my goals for 2021 essay

Essays About Goals: Top 5 Examples Plus 10 Prompts

Goals could be a one-time event or a lifelong growth process. Write effectively with the help of our essays about goals and writing prompts in our guide . 

Having goals helps us have a sense of purpose. We find our determination, discipline , and strategic thinking tested to their limits . The road toward any goal , especially ambitious ones, is full of thorns and spikes. Some walk away and accept that these goals are not destined for them. Some, however, keep pressing forward, determined to achieve these goals. Gaining confidence in writing can help you achieve your goals by putting pen to paper and starting a plan .

5 Essay Examples

1.  are you goal or growth conscious by katherine beneby, 2. how to help an employee figure out their career goals by dorie clark, 3. no goals: why is it so hard to do something for enjoyment’s sake by jenny valentish, 4. get inspired: how four hikers accomplished their 2021 hiking goals by anna roth , 5. does sharing your goals on social media make you more likely to achieve them by kristan russell, 1. my goals in life, 2. travel goals, 3. the goal of forming better study habits, 4. climate goals: are we progressing, 5. importance of fitness goals, 6. fiscal policy goals, 7. failing at your goals, 8. setting lofty vs. light goals, 9. poverty reduction goals, 10. my academic goals.

“The difference between goals and growth is that goals are seasonal, while growth is lifelong. Goals focus on a destination while growth focuses on a journey.”

In this essay, the writer discusses how achieving our goals may be possible if we reframe our minds to think of them as a growth process. This essay enumerates the difficulties of achieving our objectives and offers guidance on what will help put structure in how we formulate our growth plans . You might also be interested in these essays about bad habits .

“It’s not always possible to help the people we supervise identify and work toward their career goals… [S]o when we can assist our employees in getting there, it’s a meaningful way we can make a difference in their lives and their professional success.”

As per our list of topics to write about , this essay looks at how managers must realize their critical roles in the lives of the employees they handle. Their biggest contribution to the development of their employees is helping them achieve their tasks at work while ensuring these victories lead to their broader career goals. You might also be wondering, why write goals down?

“Once, to stave off depression, I set myself the goal -tastic mission of doing something new every day for a year – from flying in a glider to blowing things up – and blogging about it. Right from day one, the sense of focus lifted my mood, and there was frankly no time to overthink.”

In this essay, the writer looks at how atelic activities, or those we do for fun, positively influence our outlook. Our goal -driven world, however, hinders us from seeing the pure joy of doing things without goals. You might be interested in these essays about dream jobs .

“Last year, she set a goal to simply go hiking at all. And she’s thrilled to have made it happen, saying it was one of the best things she could have done for herself and her family during such a challenging year.”

This writer describes points to inspire people to start hiking and to set personal fitness goals. Look no further and turn to the inspiring stories of people who have targeted to hike across states, hike for the first time, hike once a month for health purposes, and hike a hundred miles yearly. For more inspiration, check out these essays about achievement .

“Wellness gurus and fitness bloggers seem to be divided between whether sharing goals on your social media sabotages you or holds you accountable.“

This essay revolves around a nascent study that aims to see if sharing your goals on social media make them more attainable. While initial results show that those who posted made significant progress compared to people who did not post, more questions need to be explored. You might be inspired by these essays about success .

10 Prompts on Essays About Goals

In this essay, delve into your short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. Before anything else, elaborate on what drew you to set these goals. Then, share your action plans to make them a reality. Discuss the obstacles you’ve faced and how you’ve conquered them. 

What is the one destination you dream of? For this essay, daydream about your travel goals. Direct that excitement and write your travel itinerary, the duration of your stay, where you will be staying, and what daring activities you will dare yourself to plunge into. You can also talk about whom you would like to be with when you fulfill your travel goals or if you prefer going solo.

It is a challenge to hit the books when we live in a world with unlimited distractions. In this topic prompt, share effective study habits to help students focus on their studies. One helpful tip, for example, is designing your environment to be conducive to a habit change. In the case of study habits, this means temporarily eliminating access to social media and other digital distractions. Cite more tips and conclude your essay with a few words of motivation.

Under the Paris Agreement , the landmark international agreement to fight climate change, countries must jointly strive to arrest global warming and cap it to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030. The question is: is this goal still on the table? Read recent news articles on how countries are following through on their Paris Treaty pledges. Listen to what environmentalists say about national efforts and tackle what more must be done to attain the climate goals. 

Fitness is a common new year’s resolution but try convincing your readers to start their fitness goals today. First, help your readers explore the right dietary program and workout schedule based on their daily demands. 

Then, underscore the importance of a fitness goal for gaining self-esteem and improving physical and mental health. Entice them with the idea of gaining a new exciting skill from a new workout activity and motivate them to start unlocking the fit version of themselves today. 

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries recorded ballooning debts as governments spent heavily to fight the pandemic and also support struggling sectors. So first, determine whether your country is in a tight fiscal space. 

The fiscal space assessment framework created by the International Monetary Fund may help you identify the metrics and data to gather. Then, shed light on your government’s fiscal policy goals to address debt while spending in sectors that guarantee an economy’s long-term health, such as education and social services. 

How do people receive failures? Write about people’s attitudes and actions when they fail at their goals. Can people develop depression, and how can they recover from the fall? Try to answer these and share your experience of failing at your goals. 

Ask yourself: How did you move forward after that? Then, share your opinions on whether a failure signifies that it would be best for someone to find a new goal altogether or try again with stronger determination and a better-calculated strategy. 

Which is better: aiming for a lofty goal that opens risks of failure, which many fear, or light goals that might do little in stretching out your potential? Answer this by listing the pros and cons of each. Then help readers strike the optimum balance between a loft or light goal . Cite examples of lofty and light goals to help your readers better differentiate the two.

For this essay, take a deep dive into the poverty reduction efforts of your government. First, give an overview of an ongoing flagship poverty reduction program and uncover its outcomes since its implementation. Read through government reports about the breakthrough goals of the program and which ones are gaining momentum. 

Then, look at the other side of the fence by listening to what critics say about the program. Take note of their laments about bottlenecks in the program and what more can be done to attain poverty reduction goals swiftly. 

Start with a descriptive paragraph detailing your academic goals. Writing about it vividly, as though it is the reality, is a creative way to show readers how much you have played out the scenarios of success in your head while helping your readers fully understand your goals. Then snap back to reality and discuss your action plan to realize these goals.

For related topics, you may check our essays about dreams in life . Don’t forget to proofread your essay with the best grammar checkers .

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110 Goals Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Setting goals is an essential part of personal and professional development. Goals provide us with direction, motivation, and a sense of purpose. However, coming up with goal essay topics can sometimes be challenging. To help you get started, here are 110 goal essay topic ideas and examples:

• My top 3 personal goals for the next year
• How I plan to achieve my career goals
• Setting realistic health and fitness goals
• The importance of setting financial goals
• How to set and achieve academic goals
• My goals for improving my mental health
• Setting relationship goals for better communication
• The role of goal setting in overcoming challenges
• Setting goals for personal growth and self-improvement
• My goals for contributing to my community
• Setting goals for work-life balance
• Achieving work-related goals through time management
• The impact of setting goals on motivation and productivity
• Setting goals for learning new skills or hobbies
• My goals for creating a more sustainable lifestyle
• Setting goals for improving emotional intelligence
• The benefits of setting short-term vs long-term goals
• How to stay motivated when working towards your goals
• Setting goals for better communication in relationships
• My goals for building stronger connections with others
• Setting goals for personal finance and budgeting
• Achieving career goals through networking and professional development
• The role of goal setting in personal happiness and fulfillment
• Setting goals for personal branding and self-promotion
• My goals for reducing stress and improving overall well-being
• Setting goals for time management and prioritizing tasks
• Achieving personal goals through perseverance and resilience
• The impact of setting goals on self-confidence and self-esteem
• Setting goals for personal growth and self-discovery
• My goals for practicing gratitude and mindfulness
• Setting goals for improving physical health and fitness
• Achieving academic goals through effective study habits
• The benefits of setting goals for professional development
• Setting goals for career advancement and promotions
• My goals for creating a more inclusive and diverse workplace
• Setting goals for improving leadership skills
• Achieving goals through collaboration and teamwork
• The role of goal setting in building resilience and adaptability
• Setting goals for personal finance and investing
• My goals for achieving a better work-life balance
• Setting goals for networking and building professional relationships
• Achieving career goals through continuous learning and skill development
• The impact of setting goals on personal growth and self-improvement
• Setting goals for mental health and emotional well-being
• My goals for improving communication skills in relationships
• Setting goals for building stronger social connections
• Achieving personal goals through self-reflection and introspection
• The benefits of setting goals for lifelong learning and personal development
• Setting goals for improving time management and productivity
• My goals for creating a more sustainable and environmentally friendly lifestyle
• Setting goals for improving emotional intelligence and empathy
• Achieving goals through effective goal setting and planning
• The role of setting goals in achieving success and fulfillment
• The impact of setting goals on personal happiness and satisfaction
• Setting goals for building stronger connections with others
• My goals for contributing to my community and making a difference
• Setting goals for improving mental health and emotional well-being
• Achieving academic goals through effective study habits and time management
• The benefits of setting goals for personal growth and self-improvement
• Setting goals for physical health and wellness
• Setting goals for improving communication skills in relationships
• Achieving personal goals through perseverance and determination
• The role of goal setting in building self-confidence and self-esteem
• My goals for creating a more inclusive and diverse workplace culture
• Setting goals for improving leadership skills and abilities
• Achieving career goals through collaboration and teamwork
• The impact of setting goals on resilience and adaptability
• Setting goals for financial independence and stability
• Setting goals for networking and building professional connections
• Setting goals for

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, how do i write a college essay about my future goals.

I have some pretty clear goals for my future, and I think writing about them in my college essay might help me stand out. How can I approach this topic in a way that's engaging and doesn't sound like I'm just listing my ambitions? Thanks for any suggestions!

Hey there! Writing about your future goals is a great idea for a college essay, and it can definitely help you stand out. The key is to tell a story that highlights your goals while also showcasing your personality and experiences.

Start by reflecting on your past experiences and achievements that have led you to these goals. You could talk about a specific moment or event that inspired your ambition, and then explain how it has driven you ever since. This helps to show your passion and dedication towards your goals.

Next, focus on your present efforts to work towards these goals. You could mention any relevant extracurricular activities, internships, or projects you've been involved in that align with your future aspirations. This demonstrates your commitment and hard work.

Finally, discuss your future goals in a way that ties everything together and shows the admissions committee how you plan to make a positive impact in the world. Remember to be authentic and genuine in your writing, and don't be afraid to show some vulnerability. Good luck with your essay!

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CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

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My Goal In Life Essay

A goal is a vision for the future or the desired outcome that an individual commits to imagining, planning, and achieving. People try to achieve their goals in a restricted time by setting deadlines. Here are some sample essays on my goal in life.

100 Words Essay On My Goal In Life

A goal is a desire you have to accomplish yourself. If one wants to succeed in life, one must have a goal. Being a teacher is my life's ambition. A wonderful and responsible profession is teaching. I have made the conscious decision to do all in my ability to promote knowledge among the people. Some people believe that money is life.

However, in my opinion, morality is what makes life truly sweet. In the future, I hope to be a beloved and reputable teacher. I have no clue how far I will get in achieving my goal but I'll give it my best.

200 Words Essay On My Goal In Life

A goal is a vision for the future or a desired outcome that an individual or group of individuals commits to envisioning, planning, and achieving. By setting deadlines, people try to accomplish their goals by setting deadlines.

My current goal is related to my education. I want to come in first place and achieve the top marks in every subject because this will increase my chances of receiving an overseas scholarship. I am putting a lot of effort into achieving this as my objective. Any student wants the chance to pursue their studies overseas, and I have that chance. I also take my coursework seriously and educate myself on all topics pertaining to my field of study, including research, literature, and academic journals.

Additionally, studying overseas will help me get a superior education and a diploma that is recognised across the world, both of which will allow me to compete for prominent jobs. So that I may accomplish my goal, I don't waste time on pointless activities and instead pay attention to my studies. My family is undoubtedly a tremendous benefit for me; they support me at all times and provide me whatever I require. Additionally, I owe a lot of credit for my success to my professors, who are a big help to me in my studies.

500 Words Essay On My Goal In Life

Everybody has a life goal. The aim or aspiration of man is his inner desire. One will not take any action if his or her goals are unclear.

What Is A Goal

The goal of an individual is to achieve a particular objective or target. Goal may also refer to the finish line of a race or the object that a player is attempting to insert as part of a game. As a noun, "goal" has other meanings. A goal is something you strive to achieve after working hard and persistently towards it.

Types Of Goals

Mastery goals | A mastery goal, such as "I will score higher in this event next time," is one that someone sets to attain or master a certain skill.

Performance-approach goals | A performance-approach goal is one where the person aims to outperform their peers. This kind of objective might be to improve one's appearance by dropping 5 pounds or to receive a better performance evaluation.

Performance-avoidance goals | When someone sets a goal, they frequently want to avoid performing worse than their peers, such as setting a goal to avoid receiving negative

Importance Of A Goal

A goal is similar to a specific objective, the anticipated outcome that directs behaviour, or an end, which is a thing, whether it be a tangible thing or an abstract thing, that has inherent worth.

Everyone should have a life goal. When you have a goal, you work hard every day to attain it and live for it. And when you succeed in those efforts, you feel more confident.

Goals provide us a path to follow. We can hold ourselves accountable by having goals. We are able to clarify what we genuinely desire in life when we set goals and strive toward obtaining them. We can better organise our priorities by setting goals.

Goals can be long-term and short-term. For instance, finishing your schoolwork might be a short-term goal. Learning a musical instrument, pursuing a profession as a doctor, or other long-term goals examples.

Due to the length of time required and the fact that we pick our professional objective, long-term goals play crucial roles in life. The most significant effects of choosing a certain career occur both during and after the effort to attain it.

Setting goals encourages us to create plans of action that will help us reach the desired level of performance.

Example Of A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam overcame obstacles to achieve his aim while serving as India's 11th president from 2002 to 2007. Dr Abdul Kalam was raised by Muslim parents who spoke Tamil. Being from a low-income household, Dr Abdul Kalam began delivering newspapers after school at a young age to help augment his family's income. This fact allowed him to help support his father financially. He did not succeed academically, but he was a dedicated student who enjoyed mathematics.

Even during his senior project in college, the dean expressed displeasure with the lack of progress and threatened to revoke his scholarship if the assignment wasn't completed by the next three days. He later put forth a lot of effort on his assignment and finished it on time, impressing the dean. From that point on, Dr Kalam worked as a scientist with the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) , eventually rising to the position of organisation chief. What follows is history.

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College , Faith & Inspiration , My Life , School · December 31, 2020

My Goals for 2021 + Free New Year’s Goals Template

2020 was something else. I don’t even know if I want to look back and reflect on this past year because so many significant events happened in my life and in society. It would take an entire post to do that and would ultimately take away from the main point of this post- to let you know what my goals for 2021 are! It’s always been an annual tradition for me to write down my new year’s goals . I think that it’s super important because it helps me start the year off with purpose and allows me to reflect on how I want to improve as a person. The list of goals also keeps me grounded when I feel lost in the middle of the year.

I don’t think I’ve ever shared my new year’s goals on my blog, but I wanted to do it this year because one of my goals is to be more active and personal on my blog. Hopefully, this post inspires you to come up with your own goals ! I’ve even created a cute template that you can use.

Click here to download this free new year’s goals template!

Here are my goals for 2021:

1. stop comparing myself to others, and give myself more credit..

In my previous post , I talked about my struggles with comparing myself to others on social media . Since writing that post, I’ve definitely improved with not internalizing the amount of likes/views/engagement I get. But if I’m being honest, there are times when I still get frustrated with the lack of growth I’m experiencing on social media. However, I’m learning to just take a pause and remind myself that everyone is at a different stage in life . The people I compare myself to on social media spend way more time curating a beautiful feed and engaging with their audience. For some people, it’s their full time job! As a pre-med student studying for the MCAT, I just don’t have enough time to allocate towards social media right now. My main priority is getting into medical school , which is a huge feat in itself!

Speaking of school, I feel like we students compare ourselves to our peers with regards to grades, extracurriculars, internships, jobs , etc. This type of mindset can get really toxic! I encourage you to remember that you cannot compare your journey to someone else’s because we all start at different places in life . The thing that matters most is achieving your goal , regardless of how your journey looks compared to others! In 2021, let’s give ourselves more credit . We worked this hard to get where we are today, so let’s continue to focus on improving ourselves and reaching our goals !

2. Be more thankful with what I have in life.

Given what we’ve gone through this past year, it can be super challenging to see the positives. However, I truly believe that we can shift our mindsets from a negative to positive one when we remember what we’re thankful for in life . Whenever I start to compare myself to others, a way to stop that mindset is to just count my own blessings . Since there is so much to be thankful for in my own life, there’s no reason to be envious of others!

3. Stop being so stressed out and worried all the time.

I am literally a ball of stress . Sometimes, the anxiety can get really overwhelming where I just start crying out of nowhere . This especially happens whenever I let my worries and problems snowball instead of addressing them. My goal in 2021 is to stop getting so stressed about the little things and the future . Whatever happens will happen. The only thing I can do is try my best and trust that God has it all under control . Stressing out won’t change anything .

I also want to start addressing whatever is worrying me right away instead of letting them pile up. Something I started doing is thinking about what is currently stressing me out and asking myself, “I s there anything I can do right now to fix it? ” If the answer is yes, then do it! If it’s no, then don’t let it consume you because it will take away from enjoying the moment.

4. Get a bootayyyy and abs hehe! (continue my fitness journey)

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on here, but I started working out this past summer! I started off with Blogilates, then moved on to doing Chloe Ting’s workouts, and now I’m following Pamela Reif’s weekly workout schedule! Before this summer, I hated exercising. Just to give you an idea- my senior year of high school, I became a P.E. TA so that I could avoid exercising! But after I started working out this summer, it’s become the highlight of my day, especially after studying for the MCAT all day. I’ve seen noticeable changes in my stomach, butt, and arms. This year, I want to continue my fitness journey and get some abs and a bootayyyy!! Check out my progress so far below, and let me know if you want me to make a post on what I’ve been doing to workout. I’ll keep you updated on my results. 🙂

I’m not the best at taking fitness progress photos, so please excuse the bad lighting and postures!!

5. Score a 520+ on the MCAT in March.

My MCAT score is my ticket to getting my application noticed by medical schools. I’ve been studying while working part time since November and still have a long way to go before my test in March. I’ve finished content reviewing, so for the nest two months, I need to focus on retaining the knowledge and acing my practice tests. 520 is the score I’m aiming for, which will require a lot of work, so I just need to stay on track! I’m looking forward to writing a future blog post about my experience for y’all.

6. Apply to medical school.

I cannot believe that I’ve come this far! It seems like just yesterday when I was in high school so oblivious to what college was like. Now, my high school and college days are OVER and I have one more obstacle to overcome before becoming a doctor- MEDICAL SCHOOL!! I guess medical school entails multiple obstacles, like actually getting in haha… My goal next year is to just put out the best and strongest application possible. However, a lot of clinical opportunities are not available right now because of COVID. I also want to remember not to beat myself up for not accomplishing as much as I wanted to.

7. Blog more, and just be more personal here.

Blogging has been my escape for the longest time. And it’s rewarding because I am able to share my experiences and hopefully help you. I’ve been wanting to blog more, but haven’t had the time because of MCAT studying and school. Once I finish the MCAT, I really want to start blogging maybe weekly and grow my platform to reach as many students as I can! I also want to write more personal posts again since lately I’ve been focusing on solely school related posts.

8. Be smarter with money so that I can pay off student loans, and learn how to invest.

Even though I finished college in three years, I still have a lot of loans to pay off. After the MCAT, I plan on working full time so that I can start paying off my student debt. I also want to learn how to invest, since I’ve heard that you can get a lot of passive income from it.

9. Spend more time with friends and family.

I think that one of my weaknesses is that I can become too focused with my studies or work that I don’t spend as much quality time with friends and family. Obviously, it’s kind of hard to see people with COVID, but I hope that once the pandemic is over, I’ll make more time for friends and family.

10. Strengthen my relationship with God.

I will be honest, this year, my relationship with God could have been stronger. I want to get back into reading the Bible and listening to worship music in the morning. I also think that strengthening my relationship with God in 2021 will help diminish my anxiety/stress, especially since next year will be stressful with med school apps.

Conclusion:

If you’ve read this far, I just want to thank you! Your support means the world to me, and I hope that you’ll continue to follow my blog in the upcoming year. I also hope that this post inspired or helped you with coming up with your own new year’s goals. I’m truly excited for what 2021 has in store for us!

Check Out My Most Recent Posts:

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Goal Strategist

Educational Goals Essay Samples and Overcoming Challenges

Crafting an essay on your educational goals can be a turning point in your academic journey. It’s your chance to showcase your aspirations and the roadmap to achieving them. Whether you’re applying for a scholarship, a college, or simply setting personal milestones, articulating your educational objectives is key.

You’ll find that a well-thought-out educational goals essay not only impresses admissions committees but also clarifies your own vision. Let’s dive into examples that can illuminate your path and inspire a compelling narrative for your academic future.

The Importance of Setting Educational Goals

When you begin to articulate your educational goals, you’re carving out a clear path for your future. Setting these goals is not just about fulfilling a requirement; it’s about establishing a foundation for your educational journey. By defining what you want to achieve, you create a sense of purpose that guides your academic decisions and keeps you motivated during challenging times.

Think of your educational goals as a roadmap. Without this direction, you might find yourself wandering aimlessly through your academic career. With goals, you have destinations in mind and can plan your route accordingly. As you progress, every milestone you achieve brings a sense of accomplishment and steels your resolve to tackle the next challenge.

