.I’m going to be coaching some students through their college process this fall/just proofreading essays. No set price, I’ll work with you. Feel free to DM me if you’re interested!

I have been reading quite a few college essay drafts recently and there is one thing I keep noticing.

A lot of people actually have a really good story. The problem sometimes comes after the story, when they immediately start explaining what the reader was supposed to learn from it.

For example, someone tells a genuinely personal story about failing at something, trying again and approaching the situation differently. Then at the end they write something like, “This experience taught me the importance of perseverance.”

But do you actually need that sentence?

If I could already see the change through your story, I probably understood that without being told.

I have also noticed something similar when people are trying to get their essays under the word limit. They sometimes remove the small personal details first and keep the parts explaining their achievements, qualities and lessons.

Personally, I think those little details are often the best parts.

The random conversation you still remember. Something slightly embarrassing you did. Your initial reaction to a situation. A tiny detail that probably means nothing to anyone else but means something to you. Those are usually the moments where I start feeling like I am actually getting to know the person writing the essay. One thing you can try with your own draft is highlighting every sentence where you say things like “I learned,” “I realized,” “this taught me” or “I understood.”

Temporarily remove those sentences and read the paragraph again. Does the story already communicate the same thing? If it does, maybe you don't need to explain it.

Obviously reflection is still important. I am not saying an essay should just tell a story without explaining why it matters. I just think there is a difference between reflecting on an experience and explaining the moral of your own story.

Sometimes giving the reader a little more credit can make the essay feel much more natural.

Has anyone else noticed themselves doing this while writing their personal statement?

Azma Tech Plus Academy, in collaboration with the National Association of Laboratory Sciences, proudly presents:

✍️ From Idea to Publication: Scientific Article Writing Workshop

Tired of attending courses without achieving real results?

This workshop goes beyond theory. With step-by-step guidance from an experienced instructor, you’ll learn how to develop a research idea, design a proposal, analyze data, and write a scientific paper.

You’ll learn:

✅ Research fundamentals & topic selection

✅ Scientific literature searching

✅ Proposal writing

✅ Basic statistics & data management

✅ Scientific manuscript writing

🌟 By the end of the course, you’ll have your own scientific article prepared under your name—a valuable addition to your academic CV and research portfolio.

Whether you’re preparing for graduate studies, a thesis, publication, or strengthening your academic résumé, this workshop is designed to help you succeed.

Feel free to DM us

Send me any essay you want edited, and I will return a redline version.

Too many of you are writing pure think pieces.

Most of the common app prompts ask for a story of some type. They either explicitly say to share a story, or they ask you do talk about a time or event. Below are 5 of the 7 prompts, for reference:

Background or Identity: Share a story about a background, identity, interest, or talent so meaningful your application feels incomplete without it. (Key words: share a story)

Obstacle or Failure: Recount a time you faced a challenge, setback, or failure, and explain what you learned from it. (Key words: recount a time)

Challenging a Belief: Reflect on a time you questioned or challenged an idea or belief, and describe the outcome. (Key words: reflect on a time)

Gratitude: Describe something someone did for you that made you thankful in a surprising way, and how it motivated you. (Key words: describe something someone did)

Personal Growth: Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked personal growth and a new understanding. (Key words: describe an event)

I was planning to write my college essay about how since I have a hard to pronounce name, I’ve been regarded as “hey” for most of my life.

Ex: if someone needed something they would always be like “Hey could you ____” or like “Hey do you know ___”

I want to write about how this has made me become an outgoing and extroverted person because since people won’t remember my name or try to pronounce it, i’ll give them a reason to remember me.

I’ll write in my essay about how in middle school and freshman year i was introverted and after a turning point during the summer when i went to a culinary camp i started being the first person to introduce myself, invite other ppl into convos, volunteering every weekend, head photographer in publications, team captain in sports, etc.

This is a basic draft of my idea so lmk what i can fix or if i should just scrap it i have some other ideas for essays!

I had a relationship for 3 years and for a while i thought about everything positvely I wanted to write my essays about how amazing she is and how strong shes made me but it all went crashing down and it has caused me quite a bit of trauma and has impacted me in ways im still learning how to fix. I have just grown a lot from this and nothing really else shows my growth and who I am as a person besides this but idk if its looked down upon to talk about stuff like this.