Questions to Ask Yourself After You Finish Your Common App Personal Statement

This is the expert advice we give to our one-on-one advising clients on how they can find ways to reword and restructure their essays into polished, final drafts worthy of an admissions officer's careful read-through. Don't submit an essay that you haven't edited, revised, and polished!

One of the most important steps in the admissions essay creation process is editing your essay for maximum impact. We’re going to show you how to refine the small details within that narrative in the form of a Triple Editing process. Step One: Editing for Intrigue. Let's begin!

Does your essay check all the college admissions success boxes? Before you put down your pen (or relax your fingers), you are going to want to ask yourself a few questions. This video will walk you through each of these questions and help you find the answers:

1. Will this essay make admissions wish they could meet me in person? Does it inspire them to want to know more about me?
2. Is this essay actually about me?
3. Will anyone else be able to write this essay in the way I wrote it? Would it be crazy to think of someone else claiming my essay as his/her own?
4. What does this essay say about me? What is the ultimate message I am hoping to convey?
5. Do I feel good about this essay? Would I feel proud reading it aloud in front of an audience? Does it represent who I really am?

What do you do when you have already brainstormed, selected a magic topic, written multiple drafts of your essay, and edited your masterpiece? You review your draft, of course! Over the years, CEA has mastered the art of the review and that's exactly what CEA's Founder and Chief Advisor, Stacey Brook, is going to teach you to do in this video from College Essay Advisors.