It’s no secret that education opens doors to opportunity. But it’s the specificity of your goals that allows you to unlock the right doors for your aspirations. Whether it’s gaining expertise in a particular field, enhancing your skills for a desired profession, or expanding your knowledge base, your goals help tailor your educational experience to align with your vision.

Furthermore, setting educational goals lets you measure your progress. This is crucial for staying on track and making adjustments as needed. It’s also a way to communicate your aspirations to others. When applying for scholarships or college admissions, clear educational goals show that you’re not just a dreamer – you’re a doer with a plan.

Ultimately, having a well-defined set of educational goals empowers you to take control of your learning. It’s about making informed choices that resonate with your personal and professional ambitions. Remember, the act of setting goals is a dynamic process. As you grow and learn, it’s perfectly fine to refine or even overhaul your goals to stay aligned with your evolving interests and the ever-changing job landscape.

Understanding Your Passions and Interests

Identifying your passions and interests is key to crafting educational goals that resonate with your core values. Knowing what excites you and what you’re curious about provides a compass that guides your educational journey. To start, reflect on classes, topics, or activities that spark your enthusiasm. Are there subjects that you find yourself drawn to or projects that energize you?

When drafting your educational goals essay, consider incorporating examples that demonstrate how your interests align with your long-term aspirations. Perhaps you have a fascination with renewable energy that has prompted you to pursue a degree in environmental science, or maybe your interest in languages is steering you toward international relations.

Assessing your strengths is also crucial in understanding what educational pathway to follow. If you’re naturally good with numbers, a career in finance might be right up your alley. On the other hand, if you’ve always excelled at writing and communicating, roles in journalism or public relations might be more fitting.

Here are some strategies to align your passions with your educational goals:

• Engage in self-reflection : Regularly take time to think about what activities make you feel most alive.
• Explore various fields : Don’t hesitate to enroll in different courses or attend workshops to broaden your perspective.
• Seek advice : Connect with mentors or professionals in areas you’re interested in to gain insight and guidance.

Remember, your educational objectives should be a reflection of what truly matters to you – they will be the ones propelling you forward through the rigorous demands of academic life. By intertwining your goals with your passions and interests, not only do you set the stage for a fulfilling education, but you also pave the way for a career that’s aligned with your personal definition of success.

Setting Short-Term Goals

When you’re mapping out your educational journey, it is essential to include short-term goals. These targets provide immediate motivation and serve as stepping stones toward your broader aspirations. Short-term goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant , and Time-bound (SMART). Here are some strategies to consider:

• Identify skills you need to develop within the next few months
• Enroll in workshops or courses that enhance your expertise
• Seek mentorship or guidance to strengthen your professional network
• Tackle smaller projects that contribute to larger assignments or objectives

Your educational goals essay should highlight how these short-term goals are not just checkboxes on your to-do list but crucial components of your educational strategy. For example, if one of your long-term goals is to become an engineer, a short-term goal might be to master a specific type of software used in the field.

Prioritizing Your Efforts

To avoid feeling overwhelmed, prioritize your goals. Consider which short-term goals will have the most significant impact on your long-term vision. Devise a Prioritization Matrix to determine which tasks to tackle first. Here’s a simple categorization:

• Urgent and Important : Tasks you must do immediately
• Important but Not Urgent : Tasks that contribute to long-term successes
• Urgent but Not Important : Tasks that require your attention but may not have considerable long-term benefits
• Neither Urgent nor Important : Tasks that you could potentially eliminate or delegate

Tracking Progress

Measure your progress consistently. Keep a journal, use an app, or maintain a spreadsheet where you can track your successes and areas for improvement. Feedback from peers and mentors can also be invaluable in refining your approach. Reflecting on your progress helps ensure that you’re on route to meeting your long-term educational goals. It’s not just about ticking off goals; it’s about personal growth and adapting your strategies as needed.

Your educational goals are unique to you. By setting concrete short-term goals and consistently assessing your progress, you’re building a solid foundation for not only meeting but exceeding your educational aspirations. Remember, every big achievement starts with the decision to try, and even the most ambitious dreams are realized one step at a time.

Setting Long-Term Goals

When plotting out your educational journey, long-term goals are your ultimate endgame. These are broad objectives that typically look beyond the upcoming year and sprawl across several years or even a decade. Imagine them as the pillars supporting your career trajectory, laying the groundwork for the professional you aspire to become.

Long-term goals in education aren’t just about the credentials or titles. They’re deeply personal ambitions that resonate with your values and passions. Whether this involves pursuing a PhD, becoming an industry expert, or launching a startup, these goals keep you anchored and motivated through the ups and downs of your educational endeavors. Here’s how to define your long-term goals:

• Reflect on what you’re passionate about and how you want to impact the world.
• Research the education and experience necessary to enter your desired field.
• Think about where you see yourself in 10 or 15 years.
• Break down these visions into attainable long-term goals.

Harnessing the Power of Visualization

Visualizing your long-term goals can be remarkably effective. By creating a vivid mental picture of where you want to be, your goals become more tangible. Visualization also acts as a practice run for your brain, gradually cementing the belief that these outcomes are not just possible but likely.

To leverage visualization:

• Find a quiet place to concentrate without interruptions.
• Imagine achieving your biggest educational and professional aspirations.
• Emotionally connect with this envisioned future, experiencing the satisfaction and pride that comes with accomplishment.

Remember, setting long-term goals isn’t a one-off task. You should revisit and refine these goals periodically to ensure they remain aligned with your evolving interests and the changing landscape of your chosen field. As life unfolds, your insights will deepen, and the goals you set today may evolve to reflect the person you’re growing into tomorrow.

Aligning Your Goals with Your Desired Career Path

Once you’ve set your long-term vision, it’s crucial that your educational goals align tightly with your desired career path. Doing this ensures that every academic effort you make is a stepping stone towards your ultimate professional aspirations. But how do you make that alignment as strong as possible?

Start with Research . Scour through job descriptions, connect with industry professionals, and gain deep insights into the skills and qualifications that your dream job requires. Armed with this knowledge, tailor your educational pursuits to cover these areas.

Break down your long-term career ambitions into more immediate objectives. If you’re aiming for a career in software development, for instance, your short-term goals might include mastering a specific programming language or completing relevant coursework.

Prioritize Relevant Experiences . Alongside classroom learning, seek internships, volunteer work, or part-time positions in your field. These practical experiences not only enhance your resume but also help to solidify your understanding of the industry.

Monitor Industry Trends. Stay up-to-date with movements within your chosen field. If you’re in digital marketing, for example, your education should keep pace with evolving SEO practices, social media algorithms, and content creation tools.

Don’t forget the role of Soft Skills . In almost every career path, communication, problem-solving, and leadership skills are paramount. Find ways through extracurricular activities or courses to develop these skills alongside your specialized knowledge.

As you move through your educational journey, remain flexible. Your career path might shift as you uncover new interests or as the industry evolves. Regularly assess and adjust your goals to maintain alignment with your career trajectory, ensuring that with each step, you’re inching closer to your professional dream.

Overcoming Challenges and Obstacles

When pursuing your educational goals, you’ll inevitably face challenges and obstacles that may seem daunting at first. But remember, overcoming these hurdles is a crucial part of your journey towards career success.

Identify potential barriers early in your path. These might include financial constraints, time management issues, or limited access to resources. Develop a proactive plan to tackle these issues head-on. For instance, you might explore scholarships, part-time work, or alternative funding options if finances are a concern.

Time management often becomes a critical skill when you’re juggling school with other responsibilities. Here’s what you can do:

• Prioritize tasks by urgency and importance
• Create a structured schedule
• Practice saying no to non-essential activities

Sometimes, obstacles are not external but rooted in personal doubts or a lack of confidence. Believe in your capabilities and remember that setbacks can be transformed into growth opportunities. Seek support systems: mentors, peers, or educational counselors who can offer guidance and perspective.

Keep abreast with technological advancements and learn how to leverage them in overcoming educational obstacles. Online courses, educational software, and virtual study groups can bridge the gap between you and your goals.

Staying informed of industry trends ensures you remain relevant and can pivot when faced with industry shifts. Frequently audit your skills and knowledge to close any gaps and take advantage of internships to gain hands-on experience.

Your educational goals essay should reflect resilience and adaptability. Showcasing challenges you’ve faced and how you’ve overcome them not only lays out a realistic roadmap but also demonstrates your determination and strategic thinking. Keep your narrative authentic and your solutions actionable to illustrate a forward-moving trajectory in the pursuit of your education and career.

Crafting an educational goals essay that reflects your aspirations and plans is a powerful step toward achieving success. Remember, it’s your resilience and adaptability that will shine through as you navigate potential barriers and leverage the latest industry trends. Your ability to manage time effectively, believe in yourself, and build a solid support system will not only enrich your essay but also your educational journey. Stay proactive, stay informed, and let your essay be the roadmap that guides you to your goals.

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My goals for 2021, interesting lives, and other considerations

Every year, I set 10 goals for myself to set myself on the right direction in work and personal life. Since the same post from last year was popular, this post is a look back at how my 2020 goals went, and some thoughts about my goals for 2021. This post starts with some high-level thoughts on planning life, but you can also skip straight to my review of 2020 or my goals for 2021 if you want.

In every complex system, there are two sets of rules: the rules that everyone thinks describe the system, and the actual rules by which the system really works. In software, we call these two rules the “specification” and the “implementation”. In writing, there is the “standard grammar”, but great authors bend and change the rules in their writing. In anything with many moving parts, there is a big gap between how most people believe things work, and how they actually work. The sheer complexity of big software systems and human language and life can be overwhelming, so we make things easier on us by having a simpler model in our minds, constrained by a smaller set of rules.

Life itself is my favorite example of a system with this duality. Growing up, we learn the “standard grammatical rules” of how to live a good life. We get these rules engrained into our minds by seeing how other people around us navigate life, and hearing stories of role models passed around in the communities around us. Because we learn these faux-rules of life early on, it’s easy and natural to color within those lines for the rest of life.

But there are two interesting things I’ve observed about these rules we grow up with.

First, the “way life works” can be dramatically different for people who grow up in different communities. Just like there are differences in British and American and Aussie and international flavors of English, there are differences in the “rules of life” perpetuated by lineages of Silicon Valley tech workers and Midwestern families and Asian immigrant parents and European millennials. This difference is interesting, because it suggests that there’s more to understanding life than just the way you’ve always understood it growing up , no matter how you grew up.

Second, the people I think have lived life to the fullest have often straddled the gap between these agreed-upon, “common” rules of life and the actual rules, what’s actually possible . Hundred Rabbits lives on a boat, sailing around the Pacific and writing open-source software. Neri Oxman served in the Israeli Air Force and studied medicine before pivoting into architecture, and now leads pioneering research at the MIT Media Lab. George Hotz , who initially gave me seeds of this perspective on life, is a college dropout who rose to notoriety with iOS jailbreaks and is building a self-driving company in the open.

When I say “live life to the fullest”, I’m not talking about a measure of success, but rather a measure of fulfillment . To me, success feels uni-directional. You set a few goals, and you aspire to them. But fulfillment for me is also about breadth and color, about taking advantage of all the opportunities life presents to experience all the facets of it. This is why I set 10 goals instead of 1 or 3 every year. There’s so many things I want to try out and experience, and setting a single goal feels like selling myself short. We can live fulfilling lives without fitting into any particular conventional model of success. It’s a different measure of life, and one that I find more inspiring.

If the common rules we believe about life limit us, why do we carry these rules with us? We believe the things we do about a good life because, like any simplified mental model, it makes things easier.

When we venture outside the conventional, there are more opportunities for interesting experiences, things like sailing around the world, taking gap years or dropping out, working in an unconventional industry. But these are offset by the risks you accept when you venture outside the common rules of life. When you venture off trail, your hike might get a lot more interesting, but you better make sure you have hiking boots and know what you’re doing.

One of the common rules we have about life is “high risk, high reward.” For opportunities with disproportionate rewards, there are disproportionate risks. It’s a good rule of thumb, but like all rules of thumb, I think it oversimplifies the truth. Most things people consider “high risk” are really just “ways of navigating life that people around you haven’t done much.” This is obvious when you realize that what people consider “high risk” depends on how they were raised, and what background they come from.

Instead of thinking about a risk-reward tradeoff, I like thinking of planning life as a game of exploration. What kinds of lives are possible outside of the ones you’ve grown up knowing? If any of them appeal to you, how can you venture off trail safely without making a dumb mistake?

Computer security researchers are deeply familiar with the gap between the written and the unwritten rules of a computer system, because their job frequently involves stepping into that gap, exploring the unknowns of a digital territory and poking strategically for vulnerabilities and incongruences. But they don’t just poke and prod until they hit some jackpot while avoiding the risk, they depend on a combination of strategies and knowledge about the system they’re studying to explore safely.

As I step over into 2021, I’m thinking about how I can smartly explore the gaps between the written and unwritten rules of life safely, going off-trail for interesting experiences without getting lost. No matter how you grew up or who you spend time with, it’s human nature to simplify your inner model of your life, to make it easier to understand. To compensate, you can be constantly exploring. In that exploration, I hope to get a higher-fidelity view of the ways I can spend my life, both on and off the trail marked on the map.

Looking back at 2020

I started out 2020 by taking a break from school to work and travel for the first half of the year. My travel was cut short by the pandemic, and my work changed, but the goals still pointed me in the same direction through the year. Here are the ten I set for myself in January 2020, and how I fared.

I wanted to start a startup with a mission to help young makers and creatives, and to reach small profitability . This didn’t happen, partly because I didn’t have any ideas I felt particularly committed to, and partly because I didn’t dedicate much time to this particular goal. Having this goal on the list did push me to have lots of conversations about education and community building with interesting people, which I appreciated.

I also wanted to bootstrap a small passive income source or lifestyle business , probably by either selling content or with a small software service. I didn’t meet this goal either, but I think I had some opportunities to with a few projects that garnered a lot of attention. When those opportunities came up, though, I prioritized pursuing other interests with my time instead of focusing on making money, which I think made sense each time.

A passive income source feels more attainable today than it did a year ago, though, thanks to the efforts I made in 2020, and I want to carry this goal forward.

I wanted to either publish a book, or release 50 videos. This didn’t happen, but is happening! In 2020, I started researching and working on a book about building lasting communities, pulling from the many, many conversations I’ve had with community builders and founders and my own experiences running and thinking about communities. I started working on this in the second half of the year, and didn’t want to rush the process, but I hope to have something to launch in 2021.

I wanted to launch at least five big, major side projects . I wanted many of these to be non-technical, because I want to get better at organizing events and pulling together people to do something bigger. I think I exceeded this goal, building a bunch of interesting side projects from ray tracers to compilers to Twitter clients , many of which are written in a language I created myself . I didn’t do as well pursuing big non-technical side projects, and I’d like to improve there in 2021.

Every year, I commit 3% of my income to charitable giving . This year, my 3% went to the ACLU, Archive.org, Black Girls Code, and the Equal Justice Initiative.

Because I started the year with big travel plans, I planned to live for at least a week in 20 different cities . Obviously this didn’t happen due to the pandemic, but I did hit 10 places! I spent a week in Los Angeles, Boston, New York City, Kochi, Edinburgh, and London, and spent less than a week in Chicago, Glasgow, and Reykjavik. There were many things that made 2020 special, but for me, this round of trips definitely played a major role, and I’m looking forward to completing the rest of the trip post-pandemic. Given the circumstances, I’m going to count this goal as half-met.

I wanted to create and share 50 pieces of creative work . In 2019, I had slowed down in my blogging and neglected my wishes to draw or make more music, so I wanted to push myself to be more consistent in 2020. I think I met this goal with flying colors, writing, making and recording music, drawing, and creating random other hacks in 2020 shared on this blog and on linus.coffee .

I wanted to read and then write about 30 books . I read 23 books cover-to-cover in 2020, and I wrote about a few of them. In retrospect the writing portion was mostly there as a way to hold myself accountable, which I didn’t end up needing. I didn’t meet this goal, but I think I improved a lot here, and I want to continue this trend into 2021.

Because you might be asking: of the books I read in 2020, I’d recommend Exhalation by Ted Chiang, The Defining Decade by Meg Jay, The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi, and Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo.

I wanted to build a more consistent exercising habit in 2020, so set a goal to run 500 miles . I failed pretty badly on this one, and I can blame the pandemic, but I don’t think that’s a great excuse. I’m going to try this again in 2021, and try to be more consistent.

I wanted to host 20 events and gatherings to connect interesting people I knew to each other in 2020. I didn’t hit 20, partly because of the pandemic, but I did organize 10 gatherings of various sizes, including a few in-person and a few online events around side projects, machine learning , and community building. I think I pointed myself in the right direction with this goal, but didn’t follow through very well.

In my evaluation, I met about half the goals I set for myself in 2020, which I think is good – not bad, but not great. I think the goals were good and well-designed, but I focused too much on getting better at my strengths, and didn’t spend as much time on pushing myself on new skills or where I was weak.

On the bright side, another year is upon us, and I can try again.

My goals for 2021

My yearly goals are less about things I need to do and more about pointing myself in the right direction, picking the orienteering stars by which I want to sail for the rest of the year. Because of that, they’re usually good reflection of the distance between where I am today, and where I’d like to be. I check in with these goals every few weeks to see if I’m moving in the right direction, and re-set if I’m not.

Where I’d like to be hasn’t really changed all that much since the start of 2020, so the goals I have for myself also haven’t changed much since 2020. I’ve made progress in many of them, so this year, they became more specific and polished, but I’m carrying many of my goals from 2020 forward, because they still reflect the directions in which I’d to move this year, too.

Like the last few years, I have 5 work-related goals and 5 goals related to personal growth and life more broadly.

• I want to build three passive sources of income that I’m happy to work on. This might be through creating more content, or with a software product, or something else entirely. I don’t want to limit myself here to only ideas that are viable startup ideas, but encourage myself to turn more of my ideas into projects that can teach me about growing businesses and help me earn some passive income.
• I want to publish a book , probably the one I’m currently working on, about building lasting and resilient communities. I’m drafting it at the moment, but there’s a lot I still need to learn about editing, working with a press or publisher, and telling the world about it. I care about publishing a book not so much for the book itself, but because I’m curious about the process, and it seems like a great way to make myself research and think deeply about a topic.
• I want to build and launch 5 major technical side projects , just like last year. But this time, I want to do more projects that push me to learn something new. It’s easy for me to build interesting projects that use the same technologies I’m used to, and I’m sure I’ll do a lot of that in 2021, but I want to push myself to learn new technologies and explore new areas like artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies, iOS development, and operating system development.
• I want to build a community I’m proud of . The wording here is very intentional: I’ll measure my success by how much I’d want to participate in the community myself, and by the quality of the individual connections people find in the community, over its size or impact in raw numbers. I think all great communities start out as robust, small groups that last, and I want to learn more about community building by bootstrapping one this year seriously.
• As I’ve been doing every year, I’m committing at least 3% of my income to charitable giving .
• I want to create 50 pieces of creative work this year, at least half of which isn’t writing . I enjoyed pushing myself to be creative in 2020, but biased too much towards writing, which I think is the “easy option” for me. I want to spend more time making music and art, writing longer-form pieces, and maybe even photography.
• I want to read 50 books, half fiction, half nonfiction . One-a-week seems like an easy number to hold myself accountable to.
• I want to learn a new language (or polish up on my German to be fluent again). Languages are ways to understand a world through fresh new perspectives, and over time, I find myself appreciating more and more other people’s ability to think across backgrounds.
• I want to run 500 miles through the year. Simple, but I wanted this for myself last year, and failed pretty miserably. Maybe second time will be better!
• I want to host or organize 20 different events or gatherings to connect interesting people I know and make space for good conversations. This is another carry-over from 2020. I want to improve my skills of organizing small meals or get-togethers, because I find it enjoyable and valuable when I do it well.

One item tragically missing from this list is a goal about traveling more, missing for obvious reasons. But one of my big personal lessons from 2020 was just how much I enjoyed traveling, going to new places and meeting new people without pretense or agenda. I’m looking forward to a time when that can return to this list.

These are my goals for 2021, for the next 360 days.

Sometimes people ask me how I try to follow these goals throughout the year. I have a version of these goals noted in my notes app and linked on my phone’s home screen, and every couple of months, I’ll set a reminder on my calendar to check in on the goals to see if I’m headed in the right direction, or if I need to re-evaluate how I’ve been investing my time and resources.

As I’ve worked through my process of defining these goals this week, I noticed that most of this year’s goals changed very little from last year – they point me in the same directions, sometimes with a loftier bar to meet. Since my goals are a reflection of where I want to go, I think this is a sign that I’m converging on a clear idea of who I want to be, and more sure of the direction I’ve been moving.

Someone asked me today where I see myself in a few years. I don’t know. Unlike people in some career paths with inflexible timelines, I have the luxury of being able to plan my life more spontaneously in yearly increments, and I don’t take that spontaneity for granted, because it gives me the freedom to discover who I want to be incrementally, year by year.

I did respond to them with this:

I look around my day-to-day life and try to find things that I really enjoy doing, and things I enjoy less. I try to make myself a future where I get to spend more of my time doing the things I enjoy, and less of it with the things I don’t.

For me, 2021 is just another small step towards that future.

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How to Write an Essay About My Goal: A Comprehensive Guide

In the ever-evolving journey of life, setting clear objectives and ambitions is crucial. Whether these goals are short-term or stretch into the far reaches of our future, they act as guiding lights in our journey. This guide will assist you in articulating and expressing these ambitions effectively, especially when it comes to writing them down.

Understanding the Importance of Goal Setting

Setting life goals is a combination of introspection and foresight. It demands an understanding of one's current standing and a clear vision for the future. By penning down your goals, you not only provide yourself a clear road map but also make a commitment to yourself to achieve them.

