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.

See more answers here.

For official application deadlines and requirements, visit Common App or College Board’s BigFuture.


The system behind the answer

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