College Essay Lab | Lesson 5 | How to perfect your college essay

You might have noticed that I have not taken the time to talk about the word count until now. I find the word count is an overemphasized aspect when it comes to the process of writing a college essay—and that the right time to work on the word count is now, towards the end of the process.

I call the “target” length 600 words. The actual maximum, as you likely know, is 650. Before you begin fine-tuning your essay, it’s helpful to know whether you need to err on the side of adding content, getting more concise, or keeping it about the same.

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

TASK: This is going to sound so silly, but trust me: read your essay one sentence at a time. At the end of every sentence, catch up with yourself and make sure that what you’ve just read actually makes sense and communicates what you want it to communicate. If it doesn’t, check for these three things, in order.

• Can it be improved by taking words away?

• Can it be improved by changing the order of the clauses/phrases? (You’d be amazed how many sentences become readable by swapping the order of their halves.)

• Can it be improved by changing the words themselves?

Once you’ve reached the end, read it at least one more time, all the way through, without stopping.

Releasing your college essay

You will need to let go of it at some point.

A good first step is to give it to somebody else to read. The first time somebody reads anything I’ve written, I feel like I’m watching it grow up.

If you can withstand that without rushing back to the draft and swearing that you need to start it all over again, that’s a good sign that it is good enough.

HOMEWORK: Decide it’s done.

This is a personal moment, and only you can do it.

Letting go of your essay may come with feelings of sadness, worry, or uncertainty. This is okay. It means that you care about your story, and you’re aware that the story will play a role in determining your future. It means that you care about these things… and the fact that you care means that you’re doing something right: you approached it with the importance it deserves.

Congratulations. Now all you have to do is write a few dozen supplemental essays.

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FEELING STUCK? Schedule a drop-in appointment with me here. Make sure to indicate that you’re working on Lesson 5, and send me your most up-to-date draft.

College Essay Lab | Lesson 4 | How to edit your college essay

Editing has a bad reputation.

A lot of people assume that editing means noticing what’s wrong, and “fixing” it. By that logic, the need to edit means that you’ve made an error, that you’ve failed, that you should have done something different.

As a friend of mine, a former programmer, puts it: “Failure is a feature, not a bug.”

Before you revise your college essay 

I recommend approaching the process of editing your essay with a more positive goal: notice what decisions about your essay you want to make next. Editing is the time when you get to make big adjustments before you spend a bunch of time making little ones.

Put another way: when you wrote your essay, you were looking at it very closely, writing one word at a time. Editing is your chance to take a few steps back and take the whole thing.

But it can be hard to look at something that you’re so used to being “inside”. Gee, I wonder if MJ has a method for addressing that? 

Listening to your college essay

That’s right: we’re using our ears now.

TASK: Give your essay to somebody you trust to be a confident reader and ask them to read it aloud to you—at least twice.

The first time they read it, don’t look at it yourself. Just listen. This simulates the experience of reading your essay for the first time (which is helpful, because, of course, that’s how admissions counselors are encountering it!) Don’t take notes or anything. You might find it helpful to close your eyes or look away from your friend.

The second time they read it, get out a blank page of your notebook and draw three columns where you’ll take notes:

Column 1: Overrepresented. Jot down any ideas that feel overtold. Words that you hear yourself using more than once. Moments that feel long. Sentences that feel repetitive.

Column 2: Well-represented. Jot down what’s working well. Ideas or scenes that feel “right-sized”. Things that are accomplishing the thing you hoped.

Column 3: Underrepresented. Jot down any ideas that feel missing or unclear. Moments that feel too short, or begin too abruptly. Things you forgot to include.

Instruct your friend that you will need to command them to pause and restart while you take notes. I call this giving yourself the “magic remote control.” When you say “pause”, they pause. When you say “go”, they resume. You can also say “rewind” and indicate where you want to go back to. Unfortunately, the fast-forward button is broken.