How To Write An Essay About My Life Goals

• Introduction : Initiate with an engaging hook—be it a quote, question, or anecdote—that aligns with your goal.
• State your main goal : Elucidate on what your primary life objective is. Be it professional success, personal achievement, or societal contribution, clarify your aim.
• The 'Why' behind the goal : Delve into your motivations. Discuss the driving forces behind this ambition.
• Steps to achieve : Provide a roadmap. Enumerate the steps you'd undertake to transform this goal into a reality.
• Potential Challenges : Highlight potential obstacles and your strategies to navigate them.
• Conclusion : Summarize and re-emphasize your dedication towards your objective.

Career Goal Essay Definition

It's essential to differentiate between life goals and career goals. While the former encompasses broader objectives, a career goal essay underscores your professional aspirations, detailing why they matter and how you plan to attain them.

How Long is a Professional Goal Statement?

A professional goal statement's length can vary but should be concise. Ranging typically from 500 to 1000 words, it should capture your aspirations succinctly. Always adhere to specific guidelines if provided.

What to Avoid While Writing Your Career Goal Essay

• Ambiguity: Always be specific. • Unsubstantiated lofty goals: Your ambitions should be grounded in reality. • Neglecting personal growth: Showcase how your past has shaped your future. • Reiteration: Stay succinct and steer clear of repetition.

My Future Goals Essay: 12 Models

• Entrepreneurial Aspirations : Launching a sustainable fashion startup by 2030.
• Technological Goals : Developing an AI-driven community healthcare system.
• Educational Objectives : Attaining a Ph.D. in Quantum Physics.
• Artistic Pursuits : Holding a solo art exhibition in a renowned gallery.
• Societal Contributions : Establishing a foundation for underprivileged children's education.
• Scientific Aspirations : Contributing to renewable energy research.
• Medical Goals : Becoming a pediatric surgeon and researching rare childhood diseases.
• Travel Objectives : Visiting every UNESCO World Heritage site.
• Sports Ambitions : Completing an Ironman Triathlon.
• Literary Goals : Publishing a trilogy of fantasy novels.
• Environmental Aims : Pioneering a city-wide recycling initiative.
• Leadership Aspirations : Becoming the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Articulating one's life and career goals requires introspection, clarity, and foresight. This guide offers a structured blueprint to ensure your essay not only adheres to academic standards but genuinely resonates with your aspirations and dreams. Whether you're grappling with questions like "what should I write in my college essay?" or "how to draft a goal statement?", this guide is here to light the way.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the ideal structure for a future career essay? Start with an engaging introduction about your aspirations. In the body, detail the steps you plan to take, experiences that have guided you, and why you chose this career. End with a conclusion summarizing your determination and future vision.
• How do I ensure my career goals essay stands out? Incorporate personal stories or experiences that shaped your goals. Be specific about your aspirations and how you plan to achieve them.
• How can I relate my past experiences to my future career in the essay? Highlight skills, lessons, or challenges from your past and demonstrate how they have directed or prepared you for your future career.
• What should I avoid when writing an essay about my career goals? Avoid being too vague about your goals. Steer clear of clichés, and ensure your goals are realistic and grounded.
• How long should my essay about my goal be? This depends on the requirement. Usually, personal statements are between 500-700 words. Always adhere to the specified word limit.
• Can I include short-term and long-term goals in my essay? Absolutely! Detailing both shows planning and vision. Highlight how short-term goals will pave the way for long-term objectives.
• How do I conclude my essay about my goals effectively? Reiterate your dedication to these goals, reflect on the journey ahead, and end with a note of optimism and determination.

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21 Goals To Set In 2021

By: Author Nicole Booz

Posted on Last updated: April 3, 2022

Categories Goals , Self Development

The past year has been… challenging. Mentally, physically, emotionally, I think it’s safe to say that it’s all been exhausting. Usually I look forward to writing our annual goals post (catch 2020 , 2019, 2018 , and 2017 , respectively.) But this year I don’t quite feel the same passion. Thinking of goals to set for 2021 has definitely been more challenging than in past years!

Thinking about my own goals for next year, I’m not sure where to start. I think it’s going to be another inward-focused year. And another one that will likely be filled with ups and downs and stressful moments. As I reflected on this past year, I focused on what felt the most comforting to me. 

That’s the feeling I want to bring into next year. I don’t want to be scared or unsure. I want find my footing even in times that feel turbulent and feel secure, even when I can’t control what’s going on outside. 

These goal ideas are meant to inspire you to achieve more and dream bigger! We can all do hard things and are capable of more than we think we are.

21 Goals To Set For 2021 

1. make your home your sanctuary. .

As this past year has shown us, we’re spending a lot of time at home for the foreseeable future! And even when it is safe to go out again, our homes should still be our safe place. 

Start by focusing on one room in your house. Maybe it’s the space you get away to or maybe it’s the room you spend the most time in! But focus on making that space as beautiful and wonderful as you want it to be.

Your home is your safe space — and it’s time we treat it like so!

2. Shop small with businesses.

Many of us have been shopping small around the holidays but why not do that the rest of the year too? Whatever you’re looking for, chances are you can find it at a small business. 

3. Set a big financial goal you don’t think you can reach.

I’m big on setting financial goals, especially when they seem hard to reach. This year has been financially difficult to navigate for many of us. So maybe your goal for next year is more along the lines of “finding a new job with a 10% salary increase.” That’s a great goal worth setting!

4. Make rest part of your daily life. 

If balance has been elusive in the past, I challenge you to make rest part of your daily life.

Rest is an important part of self-care that many of us put off in favor of our to-do lists or other priorities. But 2021 should be the year of rest. It should be the year we make sure we’re taking care of ourselves mentally and physically. 

5. Have “treat yourself” as a line item in your budget.

Treating yourself doesn’t have to be expensive! It can be that $10 a week coffee habit or the once a month trip to Sephora. What I do think is important, though, is to make sure you’re saving for it appropriately. Add yourself to your budget! 

6. Pursue your dream career or hobby.

There’s always going to be something that gets in the way of going after your goals. But why should we let outside factors get in the way of our dreams?

There’s never going to be a “perfect” time to do things — so why not now? Give yourself 12 months to go after something you’ve been dreaming about.

7.  Read more books that interest you.

This is always a goal on my list . Reading is something that lights me up but often ebbs and flows in my life. Sometimes I find myself forcing myself to read things I don’t really want to just for the sake of having read them. 

Make a Goodreads account and read things that spark your interest! Whether it’s one book a month or one every six months, reading is great escape that will help you cope with stress.

8. Keep a plant alive for an entire year.

Don’t have a green thumb? Me either. I had the chance to work with Bloomscape this year (check out my gift guide here !)and I was so thrilled to learn how easy they make it to take care of plants! 

I recently got two plants (with instructional cards) that I’m making it my mission to keep alive in 2021. We will check in and see how I’m doing halfway through the year.

9. Take on a fitness challenge.

As I’ve entered my 30s now, it’s become even more apparent how important it is to take care of our health. I try to have activity in my day as much as possible but I’ve always felt my best when I have a consistent fitness routine . 

Whether you need a challenge to keep you focused or not, get active! 

10. Take your side hustle to the next level. 

If you have a side hustle, it’s time to take it to the next level. Set some goals for your business. Maybe it’s to make X many sales in X many months. Or hire someone to redo your branding! 

Side hustles are an awesome way to increase your income, plus they often give you a creative outlet you don’t have in other areas of your life.

11. Send more snail mail.

I always send Christmas cards around the holidays but hardly ever send mail during the rest of the year. It’s a fun way to keep in touch with friend and family and send them a reminder that you’re thinking of them!

I often use the Felt app to send cards to older family members who need just a bit of cheer every month.

12. Journal.

Journaling consistently is hard. I wish I could say it’s something I keep up with but the truth is that I’ve never been super great about it! My husband, on the other hand, journals every single day. Even if he writes down just a list of what he did that day, he always writes something in his notebook.

I do like to write my thoughts down when I’m struggling with something, though. This year I’m going to try to do it more often! Here’s to putting all those pretty journals I buy to good use.

13. Make new connections.

Whether it’s new friends or new colleagues, making new connections benefits everyone! In a time where we are all struggling to feel connected, take the time once a week or so to make a new connection. You never know where it might lead! 

14. Negotiate a bill.

I was talking to my brother recently and I asked him if negotiated his credit card interest rates and he said, “I didn’t know you could do that.” And yes — you can! Often all it takes is a phone cal and a quick conversation to get a lower interest rate.

You can negotiate other bills too. From your car and home insurance to your cell phone, there’s often many more deals to be had! Which means money saved for you.

15. Explore your town.

With international travel being off the table for awhile, why not take the time to explore what your local area has to offer? Following safety guidelines, of course! 

There’s often plenty to do around us that we didn’t even know about. From beautiful parks and hikes to small shops, there’s likely a lot to do nearby! 

16. Declutter your house room by room.

I love decluttering. If I ever make a second career, it will probably be helping people declutter and organize their homes. 

Tackle a room a month and go through your space and get rid of anything you don’t need or use anymore. Most of the stuff you have that’s in good condition can be used by someone else. You can also donate things or take them to a local thrift store as an option.

Once you’ve done that, get to organizing! An organized home is an understood home.

17. Wake up earlier.

I am always amazed by people who get up at 5am. It’s not that I *can’t* do it… it’s more like once the alarm goes off all I want to do is turn it off and go back to sleep — no matter when I went to bed!

I’m thinking of challenging myself of waking up at 5am for a month. That seems like a long time but I definitely need the extra work hours as I prep for six months of maternity leave beginning in March of next year. Would you join me?

18. Get into a cleaning routine.

This year I moved from a 2 bed/2 bath apartment to a 4 bed/4 bath house. It’s been a big change space-wise and I’ve quickly realized that I need to get into a cleaning routine sooner rather than later.

It doesn’t need to be anything super specific, but it is helpful for me to at least pick up and tidy one room a day in my house. 

I feel better when I maintain this routine and when everyone in my house has a role in cleaning, that helps too!

19. Donate to a cause you care about on a regular basis.

I tend to donate on a case-by-case basis… there isn’t one thing I always donate to. But I would like for that to change! There are many things I’m passionate about — mental health and education being two of those things. I can find local and national organizations that align with my values and donate to them regularly. 

20. Have a set bed time.

My bed time these days is around 10pm and I’m generally up by 7am. Sleep is so important to me and having a great routine for bedtime helps me feel more balanced and well-rested overall.

Aim for 6-8 hours a night if you can! 

21. Get creative in a new way.

This year is the year I try my hand at more DIYs! I promise. My mom was a very crafty person… and that is a gene I did not inherit. But I am going to try! Whether it’s crafts with my toddler or something for my house, a DIY project is something I will tackle! 

And there we have it, 21 goals to set for 2021!

I hope these ideas inspire you to dream bigger. Even is the next year or two doesn’t look like what we hoped it would, that doesn’t mean we can’t still make progress in other areas of our lives. 

Let me know what goals to set for 2021 that you are thinking about! 

About the Author

Nicole Booz is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of GenTwenty, GenThirty, and The Capsule Collab. She has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and is the author of The Kidult Handbook (Simon & Schuster May 2018). She currently lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons. When she’s not reading or writing, she’s probably hiking, eating brunch, or planning her next great adventure.

Website: genthirty.com

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How to Set Goals for 2021 that Will Actually Stick

It's January, which means for a lot of people it's time to make New Year's Resolutions.

Personally, I've never liked the idea of waiting until January to set resolutions for change. But I do like using it as an opportunity to review what I've accomplished in the last year and set goals for the next.

That sounds like the same thing. What's the difference between a goal and a resolution?

There really isn't one, except that resolutions get a bad reputation (probably deservedly), since by February, around 80% of people have already failed to stick to their new year’s resolution.

There are a lot of reasons why that's the case - but a big reason is how hard it is to form new habits. One study found that it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form a habit, depending on the person. They also found that it takes at least 66 days (or more than two months ) to make that habit automatic.

There's usually a good reason that people goals give up on their goals - competing priorities (like family and work), or temptations to go back to bad habits (like delicious cookies or an awesome new video game).

Because of that, I follow the same process every year in setting goals and ensuring I'm as successful as I can be.  I've done a LOT of research on what makes goals effective, and how to stick to them over the long term.

So, whether your goal is to code for 100 days, learn a new programming language, or start working out regularly, I'm here to talk about how you can set yourself up for success.

How to Get Started with Goal Setting

First, write down everything you want to accomplish. Then, narrow it down. Start with one goal, maybe a few if they're in very different fields (for example, you want to get in shape, start a technical blog, and start saving for a house downpayment). All require commitment and time, but in different spheres of your life.

Circle the goals you've chosen. If you do have multiple goals, make sure you know what their relative prioritization is - which one is most important to you? Essentially, if two of your goals come into conflict, which one is more important? You should have an answer to this question before you continue.

If you're struggling with this process, think about your motivation. Is it external? Did someone else tell you that this is important, or is this something important to you?

If it is an externally-motivated goal, figure out how to generate internal (intrinsic) motivation. People are generally much more likely to stick to goals which have intrinsic motivation.

Now, the hard part. Accept that the goals which you didn't circle are going to be ignored until you accomplish your circled goals.

Dividing your time and energy is difficult, but it's also the reason that many people fail to reach their goals. Trying to do too many things at once can be exhausting, and result in you falling back into bad habits.

Define Your Goals

Now it's time to refine your goals. There are a LOT of different theories on how to set (and maintain) effective goals, but most share several characteristics.

This info is derived from research by Dr Edwin Locke and Dr Gary Latham, who pioneered much of modern goal setting theory. They outlined 5 characteristics which can help you set and maintain successful goals.

Make your goals as specific as possible. Instead of saying, 'I want to lose weight' or 'I want to learn Python', try 'I want to lose 10 pounds' or 'I want to create a text-based adventure game'.

These goals are specific enough that you'll know if you've reached them, leaving you with a sense of accomplishment.

Set difficult goals. Tougher goals will motivate you to work harder. Plus, even if you fail to reach the goal, the progress you'll make toward a very tough goal will get you farther toward your goal than accomplishing an easier goal.

Demonstrate your commitment to your goal. This can be a financial investment (signing up for a year-long gym membership), or a personal one (telling your family and friends what goal you're working toward and asking them to keep you accountable).

Both options will increase the likelihood that you follow through on your goals.

Feedback helps you improve on your journey. For example, getting a personal trainer, or a friend who is working on the same coding challenge you are can be very helpful. They can provide direct feedback to help you, or just keep you motivated (and accountable) to keep working toward your goal.

They can also make the task easier by helping out with complex tasks (like creating a workout plan for you, or a syllabus for learning to code).

The more time you have to devote to actually working on your goal, instead of planning out how to work on your goal, the faster you'll be able to accomplish it (essentially the difference between developing a series of steps to learn back-end development and actually carrying those steps out).

Account for the complexity of the task. If you've never coded before and you're trying to build a project from scratch, account for the extra time you'll need to learn and troubleshoot something you're unfamiliar with.

A great way to do this is to break the goal down into smaller, more manageable tasks. Set these as mini-goals along the way, which can help keep you motivated as you work toward a larger goal. Plus, the more detailed your goals are , the more likely you are to follow through.

I tend to prefer backward goal setting when working on my goals, but any of the following frameworks can be very helpful! Essentially, the way this works is by thinking backward from your end goal.

For example, one of my 2020 goals was 'I want to pass the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Exam by December 2020.'

Then, I needed to think backwards about how to accomplish the goal. For example, 'I want to pass 3 practice exams with a score of 80% or higher by December 15th'.

I then repeat this process. 'It will probably take me a month of practice questions to achieve the score I want, so I should plan to finish reading all suggested whitepapers by November 15th'.

'I want to read 4 white papers, so if I can read one per week, it will take me one month to finish the whitepapers. Thus, I want to finish an overview course of the material by October 15th'

'The course I plan to take is 60 hours long, and I can dedicate two hours per day to watching course lectures, so I should plan on starting it no later than September 15th.'

In this way, I have a dedicated, step-by-step plan to accomplish my goal and I know exactly when I need to start each stage of my plan.

Key to this strategy is including information on how long I can devote each day/week/month to working toward my goal, how long each stage will take me to complete, and how many stages there are in total.

Other theories on goal setting

Here are some other theories on goal setting. Read through them and find the one you think will work best for you.

• SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) Goals
• OGSM (Objective, Goals, Strategies, and Measures)
• Just One Word
• Backward Goal Setting
• Goal Journey Map
• Big Hairy Audacious Goal
• The Golden Circle
• Tiered Goal Setting
• Making Tinier Resolutions
• Warren Buffett's Two List Strategy

How to Break a Habit Loop

A habit loop can be broken down into three parts - a cue, a routine, and a reward. For example, I have a very bad habit of checking Twitter far too often. That breaks down into the cue (my feeling of boredom), the routine (me checking Twitter), and the reward (my feeling of interest in a tweet).

In order to break that habit, I need to replace the habit and the reward.

For example, since one of my goals this year is to get outside every day, when I feel bored, instead of immediately going to Twitter, I've started getting up and making a cup of tea or going for a quick walk.

Both of those serve as small rewards for me - I end up feeling refreshed, more awake, and more focused. It also means that I'm changing one of the habits which prevents me from reaching my goal (any time I'm mindlessly scrolling Twitter isn't time I'm spending outside).

Identifying the habits you want to change, what prompts them, and what would feel like a reward to you is deeply personal and will depend on what habits you'd like to change. However, identifying the habits which are keeping you from accomplishing your goals are the first step to breaking them.

A quick note that when you're writing goals, it's more effective to write positive goals (like, I want to get outside everyday) rather than negative goals (Watch less TV, spend less time on Twitter, and so on). Your brain tends to find the first more compelling and you're more likely to stick to it.

Hold Yourself Accountable

Physically write down your goals. Buy a notebook just for your goal tracking, tape them to the wall if you like, and tell the people in your life.

Telling other people and writing it down holds you accountable, and makes you more likely to stick to it.

Plan for Obstacles

Figure out what kind of obstacles you’re going to face. If you're trying to lose weight, maybe it’ll be those delicious brownies your partner makes, or the fact that you typically order pizza on Friday nights.

If you're trying to carve out time to write technical blog posts, maybe it's your daughter who wants to play a new game with you.

Then, figure out what you can do to change your environment in order to succeed. Often what determines whether or not your goal is successful is not how much self control or determination you have, but how many temptations you have. The fewer temptations, the more likely you are to be able to stick to it.

For example, perhaps ask your partner to save the brownies for special occasions only, or look for other restaurants in the area which offer healthier take-out options.

A big part of any environment is the people around you. Find friends who will support you (ideally folks who are working toward the same goal) - if you're trying to lose weight that might be folks at your gym, or in a local running club.

If you're trying out a 100 days of code challenge, find friends on the freeCodeCamp forum . Be accountability buddies for each other!

At the same time, figure out who might not support you (perhaps because they want you to continue hanging out with them every week during happy hour) and what to say to them. Tell them what is changing, why, and how much you still appreciate or value them.

And remember – don't sound too apologetic. This is a good thing for you and your friends should celebrate it.

For example, "I've really enjoyed getting together every week, but I'm going to have to start coming every other week. I'm trying to learn how to code and I need to spend Friday nights working on my new project. Thank you for your support!". Practice your script and stick to it.

Plan for Failure

Failure is almost inevitable when you're trying to change old habits. Accept that, and don't beat yourself up too much if you slip up.

Instead, take a deep breath and get back on track – and use science. Studies have shown that people are more likely to be successful during a time that feels like a new beginning (for example, your birthday, or the beginning of new year, or a milestone like moving or starting a new job - or the start of a new week).

So, even if you get off track, use a day that feels like a new beginning to get back on track.

Celebrate Small Successes

Make sure you reward yourself for meeting small goals. If you're trying to run a marathon but haven't run much before, try setting goals to run a 5k, 10k, and a half marathon.  

When you meet each goal, celebrate it! Try posting on social media, telling your friends, or giving yourself a small reward (I like Snickers bars).

Check in Regularly

Keep track of your progress toward your goals – and check in with yourself (or your accountability buddy) every few months or weeks.

Are you on track? If not, why not? Are there changes you can make in your environment to make you more successful? Or, is the goal less important now, because your priorities have changed? Perhaps it's time for a fresh start with a new goal.

Looking for more research on goal setting?

• 6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You A Better Person
• How to Crush Your Habits in the New Year With the Help of Science
• Goal Setting Theory
• Research on Forming Habits

A Sample Template for Goal Setting

If you're interested in using this method of goal setting, please feel free to use the template below, removing my example and replacing it with one of your own!

Goal: I want to be able to deadlift 200 pounds by the end of 2021. This goal is clear (200 pounds) and difficult (right now I can only deadlift ~120 pounds). I don't need to account for complexity in this case, as I already deadlift semi-regularly.

Break it Down: In order to accomplish this goal, I need to lift consistently over the entire year (ideally, at least 2x per week).

Feedback/Accountability: I will go to the gym with my partner 2x/week, who will keep me accountable to my goal and will provide feedback on my deadlifting form.

Potential Obstacles: When it's cold, I'd often rather stay inside than go to the gym. Also, part of lifting heavy is eating healthy, and I have a penchant for snickers bars.

Break the Loop: When I'm bored (cue), I go looking for snacks (habit, while the snack is the reward). I'm going to stock healthier snacks, so when I do go looking for snacks, instead of grabbing junk food, I grab fruit or make popcorn on the stove.

Plan for Obstacles: My partner likes the gym more than I do and will be my accountability buddy. Also, I've committed to a gym membership that I have to pay for even if I don't go.

Plan for Failure: I accept that there's a chance that I can't lift as much as I want, but as long as my deadlift improves and I go to the gym regularly, I'm going to be pretty happy because I'll feel healthy (and strong)!

