URochester’s enrollment leader offers college applicants insight into writing their personal statement.
Many universities ask applicants to include a college application essay—usually a personal statement or similar essay—along with their application materials.
The essay is one of the few places in an application where you can speak directly to the people reading your file and tell us something we might not learn from your grades, activities, recommendations, or other application materials.
At the University of Rochester, admission is based on a holistic review, and applicants may decide whether to submit standardized test scores. As a selective private research university with undergraduate programs spanning the arts and sciences, engineering, music, business, and more, URochester draws from a global pool of high-achieving students. With this caliber of applicants, we use a holistic approach to select those with strong ethical character who align with our institutional values.
So, as an applicant, how can you distinguish yourself?
One of the most important ways is through your college application essay.
“Your college application essay is a chance to tell the admissions committee who you are and what is important to you.”
Many students may dread this part of the process. Yet with the right attitude and strategy, you can write an essay that will improve your candidacy for admission. A strong essay won’t compensate for an academic record that falls well short of a college’s admissions standards, but it can help a qualified candidate stand out.
Before you begin, ask yourself one more question: What will an admissions officer learn about me from this essay that they won’t learn from the rest of my application?
Selecting a topic for your college application essay
The traditional college application essay usually requires an open-ended personal statement in response to broad or general prompts that might have you share a story, reflect on an event, or discuss a topic. The Common Application currently provides seven personal essay prompts from which students can choose.
Of course, some colleges and universities require you to respond to a specific prompt or question. Many also ask for shorter supplemental essays. In that case, you want to make sure to answer that prompt or question clearly and directly.
Whether the guidelines are open-ended or specific, the topic itself is less important than how you express yourself.
Above all: Don’t write an admissions essay about something you think sounds impressive or that you think the admissions officer wants to read. While it’s fine to look at college application essay examples, don’t simply mimic one. Write about something truly important to you.
Details bring your application essay to life
Dig deep into one aspect of your topic instead of trying to cover many aspects superficially in your college essay. Be brief in explaining who, what, and where; leave plenty of room for why and how.
- For example: If you’re writing about a memorable trip, don’t spend six paragraphs on where you traveled, how long it took to get there, and the weather. We want to know why you went and why the experience was meaningful. How are you different now because of it?
And your topic doesn’t have to involve a dramatic or life-changing event. An ordinary experience, conversation, hobby, family tradition, or small moment can make a strong essay if it tells us something meaningful about you.
Be specific. It’s the details, rather than any general statements, that bring your essay—and hence, you—to life for an admissions officer who is reading hundreds of personal statements.
- For example: If you’re writing about how much you loved playing your high school sport, tell a story about a specific game, practice, teammate, win, or loss; how you felt; and what you learned.
Should you use AI to write your college application essay?
In a word, no. Generative AI can help students brainstorm, organize ideas, or identify places where their writing could be clearer. But you should not use AI to compose your essays or short-answer responses. Despite its ability to produce grammatically sound or polished prose, AI-generated text can flatten an applicant’s voice.
Remember that admissions officers already have your transcript, activities, recommendations, and other application materials. The application essay or personal statement gives them an opportunity to hear your voice, understand how you think, and learn something they couldn’t get from the rest of your file.
AI can work against that goal if it smooths away the turns of phrase that mark your writing as your own. Moreover, if the same tools are helping thousands of applicants produce similarly structured essays, the result runs counter to our aim of distinguishing one applicant from another.
Do colleges check for AI in application essays?
Colleges and universities have different policies on AI-assisted writing, and some may use AI-detection software to evaluate application materials. But these tools aren’t foolproof, and an AI-detection score alone cannot reliably establish who wrote an essay.
More importantly, the question isn’t simply whether an admissions officer can detect AI-generated writing. It’s whether your essay accomplishes what it’s supposed to: reveal something genuine and memorable about you. An essay that sounds polished but could have been written by anyone is a missed opportunity.
Think of AI as a support tool rather than a ghostwriter. You might use it to generate questions that help you brainstorm topics, flag confusing passages, or identify places where you could elaborate. But the experiences, observations, language, and reflections should remain yours.
