Writing an essay when applying to colleges can be very stressful. What should I write about? How long should it be? How do you start a college essay? These are all questions you may be asking yourself when getting ready to write your college essay. One of the best ways to make sure you write the best college essay is to construct a college essay outline.
You may have constructed an outline in your high school English class, but your college essay outline will be a little different. How will my college essay outline be different from my high school English outline you might ask? The college essay outline will be simpler and more to the point! Sometimes English outlines require quotes, evidence, and what seems like useless information. Everything in your college essay outline will be relevant information and help you get into your dream school. We will break down everything needed to write the perfect college essay – from the best college essay outline to hooks to engage the reader.
Table of Contents
- Goal of the College Essay
- College Essay Prompts
- College Essay Outline
- Introduction of a College Essay
- Writing a Thesis
- Body Paragraphs for a College Essay
- Closing of a College Essay
- Proofreading
- FAQs
Goal of the College Essay
The main goal of the college essay is to express yourself. When you apply to college, these schools are looking at your grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities – they do not know anything about your personally. The college essay is the perfect opportunity for you to share who you really are and what you want the college to know most about you.
The best part about the college essay? You get to decide what you share with the school. This is a big thing to keep in mind when constructing your college essay outline. You have the opportunity to share your best traits to the school of your choice and explain why you think you would be a great addition to their school.
It is perfectly fine to brag about yourself in your college essay – just be careful not too sound too full of yourself! Keep in mind that the goal of your college essay is not to sum up your whole life in 1000 words, but rather talk about a specific point in time of your life that you would like to share. Pick a point in your life that you would love to share with the college that represents you best as a person.
College Essay Prompts
If you are writing an essay for the common application, you will see various prompts that you can choose from when writing your college essay. Some students may dread having to write a college essay following a prompt. Prompts can be very helpful and can help with the flow of ideas. Prompts can narrow down your train of thought and make writing your college essay outline significantly easier.
In a recent study, the common app found that 95% of people liked the idea of responding to a prompt and that a college essay prompt can help spark ideas for more effective essays. The common application usually offers a wide variety of college essay prompts for students to choose from. The following list are actual prompts from the 2019-2020 common application.
- Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
- The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
- Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
- 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. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
- Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
- Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
- 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.
Students should read over all possible prompts before choosing one. One prompt might be really easy for some students to write about, while other prompts may be challenging to write about. Once a student chooses their prompt, they can begin the first true step in writing their college essay outline.
College Essay Outline
The main goal of the college essay outline is to brainstorm ideas for your essay and organize those ideas in an order that makes sense. Sometimes, when writing an essay, the outline takes the most time to complete. Having a well thought out outline will save you a ton of time when writing your college essay and will help you get your points across in a clear and concise way.
In general, almost every essay will have an opening, body, and closing paragraphs. The college essay is no different. The only difference between the college essay and traditional essays is the way in which you write the essay. The college essay should be clear and concise. If you want to write the best college essay, check out the below college essay outline.
- Introduction
- Essay hook
- Imply the main points of your body paragraphs
- Thesis statement
- Body Paragraph
- Topic sentence – related to topic of this specific body paragraph.
- Supporting evidence
- Closing sentence – this should close out the topic of this paragraph and foreshadow the next topic.
- Body Paragraph
- Topic sentence – related to topic of this specific body paragraph.
- Supporting evidence
- Closing sentence – this should close out the topic of this paragraph and foreshadow the next topic.
- Body Paragraph
- Topic sentence – related to topic of this specific body paragraph.
- Supporting evidence
- Closing sentence – this should close out the topic of this paragraph and foreshadow the next topic.
- Conclusion
- Reworded thesis statement
- Summarize your body paragraphs briefly
- Closing sentence
As you can see, this college essay outline is fairly straight and to the point – which is the goal when writing your college essay! Your 3 body paragraphs will follow the exact same formatting while your introduction and conclusion are flip-flopped with the thesis being at the beginning and end of each paragraph. A downloadable version of the college essay outline can be found below.