Celebrate Small Successes: Feeling really strong and powerful when I lift heavy weights is a huge motivator for me. That feeling (and some really great music) is how I celebrate my smaller successes.

Check In Regularly: I'm going to use an app called 'Strong Lifts' to track my progress.

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• Setting and Achieving Goals Knowing that will give you the motivation you need to give your life the best shot as you work towards your goals.
• The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals The sixth aim is to provide all people with clean and safe water by eliminating dumping, reducing pollution, and minimizing the release of dangerous materials and chemicals.
• Google’s Strategic Goals The global market for mobile devices continues to grow, which will has a direct impact on the company’s operations in the market. This approach has enabled the firm to stay competitive in its industry.
• Professional Goals of a Nurse Practitioner Based on the mentioned aspects of NPs’ professional preparation and practice, one should set SMART goals and come up with the plan of achieving them to become a successful NP.
• Behaviors, Goals, and Characteristics of Exhibitionists One theory that has been put forward to explain such behavior suggests that exhibitionists are normally under some stressful condition, and they try to relieve this stress through the exposure of their genitals in the […]
• Zero Hunger Among Sustainable Development Goals The Sustainable Development Goals which are also known as Global goals were adopted by the United Nations as a Universal step towards ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensure that by 2030, all people enjoy […]
• Goals and Objectives Mission and vision though often confused as to mean the same things are different in that mission is the purpose of existence of an organization while vision is what the organization hopes to achieve. The […]
• Goals of the Life: Personal Experience of Responsibility for Life and Happiness I have a lot of goals in my life and do all my best to realize them in my life. The best way to achieve your goal is to make a plan of steps to […]
• The Achievement of Millennium Development Goals in India The problems associated with the achievement of these goals will also be discussed and solutions to the problems. 1 percent by the end of the year against the target of 50 percent.
• The Impact of Goal Setting on Motivation and Success Correct goal setting is needed not only to determine the endpoint accurately but more importantly, it is to motivate and encourage an even faster and more efficient achievement of the goal by minimizing certainty and […]
• Sustainable Development Goals in the UAE The United Arab Emirates has significantly contributed to the SDGs accomplishment to preserve the environment and balance the social and economic factors.
• Goals for Medical Records Clerk It has already been mentioned that one of the tasks the clerk will be expected to carry out is the extraction of daily charts to be used in appointments the next day.
• Stevens District Hospital: Analysis and Goals They focus on the vision to formulate strategic goals while focusing on the changing demands of both the physicians and the target patients.
• Art and Society: Goals and Duties of Artists Therefore, it can be asserted that one of the roles of art is to preserve the cultural trait and heritage of a community or society. This is both to the user of the artistic material […]
• The Smart Goal-Setting Process: Motivation and Empowerment In order to achieve success in pursuing a goal, there has to be a way to measure success, which is why the second point of SMART goals theory is that the goals need to be […]
• Essay on the Career Goal: Nursing In the modern world, the nurse’s role is changing dramatically: From being a resident assistant to the treating physician, the registered nurse is becoming the critical link in the clinic.
• Reflection on Statistics Learning Goals In this regard, I hoped to obtain knowledge in designing of experiments, collection and analysis of data, interpretation of results as well as drawing of conclusions.
• Family Nurse Practitioner Career Goals As I plan to deal with children, I will be involved with planning the care of children with their parents and treating childhood illnesses.
• The Role of Stimulation Theory in Setting and Achieving Goals It is the desired goal and achievement that is attached to the activity that will inspire them to even overcome other challenges with the hope of achieving them.
• Motivation to Succeed in Life: Skills to Succeed and Achieve Aims and Goals Most of the methods usually help me to identify the strengths I have in the skills. This will help me to develop in management of my skills especially in the implementation skills.
• Goals Achievement in the Teacher’s Career A set of personal goals in a teacher’s life is important because it acts as a guideline to ensure that it strengthens his or her career and also benefit the students.
• Handmade Knitwear Company: Environmental Analysis and Goals In addition, an analysis of the customer demand will be carried out in the target market in order to identify the items that are required traditionally by the target audience.
• Curriculum Development Role in Achieving the Education Goals The process includes outlining the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders that take part in the entire process, elaborating on the key features of the four phases of curriculum development process, the crucial conditions to […]
• The fire station goals, objectives and missions The New York City fire station is for the third time publishing its goals and objectives, enabling it to successfully implement its services to the community.
• Heinz Corporation: Mission, Goals and Objectives The company diversified itself through advertising and the introduction of new products to meet the needs of the customers. The company has grown to produce a variety of products and it is one of the […]
• Importance of Setting Goals and Strategic Planning In an Organization With the ever-increasing competition and changing business environments, proper planning and setting of achievable strategic goals have become an integral part of all organizations, as they are two of the primary determinants of an organization’s […]
• Patient Interview: Goals and Components In this case, an interview should be considered more as a way to establish a good relationship with a patient in terms of the realization of empathy and reassurance.
• The Sustainable Development Goals Within the range of SDG between 4 and 17, the goals number 6 and 10 stand out as the most relevant to the healthcare field.
• Goal Setting for Achieving Growth and Development When the goal is set, one should be able to visualize himself enjoying the benefits from the target after the specified time has elapsed, to avoid engaging in unachievable ventures In setting goals, we should […]
• Goals of business The aim of this paper is to critic and analyse the claim that the main goal of businesses is profit maximisation. CSR is the obligation of businesses to offer social, legal and economic support and […]
• Short and Long-Term Goals for Nursing Career For one to fulfill long-term goals, it takes him or her a lot of time while short-term goal is a part of the several steps involved in the long-term goal.
• Anti-Globalization Movement’s Goals and Power The movement works with the destruction of the legal status of “legal entities,” the disappearance of commercial fundamentalism liberated, and the necessary actions of economic privatization by the World Bank, the Foundation International Monetary Fund, […]
• Creating SMART Nursing Goals: What It Takes to Improve Healthcare Standards In order to change the standards of the organizational behavior within the healthcare facility in question, it will be required to adopt the principles of lean management. Such attitudes can and will be changed with […]
• Roman Aristocratic Ethos, Values and Goals The first characteristics of the nobility appeared to be described from the period of Roman Greece, when the Roman Empire won the battle of Corinth and made the capital Byzantium city.
• Career Goals in Educational Technology The University offers the Master of Arts and the doctor of Philosophy degrees in Educational Technology. One of the spread and reasonable career goal for an applicant is to achieve success in the field of […]
• Nursing Practicum Project Goals and Ideas The focal goal of the project is to undertake at least research in the hospice or a rehabilitation center. The project would collect information about the presence of the pathogen in the hospital.
• Expectancy and Goal-Setting Theories in Healthcare The goal-setting theory suggests that the primary factors determining a person’s motivation level are establishing specific goals that are difficult to achieve on a routine basis and the subsequent commitment to achieving those goals.
• Professional Goals Statement for Nurses Nurses becoming doctors of nursing practice is a common thing in the medical field, and it is the engine of progress.
• Goal-Setting and Employee Empowerment The current research reveals that goal-setting and goal clarity positively influence the workforce’s empowerment levels, with empowerment mediating goal-setting and performance.
• Colonialism: Features, Goals, and Consequences The term “colonialism” is used to characterize the system of domination of the developed countries of Europe and the USA. At the end of the XIX century, the dependent territories and colonies came under the […]
• The Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree’s Goals The rapid expansion of the DNP degree has been associated with the challenge of ensuring timely implementation of best nursing practices as well as for leaders to advance the development and the design of DNP […]
• Personal Career Goals and Learning Plan This is my short term goal at the moment and I want to ensure that I complete it within a span of eighteen months.
• Work Ethics & Goals: Organizational Behavior The first critical organizational behavior issue illustrated in the case study is the work ethic of the employees working in an office situated in Peru that is reflected in their perceived lack of responsibility, which […]
• Marketing Goals: Achieving Measured Objectives The extent of achievement needed helps the business to know if it is on the right path of attaining the set goals. Goals should be set to create a difference in the company that helps […]
• Amazon, Its History, Present, Goal, and Strategies The initial idea of Bezos was to create the largest online shop that would provide the clients with the opportunity of purchasing books.
• Path-Goal Theory: Four Major Aspects Subordinates traits change depending in their preferences for structure, their desire for control, their need for affiliation as well as the confidence they have in their ability to complete tasks.
• Imogene King’s Theory of Goal Attainment The objective was to “analyze the professional interaction of nurses and patients in adherence to tuberculosis treatment using the Theory of Goal Attainment and Conceptual Model of Interaction Open Systems by Imogene King”.
• Imogene M. King’s Goal Attainment Theory This implies that effective models and theories of nursing should be applied to guide several aspects of operating rooms to enhance outcomes and turnover time for physicians and patients.
• Professional Portfolio, Related Barriers, and Future Career Goals One of these barriers to portfolio development is the lack of time to draw up, review and assess the portfolio. It can be said that a professional portfolio is a summary of all the highlights […]
• Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals In conclusion, the completion of this project is necessary for humanity to survive and preserve the planet and life on it.
• The Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals are the eight objectives, which are intended to improve the well being and stability in the world.
• Animal Rights: Definition, Goals, the Future The objectives and goals of the animal rights advocators and what they believe in has gained popularity in the United States of America and people are now aggressively prohibiting the various cruelty that some people […]
• Brand Loyalty as the Ultimate Marketing Goal Brand Loyalty is not a very difficult concept to understand, a person becomes loyal to a brand when he/she is completely satisfied with the performance of the brand. The factor which matters the most is […]
• Project Management Course: Goals and Ambitions Despite the fact that my targets of becoming proficient in project management and developing the skills of a true leader remain in their paces, some of my goals have been shaped with regard to the […]
• Teaching Career: Setting Goals The goal that I want to set is that by the end of the year, more than eighty percent of the students in grade 7 should be above the grade level in English.
• Educational Goals of the Beauty and the Beast Tale She volunteered to take the place of her father in the castle under the beast’s confinement. Belle became close to the beast after it saved her from a pack of wolves that had attempted to […]
• Teaching Social Studies: Reasons and Goals It should be noted that the researches have shown that when the teachers are dedicated to the whole process and find the ways to make the students believe that this subject is vital together with […]
• Marketing Strategy: Goals and Objectives To begin with, the ice creams marketed by the company will provide a new image to the consumers. The company will sensitize the customers about the quality of its products thus making its business successful.
• World Religions and Ultimate Goal of Human Existence In Daoism, man is only part of the whole; he is part of the universe and his significance is not greater or less than that of everything else in it.
• Reading Incentive Program from a Goal Orientation Perspective This was the reason why the teacher was concerned knowing that reading skills are important to the success of the students and the school in future.
• Situational Leadership Theory & Path-Goal Leadership Theory Here, the leader takes the responsibility of directing the followers on the right path to follow in the execution of the different tasks assigned to them.
• Google’s Corporate Values and Goals One of the most striking features about the Google Company’s policy towards its employees is that the company incorporates the efficient use of company values as a guide for their employees and the key principles […]
• Assessment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) The SDGs seek to end poverty, safeguard the environment, and provide prosperity for all the argument concerning the effectiveness of the SDGs as MDG successors continue.
• Nurses’ Role in National Patient Safety Goals They may also monitor patients for indicators of falls and report any incidences to the proper authorities. Nurses may play a significant role in detecting safety hazards in the patient population by performing frequent evaluations […]
• Communication Style Development Goals In the era of globalization and the spread of intercultural organizations, I consider it important to be aware of the cultural characteristics of professional communication.
• United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Achievement The UN’s goal of implementing the targets of climate action cannot be achieved by 2030 due to the omnipresence of restricting factors and the delays in accomplishing the planned efforts.
• Aligning Compensation With Organizational Goals It is essential for organizations to consider the needs and preferences of their employees when designing a compensation strategy in order to ensure that it is effective and motivating for the workforce.
• Artificial Intelligence: Exhibiting Goal-Oriented Behavior Most people may accept and adapt to AI monitoring their health and shopping habits in the upcoming years. It will give people the tools to adapt to a constantly changing and complicated world without stress.
• Information Security Program’s Goals and Opportunities First of all, it allows one to have easy access to essential data, depending on the area that is required. It promotes gathering confederative people and followers around one, which, in turn, contributes to the […]
• Why the Boys Preserve Their Goals in Lord of Flies by Golding The second is that the boys eliminate the burden of civilization, which forces them to run wild, forgetting about values and discipline.
• Self-Reflection on Life Values, Goals, and Death I want my life to be full of genuine relationships despite how challenging it is to find and cultivate such bonds in modern society.
• Homeland Security Goals and Issues The subsequent occurrences past the 9/11 terror attack reveal the real implication of the U.S.government’s insistence on democracy despite maintaining the title of a republic in Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution.
• Homeland Security Goals, Legal and Ethical Issues The bombings led to the loss of more than 3000 people, and resulted in the government taking many legal measures, including the enactment of the homeland security act of 2002.
• The Civil Rights Movement’s Goals and Achievements Despite the considerable oppression of non-white groups of the population and the fear accompanying it, the Movement continued to fight and achieved success in its goals, affecting the country even in the modern period.
• The American Revolution’s Goals and Achievements The Patriots’ goals in the War, as well as the achievements of the revolution and the first Constitution in relation to different groups of population will be discussed in this essay.
• Texas City: Sustainable Development Goals Outline Texas City Reduce Poverty: Reduce the poverty rate in the city. Reduce the number of people living in poverty from 14.
• Achieving the 2021 Patient Safety Goals I think that easy access to disinfection liquids and extensive usage of gloves and masks are primary goals that should be realized in all medical facilities.
• The TAQA Firm’s Sustainable Goal Implementation TAQA deals in the main Line of Business in the storage and production of gas and oil, water desalination, and power generation.
• Multicultural Education: Goals and Perspectives The concept of multicultural education challenges all forms of discrimination in schools and society through the promotion of democratic principles of social justice.
• Healing Hands Hospital’s Change Goals Such an approach will create motivation for healthcare experts and allow Healing Hands Hospital to take the leading role in the market and have a competitive edge.
• Leadership Skills, Goals and Vision of Nurses I aim to participate in activities involving leadership, research, and practice to advance the nursing profession. Leading with compassion and empathy can encourage nursing staff to act with the same traits in their practice.
• Neuropsychological Diagnosis and Its Main Goals In recent years, variations of the Stroop Test have been used to help people increase mental alertness and sharpen directed attention skills.
• Terrorism: Goals and Strategies Their main purpose can range from changing the direction of the politics in the state to overthrowing the exciting government and establishing control over the population.
• Social Work: Values, Experience, and Educational Goals First of all, I would like to start with the fact that people, as phenomena, have always attracted me, and also aroused a desire to help, if necessary.
• Colin Copernicus: Sacrifice for a Goal That is why it is very important to have faith in the fulfillment of the goal, even if, for the sake of it will have to sacrifice everything.
• The Theory of Change for Achieving Long-Term Goals The Theory of Change is a way of describing a set of assumptions on the basis of which plans for moving towards a long-term goal are formed. According to the theory of change, the first […]
• Program Goals and Dispositions in the Education This increases students’ awareness of their learning and skills and gives teachers a strong incentive to continue working with the pupils.
• A Historical Missional Encounter and Goals In addition, it is important to remember about the ultimate goal of the missionary action to promote unity and love of God.
• Corporate Sustainable Development Goals Reporting The most recent addition to this type of reporting is the development and promotion of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations.
• Osteoporosis Therapy Goals and Prescribed Drugs The success of the therapy can be monitored in the long term by checking the overall improvement in BMD. The patient should be informed of the drug’s efficacy, safety and adverse effects.
• Behavior Therapy, Its Branches, and Goals From classical behaviorism to current therapy, psychologists have become increasingly interested in the formation of desirable behavior and the comfort and psychological health of a person.
• Environment Fund’s Goals and Strategy Environment Fund is the institutional organization founded with the support of the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture to achieve environmental sustainability and contribute to innovations in the environment and meteorology sectors.
• The National Association of Social Workers’ Goals The program’s main goal is to raise the work standards and rights guarantees for social workers. I found that the program offers protection, support, and assistance to current or retired social workers.
• SMART & SMARTER Goal-Setting Techniques This paper aims to discuss the process of goal-setting regarding the long-term and short-term goals, and using the SMART or SMARTER technique.
• A&R Helping Hands Company’s Mission and Goals The COVID-19 situation changed the sphere of healthcare and highlighted the fact that testing is one of the most vital procedures.
• Designing a Creative Community Public Space: Sustainable Development Goals Consequently, this work will focus on describing the construction of a creative public space capable of fulfilling a number of different social goals and improving the condition of the local community and the world at […]
• Personal and Professional Goals After Pursuing a Sociology Degree This course will help me evaluate social issues such as race and gender equality in the military, war and peace, the recruitment process, handling military families, and the social organization in the military.
• New Facility Layout to Achieve Sharjah Broadcasting Authority’s Goals Design project is developed on the basis of design concept and consists of measurements of the building, design solution with indication of all the necessary dimensions of premises, a plan with the arrangement of furniture […]
• Achievement of Goals Through Stakeholders Partnership The improvement of communication among people could be achieved by designing and establishing of a creative public space that would satisfy needs for collaboration, self-expression, and self-development. One of the types of a public spaces […]
• Goals of Workers’ Justice vs Environmental Justice Dignity can be promoted in the Workplace by acknowledging everyone’s dignity, listening to and encouraging others’ opinions, among others Another goal of workers’ justice which is known to work hand in hand with environmental justice […]
• Sustainable Transportation and United Nations’ Goal The critical difference Eco-Courier will have over its competitors is the use of environmentally-friendly vehicles and motorcycles in the delivery of parcels throughout the UK.
• Leadership: Definition and Goals Reynolds sought to understand the diverse definition of leadership in students of the Defense Acquisition University’s Executive Leadership and Coaching programs.
• Mentoring and Goals Achievement “Mentoring can get you straight to your goal” is Milton Chang’s article highlighting the significance of mentorship in stimulating the achievement of career goals. A principal argument in the article is that mentees should enlist […]
• The National Patient Safety Goals for 2021 Misidentification led to serving a mother’s breastmilk to the wrong newborn, posing a danger of transmitting bodily fluids and possible diseases to the newborn.
• The Four Goals of Anti-bias Education The challenges of anti-bias education are making children behave respectfully even to those individuals they may not like, overcoming shyness in class, and teaching them to differentiate between right and wrong.
• SMART Short, Medium and Long Term Goals The main tasks of palliative care are the relief of pain and other painful symptoms, quality care, as well as social, psychological and spiritual support for the patient and his relatives. To measure and evaluate […]
• Diversicare Healthcare Analysis and Strategic Goals As stated in the most recent annual report of Diversicare, the company has a strong reputation as a provider of high-quality, cost-effective services due to its pursuit of excellence.
• McDonald’s External Forces and Business Goals This aspect represents the basis of the company’s competitive advantage, as it maintains a balance between the quality and value of the company’s products. The composition of the company’s main customers is diverse, as McDonald’s […]
• Team Building: Understanding the Project’s Goals Being a supervisor of any project is a challenging task, requiring a creative and intelligent team and a lot of time and effort.
• Description of the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGS) The NPSGs specify the best clinical practice in various areas, such as correct identification of patients, proper communication among medical providers, safe use of medications, prevention of infection, and patient safety risk. Preventing infections to […]
• Happiness Areas and Goals in Personal Life The point that most of the global population leads a life of acting contributes significantly to the loss of happiness. That is why one of my goals to achieve the second area of happiness involved […]
• Goals, Requirements, and Methods of Information Gathering for Sum Budget To create the complete master budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the following information will be gathered and provided, by the responsible persons, to the senior manager.
• The United Nations Environmental Program and Sustainable Development Goals The current environmental issue of waste management will shape the future operations of UNEP under the gradient of recycling and use of biodegradable materials as the core sustainable initiative to eradicate the negative impact of […]
• Healthy People Initiative: Main Goals and Instruments The purpose of this essay is to analyze the Healthy People 2030 initiative, its goals, and the possibility of involving the complex in the work of a health educator.
• Relation of Pre-Assessment With Process of Goal Articulation One of the major issues related to today’s assessment patterns is the gap between the teachers’ expectations from the process and learners’ perception of the material.
• Goal Orientations, Leader-Leader Exchange, Trust To develop my career, I am determined to sharpen my communication skills in the English language and improve my ability to negotiate and engage in political dialogues.
• 2021 National Patient Safety Goals The aim of the Infection Prevention Goal is to reduce the risk of healthcare-associated infections in various settings by maintaining and promoting hand hygiene.
• The Goals of Financial Regulation in the Reform Agenda of 2012 It is believed that the needs and goals of the agenda for further improved-quality assets and liquidity-buffers must facilitate bodies to better-endure miseries.
• The 2019 National Patient Safety Goals The safe use of medicine is an important aspiration that captures the essence of the others because it involves the healthcare practitioners, patients, and the community.
• National Patient Safety Goals in an Institution The National Patient Safety Goals are a useful source of information for institutions wishing to enhance the quality of care delivered to their patient and ease the process of accreditation and certification.
• As We Are Feminist Campaign’s Strategic Goals The present paper is devoted to the analysis of the goals of a feminist campaign As We Are that is aimed at challenging gender stereotypes that are being promoted by the media and society in […]
• Classroom Bulletin Board to Reflect Learning Goals The purpose of the meeting with the classroom teacher was to determine the grade level of the class and the topic of the discussion at the lesson planned by the teacher.
• Leading the School Ship: Metaphors, Strengths, and Weaknesses Our school is like a ship that has a crew of rowers every member on the boat has a job that is as important as the next person’s job.
• Critique of Development Goals Report of Egypt For the time being, it would be necessary for Egypt to take assistance from global agencies to try and fulfill its commitments in terms of MDG.
• Impact and Goals of FDA Legislations in 1962 and 1997 Its goal was to depict the development of laws and guidelines influencing drug testing, the utilization of new endorsement projects and norms, extensions of the job and authority of the FDA.
• The Goals of Every Masters Nursing NP Program It comes up with the minimum requirements for the curriculum offered and is involved in the general improvement of the nursing profession.
• Program Planning: Implementation of Goals This program planning worksheet will detail the timeline and necessary requirements for the successful implementation and realization of goals and objectives as identified in worksheet two. It is important to note that most of the […]
• National Safety Goals: The Christine Lofthouse Case Lofthouse’s condition, together with the provision of incorrect medicine to the patient contributed to the deterioration of the patient’s health.”In this case, a delay in medical clerking and prescription of medication, inappropriate antibiotic selection and […]
• Ohio Action for Healthy Kids: Goals and Functions The state of Ohio is made up of 88 counties, and the burden of obesity and physical inactivity is disproportionately distributed across them.
• Identification of a Goal for Health Promotion The main goal of this health promotion project is to identify the problems that may bother people nowadays and to clarify the ways of how medical workers and nurses can participate in the solution of […]
• Healthy People 2020 Goals and Interventions The main long term-term goal is to ensure more people have access to social support and resources that can result in community coping.
• Leadership SMART Goal: Effective Communication According to a 2001 report by the Institute of Medicine, “Crossing the Quality Chasm”, a safe system preserves information, fosters ease of access of information and acts as a platform for reference in the event […]
• The Goal of a Terrorist Attack This objective is being accomplished by the mean of exposing people to the graphic accounts of terrorist acts-in-making, as was the case with the attacks of 9/11.
• Millennium Development Goals: Improving Maternal Health in Indonesia One of the millennium development goals is to have lower than 102 maternal deaths for each 100,000 live births in every nation across the globe by 2015.
• Florida International University Nursing Mission and Goals Additionally, the nursing school seeks to gain recognition for the achievements for their students and alumni in leadership, education, and research with emphasis placed on the concerns of uninsured population.
• Chartered Financial Analyst as a Career Goal It is imperative to note that the CFA does not only open up career paths in the field of finance. In a different field, the CFA will act as a prestige credential as it highlights […]
• Millennium Health Goals Development and Measurement Goal five will be discussed in a broader perspective in this paper to illustrate the outcomes used in measuring the progress of millennium health goals. In order to measure the progress of the millennium health […]
• Compassion in Relation to Goals of Medicine and Healthcare In fact, Cassel argues that in an attempt to offer healing solutions to the sick, medicine and healthcare has repeatedly erred by separating the ailing physical being from the emotional aspect of the patient.
• Environmental Analysis and Setting Strategic Goals Competitiveness of the organization in price and service quality ensures the continued satisfaction of clients thus their loyalty to the institution.
• National Patient Safety Goals: Overview The reforms understate the role of the Joint Commission in ensuring that patient safety and the quality of service delivered to them is of the utmost priority to health caregivers. The objectives of the goals […]
• A Goal-Oriented Approach to Requirement Analysis in Data Warehouses The first one is that the warehousing projects are usually long-termed ones; hence, it is hard to forecast the future business requirements. It is important to mention that the organizational modeling consists of three levels: […]
• Goals of Healthcare Policy and Prevention of Epidemic A Healthcare policy refers to a statement of a decision about a goal in healthcare. War torn areas such as Afghanistan and Somalia are some of the main targets of the current healthcare policy.
• The Goals of a Healthcare Organizations: Analyze and the Action Plan The business level goals help the management in the organization meet its anticipated performance and define the roles of the managers in each department.
• Goal Setting in Sport Psychology: Enhancing Athletes’ Performance and Building New Skills According to achievement goal theory, it is necessary to provide a child with professional guidance and create a motivational climate; these factors influence the child’s spirit and confidence.
• Kimberly-Clark Corporation’s Sustainability Goals The plastic film material used to package a lot of Kimberly-Clark’s products is the primary source of landfill waste originating in the company.
• The Arc Mid-South: Strategy, Mission, Goals The purpose of this paper is to describe the strategic plan of the organization and its relationship with their mission, goals and objectives.
• Communication Goals: Reflection and Revision, Behavioral Brainstorm, Description and Revision To be more precise, I would say that I need to be more assertive when I propose new ideas to my team.
• Caterpillar Inc.’s Short-Term and Long-Term Goals Caterpillar Inc.’s acquisition of Bucyrus International, which occurred in 2011, maybe considered the most critical one since it has contributed to Caterpillar’s performance and success in achieving its goals.
• Professional Goals and Preventative Medicine Fellowship Each person who works in a public health sector is expected to contribute to the public health work by proposing certain initiatives, or by patiently working in directions that will eventually lead to significant results […]
• Long-Term Strategic Objectives and Short-Term Goals To perform the mission and enhance service delivery, the Police Department focuses on a strategic plan that comprises six strategic objectives: to reduce crime, to provide exemplary training, to enhance recruitment and retention, to innovate […]
• A Degree in Social Work: Reasons for Seeking, Career Goals and Aspirations I would like to pursue a degree in social work at this because I am in a position to accommodate the strict nature of the study being fresh from school, young and energetic at the […]
• Millennium Development Goals and International Organizations Developed countries mostly remember the plight of the poor and developing countries during meetings, poor countries are left to handle most of their woes. This is a major drawback since these are some of the […]
• The Priority of the Goals Managers and the Financial Global Crisis One of the important questions in the business field is the identification of the priority of the goals managers should pursue when developing a strategy.
• Leadership Legacy: Definition and Goals Whatever they impact on these people will be forwarded to the future of the organization and thus the leaders should see to it that they impact a positive legacy to the people.
• The Outsourcing Ultimate Goal as a Strategic Tool for Organizations The main factors to reject outsourcing strategies are lack of financial resources and the size of the company. The extent of this ‘catching up’ is dependent on many factors, such as the political, cultural, economic, […]
• Do Men and Women Have Different Goals for Ministry? These types of research are usually used to collect the necessary and variegated information on the topic of a study and allow for a better understanding of the situation under discussion and proper conclusions to […]
• Organizational Goals and Mission Statement: Effectiveness and General Intention The activities of the organization are directed to the attainment of its goals. The goals of an organization will determine the nature of its inputs and outputs, the series of activities through which the inputs […]
• Goals of Cognitive Neuropsychology In particular, it is the study of cognitive effects of neurological illness or brain injury with an aim of inferring normal functioning models of the brain.
• Jimmy Carter in American History: Major Goals and Highly Moral Stands He believed the United States had an obligation to encourage other countries to improve in the area of human rights, he wanted better relations with the Soviet Union, announced that one of his major goals […]
• Humanistic Therapy: Philosophy, Methods and Goals
• Center for Disease Control and HIV Prevention Goals
• College Students: Self-Efficacy and Goal Orientation
• The Goals and Objectives of the U.L. Coleman Companies
• Goal Development and Change: Social Worker-Client Concerns
• Cultural Changes and Attaining Organizational Goals
• Health Program Goals and Objectives of the U.S. Healthcare
• Neuroscience Psychology of Goals & Behavior Change
• Human Services Coalition’s Mission Statement and Goals
• Popular Culture Resistance: Causes and Goals
• American National Patient Safety Goals
• Studying Abroad in China: Reasons and Goals
• Museum Internship Goals: Budgeting and Policies
• Millennium Development Goals and Domestic Violence: A Bilateral Link
• Learning Style and Goals Statement
• Correctional Goals of Community-Based Sanctions
• Effective Business Marketing Goals
• Skills Identification, Career Planning and Goal Setting
• Millennium Development Goals in Brazil, Russia, India, China
• Life Goals of Emirati Freshmen and Senior Students
• Homebase Company’s Website and Strategic Goals
• Improving Curriculum Alignment and Achieving Goals
• Accounting Goals, Principles, and Technologies
• Millenium Goals in Brazil, Russia, India, China
• Lesson Plan: Career Goals and Development
• Learning Goals at Working Women Community Centre
• Educational Experience for Future Career Goals
• SFCO Company’s Departments and Their Goals
• Managerial Goal Setting and Organisational Skills
• Education Goals in Computer Science Studies
• The Help Company’s Analysis and Business Goals
• 2010 US Midterm Elections and Goals in Afghanistan
• Professional SMART Goals and Strategy in Sales
• First Home Care Agency: Goals and Evaluation
• Contingency, Path-Goal, and Leader-Style Theories
• Business Goals Achievement: Risk Assessment Strategy
• The Goal-Orientation in Literature: The Play ‘Waiting for Godot’ and the Novel ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’
• National Patient Safety Goals in Nursing Practice
• The Emirates Airlines Foundation and Its Goals
• Tesla Motors, Its History, State, Goal, Strategies
• The Art of War: Impact, Principles and Goals
• Amy’s Bread Company’s Goals and Opportunities
• Polar Land Restaurant’s Marketing Goals and Plan
• Norfolk Department of Human Services and Its Goals
• Expectancy Theory and Goal Setting by M. Britt
• Agency Learning Goals and Plan Development
• Caring Angel Hospital’s Goals and Action Plan
• Writing Class: Goals and Expectations
• Educational Program Evaluation: Types and Goals
• Lebanonization of Hezbollah, Its Goals and Results
• Benchmarks and Goal Setting for the Adult Learner
• I-Bank Brand Goals, Audience, Cultural Dimensions
• Coca-Cola’s and Inditex’s Sustainability Goals
• Learning Theory and Goal-Setting Theory as the Central Aspects of Modern Business Life
• Public Education, Its Goals and Natural Law
• Gulfport Transit Company’s Challenges and Goals
• Wellness Goal: Diets and Exercises for Gaining Lean Body Mass
• New Urbanism Neighborhoods: Elements and Goals
• Education’s Goals in Krishnamurti’s View
• Teacher Development: Fields and Goals
• Self-Directed Learning: Goals, Theories, Process
• US Education: Goals, Methods, and Equality Issues
• Thomas Jefferson’s Goals: Life, Liberty and Happiness
• Students’ Educational Standards, Goals and Objectives
• The Online Presence Company Business Goals
• Dell Incorporation Environmental Goals
• Drive-Through Cafe Marketing Goals
• Treatment of Forensic Populations and Professional Goals
• Theories of Development and Millennium Development Goals
• Charter Team Work: Goals and Conflict Resolution
• Online Education Goals and Instructional Objectives
• Project Portfolio Management: Goals and Essentials
• Business Ethics Key Idea and Goal
• China’s Aid and Investment in Africa: Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals
• The Kraft Foods Group: Mission, Long-Term Goals, and the Strategic Planning
• Millennium Development Goals – Energy and Poverty Solutions
• The Public HRM Systems Based on Relatively Old Theories, Goals, and Processes
• Education Theories: Designing Goals
• Milton Friedman’s Goal of the Firm
• Organization Goal and Components: Either Monetary and Non-monetary
• Impact of Virtual Worlds on Marketing Strategies and Goals of Major Corporations
• “Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Overprescribing Goal Setting”
• Effects of Self-Esteem and Gender on Goal Choice
• Computer Security and Its Main Goals
• The Goal of the Firm: Maximization of the Wealth
• The Millennium Development Goals: Polices, Progress and Challenges
• Communication Must Be Improved to Ensure Achievement of Organizational Goals
• Elements of SMART goals
• Standards, Goals, and Objectives are very critical in enhancing the learning process
• Ethics in the Realisation of Business Strategic Goals
• Were the Goals of Hampton/Tuskegee Consistent with the Democratic Ideals of self-Determination and Equality?
• Standards, Goals and Objectives: Learning the Essentials
• Organizational Goals and Employee Rights
• Company Details and Business Goals
• HR Management Development Goals Effectiveness
• A Critical Discussion of Wal-Mart’s Superordinate Goals
• IT Governance and Strategic Business Goals in the Organisation
• Understanding Goals of Human Resource Management in the Context of Human Capital Theory
• Linking the HRM with Organization Goals and Vision
• Goals for Motivation Employees in HRM
• Millennium Development Goals
• Retail Department: Managerial Planning and Goal Setting
• Insight Art: Achieving Goals in Strategic Management
• How the DTC Major Supports Your Career Goals
• Recommendations for Organisational Goals for Mergers
• Growth and Motivation Theories: Application in Personal Behavior, Professional Goal Setting, Social Policy Formulation
• Language Management Relative to Gender, Cultural Background, and Goals of Interaction
• IBM Promotes Social Responsibility Goals
• MDG Poverty Goals May Be Achieved, but Child Mortality Is Not Improving
• Goals of Impressionism: Visual and Intellectual Responses
• Goal Setting: Leading With Vision
• Letsgofordinner Company Marketing Goals
• Reaching the Career Goals: In Search for a Place Under the Sun
• Analysis of the Kraft Foods Group: Mission Statement, Vision, Values and Goals
• Millennium Development Goals, MDGS
• U.S. National Interests and Goals
• The Goal of Obtaining a Degree Is Not Worthwhile for All Students
• Two important policy goals of the government and the Fed
• Goals of the Monetary Policy
• World Hunger and Millennium Development Goals
• Rhetorical situations in the Experiences and Goals Letter
• Human Resource Management Role in Organization’s Goals
• Goals and Achievements of Impressionism
• Role of Planning and Alternative Goals
• Achieving One’s Goals in the Movie “Bicycle Thieves”
• Inter-Cultural Communication Skills in Career Goal at the Contemporary Workplace
• Millenium Development Goals
• Online Education Topics
• Management Skills Research Topics
• Activist Essay Titles
• Academic Achievements Research Topics
• Leadership Development Essay Titles
• American Dream Research Topics
• Organizational Leadership Essay Topics
• Functionalism Titles
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, February 27). 303 Goals Title Ideas & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/goals-essay-examples/