(Bonus: While you’ve got your friend with you, I recommend asking them to read your essay at least one more time (that’s three total). Now that you’ve taken notes in those columns, listen again, with an ear out for any sentences or words that just feel clunky when you hear someone else using them.

You thought I forgot about the Common Application essay prompts, didn’t you?

Back in Lesson 1, I explained why I dislike the Common Application’s prompts for college essays; they’re better categories for sorting than they are prompts for generating a good idea.

The good news is that these categories are incredibly broad, and your essay almost certainly fits into one of them. If it doesn’t, then just click the box for the open-ended option, which in 2023-24 reads “7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.”

If there has ever been a student who was rejected from a college because they chose the wrong essay prompt, I’m not aware of it and I’d be pretty darn surprised.

TASK: Choose which prompt your essay is in dialogue with. Don’t overthink it. Consider identifying ways your essay slightly to suit the prompt a little better. Don’t re-write the essay for the prompt, but maybe throw a few ideas into the under-represented column.

Edit your college essay

HOMEWORK: Treat the over/under-represented table as a to-do list.

Begin with column 3. Add some new material that is inclusive of the ideas that were underrepresented in the last draft.

Then move onto column 1. Find places where you can trim, consolidate, and clarify. You’ll be surprised how often the adage “less is more” is true.

Finish up by revisiting column 2. You didn’t think we were gonna go back to column 2, did you? Well, those ideas might have felt adequately represented in the last draft, but you’ve made a bunch of changes around them. Review these ideas and make sure that, in the context of your edited draft, they still feel adequately addressed.

Once you’ve worked through the full list, it’s time to get granular. Let’s split hairs over semicolons. Click here to move onto the last lesson.

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FEELING STUCK? Schedule a drop-in appointment with me here. Make sure to indicate that you’re working on Lesson 4, and send me your most up-to-date draft.

College Essay Lab | Lesson 3 | How to outline your college essay

Just in case you’re reading my lessons out of order, I want to be crystal clear about something: I strongly encourage writers to create outlines after they’ve explored their idea by writing a “spit draft”, which I talked about in Lesson 2. The instructions below assume that you’ve created raw material for your essay.

How should you outline your college essay?

Outlining can be useful. It’s also possible to outline too much and too early. Sometimes writers plan their story, endlessly, in order to avoid writing it.

You also might hate outlining, or hate using them. They can feel constraining.

Whatever your relationship is to outlining, your “mileage may vary” when it comes to methods for developing a structure for writing something like a college essay. You know yourself best.

The method I suggest for outlining your essay is a good way to organize your thinking and keep your work focused in a way that shouldn’t feel too restrictive.

TASK: Grab your notebook and pen and then watch this video, where I walk you through an outlining method that has proven useful for most of the 100+ students I’ve helped as they crafted their college essay.

Key points

The what happens column should include plain descriptions of the images, moments, and events.

The what it’s about column should include the point being made in each section of the essay. The takeaway, the argument, the subtext.

I recommend 4-6 rows. A single story concept well-executed at ~600 words is usually at a good pace when there are around 5 “scenes”.

Start where you can. Put in anything that feels clear already. You probably either have a strong grasp of the beginning or the ending, but it’s unlikely you know both. You also probably feel slightly more comfortable in one column versus the other.

Then fill in the gaps. Holes in an outline are much easier to fill than holes in an essay—or a blank outline. Maybe you know what happens in beats 2 and 4—which gives you enough information to identify what happens in beat 3. Sometimes you know what [the ending]’s about, which helps you pick the right anecdote to fill in the what happens box next to it.

HOMEWORK: Keep filling it in until you’ve created a complete outline.

Use this outline as a loose scaffolding for the next draft of your essay, which you’re ready to write! It’s okay to stray from the plan a little bit, but try not to make new decisions about structuring your essay yet–you can always make changes later. Give this structure a chance to be the direction you choose for your essay. 

Once you have a full draft, you’ll be ready for the next lesson: editing. Click here when you’re ready.

