How to write a great college essay, from students who got in

Classmate was created by students. I started building it while writing my own essays, after noticing that everyone around me was turning to ChatGPT for feedback, and it just wasn't useful. It either did the writing for you or answered in paragraphs that were incredibly hard to use. So I built a quick prototype in my English class, my friends and teachers loved it, and I kept going.

Our team has been through the process ourselves, with admits to schools including USC, NYU, Berkeley, Stanford, and Harvard. Since then, we've read a lot of essays at every stage, from first drafts to the version that gets submitted, and the same handful of things separate the essays that work from the ones that don't.

This guide walks through all of it: picking a topic, writing the first draft, and revising until it sounds like you.

Start with a moment, not a résumé

The most common mistake is treating the essay like a second activities list. Admissions already has your activities, grades, and awards. The essay is the only place they get to hear from you: how you think, what you care about, and how you've grown.

So start small. Pick one specific moment, a conversation, a decision, a mistake, and build out from there. A single afternoon told well says more about you than four years of accomplishments told in a list.

Answer the prompt you were given

It sounds obvious, but a lot of essays answer the prompt the writer wished they got. Before you write, read the prompt slowly and figure out what it's actually asking. "Describe a challenge" is really asking what you learned and how you changed, not just what happened.

This is also why Classmate asks for the prompt. Feedback on an essay without the prompt can only tell you whether it's well written, not whether it does its job.

Write it badly first

Don't try to write a perfect first paragraph. Get a full draft down, start to finish, even if it's way over the word limit and half of it is bad. It's much easier to fix a draft that exists than to perfect one that doesn't, and you usually don't figure out what your essay is really about until you've written the whole thing.

Start early enough that you can put the draft away for a few days. You'll see it much more clearly when you come back.

Revise in rounds

Don't fix everything at once. Work from the biggest problems down to the smallest:

1. The big picture. Is this the right story? Does it answer the prompt? What would someone take away about you after reading it?
2. Paragraphs. Does each one earn its place? Do they flow into each other, or are there abrupt jumps?
3. Sentences. Clarity, word choice, grammar, and cutting.

If you spend an hour polishing sentences in a paragraph you end up cutting, that hour's gone.

Cut to the word limit without losing your voice

The Common App gives you 650 words, and most first drafts are well over. Cut in this order:

• Background and setup. Most essays spend too long explaining context before getting to the moment that matters.
• Repetition. If two sentences make the same point, keep the stronger one.
• Filler. Words like "really," "very," and "in my opinion" rarely add anything.

What you shouldn't cut are the specific details and the reflection. Those are what make the essay yours.

Get feedback, but keep it yours

Get your essay in front of other people: a counselor, a teacher, a friend who knows you well, and Classmate. Each sees something different. A friend can tell you if it sounds like you. A counselor or teacher knows what admissions is looking for. Classmate gives you instant, line-by-line feedback whenever you need it, so your time with a counselor can go to the big questions instead of structure and grammar.

But be careful with anything that rewrites your essay for you. Admissions readers go through thousands of essays, and writing that's been run through a chatbot tends to sound the same. Your voice is the one thing nobody else can bring to your application. Take feedback, but make the changes yourself.

Here's what two students who used Classmate on their applications had to say (names changed at their request):

"Classmate's meticulous tip system was crucial to my essay writing process. Its ability to grasp and enhance your tone makes it a tool that will aid anybody in their writing journey!"

Alex, Harvard '29

"Classmate is unlike any other AI tool I've come across for college essays. It gave me cogent feedback that helped me take actionable steps toward improving my essays."

Chloe, Stanford '30