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Education goals I have for 2021 by Shelby

Shelby's entry into Varsity Tutor's December 2020 scholarship contest

Education goals I have for 2021 by Shelby - December 2020 Scholarship Essay

My educational goals for 2021 is to get the credits and grades that I need in order to graduate. This goal is a challenge for me because I have a learning disability that can cause me to lose focus very easily. I find it difficult to ask questions when I am struggling, making my work more difficult. I have also hit some rough spots in my life that have brought me down, making school work not as much of a priority for me. Both my learning disability and life circumstances have made me realize that working hard and staying focused will help me accomplish my goals.

I work incredale hard to get my assignments completed. When I am determined to get something done, I work hard to achieve these goals. I also have a good support system both in school and at home. These people keep me on track and pushing me to do what I need to do to accomplish my goals. The teachers in my school push me to do our best by making good connections with the students, taking time to learn about the student so that they can help them in the ways that work best for the student. By creating these bonds, I have learned that I can be successful if I utilize the help that they are offering.

My senior year of high school I have really become determined to get my work completed and finish everything that I need to in order to graduate. This will help me when I enter college. My determination this year will lead to success in college. My plan is to become an early childhood educator. Through my work with children in the preschool, my eyes have been opened to the world of teaching. I struggled with my learning disability throughout my educational career. As a teacher, I will be able to make the impact that so many teachers made on me.

In conclusion, my goal for 2021 is to make sure that I complete the credits and get the grades that I need to make my life everything that I want it to be.

My 21 Goals for 2021

by Katie Linder | Dec 26, 2020

Anyone else need a little levity for this New Year? In past years, I’ve set a series of goals and then broken them down into the objectives that will help me accomplish them.

As we near the end of 2020, that felt a little heavy.

This year, I decided to draft more of a shorthand list of my goals that I can refer to throughout the year. Some of these are tied to longer-term strategies and plans, but others are just for fun.

Inspired in part by the Happier podcast’s 20 for 2020 goals challenge , here are my 21 goals for 2021:

• Read Anna Karenina.
• Pay off our mortgage.
• Complete my 300-hour yoga teacher training.
• Hire someone to install cabinets in our laundry room.
• Order a new mattress for our bed.
• Teach 60+ hours of yoga throughout the year — to hit 100 total hours by the end of 2021 — so that I can apply for my next credential ( you can sign up for a free 1:1 virtual yoga session with me here ).
• Hit 1,000 hours of coaching experience (I’m at just over 800 hours now).
• Earn a Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM) credential.
• Complete a Yin yoga teacher training.
• Figure out the next book I’m going to write and make progress on the proposal / manuscript.
• Accredit my coach training program through the International Coaching Federation .
• Get a COVID-19 vaccine when they become available in my area.
• De-clutter my closet and dresser and donate clothes that I no longer need/want.
• Read 100+ books throughout the year ( connect with me on Goodreads to see what I’m reading ).
• Design and launch a new project management offering for my business.
• Watch all the Marvel movies (there are 24 — and counting).
• Match or surpass this year’s business revenue.
• Get a haircut (as I write this, the last one I had was almost 11 months ago).
• Finish all the books in Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley series (there are six books remaining as I write this).
• Take more walks.
• Start a regular meditation practice.

What are some of your goals for 2021?

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Top 10 scholarship essay prompts and how to answer them (with infographic)

Checking each scholarship application’s questions and essays can be time-consuming. But what if you could find out what the most common essay topics were – and then reuse those same scholarship essays across multiple applications?

Well, Going Merry can help you do just that. We took a random sample of about 700 scholarship applications on our scholarship platform and categorized the prompts for any essays requiring 250 or more words. Finally, we ran the numbers to find out what the top 10 most common scholarship essay prompts are. 

These 10 topics represented a whopping 90% of all scholarship essay prompts. So that means if you had these 10 essays ready to go, you could apply to the vast majority of scholarships with very little additional work, especially when you use Going Merry’s auto-filled application forms .  

Here’s our list of the Top 10 Most Common Scholarship Essay Prompts.

• Here’s an excerpt of the winning scholarship essay from John Flowers Jr.:

2. How have you contributed to your community?

3. tell us about yourself., 4. tell us about a time you failed and what you learned from it., 5. what are your academic and/or career goals, 6. what impact has sports had on your life.

• And here’s a winning essay on this scholarship topic from Jesús Adrian Arroyo-Ramirez:

Here’s an example of a winning scholarship essay from Gabby DeMott in which a student developed a new understanding of herself and others.

Here’s a winning going merry scholarship essay from daniel gill on what makes him unique (hint: he brings puppetry and education together with expressive arts):, 10. why do you want to study/pursue [x], download the top 10 scholarship essay prompts, more resources related to writing for college, ready to start writing some of these top scholarship essay prompts.

1. How will this scholarship help you?

You should answer this scholarship essay prompt by explaining how the award money will help you in at least one of the following ways: financially , professionally, and/or academically. 

Financially, you can share family hardships or goals on how you plan to use the money to help pay for portions of college – for textbooks, tuition, a laptop, or other school supplies. 

Professionally, the scholarship might help you pursue a degree in a field you’re interested in. If you’re a first-generation student, you can highlight that this would help you pursue both academic and career dreams as the first in your family.

For example, John Flowers Jr., a Going Merry scholarship winner , described in his scholarship essay that the award would help him be able to pay for his books. 

“Winning this scholarship will make a difference to me because it will allow me to cover college financial issues that may hold me back from reaching my career. Being less stressed about worrying about college fees will allow me to focus more of my attention in class to earn the credits, and not worry about how I’m going to pay for the class.”

Here’s an excerpt of the winning scholarship essay from John Flowers Jr. :

My parents were never given a shot at having an education beyond high school. They were never given a shot to show their full potential and make a difference in the world  […] Being young and seeing my parents struggle is hard for me. It’s challenging seeing the people you love go through a hard time and you can’t do anything about it. […] But then I realized I can do something about it. I can get good grades in school. I can take college level courses throughout high school. I can attend a 4-year university and earn my bachelor’s degree in Business Entrepreneurship. That was my thought process as a Freshman.  Now being a Senior I turned those “I cans” into “I did.” I DID get good grades all through school. I DID take college level courses. I will be walking straight out of high school with 17 college credit hours.  […] I DID get into a 4-year university; and 4 years from now I want to be able to say I DID earn my bachelor’s degree in Business Entrepreneurship. Nothing would make me happier than to be able to take care of my parents the way they have been taking care of my all my life; and nothing would make me better as a person than to be able to say I did this. […] Winning this scholarship will make a difference to me because it will allow me to cover college financial issues that may hold me back from reaching my career. Being less stressed about worrying about college fees will allow me to focus more of my attention in class to earn the credits, and not worry about how I’m going to pay for the class. Even book fees will add up over time due to how many different classes there are. Being able to use this scholarship to pay for books that are required for a certain class will be a big help, especially for a student who has lots of classes that have to be taken.

This is a common essay prompt for community service scholarships . In this essay, describe your experience in community service, explain how you’ve given back, or share volunteer opportunities you’ve participated in. For example, if you’ve organized a community donation box and taken the donations to a nonprofit organization, share how you got involved in that and how it helped the community. 

Two more things to mention–even when they’re not explicitly asked: 

• How have you learned or grown due to your community service? Scholarship committees want to know how this work has contributed to your character. 
• How do you plan to continue to support your community in the future? Bonus points if your college plans (which they’d be partially funding!) help you further contribute. Sometimes this is easy because your intended career path is service-oriented (for example, if you want to be a nurse, doctor, teacher, or social worker), but other times you may wish to give back on the side (for instance, by doing pro-bono work if you want to be a lawyer). 

You have a lot of creative freedom with this scholarship prompt! But don’t get too crazy. Generally, this kind of “open-ended” prompt is a bit of a trick. In the end, the scholarship committee still wants to know: 

• What motivates you to do (study or pursue a career in) what you plan to do? Remember, they’re funding your future, so they want to know about your plans and why you’re passionate about them. 
• What kind of (good) characteristics do you have? They’re ultimately choosing people to invest in, so they want you to be a good person. Characteristics you might want to show are empathy, service, leadership, perseverance, or determination. 
• What kind of successes have you had in the past? This is your chance to brag about what you’ve accomplished so far. 