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FEELING STUCK? Schedule a drop-in appointment with me here. Make sure to indicate that you’re working on Lesson 3, and send me your spit draft.

College Essay Lab | Lesson 2 | How to start writing your college essay

Okay, so you’ve chosen (and committed to) a topic for your college essay. Great.

If you’ve done this correctly, then it should be a story that you care about and know well.

Now’s the part where you sit down at a computer and win a staring contest with the blinking cursor on your screen, right?

Well, not necessarily.

How to begin your college essay

In this next section, I’m going to ask you to be really, really observant about yourself.

When I coach my clients’ writing, one of the first things I do, out loud or to myself, is identify something I call their “sharing conditions”.

“Sharing conditions” are the things that make a person most able to express themselves authentically and freely. Usually this involves being within your comfort zone, making sure you can focus, and maintaining your energy. It also includes identifying the method by which you record your thoughts.

A small minority of people I work with enjoy sitting down in front of an empty page on a word processor and quietly typing their first draft. Honestly, it sounds like a nightmare to me, and it’s a way of working that doesn’t work for a lot of people for a few reasons:

• Computers are full of distractions.

• Sitting still is not energizing.

• Few people are most expressive through their fingertips.

As I’ve implied, rough draft-ing at a computer works for some people. If that’s you, skip to the section labeled “How to write the first draft of your college essay”. If not, stick with me for some questions that will help you identify some of your “sharing conditions”.

Get in the college essay zone

TASK: Take a moment and think about the feeling of being able to express yourself without a filter. The feeling of getting caught up in a process and unable to pull yourself out. The feeling that might make you say “Hang on one more thing…” The kind of focusing that actually takes energy to pull yourself out of. Instructions follow.

Review these questions and jot down your answers, even if they feel obvious to you. Remember: the things that feel obvious for you are not necessarily true for other people!

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1. What mode of expression enables you to explore an idea well?

Is it writing with pen on paper? 

Is it speaking aloud to yourself? Is it speaking aloud to somebody else? 

Is it doodling? 

Do you sing nonsense while you wash the dishes?

2. How do time and timing enable you to explore an idea well?

Is it first thing in the morning? 

After everyone has gone to sleep? 

Is it before you’ve begun thinking about your day?

Is it only after you’ve made sure you have no more homework? 

How long a period of uninterrupted time do you need to enter a focused state? 

Do you need to limit that time?

3. Where are you able to explore an idea well?

Is it somewhere familiar? Or do the reminders of your obligations get in the way?

Is it somewhere unfamiliar? Or does wandering distract or frighten you?

Is it in stillness?

Is it with movement?

Is it with other people, whose presence might keep you accountable?

Is it alone?

4. What does your body need in order for you to be enabled to explore an idea?

Are you hungry? No, really. This is my own number-one distraction.

Do you need to move or be still?

Check in with your senses. For example:

Do you need music? Ambient sound? Silence? If so, what kind?

Do you need a scent?

What level and types of light help you focus?

What kinds of clothes, if any, help you focus? What footwear, if any?

Do you need anything in your mouth? (I’m serious; I require almonds or tea.)

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Use these answers and develop a plan for setting your “sharing conditions”. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to start telling your story.

How to write the first draft of your college essay

Repeat after me: writing the first draft is not the same thing as a first attempt to write a final draft. I call the first draft a “spit draft”, and I encourage you to approach it with one objective: get as many ideas out there as you can.

Here are some things you’re allowed to do when you write a spit draft:

• Ramble on and on. Go long. Say too much. Push the term “word count” out of your mind.

• Repeat yourself. Try saying things a few different ways.

• Resist making decisions. 

• Tell it out of order.

• Change your point of view. Provide commentary.

Got all that? 

HOMEWORK: Set up your “sharing conditions” and then let your ideas loose as you write a “spit draft”. Give yourself at least 45 minutes to work on this.

Once you’ve done that, click here for the next lesson—where I’ll share my favorite way for organizing a big idea dump into a rock solid sequence that works both logically and intuitively.