Writing a college application essay: dos and don’ts
Here are a few guidelines for crafting a college application essay that effectively conveys who you are while also helping you stand out from the thousands of other applicants.
Do:
- Present yourself in a dimension that reaches beyond grades, recommendations, and test scores. Think of the things that built your character—maybe a special relationship in your life, your most meaningful extracurricular activity, or a class or idea that changed the way you think. We want to know what makes you tick, how you might fit into our community, and how your distinctive qualities and experiences would contribute to our interesting and dynamic campus.
- Be sure your essay reflects you. Ask yourself: Am I the only person who could have written this essay? Or could everyone else in my senior class have written it?
- Give your essay a clear shape. Some stories naturally have a beginning, middle, and end; but not every essay has to follow the same formula. You might organize it around an idea, a question, a recurring image, or a few connected moments. Whatever structure you choose, give us a reason to keep reading and make sure we understand why the topic matters to you.
- Ask someone to proofread your essay or to offer feedback—but be sure your essay is written in your own voice and style. It won’t serve you well for someone else to write your essay for you!
- Stay within the required—or suggested—length. The Common Application personal essay has a 650-word maximum. This shows that you can follow directions. Plus, good writers can adhere to a word limit and still get their point across.
- Pay attention to formatting. If you compose your essay in a word processing software program (like Microsoft Word or Google Docs) in order to use spellcheck or other features, be sure to review it again after copying and pasting it into the application itself. Some of the original formatting might be lost because different combinations of word processing and web browsers can cause errors. Double-check before clicking “submit”!
Don’t:
- Write about anything fake, phony, or outrageous. Humor and creativity can work, provided they are not taken to an extreme. Remember: You don’t know your reader’s sense of humor, and it might not be the same as yours.
- Be controversial or sensational for its own sake. However, it is fine to take a risk if you’re sharing a unique viewpoint or a particularly strong conviction. You’re not writing a legal brief for the Supreme Court nor trying to sway the audience to your side of an argument. Instead, you’re attempting to share something of yourself with the admissions committee.
- Sprinkle—or shoehorn—in words that are not in your regular vocabulary. Again, be yourself.
- Repeat information available in other parts of your application, unless you’re using your college admissions essay to expand upon an activity or academic opportunity that was particularly meaningful to you.
- Rehash your resume or report your entire life’s history. Listing every award and semester you made honor roll is unnecessary. But sharing how you felt when a beloved yet demanding English teacher said you were his best student? That has more potential.
What about supplemental essays?
Some colleges, including URochester, require applicants to respond to additional questions beyond the main personal statement. These essays often serve a different purpose. Your personal statement helps us understand who you are; a supplemental essay may ask why you are interested in a particular school, academic program, or opportunity.
At URochester, for example, applicants for 2026–27 respond to a short question about how they would leverage academic flexibility and cocurricular opportunities to pursue their interests and ambitions.
Don’t simply repeat your personal statement in a supplemental essay. Use each part of the application to tell us something new.
Ultimately, your college application essay is a chance to tell the admissions committee who you are and what is important to you. We want to know: What are your values and how will you add to the campus community?
At URochester, our motto is Meliora, meaning “ever better.” So, it stands to reason that when we read an application essay, we want to know: How will you make yourself, your community, or the world better? Tell us your story. This may be your best chance to come through as an individual, so make the most of this opportunity!
Meet your expert
Robert Alexander
Vice Provost & University Dean for Enrollment Management
For more than 22 years, Robert Alexander has held leadership roles in higher education enrollment management, admissions, and communications. A frequent speaker at national conferences, he has shared his expertise in enrollment strategy and marketing and contributed to publications including Trusteeship magazine. Before joining the University of Rochester, he held senior administrative and teaching positions at institutions across the country, including Millsaps College.
Media inquiries: Connect with Robert Alexander for expert commentary on college admissions and enrollment trends.
Additional reporting by Melissa Pheterson and Jim Mandelaro.