Introduction
The introduction is one of the most important paragraphs of the college essay. Think about how many essays some admissions counselors are reading – this paragraph gives you a chance to stick out from the rest and grab their attention. One of the best ways to grab the readers attention is by using an intriguing essay hook. An essay hook is something that will stick out to the reader and make them excited to read the rest of the essay. Some examples of a good essay hook include:
- Short story
- Fact
- Quote
- Metaphor
For more examples of good essay hooks, check out our guide on hooks for essays.
Writing a Thesis
Most students dread writing a thesis. It is one of the harder parts when writing an essay. No worries, writing a thesis for a college essay is way easier. There are two reasons writing a thesis is easier when writing your college essay:
- You are given a prompt. The prompt will help narrow down your thoughts. You should have a better idea of what your thesis should be when given a prompt.
- The college essay is personal. You know yourself best. You can construct a thesis that best expresses yourself.
The goal when writing your thesis is to condense all your ideas into one or two sentences. A thesis statement is a powerful statement that can be used to summarize the main points of your essay and channel your readers thoughts. A thesis statement should be placed at the end of the introductory paragraph.
Body Paragraphs
Body paragraphs are the easiest paragraphs to write. These are the paragraphs where you get to talk about yourself! The body paragraphs should follow the same sort of setup and flow, which makes them even easier to write. The body paragraphs should always start with a topic sentence. This sentence should plant the seed for what the paragraph is going to be about.
After writing a topic sentence, you should give your supporting evidence. This evidence could be a story, a fact, or just about anything that gets you point across. Remember that your college essay is not a summary of your life, but rather a summary of a certain time in your life.
The closing sentence of your body paragraphs should summarize what you just talked about while foreshadowing the next topic you will be discussing. You may be able to do this in one sentence – sometimes it might take two sentences.
Closing Paragraph
The closing paragraph is the opposite of the introductory paragraph. The thesis should be at the beginning of the closing paragraph. The thesis should be reworded from the original thesis – make sure it is not too reworded where it does not match up with the original thesis. Next, you should wrap up the college essay by hitting and summarizing key points throughout your essay. This is a great way to remind your reader about what you said and hammer home key points you want to get across. You should end the college essay with a closing sentence that wrap everything up.
Proofreading
What good is it if you spent all this time constructing a college essay outline and writing the actual essay if you turn in something that has a ton of errors? Proofreading is a very important step that most students skip. If you submit a college essay that has a ton of errors, chances are the college you are applying to will take note of that and it could hurt you in the college admissions process. Here are some things to consider when proofreading your college essay:
- Print the essay – sometimes it is hard to catch spelling and grammatical errors when proofreading on a computer. Print the essay out and read it over. Have a pen in hand to highlight errors that need fixed.
- Read the essay… out loud – when you read an essay in your head you may read it too fast and miss critical errors. Reading the essay out loud will force you to slow down and help you find those critical errors.
- Send it out – have other people read over your college essay. Give it to your parents, friends, and maybe even your English teacher! You will get a nice collection of ideas that you can merge together and make the necessary changes.
- Time – do not submit the college essay right away. Give it some time. You will get ideas from others, find key errors, and might even think of new ideas to add to the essay.
Frequently Asked Questions
The easiest way to write a college essay outline is to have an introduction, a couple of body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. The introduction should state the thesis at the end of the paragraph while the conclusion should have the thesis at the beginning. All body paragraphs should have supporting evidence.
The best way to start a college essay is by using a good hook. A hook is something that grabs the readers attention and makes them excited to read your essay. After grabbing the readers attention, you should briefly summarize your college essay and state your thesis at the end of the introductory paragraph.
An example of an outline can be found here. A basic college essay outline will include an introduction, body, and closing paragraphs. Each set of paragraphs should include some key components to win the reader over.