5 (Okay, 6) College Essay Mistakes Smart Students Make - and How to Write One That Actually Sounds Like You

What you must remember

Maybe you’ve spent years building the perfect transcript.
Or maybe your GPA took a hit, life hit back, and you’re trying to prove that your story’s bigger than your stats.

Either way, your essay is your reset button — the one place where you still sound human.

Admissions officers don’t remember flawless résumés. They remember people. They remember voice.

And that’s where even the sharpest students slip. They write to impress instead of connect. They sound polished—but not alive.

Let’s fix that.

Here are six mistakes almost every student makes — and how to turn them into something real enough to remember.

1. The Everything Essay

You want to tell them everything.
The move, the championship, the family story, the research project, your passion for neuroscience, your grandma’s soup recipe, and that one time you learned resilience in Target’s parking lot.

Slow down.

An essay isn’t your life story — it’s one page in it.
You don’t win points for squeezing more in; you win them for making us feel one thing deeply.

Pick one thread and pull it all the way through. The narrower the focus, the wider the impact.

2. The Résumé in Disguise

You know the one. It lists every role, title, and medal like your Common App got dressed up for prom and forgot to dance.

Listing achievements is easy. Showing what they did to you is where the power lives.

Write about what happened between the bullet points — the moments that didn’t make the résumé but made the person.
The rough practice that built patience. The failure that re-wired your definition of success.

That’s what readers remember: the quiet proof that you’ve grown, not just performed.

3. The Five-Paragraph Robot

This isn’t AP Lang. You don’t need a thesis, three tidy paragraphs, and an “In conclusion.”

And please—leave the thesaurus alone. Nobody talks about their childhood “juxtaposition” or “ameliorating adversity.”

The essay isn’t a term paper. It’s a reflection.
Write like you think, not like you’re auditioning for a dictionary.

When your essay sounds like a person instead of a press release, you’re halfway to being unforgettable.

4. The “Could Be Anyone” Essay

If your essay could trade names with someone else’s and nothing would change, that’s a problem.

Specific doesn’t mean complicated. It means yours.
Talk about the way you always sit in the same corner of the library.
The nickname your team gave you.
The silence right before you step on stage.

Those tiny, honest moments are what make your essay feel alive. They prove you’re not just another student—you’re a story worth meeting.

5. The Trauma Without Transformation

If you’ve been through something hard, you can write about it — if you’re ready.

If it’s still raw, still happening, still shaping you day by day, it’s okay to hold that story close for now.
Essays are for reflection, not recovery.

If you do write about hardship, focus on what you see differently because of it — the empathy you’ve gained, the courage it taught you, the way it changed what you value.

The most powerful essays don’t shout, “I’m healed.”
They whisper, “I’m growing.”

6. The Over-Edited Frankenstein

You’ve shared your draft with everyone — your mom, your counselor, your English teacher, your barista.
Now it reads like a committee meeting.

Feedback helps until it starts sanding off your fingerprints.

Read it out loud. If you can’t hear yourself in it anymore, it’s time to reclaim it.

Better a little rough around the edges than perfectly forgettable.

The Quiet Middle of It All

Forget sounding impressive.
Sound intentional. Sound awake. Sound like someone who’s done some real thinking about who they are and how they move through the world.

That’s the essay readers remember — the one that makes them stop, smile, and think, “This kid’s got something.”

You don’t have to prove you’re perfect.
You just have to prove you’re real.

That’s what changes everything.