This essay topic is quite similar to writing a college personal statement , except that with this one, you want to more explicitly tie things back to your future plans.

Scholarship providers understand that no student is perfect, and they want to know how you learned from a failure – this can be an academic, professional, or personal failure. Break down how you failed, why you failed, and how it made you better. You can also reveal something you learned from that failure, such as what you would do differently in the future, so you don’t run into that situation again, or how that moment changed your life and how you picked yourself up. This is a moment to show how you can learn and persevere. 

If the essay is very short (say, 100-300 words), be clear and concise. Explain what you want to study, and then what kind of career you want to lead afterwards. Be sure to save room for 1-2 sentences explaining why you’re motivated to pursue that path. 

If you have a longer essay (for example, 500-1000 words), take the time to describe what inspired you to pursue certain academic and/or career goals. For example: One of your parents has always owned his or her own business and now you’re inspired to be an entrepreneur, to pursue a degree in business. Describe that moment of realization when you decided that would be your career goal. Maybe a conversation with that parent sparked inspiration to pursue that, or maybe it was simply watching them work as you grew up. Looking to the future, how do you plan to pursue that career goal? How will the scholarship award help you pursue it? Tell a story; paint a picture. Get creative with it!

Check out these blog posts for additional information on writing an essay about your academic goals and/or career goals .

This essay prompt is generally for scholarships supporting student-athletes.

So if you played sports throughout high school, share how it’s affected your life, You can reflect on experiences with teammates (if it’s a team sport), what you learned (or gained) from practices or meets/competitions, any injuries you had to overcome, how you balanced athletics and academics, how it affected your schedule (early-morning wake-ups, anyone?), and time with your coach(es) or sports mentors. 

You’ll also want to look forwards and not just backwards. How will you take your sports experiences with you, into college and beyond? Maybe there’s a direct connection: being on a team inspired you to one day pursue a career in sports and eventually coach. Or the effects can be more indirect: You’ve learned time management skills that will help you in college, or you’ve learned teamwork skills that will help you when you begin working.

7. Why do you deserve this scholarship?

Scholarship providers are basically asking, “Why should it be you?” with this scholarship essay prompt. Paint a picture of why you’re the most deserving student for this scholarship award. 

You’ll want to establish at least these two things:

• You’ve proven yourself as high-achieving (in the past). Discuss accomplishments you’re proud of or any accolades (honors, awards, or simply verbal compliments) you’ve received. 
• You’re driven to succeed (in the future). Show that you’ve got clear future plans and the gusto to make them happen. 

In addition to that, a strong essay will show at least one of these additional traits: 

• You’re passionate. If you’ve got a good story to explain your motivation for your studies or future career plans, now’s the time to tell that tale. Here’s the moment to wow the scholarship committee with why you care more than anyone else, and why. 
• You’re unique. Scholarship committees love finding someone who’s just different and stands out from the rest. If you’ve had an unusual upbringing or an uncommon interest, lean into that. (For instance, scholarship winner Daniel Gill wrote about his passion for using puppetry to help autistic children — now that’s cool and unique!)
• You’ve got a particular financial need . For need-based scholarships, this essay question may in part be asking you why your financial need is greater than other applicants’.

Want more tips? We have a whole separate post dedicated to answering this scholarship essay prompt.

And here’s a winning essay on this scholarship topic from Jesús Adrian Arroyo-Ramirez :

I always knew I was different than my friends in some way. Growing up, I struggled to speak English while everyone else had little to no problems. I needed extra help in school while my friends coasted by with ease. My friends would hop on planes and travel all around the world while I had to stay at home. At the age of 13 all of my friends started driving while I still couldn’t. I built up the courage and asked my mother why I did not have access to the simple liberties everyone else did. My name Is Jesús Adrian Arroyo-Ramirez, and I was illegally brought to this country when I was just six years old. At the time I had no clue that I was breaking any laws, and I did not realize the fact that my life was going to change forever. Growing up with a different citizenship situation than my peers was and still is the biggest challenge I have to face in my life. Looking back there is not a single thing that I would change. Knowing that I had to work harder than everyone else led me to be the person that I am today. I took that fire inside of me, pushed myself, graduated first in my class with a cumulative 4.0 GPA, became a Kansas Scholar, and graduated High School with a semester’s worth of college credit. In November of 2016, everything began to look up for me. I received a work permit and a social security card all thanks to the DACA program. I was finally able to get my license, get a job, and most importantly attend college. I plan to continue my success in the classroom and do everything to the best of my ability as I know that under my current circumstances it can all be ripped away from me at any moment. Growing up with my situation has taught me to not take advantage of a single opportunity. There has been continued support around me past and current and I know there are people out there rooting for my success. I will strive to be the first generation in my family to graduate from an American University and I will set a stepping stone for my future family so they will not have to struggle as I did. My citizenship is not a setback, it is a mere obstacle that I will always learn to work around if it means giving my future children a better life, just like my mother did for me.

8. Tell us about a time when you had a belief or idea challenged.

Have you studied abroad? Visited a foreign country on a family trip? Had a thought-provoking discussion with a teacher, religious leader, or friend? Think about an experience or a moment that challenged – or even changed – one of your beliefs or ideas. Explain what your original understanding of the idea was, when that idea was challenged, and how you felt about it afterward. Scholarship providers are interested in seeing reflection and growth, so expanding on every detail, including where you were, who you were with, and what you were feeling, can help tell your story in your essay.

There were only a few minutes to go and our eyes were glued to screen. On the edge of our seats, clutching whoever happened to be next to us, we watched as the referee blew his whistle and the German players took their free kick. The ball was hit with precision and skill; it flew up over the Swedish players, past their goalie, and was caught safely in the back of the opposing team’s net. We all jumped up and screamed, a mixture of German and English, of excitement and relief, of pride and anticipation. We stood, enraptured, for the last several minutes of the game as Germany kept its 2-1 lead over Sweden. The horde of us, Germans and Americans alike, hugged and cheered and made our way out onto the balcony, where we chanted “Deutschland! Deutschland! Deutschland!” for the whole village, the whole country, the whole world to hear. Never have I felt so accepted while being an outsider, so proud of a country that isn’t even mine, so part of something I didn’t really belong to. My German friends didn’t care that we were from different countries; they didn’t care that we would only be staying for three weeks. They accepted us into their homes and their daily lives, their traditions and their celebrations. In watching that World Cup game, it didn’t matter that we were from different places; we were all cheering for the same team. The acceptance I felt in Germany extended beyond that living room. I came to the country on a three week exchange with ten other students from my school. We each stayed with host families and attended the Wildermuth Gymnasium, which was surprisingly accommodating to a gaggle of loud American teenagers. The teachers were friendly and welcoming, the students treated us like ordinary peers, and even the people I interacted with in public were understanding. Before coming to Germany I feared judgment based on my level of the language (which is nowhere near as good as the German students’ English) and American politics. It was intimidating to be in a country with limited knowledge of the language and the customs, even though everyone was welcoming. People did ask myself and the other students about the US’s political climate, but no one blamed us for it. They recognized that we were outsiders, that the place we came from had flaws, and they accepted us anyway. Since that trip, I’ve found myself trying to provide that acceptance to people in my own country. For example, I work at a canoe livery and we receive a lot of visitors with limited English. Some of my coworkers will avoid such customers because they don’t want to take the time to explain things, to exercise patience with someone who may not understand them. If people had done this to me in Germany, my time there would have been much less enjoyable; in fact, I would have been offended. So now when someone walks up to me at the livery and asks a question in English that isn’t perfect, I smile and welcome them. I take my time to make sure they understand, that they can have a good time, and that they feel accepted. It’s a small action, but I know firsthand that it can make a big impact, at my place of work and in the world.

9. How are you unique? (Discuss your background, identity, interest, or talent) 

Everyone has a trait, a quirk, an activity that makes them unique, whether it’s sports, their upbringing, their hobbies, or interests. Go into as much detail as you feel comfortable to answer this scholarship essay prompt.

Share a story about your family culture, how you were raised, moments that shaped you into being who you are today. If sports is your thing, for example, share how playing sports at a young age taught you about teamwork, working with a coach, discipline and structure. If you couldn’t play sports due to an injury or a disability, explain how you felt when you learned that you had to find other ways to thrive and how it affected your actions.

Sometimes we think that a topic has been written about so many times that it doesn’t matter, but what makes you unique – your story, your history – is your story to tell.

As an Expressive Arts specialist, I use puppet play and the arts (with three to five-year-olds) to teach sharing, identifying and working with feelings, making friends, mindfulness, and asking for what you need in peaceful ways. Additionally, I perform developmentally appropriate puppet shows in classrooms about fairness, valuing difference (including differences in gender expression and skin tone), and peaceful conflict resolution. By teaching diversity, equity, and inclusion through puppetry, I feel that I am making a difference. In this work, I have noticed an unexplained phenomenon. Educational puppetry is particularly effective in helping children with ASD develop social and communication skills. One girl with ASD in my school refused to follow the daily routine until a parrot puppet helped guide her through the transitions. Through puppet play, a boy with impulse control challenges learned to manage his feelings and stop hitting other children. One boy with Autism showed remarkable progress with puppet play. Now in Kindergarten, his ability to communicate and make friends makes his academic success possible. Teachers value this work; it reinforces the social and emotional teaching they practice daily. One teacher told me, “What you do with puppets and our kids is amazing. You need to share this work beyond our preschool.” Application Questions and Answers My goal is to support young children with Autism in public school settings develop the social-emotional skills they need for academic and personal success. I aim to accomplish this by creating and implementing evidence-based strategies that use puppets as intervention tools. A Masters and Credential in ECSE, and the Autism Spectrum Graduate Certificate program I will complete, are essential to broadening my impact. The program will provide me with the theoretical foundation, the student teaching experiences, the credentials, and the academic community required to work with children and families in public school settings. For example, as part of the ECSE Program Masters and Credential Roadmap, I am taking the Seminar in Educational Research course. I am learning how to conduct scholarly research, a fundamental skill in creating innovative approaches that work. I am eager to apply the knowledge and skills I learn at SFSU toward helping more children open doors to connection. Additionally, I am learning leadership skills by volunteering for SFSU’s Early Childhood Special Education Conference. Most conference attendees are undergraduate students, interested in working with young children at-risk and with disabilities. As Co-Chair of the Presenter Committee, I am recruiting dynamic and engaging speakers who will lead workshops. I am eager to apply all of the knowledge and skills I learn at SFSU toward helping more children open doors to connection. I am at a critical juncture in my path. Helping children who experience social disconnection integrate into their classrooms, is my passion. This scholarship will help me work toward a world where every child has access to education and all children know they belong.

Reflect on what inspires you to want to pursue a certain field of study. If you’re interested in studying psychology and pursuing a career as a psychologist, for example, explain how you enjoy understanding how and why people make certain decisions, how you became fascinated by the science behind it.

Another example: Let’s say you’re interested in pursuing a career in communications. This might seem like a broader category, but you can highlight your love for writing, your ability to pick up on details in and out of school, and presenting this in a way that makes sense to the people around you. Just be careful not to get stuck in broad generalities. For this essay prompt in particular, many applicants will often have the same basic answer as you. So you’ll want to use specific anecdotes to make your essay stand out. 

Check out these blog posts to continue researching how to answer scholarship essay prompts:

• How to write an essay about yourself
• Writing about your career goals 
• How to write the best personal statement
• Write a winning scholarship essay about your academic goals
• Scholarship essay format and structure

Now that you have a better understanding of how to answer these scholarship essay prompts, it’s time to put your knowledge in motion with your scholarship applications. Sign up for a free Going Merry profile where you can upload your scholarship essays. You’ll enter your information once – such as your expected graduation year, what you plan to study in college, and your location – and then we’ll match you with thousands of scholarships. You can even sort scholarships by competitiveness, location, amount, and deadline!

• Recent Posts

• Scholarships for Students in Pennsylvania for 2024 - November 11, 2020
• Counselor Starter Guide: How to Use Going Merry’s Scholarship Platform - September 9, 2020
• How to write a financial need statement for your scholarship application (with examples!) - August 13, 2020

Ready to find scholarships that are a match for you?

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 53 stellar college essay topics to inspire you.

College Essays

Most colleges and universities in the United States require applicants to submit at least one essay as part of their application. But trying to figure out what college essay topics you should choose is a tricky process. There are so many potential things you could write about!

In this guide, we go over the essential qualities that make for a great college essay topic and give you 50+ college essay topics you can use for your own statement . In addition, we provide you with helpful tips for turning your college essay topic into a stellar college essay.

What Qualities Make for a Good College Essay Topic?

Regardless of what you write about in your personal statement for college , there are key features that will always make for a stand-out college essay topic.

#1: It’s Specific

First off, good college essay topics are extremely specific : you should know all the pertinent facts that have to do with the topic and be able to see how the entire essay comes together.

Specificity is essential because it’ll not only make your essay stand out from other statements, but it'll also recreate the experience for admissions officers through its realism, detail, and raw power. You want to tell a story after all, and specificity is the way to do so. Nobody wants to read a vague, bland, or boring story — not even admissions officers!

For example, an OK topic would be your experience volunteering at a cat shelter over the summer. But a better, more specific college essay topic would be how you deeply connected with an elderly cat there named Marty, and how your bond with him made you realize that you want to work with animals in the future.

Remember that specificity in your topic is what will make your essay unique and memorable . It truly is the key to making a strong statement (pun intended)!

#2: It Shows Who You Are

In addition to being specific, good college essay topics reveal to admissions officers who you are: your passions and interests, what is important to you, your best (or possibly even worst) qualities, what drives you, and so on.

The personal statement is critical because it gives schools more insight into who you are as a person and not just who you are as a student in terms of grades and classes.

By coming up with a real, honest topic, you’ll leave an unforgettable mark on admissions officers.

#3: It’s Meaningful to You

The very best college essay topics are those that hold deep meaning to their writers and have truly influenced them in some significant way.

For instance, maybe you plan to write about the first time you played Skyrim to explain how this video game revealed to you the potentially limitless worlds you could create, thereby furthering your interest in game design.

Even if the topic seems trivial, it’s OK to use it — just as long as you can effectively go into detail about why this experience or idea had such an impact on you .

Don’t give in to the temptation to choose a topic that sounds impressive but doesn’t actually hold any deep meaning for you. Admissions officers will see right through this!

Similarly, don’t try to exaggerate some event or experience from your life if it’s not all that important to you or didn’t have a substantial influence on your sense of self.

#4: It’s Unique

College essay topics that are unique are also typically the most memorable, and if there’s anything you want to be during the college application process, it’s that! Admissions officers have to sift through thousands of applications, and the essay is one of the only parts that allows them to really get a sense of who you are and what you value in life.

If your essay is trite or boring, it won’t leave much of an impression , and your application will likely get immediately tossed to the side with little chance of seeing admission.

But if your essay topic is very original and different, you’re more likely to earn that coveted second glance at your application.

What does being unique mean exactly, though? Many students assume that they must choose an extremely rare or crazy experience to talk about in their essays —but that's not necessarily what I mean by "unique." Good college essay topics can be unusual and different, yes, but they can also be unique takes on more mundane or common activities and experiences .

For instance, say you want to write an essay about the first time you went snowboarding. Instead of just describing the details of the experience and how you felt during it, you could juxtapose your emotions with a creative and humorous perspective from the snowboard itself. Or you could compare your first attempt at snowboarding with your most recent experience in a snowboarding competition. The possibilities are endless!

#5: It Clearly Answers the Question

Finally, good college essay topics will clearly and fully answer the question(s) in the prompt.

You might fail to directly answer a prompt by misinterpreting what it’s asking you to do, or by answering only part of it (e.g., answering just one out of three questions).

Therefore, make sure you take the time to come up with an essay topic that is in direct response to every question in the prompt .

Take this Coalition Application prompt as an example:

What is the hardest part of being a teenager now? What's the best part? What advice would you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)?

For this prompt, you’d need to answer all three questions (though it’s totally fine to focus more on one or two of them) to write a compelling and appropriate essay.

This is why we recommend reading and rereading the essay prompt ; you should know exactly what it’s asking you to do, well before you start brainstorming possible college application essay topics.

53 College Essay Topics to Get Your Brain Moving

In this section, we give you a list of 53 examples of college essay topics. Use these as jumping-off points to help you get started on your college essay and to ensure that you’re on track to coming up with a relevant and effective topic.

All college application essay topics below are categorized by essay prompt type. We’ve identified six general types of college essay prompts:

Why This College?

Change and personal growth, passions, interests, and goals, overcoming a challenge, diversity and community, solving a problem.

Note that these prompt types could overlap with one another, so you’re not necessarily limited to just one college essay topic in a single personal statement.

• How a particular major or program will help you achieve your academic or professional goals
• A memorable and positive interaction you had with a professor or student at the school
• Something good that happened to you while visiting the campus or while on a campus tour
• A certain class you want to take or a certain professor you’re excited to work with
• Some piece of on-campus equipment or facility that you’re looking forward to using
• Your plans to start a club at the school, possibly to raise awareness of a major issue
• A study abroad or other unique program that you can’t wait to participate in
• How and where you plan to volunteer in the community around the school
• An incredible teacher you studied under and the positive impact they had on you
• How you went from really liking something, such as a particular movie star or TV show, to not liking it at all (or vice versa)
• How yours or someone else’s (change in) socioeconomic status made you more aware of poverty
• A time someone said something to you that made you realize you were wrong
• How your opinion on a controversial topic, such as gay marriage or DACA, has shifted over time
• A documentary that made you aware of a particular social, economic, or political issue going on in the country or world
• Advice you would give to your younger self about friendship, motivation, school, etc.
• The steps you took in order to kick a bad or self-sabotaging habit
• A juxtaposition of the first and most recent time you did something, such as dance onstage
• A book you read that you credit with sparking your love of literature and/or writing
• A school assignment or project that introduced you to your chosen major
• A glimpse of your everyday routine and how your biggest hobby or interest fits into it
• The career and (positive) impact you envision yourself having as a college graduate
• A teacher or mentor who encouraged you to pursue a specific interest you had
• How moving around a lot helped you develop a love of international exchange or learning languages
• A special skill or talent you’ve had since you were young and that relates to your chosen major in some way, such as designing buildings with LEGO bricks
• Where you see yourself in 10 or 20 years
• Your biggest accomplishment so far relating to your passion (e.g., winning a gold medal for your invention at a national science competition)
• A time you lost a game or competition that was really important to you
• How you dealt with the loss or death of someone close to you
• A time you did poorly in a class that you expected to do well in
• How moving to a new school impacted your self-esteem and social life
• A chronic illness you battled or are still battling
• Your healing process after having your heart broken for the first time
• A time you caved under peer pressure and the steps you took so that it won't happen again
• How you almost gave up on learning a foreign language but stuck with it
• Why you decided to become a vegetarian or vegan, and how you navigate living with a meat-eating family
• What you did to overcome a particular anxiety or phobia you had (e.g., stage fright)
• A history of a failed experiment you did over and over, and how you finally found a way to make it work successfully
• Someone within your community whom you aspire to emulate
• A family tradition you used to be embarrassed about but are now proud of
• Your experience with learning English upon moving to the United States
• A close friend in the LGBTQ+ community who supported you when you came out
• A time you were discriminated against, how you reacted, and what you would do differently if faced with the same situation again
• How you navigate your identity as a multiracial, multiethnic, and/or multilingual person
• A project or volunteer effort you led to help or improve your community
• A particular celebrity or role model who inspired you to come out as LGBTQ+
• Your biggest challenge (and how you plan to tackle it) as a female in a male-dominated field
• How you used to discriminate against your own community, and what made you change your mind and eventually take pride in who you are and/or where you come from
• A program you implemented at your school in response to a known problem, such as a lack of recycling cans in the cafeteria
• A time you stepped in to mediate an argument or fight between two people
• An app or other tool you developed to make people’s lives easier in some way
• A time you proposed a solution that worked to an ongoing problem at school, an internship, or a part-time job
• The steps you took to identify and fix an error in coding for a website or program
• An important social or political issue that you would fix if you had the means

How to Build a College Essay in 6 Easy Steps

Once you’ve decided on a college essay topic you want to use, it’s time to buckle down and start fleshing out your essay. These six steps will help you transform a simple college essay topic into a full-fledged personal statement.

Step 1: Write Down All the Details

Once you’ve chosen a general topic to write about, get out a piece of paper and get to work on creating a list of all the key details you could include in your essay . These could be things such as the following:

• Emotions you felt at the time
• Names, places, and/or numbers
• Dialogue, or what you or someone else said
• A specific anecdote, example, or experience
• Descriptions of how things looked, felt, or seemed

If you can only come up with a few details, then it’s probably best to revisit the list of college essay topics above and choose a different one that you can write more extensively on.

Good college essay topics are typically those that:

• You remember well (so nothing that happened when you were really young)
• You're excited to write about
• You're not embarrassed or uncomfortable to share with others
• You believe will make you positively stand out from other applicants

Step 2: Figure Out Your Focus and Approach

Once you have all your major details laid out, start to figure out how you could arrange them in a way that makes sense and will be most effective.

It’s important here to really narrow your focus: you don’t need to (and shouldn’t!) discuss every single aspect of your trip to visit family in Indonesia when you were 16. Rather, zero in on a particular anecdote or experience and explain why and how it impacted you.

Alternatively, you could write about multiple experiences while weaving them together with a clear, meaningful theme or concept , such as how your math teacher helped you overcome your struggle with geometry over the course of an entire school year. In this case, you could mention a few specific times she tutored you and most strongly supported you in your studies.

There’s no one right way to approach your college essay, so play around to see what approaches might work well for the topic you’ve chosen.

If you’re really unsure about how to approach your essay, think about what part of your topic was or is most meaningful and memorable to you, and go from there.

