What Are Colleges Looking for in a College Essay?

Short answer: Insight into what makes you you — how you think, why and how you do what you do.

Longer answer: They are looking for reasons to say yes to highly-qualified applicants. They want evidence that makes it easy for them to defend their recommendation of you to the committee.

Think of this as non-romantic speed dating. They want as many reasons to fall in love with you as an applicant.

Fun fact: As the world’s leading expert on you, you are uniquely qualified to give them exactly what they’re looking for in your essays and across your entire application.