Why College Essays Matter: What Admissions Officers Really Look For

Hey everyone, Ryan here.

Are you wondering what the purpose of your college essays is? Curious about what admissions officers are looking for in your essays? And just how much do your essays really matter in the admissions process?

In this post, I'm going to answer these three questions.

By understanding the importance of your college essays, you can stay motivated and see how your essays fit into the rest of your application. This insight will help you catch admissions officers' attention.

How Important Are College Essays?

In a recent survey from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, admissions officers ranked essays as the 5th most important factor in admissions, after:

1. Grades in college prep courses
2. Your GPA
3. The strength of your school curriculum
4. Character attributes

On top of that, the survey reported that private colleges and selective schools placed even more importance on essays in their admissions process.

Think about it this way: your essays are your one opportunity to speak directly to admissions officers.

So, what do you want to say to them?

Luckily for you, your essays are also the one part of your application completely within your control.

How you approach your essays can have a big impact on how your application is remembered when admissions officers are "voting" on who to pass to the next round.

What Are Admissions Officers Looking For in Your Essays?

Now, that brings me to the next question: What are admissions officers looking for in your essays?

Ultimately, an admissions officer’s goal is to understand you fully, in the context of your background and the rest of the applicant pool.

Specifically, admissions officers are trying to answer these three key questions while reading your essays:

1. Who are you as a person?
2. Will you positively contribute to our school and after graduating?
3. Can you write and communicate effectively?

Predicting Your "Trajectory"

Admissions officers are trying to predict your "trajectory." Some students may have great grades and stats, but maybe this was only due to external pressure, such as parents or friends. When they come to college, they might just do the bare minimum to get by.

That's not what admissions officers want.

Remember, admissions officers work for professors, and college professors want the most motivated and brilliant students in their classes. As an applicant, you have to show that you are one of those students.

So, they're also trying to determine:

• Is this the genuine student we're seeing? Or is it someone else's fingerprints all over their application?

That's why the best essays connect on a human level with the reader. They show a real person with a genuine voice.

They say, "This is who I am" or "This is why I'm like this."

The best essays are memorable because they connect with the reader. They don't seem stiff or unnatural but are conversational and informal.

Demonstrate Self-Growth

Because admissions officers want to see your "trajectory," demonstrating your self-growth is super key.

If there's only one trait to highlight in your essays, it's how you've grown—as a learner, thinker, and person.

The great part about self-growth is that it's all relative. It doesn't matter what you actually achieved, as long as you can show how these experiences demonstrate ways in which you've improved as a person.

So, as you think about your essays, keep this in mind: self-growth.

If you can convincingly show:

• How you've gained a new perspective
• How you've gotten better at something
• How you've become a better person

...then you'll imply an upward trajectory that admissions officers are eager to see.

Avoid Being Generic: Show Your Genuine Self

Now, if there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that no student is generic.

But often, students reveal themselves to colleges in a generic way.

So, there are two important things to remember when approaching your essays:

1. Write for a Real Person

First, remember that you're writing for a real person on the other end.

You want your essays to make a human connection. And to do that, you need to speak to them like a human.

One trick to achieve this is to pretend you're writing an email, rather than an essay.

It sounds strange, but often if a student is struggling with a prompt, I ask them to email me their answer to the prompt.

In their "essays," their responses often feel stiff or formal. But in their emails to me, they're not trying to impress or put up a facade.

As a result, their writing comes across naturally and is often a much better starting point for their essays.

2. Remember the Reader Is Selfish

Second, remember that the reader is always going to be in it for themselves.

In other words, the reader is selfish.

They don't care about what you tell them in your essays unless it helps them get to know you and helps them answer those three key questions:

1. Who are you as a person?
2. Will you positively contribute to our school and after graduating?
3. Can you write and communicate effectively?

Admissions officers want to know the "why" more than the "what" in your essays, because what you did is already on your activities and awards sections.

• Why did you start that club?
• Why do you love swimming?
• Why do you choose to volunteer at that non-profit?

Tell a Story and Share Your Thoughts

Writing college essays can be summarized in one sentence:

Tell a story (or a few) and share your thoughts.

The key here is that your thoughts are what matter, not necessarily the story itself.

By focusing on your thoughts, you'll be adding something new to your application.

You don't want to repeat what admissions officers already know about you, like the things you've done on your activities list.

Showing your thinking is powerful because it's the best way to convey your:

• Intelligence
• Curiosity
• Maturity
• Self-awareness
• And all the other positive traits you want to demonstrate

Bring the reader into your world, show them how you think and see things, and they'll fall in love with your unique way of thinking.

How Much Do Your Essays Really Matter?

Now that I've answered the purpose of your essays and what admissions officers are looking for, how much do your essays really matter?

By having essays that leave a positive impression, you'll create what's called a "halo effect" on the rest of your application.

This term comes from psychology and describes how positive impressions in one area can bleed over into other areas.

By having great essays, admissions officers will be subconsciously biased to have a higher opinion about your application as a whole.

Sounds too good to be true? Well, it's not.

I talked to over 100 private college counselors, many of whom were former admissions officers.

And what I heard time and time again was how great essays can change an admissions officer's whole attitude about a student's application.

They might say things to their colleagues like:

• "You, my friend, are going to love this essay."
• Or even better, "We have got to admit this student."

That is the halo effect in action.

Summing It Up

To summarize, your essays are important—they are "The Interview," your one chance to speak directly to admissions officers.

And the purpose of your essays is to reveal something about yourself; not just what you've done, but why.

The goal is to distinguish yourself as a real human being, someone who will contribute valuably to college and beyond.

Admissions officers want to answer these three questions:

1. Who are you as a person?
2. Will you positively contribute to our school and after graduating?
3. Can you write and communicate effectively?

And the second question is the most important for your essays, because if you can create a strong case for why you'll make valuable contributions in the future, admissions officers will be eager to have you at their school.

What's Next?

So, in the next blog, I'll show you exactly how to make that strong case for yourself in your essays.

It really comes down to showing self-growth, one of the four most important qualities that all great essays have in common—which I'll discuss in the next post.

Stay tuned!