OWU Admission Blog

In the Ohio Wesleyan University Office of Admission, we read thousands of college essays every year. Some make us laugh, some make us cry, and unfortunately, some make us yawn.

How can you stand out in this ocean of essays? Here are four tips from your audience.

1. Show us who you are. Write about a topic that’s unique to you. So often, we see the same, “(Insert sport) changed my life because..." essay. Those can blend together. Some of our favorite essays start with the most mundane topics – but they show us something truly unique about the student, and we want to meet them!
2. Don’t worry about impressing us. We don’t want to be impressed with your massive vocabulary, your awards, or your hundreds of volunteer hours in Haiti. We love reading about those everyday things that you care about – whether it’s baking or collecting bizarre socks. We just want to get to know you.
3. Tell a story. Don’t just list facts about yourself that we can already see in your application. There’s nothing more engaging than a good story told with some flair. Use imagery, active verbs, and descriptive words. And organize your story so there’s a clear beginning, middle, and end.
4. Proofread, proofread, proofread. Avoid run-on sentences, make sure your subjects and verbs agree, and use the right word (like with there, their, and they’re). Using correct grammar and having no typos show us you really care about your application.

We read every application essay with care, attention, and the knowledge that we have the great responsibility of recommending who will best fit in to this Ohio Wesleyan community. We look forward to reading your essay and getting to know you.

When you're looking at colleges, be sure to visit Ohio Wesleyan and find out why OWU is a college that changes lives.