Step 3: Structure Your Narrative

• Beginning: Don’t just spout off a ton of background information here—you want to hook your reader, so try to start in the middle of the action , such as with a meaningful conversation you had or a strong emotion you felt. It could also be a single anecdote if you plan to center your essay around a specific theme or idea.
• Middle: Here’s where you start to flesh out what you’ve established in the opening. Provide more details about the experience (if a single anecdote) or delve into the various times your theme or idea became most important to you. Use imagery and sensory details to put the reader in your shoes.
• End: It’s time to bring it all together. Finish describing the anecdote or theme your essay centers around and explain how it relates to you now , what you’ve learned or gained from it, and how it has influenced your goals.

Step 4: Write a Rough Draft

By now you should have all your major details and an outline for your essay written down; these two things will make it easy for you to convert your notes into a rough draft.

At this stage of the writing process, don’t worry too much about vocabulary or grammar and just focus on getting out all your ideas so that they form the general shape of an essay . It’s OK if you’re a little over the essay's word limit — as you edit, you’ll most likely make some cuts to irrelevant and ineffective parts anyway.

If at any point you get stuck and have no idea what to write, revisit steps 1-3 to see whether there are any important details or ideas you might be omitting or not elaborating on enough to get your overall point across to admissions officers.

Step 5: Edit, Revise, and Proofread

• Sections that are too wordy and don’t say anything important
• Irrelevant details that don’t enhance your essay or the point you're trying to make
• Parts that seem to drag or that feel incredibly boring or redundant
• Areas that are vague and unclear and would benefit from more detail
• Phrases or sections that are awkwardly placed and should be moved around
• Areas that feel unconvincing, inauthentic, or exaggerated

Start paying closer attention to your word choice/vocabulary and grammar at this time, too. It’s perfectly normal to edit and revise your college essay several times before asking for feedback, so keep working with it until you feel it’s pretty close to its final iteration.

This step will likely take the longest amount of time — at least several weeks, if not months — so really put effort into fixing up your essay. Once you’re satisfied, do a final proofread to ensure that it’s technically correct.

Step 6: Get Feedback and Tweak as Needed

After you’ve overhauled your rough draft and made it into a near-final draft, give your essay to somebody you trust , such as a teacher or parent, and have them look it over for technical errors and offer you feedback on its content and overall structure.

Use this feedback to make any last-minute changes or edits. If necessary, repeat steps 5 and 6. You want to be extra sure that your essay is perfect before you submit it to colleges!

Recap: From College Essay Topics to Great College Essays

Many different kinds of college application essay topics can get you into a great college. But this doesn’t make it any easier to choose the best topic for you .

In general, the best college essay topics have the following qualities :

• They’re specific
• They show who you are
• They’re meaningful to you
• They’re unique
• They clearly answer the question

If you ever need help coming up with an idea of what to write for your essay, just refer to the list of 53 examples of college essay topics above to get your brain juices flowing.

Once you’ve got an essay topic picked out, follow these six steps for turning your topic into an unforgettable personal statement :

• Write down all the details
• Figure out your focus and approach
• Structure your narrative
• Write a rough draft
• Edit, revise, and proofread
• Get feedback and tweak as needed

And with that, I wish you the best of luck on your college essays!

What’s Next?

Writing a college essay is no simple task. Get expert college essay tips with our guides on how to come up with great college essay ideas and how to write a college essay, step by step .

You can also check out this huge list of college essay prompts  to get a feel for what types of questions you'll be expected to answer on your applications.

Want to see examples of college essays that absolutely rocked? You're in luck because we've got a collection of 100+ real college essay examples right here on our blog!

Hannah received her MA in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California. From 2013 to 2015, she taught English in Japan via the JET Program. She is passionate about education, writing, and travel.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Personal Goals — Achieving Academic Goals for College Students

Achieving Academic Goals for College Students

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Updated: 21 November, 2023

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21 Stellar Common App Essay Examples to Inspire Your College Essay

What’s covered:, what makes a good common app essay, is your common app essay strong enough.

When you begin writing your Common App essay, having an example to look at can help you understand how to effectively write your college essay so that it stands apart from others. 

These Common App essay examples demonstrate a strong writing ability and answer the prompt in a way that shows admissions officers something unique about the student. Once you’ve read some examples and are ready to get started, read our step-by-step guide for how to write a strong Common App essay.  

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Read our Common App essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts.

It’s Personal

The point of the Common App essay is to humanize yourself to a college admissions committee. The ultimate goal is to get them to choose you over someone else! You will have a better chance of achieving this goal if the admissions committee feels personally connected to you or invested in your story. When writing your Common App essay, you should explore your feelings, worldview, values, desires, and anything else that makes you uniquely you.

It’s Not Cliché

It is pretty easy to resort to clichés in college essays. This should be actively avoided! CollegeVine has identified the immigrant’s journey, sports injuries, and overcoming a challenging course as cliché topics . If you write about one of these topics, you have to work harder to stand out, so working with a more nuanced topic is often safer and easier.

It’s Well-Done

Colleges want good writers. They want students who can articulate their thoughts clearly and concisely (and creatively!). You should be writing and rewriting your essays, perfecting them as you go. Of course, make sure that your grammar and spelling are impeccable, but also put in time crafting your tone and finding your voice. This will also make your essay more personal and will make your reader feel more connected to you!

It’s Cohesive

Compelling Common App essays tell a cohesive story. Cohesion is primarily achieved through effective introductions and conclusions , which often contribute to the establishment of a clear theme or topic. Make sure that it is clear what you are getting at, but also don’t explicitly state what you are getting at—a successful essay speaks for itself.

Common App Essay Examples

Here are the current Common App prompts. Click the links to jump to the examples for a specific prompt, or keep reading to review the examples for all the prompts.

Prompt #1 :  Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Prompt #2 :  The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Prompt #3 :  Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Prompt #4 : Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you? (NOTE: We only have an example for the old prompt #4 about solving a problem, not this current one)

Prompt #5 :  Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Prompt #6 :  Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Prompt #7 :  Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Note: Names have been changed to protect the identity of the author and subjects.

Prompt #1: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Prompt #1, example #1.

The room was silent except for the thoughts racing through my head. I led a spade from my hand and my opponent paused for a second, then played a heart. The numbers ran through my mind as I tried to consider every combination, calculating my next move. Finally, I played the ace of spades from the dummy and the rest of my clubs, securing the contract and 620 points when my partner ruffed at trick five. Next board.

It was the final of the 2015 United States Bridge Federation Under-26 Women’s Championship. The winning team would be selected to represent the United States in the world championship and my team was still in the running.

Contract bridge is a strategic and stochastic card game. Players from around the world gather at local clubs, regional events, and, in this case, national tournaments.

Going into the tournament, my team was excited; all the hours we had put into the game, from the lengthy midnight Skype sessions spent discussing boards to the coffee shop meetings spent memorizing conventions together, were about to pay off.

Halfway through, our spirits were still high, as we were only down by fourteen international match points which, out of the final total of about four hundred points, was virtually nothing and it was very feasible to catch up. Our excitement was short-lived, however, as sixty boards later, we found that we had lost the match and would not be chosen as the national team.

Initially, we were devastated. We had come so close and it seemed as if all the hours we had devoted to training had been utterly wasted. Yet as our team spent some time together reflecting upon the results, we gradually realized that the true value that we had gained wasn’t only the prospect of winning the national title, but also the time we had spent together exploring our shared passion. I chatted with the winning team and even befriended a few of them who offered us encouragement and advice.

Throughout my bridge career, although I’ve gained a respectable amount of masterpoints and awards, I’ve realized that the real reward comes from the extraordinary people I have met. I don’t need to travel cross-country to learn; every time I sit down at a table whether it be during a simple club game, a regional tournament or a national event, I find I’m always learning. 

I nod at the pair that’s always yelling at each other. They teach me the importance of sportsmanship and forgiveness.

I greet the legally blind man who can defeat most of the seeing players. He reminds me not to make excuses.

I chat with the friendly, elderly couple who, at ages ninety and ninety-two, have just gotten married two weeks ago. They teach me that it’s never too late to start anything.

I talk to the boy who’s attending Harvard and the girl who forewent college to start her own company. They show me that there is more than one path to success.

I congratulate the little kid running to his dad, excited to have won his very first masterpoints. He reminds me of the thrill of every first time and to never stop trying new things.

Just as much as I have benefitted from these life lessons, I aspire to give back to my bridge community as much as it has given me. I aspire to teach people how to play this complicated yet equally as exciting game. I aspire to never stop improving myself, both at and away from the bridge table.

Bridge has given me my roots and dared me to dream. What started as merely a hobby has become a community, a passion, a part of my identity. I aspire to live selflessly and help others reach their goals. I seek to take risks, embrace all results, even failure, and live unfettered from my own doubt.

This student draws readers in with a strong introduction. The essay starts ambiguous—“I led with a spade”—then intrigues readers by gradually revealing more information and details. This makes the reader want to keep reading (which is super important!) As the writer continues, there is a rather abrupt tone shift from suspenseful to explanatory with statements like “It was the final of the 2015 United States Bridge Federation Under-26 Women’s Championship” and “Contract bridge is a strategic and stochastic card game.” If you plan to start with an imagery-heavy, emotional, suspenseful, or dramatic introduction, you will need to transition to the content of your essay in a way that does not feel abrupt. 

You will often hear that essays need to “show, not tell.” This essay actually does both. First, the student tells readers the importance of bridge, saying “we gradually realized that the true value that we had gained wasn’t only the prospect of winning the national title, but also the time we had spent together exploring our shared passion” and “I’ve realized that the real reward comes from the extraordinary people I have met.” Then, the student shows the lessons they have learned from bridge through a series of parallel sentences: “I nod… sportsmanship and forgiveness” “I greet… not to make excuses” “I chat… it’s never too late to start anything” and so on. This latter strategy is much more effective than the former and is watered down because the student has already told us what we are supposed to get out of these sentences. Remember that your readers are intelligent and can draw their own conclusions. Avoid summarizing the moral of your story for them!

Overall, this essay is interesting and answers the prompt. We learn the importance of bridge to this student. The student has a solid grasp of language, a high-level vocabulary, and a valuable message, though they would be better off if they avoided summarizing their point and created more seamless transitions. 

Prompt #1, Example #2

Growing up, I always wanted to eat, play, visit, watch, and be it all: sloppy joes and spaetzle, Beanie Babies and Steiff, Cape Cod and the Baltic Sea, football and fussball, American and German.

My American parents relocated our young family to Berlin when I was three years old. My exposure to America was limited to holidays spent stateside and awfully dubbed Disney Channel broadcasts. As the few memories I had of living in the US faded, my affinity for Germany grew. I began to identify as “Germerican,” an ideal marriage of the two cultures. As a child, I viewed my biculturalism as a blessing. I possessed a native fluency in “Denglisch” and my family’s Halloween parties were legendary at a time when the holiday was just starting to gain popularity outside of the American Sector.

Insidiously, the magic I once felt in loving two homes was replaced by a deep-­rooted sense of rootlessness. I stopped feeling American when, while discussing World War II with my grandmother, I said “the US won.” She corrected me, insisting I use “we” when referring to the US’s actions. Before then, I hadn’t realized how directly people associated themselves with their countries. I stopped feeling German during the World Cup when my friends labeled me a “bandwagon fan” for rooting for Germany. Until that moment, my cheers had felt sincere. I wasn’t part of the “we” who won World Wars or World Cups. Caught in a twilight of foreign and familiar, I felt emotionally and psychologically disconnected from the two cultures most familiar to me.

After moving from Berlin to New York at age fifteen, my feelings of cultural homelessness thrived in my new environment. Looking and sounding American furthered my feelings of dislocation. Border patrol agents, teachers, classmates, neighbors, and relatives all “welcomed me home” to a land they could not understand was foreign to me. Americans confused me as I relied on Urban Dictionary to understand my peers, the Pledge of Allegiance seemed nationalistic, and the only thing familiar about Fahrenheit was the German after whom it was named. Too German for America and too American for Germany, I felt alienated from both. I wanted desperately to be a member of one, if not both, cultures.

During my first weeks in Scarsdale, I spent my free time googling “Berlin Family Seeks Teen” and “New Americans in Scarsdale.” The latter search proved most fruitful: I discovered Horizons, a nonprofit that empowers resettled refugees, or “New Americans,” to thrive. I started volunteering with Horizon’s children’s programs, playing with and tutoring young refugees.

It was there that I met Emily, a twelve­-year-­old Iraqi girl who lived next to Horizons. In between games and snacks, Emily would ask me questions about American life, touching on everything from Halloween to President Obama. Gradually, my confidence in my American identity grew as I recognized my ability to answer most of her questions. American culture was no longer completely foreign to me. I found myself especially qualified to work with young refugees; my experience growing up in a country other than that of my parents’ was similar enough to that of the refugee children Horizons served that I could empathize with them and offer advice. Together, we worked through conflicting allegiances, homesickness, and stretched belonging.

Forging a special, personal bond with young refugees proved a cathartic outlet for my insecurities as it taught me to value my past. My transculturalism allowed me to help young refugees integrate into American life, and, in doing so, I was able to adjust myself. Now, I have an appreciation of myself that I never felt before. “Home” isn’t the digits in a passport or ZIP code but a sense of contentedness. By helping a young refugee find comfort, happiness, and home in America, I was finally able to find those same things for myself.

Due to their endearing (and creative) use of language—with early phrases like “sloppy joes and spaetzle” as well as  “Germerican” and “Denglisch”—readers are inclined to like this writer from the get-go. Though the essay shifts from this lighthearted introduction to more serious subject matter around the third paragraph, the shift is not abrupt or jarring. This is because the student invites readers to feel the transition with them through their inclusion of various anecdotes that inspired their “feelings of cultural homelessness.” And our journey does not end there—we go back to America with the student and see how their former struggles become strengths.

Ultimately, this essay is successful due to its satisfying ending. Because readers experience the student’s struggles with them, we also feel the resolution. The conclusion of this essay is a prime example of the “Same, but Different” technique described in our article on How to End Your College Essay . As the student describes how, in the end, their complicated cultural identity still exists but transitions to a source of strength, readers are left feeling happy for the student. This means that they have formed a connection with the student, which is the ultimate goal!

Prompt #1, Example #3

“1…2…3…4 pirouettes ! New record!” My friends cheered as I landed my turns. Pleased with my progress, I gazed down at my worn-out pointe shoes. The sweltering blisters, numbing ice-baths, and draining late-night practices did not seem so bad after all. Next goal: five turns.

For as long as I can remember, ballet, in all its finesse and glamor, had kept me driven day to day. As a child, the lithe ballerinas, donning ethereal costumes as they floated across the stage, were my motivation. While others admired Messi and Adele, I idolized Carlos Acosta, principal dancer of the Royal Ballet. 

As I devoted more time and energy towards my craft, I became obsessed with improving my technique. I would stretch for hours after class, forcing my leg one inch higher in an effort to mirror the Dance Magazine cover girls . I injured my feet and ruined pair after pair of pointe shoes, turning on wood, cement, and even grass to improve my balance as I spun. At competitions, the dancers with the 180-degree leg extensions, endless turns, and soaring leaps—the ones who received “Bravos!” from the roaring audience—further pushed me to refine my skills and perfect my form. I believed that, with enough determination, I would one day attain their level of perfection. Reaching the quadruple- pirouette milestone only intensified my desire to accomplish even more. 

My efforts seemed to have come to fruition two summers ago when I was accepted to dance with Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet at their renowned New York City summer intensive. I walked into my first session eager to learn from distinguished ballet masters and worldly dancers, already anticipating my improvement. Yet, as I danced alongside the accomplished ballerinas, I felt out of place. Despite their clean technique and professional training, they did not aim for glorious leg extensions or prodigious leaps. When they performed their turn combinations, most of them only executed two turns as I attempted four. 

“Dancers, double- pirouettes only.” 

Taken aback and confused, I wondered why our teacher expected so little from us. The other ballerinas seemed content, gracing the studio with their simple movements. 

As I grew closer with my Moscow roommates, I gradually learned that their training emphasized the history of the art form instead of stylistic tricks. Rather than show off their physical ability, their performances aimed to convey a story, one that embodied the rich culture of ballet and captured both the legacy of the dancers before them and their own artistry. As I observed my friends more intently in repertoire class, I felt the pain of the grief-stricken white swan from Swan Lake , the sass of the flirtatious Kitri from Don Quijote, and I gradually saw what I had overlooked before. My definition of talent had been molded by crowd-pleasing elements—whirring pirouettes , gravity-defying leaps, and mind-blowing leg extensions. This mindset slowly stripped me from the roots of my passion and my personal connection with ballet. 

With the Bolshoi, I learned to step back and explore the meaning behind each step and the people behind the scenes. Ballet carries history in its movements, from the societal values of the era to each choreographer’s unique flair. As I uncovered the messages behind each pirouette, kick, and jump, my appreciation for ballet grew beyond my obsession with raw athleticism and developed into a love for the art form’s emotive abilities in bridging the dancers with the audience. My journey as an artist has allowed me to see how technical execution is only the means to a greater understanding between dancer and spectator, between storyteller and listener. The elegance and complexity of ballet does not revolve around astonishing stunts but rather the evocative strength and artistry manifested in the dancer, in me. It is the combination of sentiments, history, tradition, and passion that has allowed ballet and its lessons of human connection to become my lifestyle both on and off stage.

The primary strength of this essay is the honesty and authenticity of the student’s writing. It is purposefully reflective. Intentional language creates a clear character arc that begins with an eager young ballerina and ends with the student reflecting on their past. 

Readers are easily able to picture the passion and intensity of the young dancer through the writer’s engagement with words like “obsessed,” “forcing,” and “ruined” in the second paragraph. Then, we see how intensity becomes pride as they “wondered why our teacher expected so little from us.” And ultimately, we see the writer humbled as they are exposed to the deeper meaning behind what they have worked so hard for. This arc is outstanding, and the student’s musings about ballet in the concl usion position them as vulnerable and reflective (and thus, appealing to admissions officers!)

The main weakness of this essay (though this is a stellar essay) is its formulaic beginning. While dialogue can be an effective tool for starting your essay, this student’s introduction feels a bit stilted as the dialogue does not match the overall reflective tone of the essay. Perhaps, in place of “Next goal: five turns,” the student could have posed a question or foreshadowed the growth they ultimately describe.

Prompt #1, Example #4

My paintbrush dragged a flurry of acrylic, the rich colors attaching to each groove in my canvas’s texture. The feeling was euphoric.

From a young age, painting has been my solace. Between the stress of my packed high school days filled with classes and extracurriculars, the glide of my paintbrush was my emotional outlet.

I opened a fresh canvas and began. The amalgamation of assorted colors in my palette melded harmoniously: dark and light, cool and warm, brilliant and dull. They conjoined, forming shades and surfaces sharp, smooth, and ridged. The textures of my paint strokes — powdery, glossy, jagged — gave my painting a tone, as if it had a voice of its own, sometimes shrieking, sometimes whispering.

Rough indigo blue. The repetitive upward pulls of my brush formed layers on my canvas. Staring into the deep blue, I felt transported to the bottom of the pool I swim in daily. I looked upward to see a layer of dense water between myself and the person I aspire to be, an ideal blurred by filmy ripples. Rough blue encapsulates my amorphous, conflicting identity, catalyzed by words spewed by my peers about my “oily hair” and “smelly food”. They caused my ever present disdain toward cultural assemblies; the lehenga I wore felt burdensome. My identity quivers like the indigo storm I painted — a duel between my self-deprecating, validation-seeking self, and the proud self I desire to be. My haphazard paint strokes released my internal turbulence.

Smooth orange-hued green. I laid the color in melodious strokes, forming my figure. The warmer green transitions from the rough blue — while they share elements, they also diverge. My firm brushstrokes felt like the way I felt on my first day as a media intern at KBOO, my local volunteer-driven radio station, committed to the voices of the marginalized. As a naturally introverted speaker, I was forced out of my comfort zone when tasked with documenting a KBOO art exhibition for social media, speaking with hosts to share their diverse, underrepresented backgrounds and inspirations. A rhythmic green strength soon shoved me past internal blue turbulence. My communication skills which were built by two years of Speech and Debate unleashed — I recognized that making a social change through media required amplifying unique voices and perspectives, both my own and others. The powerful green strokes that fill my canvas entrench my growth.

Bright, voluminous coral, hinted with magenta and yellow. I dabbed the color over my figure, giving my painting dimension. The paint, speckled, added depth on every inch it coated. As I moved the color in random but purposeful movements, the vitality ushered into my painting brought a smile across my face. It reminded me of the encounters I had with my cubicle-mate in my sophomore year academic autism research internship, seemingly insignificant moments in my lifelong journey that, in retrospect, wove unique threads into my tapestry. The kindness she brought into work inspired my compassion, while her stories of struggling with ADHD in the workplace bolstered my empathy towards different experiences. Our conversations added blobs of a nonuniform bright color in my painting, binding a new perspective in me.

I added in my final strokes, each contributing an element to my piece. As I scanned my canvas, I observed these elements. Detail added nuance into smaller pictures; they embodied complexities within color, texture, and hue, each individually delivering a narrative. But together, they formed a piece of art— art that could be interpreted as a whole or broken apart but still delivering as a means of communication.

I find beauty in media because of this. I can adapt a complex narrative to be deliverable, each component telling a story. Appreciating these nuances — the light, dark, smooth, and rough — has cultivated my growth mindset. My life-long painting never finishes. It is ever-expanding, absorbing the novel textures and colors I encounter daily.

This essay is distinct from others due to its melodic, lyrical form. This is primarily achieved because the student’s form follows the movements of the paintbrush that they use to scaffold their essay. As readers, we simply flow through the essay, occasionally picking up bits of information about its creator. Without even realizing it, by the end of the essay, admissions officers will know that this student is a swimmer, was in Speech and Debate, is Indian, and has had multiple internships.

