How To Write A Really Good Essay

Writing your personal statement for your college application is an undeniably overwhelming project.

Your essay is your big shot to show colleges who you are—it's totally reasonable to get stressed out. This guide will walk you through each step of the essay writing process to help you understand exactly what you need to do to write the best possible personal statement.

I'm also going to follow an imaginary student named Eva as she plans and writes her college essay, from her initial organization and brainstorming to her final edits.

By the end of this article, you'll have all the tools you need to create a fantastic, effective college essay. The process starts with finding the best possible topic, which means understanding what the prompt is asking for and taking the time to brainstorm a variety of options.

Even for Common App schools, you may need to write a supplemental essay or provide short answers to questions.

Before you get started, you should know exactly what essays you need to write.

This guide covers the following steps: #1: Organizing#2: Brainstorming#3: Picking a topic#4: Making a plan#5: Writing a draft#6: Editing your draft#7: Finalizing your draft#8: Repeating the process The first step in how to write a college essay is figuring out what you actually need to do.

Although many schools are now on the Common App, some very popular colleges, including University of Texas and University of California, still have their own applications and writing requirements.

Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve.

It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale.