Each year, college admissions officers sift through tens of thousands of application essays. Undergraduate business majors can be even more competitive. How can you make yours stand out from the pile? The essays and short answer questions are your chance to tell your story in your own words. What people and experiences have made you the person you are today? What should admissions readers know about you that isn’t reflected in your grades and test scores? And how can you do it all in 650 words?
The essays enable you to show readers who you are as a human being, what matters to you, and what you can contribute to an incoming class. Authenticity is key, so get ready to get real and get vulnerable. In this article, I’ll give you expert tips gleaned from 20 years of teaching and mentoring students to help showcase your unique story and strengths. Along the way, I’ll share links to free resources from Accepted that will aid you with your essays. Summer is the ideal time to draft these important texts, so let’s begin!
1. Put Your Best Foot Forward
When you’re reviewing the Common App prompts and brainstorming possible essay topics, strategize how you can use the prompts to write an essay of substance that will reveal something meaningful about your background, experience, goals, and dreams. A strong essay will include some challenge, obstacle, or difficulty and show what you learned from it or how you took action to overcome it. Choose a topic that highlights an achievement you’re proud of and showcases your personality in a positive light.
Our free guide, “Five Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your College Application Essays,” describes common mistakes students make while writing their essays and provides actionable tips and exercises to help you avoid them. Before you start writing, also check out our sample college essays, which got students accepted to their dream schools. Read them carefully and take a look at the analyses written by our experienced consultants, where we discuss each essay’s strengths, how they begin, how they’re structured, and how well they address each prompt.
2. Engage Readers From the First Line
The first paragraph of your essay is a bit like a first impression: you want to intrigue the admissions reader with an introduction that pops and encourage them to keep reading. You want to convince the reader to give you their full attention and swiftly guide them into your narrative. In the opening paragraph, every word counts.
One tried and true way to grab a reader’s attention is by starting with a scene. Paint a picture for your reader and let them know what is at stake. Describe an important moment from your life using the full spectrum of colors, sounds, smells, taste, and touch. How were the walls of your summer camp’s dining hall decorated? What did the tropical rainforest in Indonesia smell like? How do your mom’s famous chocolate chip cookies taste? These vivid sensual details will transport the reader into your story and help them to experience events as you did.
Carefully selected dialogue, too, will give readers a sense of being in the moment with you and help to characterize the people in your life. What was that memorable line from the Borges book you read? What exactly did your grandmother say to encourage you after you came out? And don’t forget to share the sensations you’re experiencing. Are you bouncing over a bumpy road? Floating over colorful, brain-shaped corals? Gritting your teeth before you step onstage?
3. Share Your Context
Your application essay is also a chance to put on paper aspects of your life and background that don’t fit into other parts of the college application. If you grew up in a different country, lived in a multi-generational household, helped to support your family with a part-time job, had to go above and beyond to find academic opportunities, or experienced the loss of a loved one, you might consider sharing this formative experience with the college admissions committee. Your unique blend of identities also influences the way you see and move through the world. Consider how your faith, family background, race, class, gender, and sexuality contribute to the person you’ve become and the distance you’ve traveled, and how these elements shape the moments you discuss in your essay.
4. Demonstrate Fit
In college supplements to the Common App, most schools will ask you why you’re choosing a specific area of study (like business) and why you want to study at the school in question. Several schools like Cornell, Georgetown, and the University of Michigan also require prospective business majors to submit an additional short answer question or essay. To answer these questions successfully, it’s essential that you demonstrate fit by researching the college’s mission and values and showing that you share its values. It’s also important to show that you’re aware of the professors currently teaching in the program, specific opportunities the school offers, and that you can articulate how the college will help you achieve your long-term goals.
5. Revise and Reflect
Self-reflection is a strong sign of maturity and a vital component of any college application essay. It shows how well you know yourself and how well you can look back on and learn from past experiences, process your feelings, think deeply about your context and personal history, and make informed decisions about your future path. So in addition to describing important events and people in your life, make sure to analyze their significance and show the admissions readers how they affected you. Reflection is the best way to avoid superficiality in your writing. Question why you felt the way you did, and don’t be afraid to let yourself become vulnerable.
Finally, don’t worry about getting all this right on the first try. When you’re writing your first draft, the most important goal is to get words down on the page so that you’ll have something to revise later. It’s okay if it’s rough. Make sure to start writing early so that you give yourself enough time to think about and revise your draft. Often, it’s the process of setting your essay aside and returning to it later that will give you the distance and perspective you need to see how it can be improved. Over multiple drafts, and with feedback from trusted readers, you’ll slowly be able to refine it and make it shine.
The best essays teach us something about ourselves as we write them. By following these tips, I hope you’ll be able to create an essay you’re proud to submit!
By Steven Tagle, Admissions Consulting Expert at Accepted
Steven guides applicants through every stage of the admissions process—drawing on his background as a journalist, speechwriter, and MFA in creative writing to help candidates uncover and articulate their unique stories. With twenty years of experience coaching students for top graduate and professional programs, he offers personalized, detail‑driven strategies to craft essays and applications that resonate with admissions committees. Click here to request a consultation with Steven.
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