A Great College Essay Will Do More Than Just Get You Into College

In previous posts, we’ve mentioned that the college essay is the most underestimated part of the college application – and it’s certainly true that a top college essay will dramatically improve your chances of getting into your dream college.

But from our perspective, that’s just the beginning. If you approach the process correctly and write an essay that captures your authentic experience, you will reap the benefits throughout your entire professional life. Here are three benefits to writing a strong college essay that we believe are even more important than getting into college.

A great college essay teaches you how to write

As tutors, we know how hard it can be for students to improve their writing. For some reason, writing is a frustratingly slow skill to master, and it causes endless anxiety.

But when students have to write the all-important college essay on a deadline, they suddenly become very receptive to our advice, and they end up improving their writing very fast. We’re often astonished by how much progress students make in this area. They undoubtedly take advantage of their newfound skills in college (where they have to write countless essays) and in their careers (where, again, writing is a critical skill).

So if you’ve always been nervous about writing, mastering college essay writing skills may well be your best chance to gain confidence and become an effective writer.

A great college essay provides you with a narrative you will reuse at other moments in your career

There’s a reason we spend so much time talking to students about their life experiences: it’s hard to figure out what makes you unique. But when you do come up with a compelling narrative about yourself, you’ll use it time and again throughout your professional life.

Do you plan to apply to medical school, law school, business school, or any other graduate program? We guarantee you’ll refer back to the lessons you learned while writing your college essay when it comes time to write your law school application essay or your medical school application essay. The same goes for internship applications, job applications, and just about any other situation in which you’re being professionally evaluated.

You’re going to need to provide a personal narrative at countless moments throughout your professional career. You might as well work it out now.

A strong college essay is empowering and leads you to take charge of your destiny

This is probably the most important benefit of all. We believe it’s incredibly gratifying to be accepted into college after submitting a real college essay. If you write something honest and authentic, and a college then accepts you for who you are, you will develop a kind of confidence that no one can take away from you. You’ll learn a critically important lesson: you can succeed just by being yourself. 

We know that if you’re looking for a college essay tutor, all this is probably far from your mind right now. You’re probably only thinking about getting into college. But we think you should take these factors into account, and our tutors would love to help you embark on your personal and professional development.