August 6, 2025 - Make (Montage) structure work for you. This essay uses what we call Montage Structure, which uses a “thematic thread” (in this case, laptop stickers) to connect different, perhaps otherwise seemingly disconnected sides of who a student is. One strength (among many) of this structural approach is that it can allow a student to demonstrate a broad range of values and experiences that have shaped them, which in turn helps a college understand who you are through the values, interests, insights, skills, and qualities you bring to their campus and community.

March 10, 2025 - Gain instant access to 25 exclusive full-length examples covering all seven prompts, plus comprehensive analyses for each to help you craft stellar essays. ... This student was admitted to Harvard University.

January 4, 2023 - Emily’s essay uses a variety of personal experiences to highlight how she takes risks, explores new passions, and learns about what excites and inspires her.

See how real students got accepted into Ivy League schools. Write outstanding admissions essays for top Ivy League schools like... ... “I feel so much more reassured to press the submit button now. I wish I knew about your site sooner!” · Read amazing essay examples for top private universities like Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, and more. ... “...Invaluable to me during the college ...

September 2, 2025 - Author: Aja Class Year: Princeton University 2020 Type of Essay: Common Application Personal Statement – Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again? School Acceptances: Princeton University, MIT, University of Maryland, Stern College for Women, Queens College and City College · I walked down the pale pink stone pathway, up a ramp, past the library building, and towards the Student Activities Center of the college campus, carrying a large brown cardboard box.

July 9, 2025 - Admissions officer reviewed by Ben Bousquet, M.Ed Former Vanderbilt University ... We've compiled 21 amazing examples of college essays—and a few not-so-amazing ones—to show you how admissions officers actually evaluate essays. Each one has a "grade" and commentary from a real admissions officer. Have you ever wondered what goes through an admissions officer’s mind as they read college essays? It's one of the questions the parents and students ...

July 14, 2023 - READ: How Colleges Choose Which Students to Admit. Each spring on his admissions blog, Graves shares an enrolling student's essay and why it was strong. The essay excerpted below, shared with the permission of the University of Georgia, uses descriptive word choice and gives the admissions office deep insight into the student's life, their love for writing and their connection to their family, Graves says. It was chosen as an example "to show our applicant pool how to express themselves through similes, sensory language (words that capture the senses of the reader), and emotion," Graves wrote on the blog.

November 3, 2020 - We have 32 awesome college essay examples from some of the top universities in the world, and tips on how to write a compelling essay of your own.

March 23, 2023 - This is because the student invites readers to feel the transition with them through their inclusion of various anecdotes that inspired their “feelings of cultural homelessness.” And our journey does not end there—we go back to America with the student and see how their former struggles become strengths. Ultimately, this essay is successful due to its satisfying ending. Because readers experience the student’s struggles with them, we also feel the resolution. The conclusion of this essay is a prime example of the “Same, but Different” technique described in our article on How to End Your College Essay.

September 30, 2024 - Here are some examples of college essays that worked. Pay attention to how students used one part of who they are (a memory, their background, a challenge) to paint a larger picture. Overall, this is a great way to communicate a lot of information in a relatively small space. This first essay was submitted to Harvard University during the 2021 college admissions cycle: When I was a child, I begged my parents for my very own Brother PT-1400 P-Touch Handheld Label Maker to fulfill all of my labeling needs.

June 20, 2025 - Good college essays give schools a more complete idea of the person they will be inviting to join their student body—and they are the only chance a school has to learn who you are in your own words. As you’ll see from our college essay examples, good college essays discuss important details that might not be clear from the rest of your application. Each of our Common App essay examples tells a specific story. Other college essay prompts, like the Stanford roommate essay, for instance, ask applicants to reflect on parts of their identity beyond their grades and test scores.

Here is a sampling of the college essays that worked for Hamilton students (they are reprinted with their permission).

Do you need help finding inspiration for your college essays? College admissions experts at Quad Education have built this database, containing a comprehensive collection of 190+ college essay samples. With inspiration from these examples, you can write an exceptional essay that can help your application stand out.

The following examples demonstrate some of the qualities of a well-written essay. The sample papers include comments from an instructor, detailing the strengths and weaknesses of each paragraph. The English M01A paper features well-developed paragraphs, logical argumentation, and reliable sources. The English M02 paper is shorter and adopts a more informal style. Although not perfect models of writing, the sample essays may help students ...

One way to understand what colleges ... of students who already got in—college essays that actually worked. After all, they must be among the most successful of this weird literary genre. In this article, I'll go through general guidelines for what makes great college essays great. I've also compiled an enormous list of 100+ actual sample college essays from 11 different schools. Finally, I'll break down two of these published college essay examples and explain ...

The college’s theoretical approach combined with its project teams offers a way for students like me to not just learn how to build things, but to understand the conceptual principles underlying each problem. With this two-pronged method, Cornell Engineering will allow me to solve my personal Fermat’s Last Theorem of developing better methods to combat heart disease. ... The essay is well-written and demonstrates a strong display of ideas and genuine personality.

October 11, 2025 - Another common prompt that colleges require their students to use in their application essay is 'Why Us'. Just as the name suggests, this prompt attempts to know the writer’s reasons for “why that specific college”. Analyze how to accurately and appropriately answer the ‘Why us’ prompt in your college essay in the example below.

Answer: If you can find a textbook for an English class, especially first year college English, it should have examples of essays. If you don’t want to buy the book, you could take photos of the pages. Try a used bookstore.