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FEELING STUCK? Schedule a drop-in appointment with me here. Make sure to indicate that you’re working on Lesson 2, and describe for me what your “stuck point” is.

College Essay Lab | Lesson 1 | How to choose the perfect college essay topic

Spoiler alert: there’s no perfect topic.

Sorry, but there isn’t. There’s no formula. There’s no guarantee. You’re too unique a person for there to be some kind of objective wisdom about college essay topics that would capture your uniqueness. So let go of “perfect”.

Instead, you’re just gonna have to pick a good one.

What makes a good college essay topic

Okay, ready for a bunch of clichés?

A good college essay topic is:

• Specific

• Memorable

• A contained story with a beginning, middle, and end

• About you

Really easy for me to say.

And anyway: knowing what makes a good college essay is less valuable than knowing how to choose a topic to write about. So let’s focus on that instead.

How to choose a good college essay topic

Put down the Common Application questions for the Personal Essay. As idea-generating prompts, they kinda suck. I promise I’ll come back to them later. For now, I have a series of questions of my own, which are specifically-designed to get you thinking about moments in your life that have the qualities of a good college essay.

TASK: Grab a notebook and pen and then watch this video, where I walk you through my favorite idea-generating questions for college applicants.

Commit

Now that you’ve written a list of potential subjects for your college essay, your job is to choose one.

Review your list of potential subjects one more time—and look for one that won’t feel redundant. For example, if you know your geometry teacher is going to tell the story about the time you organized a memorial for the classroom’s beloved hamster, consider crossing that off the list.

And then, honestly, you kinda just have to pick one. Go with the one that you feel excited about.

HOMEWORK: Commit to one of the ideas.

Once you’ve done that, click here for the next lesson—where I’ll talk about the importance of writing a rough draft, and why it’s different from a first attempt to write a final draft.

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FEELING STUCK? Schedule a drop-in appointment with me here. Make sure to indicate that you’re working on Lesson 1, and describe for me what your “stuck point” is.

A guide to writing a college essay you’re proud of—in 5 extremely usable lessons

I don’t need to emphasize the overstuffed myth that is the all-important college essay, do I? You arrived at this page, so you’ve heard about it: The college essay is this mythical creature. It looms large in the cultural imagination. It is a writing assignment unlike every other writing assignment high schoolers encountered before it arrived. It comes with a genre of self-help literature. Entire family legacies can hinge on them. Scholarships, honors program, self-worth. It’s spawned a whole genre of self-help literature.

It’s too much.

So… why have I created my own guide?

Honestly, it’s because I see something missing from existing resources about college essays: guidance to help you feel good about it.

It makes a difference to write about a subject you genuinely care about. It matters that you feel in control of the choices you make about how you tell it. It helps to be guided along by someone who is sensitive to the excitement and pressure that come with things like preparing to begin college.

And I feel weirdly qualified to do this, because I worked in college admission for 9 years (ascending to the role of Senior Assistant Director at Emerson College) and have taught creative writing in a wide range of genres since 2016—primarily college screenwriting. I’ve coached over 100 students through the process of writing their college essays. I have a pretty good grasp on what works—both in terms of college essays and the process of writing well.

And I believe writing well means doing it in a way that feels good. 

Welcome to Find the Words’ College Essay Lab—a guide for college applicants who are open to the possibility that telling an important, personal story to the education institution of their dreams doesn’t have to suck.

The guide contains 5 “lessons”. A few of them include video instructions for writing exercises, and each of them come with a homework assignment. Each one is usually a good hour of work—and those assignments are necessary to complete before the following lesson. Honestly, you’ll probably need a full day between each lesson.

If you get stuck at any point, you can always schedule a 55-minute drop-in appointment—I include instructions for doing so in each lesson. In the interest of transparency: these cost $150/per.

Click here to be taken to the first lesson and complete them at your own pace, or browse the lessons below—but make sure you complete them in order!

Take a deep breath. 

It’s just an essay.