A major strength of this essay is the command of language that the student demonstrates. This essay was not simply written, it was crafted. Universities are, of course, interested in the talents, goals, and interests of applicants, but an essay being well-written can be equally important. Writing skills are important because your reader will not learn about your talents, goals, and interests if they aren’t engaged in your essay, but they are also important because admissions officers know that being able to articulate your thoughts is important for success in all future careers.

While this essay is well-written, there are a few moments where it falls out of the flow and feels more like a student advertising their successes. For example, the phrases “media intern at KBOO” and “autism research internship” work better on a resume than they do in this essay. Admissions officers have a copy of your resume and can check your internship experiences after reading your essay! If you are going to use a unique writing style or narrative form, lean into it; don’t try to hybridize it with the standard college essay form. Your boldness will be attractive to admissions officers.

Readers are easily able to picture the passion and intensity of the young dancer through the writer’s engagement with words like “obsessed,” “forcing,” and “ruined” in the second paragraph. Then, we see how intensity becomes pride as they “wondered why our teacher expected so little from us.” And ultimately, we see the writer humbled as they are exposed to the deeper meaning behind what they have worked so hard for. This arc is outstanding, and the student’s musings about ballet in the conclusion position them as vulnerable and reflective (and thus, appealing to admissions officers!)

Prompt #2: The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Prompt #2, example #1.

“You ruined my life!” After months of quiet anger, my brother finally confronted me. To my shame, I had been appallingly ignorant of his pain.

Despite being twins, Max and I are profoundly different. Having intellectual interests from a young age that, well, interested very few of my peers, I often felt out of step in comparison with my highly-social brother. Everything appeared to come effortlessly for Max and, while we share an extremely tight bond, his frequent time away with friends left me feeling more and more alone as we grew older.

When my parents learned about The Green Academy, we hoped it would be an opportunity for me to find not only an academically challenging environment, but also – perhaps more importantly – a community. This meant transferring the family from Drumfield to Kingston. And while there was concern about Max, we all believed that given his sociable nature, moving would be far less impactful on him than staying put might be on me.

As it turned out, Green Academy was everything I’d hoped for. I was ecstatic to discover a group of students with whom I shared interests and could truly engage. Preoccupied with new friends and a rigorous course load, I failed to notice that the tables had turned. Max, lost in the fray and grappling with how to make connections in his enormous new high school, had become withdrawn and lonely. It took me until Christmas time – and a massive argument – to recognize how difficult the transition had been for my brother, let alone that he blamed me for it.

Through my own journey of searching for academic peers, in addition to coming out as gay when I was 12, I had developed deep empathy for those who had trouble fitting in. It was a pain I knew well and could easily relate to. Yet after Max’s outburst, my first response was to protest that our parents – not I – had chosen to move us here. In my heart, though, I knew that regardless of who had made the decision, we ended up in Kingston for my benefit. I was ashamed that, while I saw myself as genuinely compassionate, I had been oblivious to the heartache of the person closest to me. I could no longer ignore it – and I didn’t want to.

We stayed up half the night talking, and the conversation took an unexpected turn. Max opened up and shared that it wasn’t just about the move. He told me how challenging school had always been for him, due to his dyslexia, and that the ever-present comparison to me had only deepened his pain.

We had been in parallel battles the whole time and, yet, I only saw that Max was in distress once he experienced problems with which I directly identified. I’d long thought Max had it so easy – all because he had friends. The truth was, he didn’t need to experience my personal brand of sorrow in order for me to relate – he had felt plenty of his own.

My failure to recognize Max’s suffering brought home for me the profound universality and diversity of personal struggle; everyone has insecurities, everyone has woes, and everyone – most certainly – has pain. I am acutely grateful for the conversations he and I shared around all of this, because I believe our relationship has been fundamentally strengthened by a deeper understanding of one another. Further, this experience has reinforced the value of constantly striving for deeper sensitivity to the hidden struggles of those around me. I won’t make the mistake again of assuming that the surface of someone’s life reflects their underlying story.

Here is a prime example that you don’t have to have fabulous imagery or flowery prose to write a successful Common App essay. You just have to be clear and say something that matters. This essay is simple and beautiful. It almost feels like having a conversation with a friend and learning that they are an even better person than you already thought they were.

Through this narrative, readers learn a lot about the writer—where they’re from, what their family life is like, what their challenges were as a kid, and even their sexuality. We also learn a lot about their values—notably, the value they place on awareness, improvement, and consideration of others. Though they never explicitly state it (which is great because it is still crystal clear!), this student’s ending of “I won’t make the mistake again of assuming that the surface of someone’s life reflects their underlying story” shows that they are constantly striving for improvement and finding lessons anywhere they can get them in life.

The only part of this essay that could use a bit of work is the introduction. A short introduction can be effective, but this short first paragraph feels thrown in at the last minute and like it is missing its second half. If you are keeping your introduction short, make it matter.

Prompt #2, Example #2

Was I no longer the beloved daughter of nature, whisperer of trees? Knee-high rubber boots, camouflage, bug spray—I wore the garb and perfume of a proud wild woman, yet there I was, hunched over the pathetic pile of stubborn sticks, utterly stumped, on the verge of tears. As a child, I had considered myself a kind of rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees, who could glide through tick-infested meadows and emerge Lyme-free. I knew the cracks of the earth like the scars on my own rough palms. Yet here I was, ten years later, incapable of performing the most fundamental outdoor task: I could not, for the life of me, start a fire. 

Furiously I rubbed the twigs together—rubbed and rubbed until shreds of skin flaked from my fingers. No smoke. The twigs were too young, too sticky-green; I tossed them away with a shower of curses, and began tearing through the underbrush in search of a more flammable collection. My efforts were fruitless. Livid, I bit a rejected twig, determined to prove that the forest had spurned me, offering only young, wet bones that would never burn. But the wood cracked like carrots between my teeth—old, brittle, and bitter. Roaring and nursing my aching palms, I retreated to the tent, where I sulked and awaited the jeers of my family. 

Rattling their empty worm cans and reeking of fat fish, my brother and cousins swaggered into the campsite. Immediately, they noticed the minor stick massacre by the fire pit and called to me, their deep voices already sharp with contempt. 

“Where’s the fire, Princess Clara?” they taunted. “Having some trouble?” They prodded me with the ends of the chewed branches and, with a few effortless scrapes of wood on rock, sparked a red and roaring flame. My face burned long after I left the fire pit. The camp stank of salmon and shame. 

In the tent, I pondered my failure. Was I so dainty? Was I that incapable? I thought of my hands, how calloused and capable they had been, how tender and smooth they had become. It had been years since I’d kneaded mud between my fingers; instead of scaling a white pine, I’d practiced scales on my piano, my hands softening into those of a musician—fleshy and sensitive. And I’d gotten glasses, having grown horrifically nearsighted; long nights of dim lighting and thick books had done this. I couldn’t remember the last time I had lain down on a hill, barefaced, and seen the stars without having to squint. Crawling along the edge of the tent, a spider confirmed my transformation—he disgusted me, and I felt an overwhelming urge to squash him. 

Yet, I realized I hadn’t really changed—I had only shifted perspective. I still eagerly explored new worlds, but through poems and prose rather than pastures and puddles. I’d grown to prefer the boom of a bass over that of a bullfrog, learned to coax a different kind of fire from wood, having developed a burn for writing rhymes and scrawling hypotheses. 

That night, I stayed up late with my journal and wrote about the spider I had decided not to kill. I had tolerated him just barely, only shrieking when he jumped—it helped to watch him decorate the corners of the tent with his delicate webs, knowing that he couldn’t start fires, either. When the night grew cold and the embers died, my words still smoked—my hands burned from all that scrawling—and even when I fell asleep, the ideas kept sparking—I was on fire, always on fire.

This Common App essay is well-written. The student is showing the admissions officers their ability to articulate their points beautifully and creatively. It starts with vivid images like that of the “rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees, who could glide through tick-infested meadows and emerge Lyme-free.” And because the prose is flowery, the writer can get away with metaphors like “I knew the cracks of the earth like the scars on my own rough palms” that might sound cheesy without the clear command of the English language that the writer quickly establishes.

In addition to being well-written, this essay is thematically cohesive. It begins with the simple introduction “Fire!” and ends with the following image: “When the night grew cold and the embers died, my words still smoked—my hands burned from all that scrawling—and even when I fell asleep, the ideas kept sparking—I was on fire, always on fire.” This full-circle approach leaves readers satisfied and impressed.

While dialogue often comes off as cliche or trite, this student effectively incorporates their family members saying “Where’s the fire, Princess Clara?” This is achieved through the apt use of the verb “taunted” to characterize the questioning and through the question’s thematic connection to the earlier image of the student as a rustic princess. Similarly, rhetorical questions can feel randomly placed in essays, but this student’s inclusion of the questions “Was I so dainty?” and “Was I that incapable?” feels perfectly justified after they establish that they were pondering their failure.

Quite simply, this essay shows how quality writing can make a simple story outstandingly compelling.

Prompt #2, Example #3

The muffled voices behind thin walls heralded trouble.

They were fighting about money.

It wasn’t the first time this had happened and it wasn’t going to be the last. It was one of those countless nights I had to spend curled up under the blanket while pretending to be asleep. My father had been unemployed for five years now, and my mother, a local kindergarten teacher, was struggling to support the family alone. Our situation was bleak: Savings had run out and my parents could no longer hide our lack of money from me. To make matters worse, I was a few weeks away from starting high school, which would inevitably lead to college, yet another financial stressor for my family.

The argument didn’t sound like it would end soon.

“Why did you spend money on that?” my mother said, with an elongated sigh.

“I had to,” my father said, decidedly.

Every fight over the years had left me in despair and the idea of going through another fight daunted me. I had looked forward to my teen years all my life, an age that allows, for the first time, more responsibility. Indeed, after this fateful night, after my fourteenth birthday, I felt a mounting responsibility to help my family, and started brainstorming.

Always being fascinated by computers, I spent my childhood burying myself under computer cabinets, experimenting with computer parts. Naturally, I wondered if my skills in this area might be marketable.

The next morning, my friend, Naba, mentioned that her computer wasn’t working. A tuk-tuk ride later, and I was at her doorstep, and her mother was leading me to her room. I was off to work: I began examining her computer, like a surgeon carefully manages his scalpels and tools. A proper diagnosis was not far from reach, as I realized a broken pin in her computer’s SATA slot. After an hour of work, and a short trip to the hardware store, I successfully fixed the computer. To my pleasant surprise, Naba’s mother drew out two fresh 500 Rupee notes. One covered the cost of the parts I bought and the other was a token of appreciation. Bidding her goodbye, I went straight back home and put one of the 500 Rupee notes inside my family’s “savings-jar.”

Later that day, I devised a plan. I told my friends to spread the word that I was available to fix computers. At first, I got only one or two calls per week. I would pick up the computer from my client’s home, fix it quickly, and return it, thus earning myself a commission. While I couldn’t market my services at a competitive price, because I wasn’t able to buy the parts wholesale, I compensated by providing convenience. All my clients had to do was call me once and the rest was taken care of. Thus, my business had the best customer service in town.

At the beginning of my junior year, after two years of expanding my business through various avenues, I started buying computer parts from hardware suppliers in bulk at a cheaper rate. My business grew exponentially after that. 

Before long, I was my town’s go-to tech person. In this journey throughout high school, I started realizing that I had to create my own opportunities and not just curl up under a blanket, seeking only comfort, as I used to. Interacting with people from all walks of life became my forte and a sense of work ethic developed in me. My business required me to be an all-rounder– have the technical skills, be an easily approachable person, and manage cash flow. Slowly becoming better at this, I even managed to sway admins of a local institution to outsource their computer hardware purchases and repairs through me. As my business upsized throughout the years, I went from being helpless to autonomous – the teenager I always aspired to be.

This essay truly feels like a story—almost making you forget you are reading a college essay. The student’s voice is strong throughout the entire essay and they are able to give us insight into their thoughts, feelings, and motivations at every step of the story. Letting the reader into personal challenges like financial struggles can be daunting in a college essay, but the way this student used that setback to establish an emotional ethos to their narrative was well done.

Because the essay is essentially just telling a story, there’s a very natural flow that makes it enjoyable and easy to read. The student establishes the conflict at the beginning, then describes their solution and how they implemented it, and finally concludes with the lessons they took away from this experience. Transitions at the beginning of paragraphs effortlessly show the passage of time and how the student has progressed through the story.

Another reason this essay is so successful is because of the abundance of details. The reader truly feels like they are hiding in the room with the student as their parents yell because of the inclusion of quotes from the argument. We understand the precision and care they have for fixing computers because of the allusion to a surgeon with their scalpel. Not only does this imagery make the story more enticing, it also helps the reader gain a deeper appreciation for the type of person this student is and the adversity they have overcome.

If there were one thing this essay could do to improve, it would be to include a resolution to the conflict from the beginning. The student tells us how this business helped them grow as a person, but we don’t ever get to find out if they were able to lessen the financial burden on their parents or if they continued to struggle despite the student working hard. It doesn’t have to be a happy ending, but it would be nice to return to the conflict and acknowledge the effect they had on it, especially since this prompt is all about facing challenges.

Prompt #3: Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Prompt #3, example #1.

When I was younger, I was adamant that no two foods on my plate touch. As a result, I often used a second plate to prevent such an atrocity. In many ways, I learned to separate different things this way from my older brothers, Nate and Rob. Growing up, I idolized both of them. Nate was a performer, and I insisted on arriving early to his shows to secure front row seats, refusing to budge during intermission for fear of missing anything. Rob was a three-sport athlete, and I attended his games religiously, waving worn-out foam cougar paws and cheering until my voice was hoarse. My brothers were my role models. However, while each was talented, neither was interested in the other’s passion. To me, they represented two contrasting ideals of what I could become: artist or athlete. I believed I had to choose.

And for a long time, I chose athlete. I played soccer, basketball, and lacrosse and viewed myself exclusively as an athlete, believing the arts were not for me. I conveniently overlooked that since the age of five, I had been composing stories for my family for Christmas, gifts that were as much for me as them, as I loved writing. So when in tenth grade, I had the option of taking a creative writing class, I was faced with a question: could I be an athlete and a writer? After much debate, I enrolled in the class, feeling both apprehensive and excited. When I arrived on the first day of school, my teacher, Ms. Jenkins, asked us to write down our expectations for the class. After a few minutes, eraser shavings stubbornly sunbathing on my now-smudged paper, I finally wrote, “I do not expect to become a published writer from this class. I just want this to be a place where I can write freely.”

Although the purpose of the class never changed for me, on the third “submission day,” – our time to submit writing to upcoming contests and literary magazines – I faced a predicament. For the first two submission days, I had passed the time editing earlier pieces, eventually (pretty quickly) resorting to screen snake when hopelessness made the words look like hieroglyphics. I must not have been as subtle as I thought, as on the third of these days, Ms. Jenkins approached me. After shifting from excuse to excuse as to why I did not submit my writing, I finally recognized the real reason I had withheld my work: I was scared. I did not want to be different, and I did not want to challenge not only others’ perceptions of me, but also my own. I yielded to Ms. Jenkin’s pleas and sent one of my pieces to an upcoming contest.

By the time the letter came, I had already forgotten about the contest. When the flimsy white envelope arrived in the mail, I was shocked and ecstatic to learn that I had received 2nd place in a nationwide writing competition. The next morning, however, I discovered Ms. Jenkins would make an announcement to the whole school exposing me as a poet. I decided to own this identity and embrace my friends’ jokes and playful digs, and over time, they have learned to accept and respect this part of me. I have since seen more boys at my school identifying themselves as writers or artists.

I no longer see myself as an athlete and a poet independently, but rather I see these two aspects forming a single inseparable identity – me. Despite their apparent differences, these two disciplines are quite similar, as each requires creativity and devotion. I am still a poet when I am lacing up my cleats for soccer practice and still an athlete when I am building metaphors in the back of my mind – and I have realized ice cream and gummy bears taste pretty good together.

This essay is cohesive as it centers around the theme of identity and the ability for two identities to coexist simultaneously (an interesting theme!). It uses the Full Circle ending strategy as it starts with a metaphor about food touching and ends with “I have realized ice cream and gummy bears taste pretty good together.”

The main issue with this essay is that it could come off as cliché, which could be irritating for admissions officers. The story described is notably similar to High School Musical (“I decided to own this identity and embrace my friends’ jokes and playful digs, and over time, they have learned to accept and respect this part of me”) and feels slightly overstated. 

At times, this essay is also confusing. In the first paragraph, it feels like the narrative is actually going to be about separating your food (and is somehow going to relate to the older brothers?). It is not entirely clear that this is a metaphor. Also, when the writer references the third submission day and then works backward to explain what a submission day is and that there are multiple throughout the semester, the timeline gets unnecessarily confusing. Reworking the way this paragraph unfolded would have been more compelling and less distracting.

Overall, this essay was interesting but could have been more polished to be more effective.

Prompt #3, Example #2

I walked into my middle school English class, and noticed a stranger behind my teacher’s desk. “Hello,” she said. “Today I will be your substitute teacher.” I groaned internally. “Let me start off by calling roll. Ally?” “Here!” exclaimed Ally. “Jack?” “Here.” “Rachel?” “Here.” “Freddie?” “Present.” And then– “…?” The awkward pause was my cue. “It’s Jasina,” I started. “You can just call me Jas. Here.” “Oh, Jasina. That’s unique.” The word “unique” made me cringe. I slumped back in my seat. The substitute continued calling roll, and class continued as if nothing had happened. Nothing had happened. Just a typical moment in a middle school, but I hated every second of it.

My name is not impossible to pronounce. It appears challenging initially, but once you hear it, “Jas-een-a”, then you can manage it. My nickname, Jas (pronounced “Jazz”), is what most people call me anyway, so I don’t have to deal with mispronunciation often. I am thankful that my parents named me Jasina (a Hebrew name), but whenever someone hears my name for the first time, they comment, and I assume they’re making assumptions about me. “Wow, Jas is a cool name.” She must be pretty cool.“I’ve never heard the name Jasina before.” She must be from somewhere exotic. “Jas, like Jazz?” She must be musical and artsy. None of these assumptions are bad, but they all add up to the same thing: She must be unique. 

When I was little, these sentiments felt more like commands than assumptions. I thought I had to be the most unique child of all time, which was a daunting task, but I tried. I was the only kid in the second grade to color the sun red. I knew it was really yellow, but you could always tell which drawings were mine. During snack time, we could choose between apple juice and grape juice. I liked apple juice more, but if everyone else was choosing apple, then I had to choose grape. This was how I lived my life, and it was exhausting. I tried to continue this habit into middle school, but it backfired. When everyone became obsessed with things like skinny jeans and Justin Bieber and blue mascara (that was a weird trend), my resistance of the norm made me socially awkward. I couldn’t talk to people about anything because we had nothing in common. I was too different. 

After 8th grade, I moved to Georgia, and I was dreading being the odd one out among kids who had grown up together. Then I discovered that my freshman year would be Cambridge High School’s inaugural year. Since there were students coming in from 5 different schools, there was no real sense of “normal”. I panicked. If there was no normal, then how could I be unique? That’s when I realized that I had spent so much energy going against the grain that I had no idea what my true interests were or what I really cared about. 

It was time to find out. I stopped concentrating on what everyone else was doing and started to focus on myself. I joined the basketball team, I performed in the school musical, and I enrolled in Chorus, all of which were firsts for me. I took art classes, joined clubs, and did whatever I thought would make me happy. And it paid off. I was no longer socially awkward. In fact, because I was involved in so many unrelated activities, I was socially flexible. My friends and I had things in common, but there was no one who could say that I was exactly like anyone else. I had finally become my own person.

My father named me Jasina because he wanted my nickname to be “Jazz.” According to Webster, “jazz” is “music characterized by syncopated rhythms, improvisation, and deliberate distortions of pitch.” Basically, jazz is music that is off-beat and unpredictable. It cannot be strictly defined. 

That sounds about right. 

Right off the bat, this essay starts extremely strong. The description of attendance in a class with ample quotes, awkward pauses, and the student’s internal dialogue immediately puts us in the middle of the action and establishes a lot of sympathy for this student before we’ve learned anything else. 

The strength of this essay continues into the second paragraph where the use of quotes, italics, and interjections from the student continues. All of these literary tools help the student express her voice and allow the reader to understand what this student goes through on a daily basis. Rather than just telling the reader people make assumptions about her name, she shows us what these assumptions look and sound like, and exactly how they make her feel.

The essay further shows us how the student approached her name by providing concrete examples of times she’s been intentionally unique throughout her life. Describing her drawing red suns and choosing grape juice bring her personality to life and allow her to express her deviance from the “norm” in a much more engaging and visual way than simply telling the reader she would go against the grain to be different on purpose.

One part of the essay that was a bit weaker than the others was the paragraph about her in high school. Although it was still well written and did a nice job of demonstrating how she got involved in multiple groups to find her new identity, it lacked the same level of showing employed in previous paragraphs. It would have been nice to see what “socially flexible” means either through a conversation she had with her friends or an example of a time she combined her interests from different groups in a way that was uniquely her.

The essay finishes off how it started: extremely strong. Taking a step back to fully explain the origin of her name neatly brings together everything mentioned in this essay. This ending is especially successful because she never explicitly states that her personality aligns with the definition of jazz. Instead, she relies on the points she has made throughout the essay to stick in the reader’s memory so they are able to draw the connection themselves, making for a much more satisfying ending for the reader.

Prompt #4 (OLD PROMPT; NOT THE CURRENT PROMPT): Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma – anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.

Prompt #4, example #1.

“Advanced females ages 13 to 14 please proceed to staging with your coaches at this time.” 

Skittering around the room, eyes wide and pleading, I frantically explained my situation to nearby coaches. The seconds ticked away in my head; every polite refusal increased my desperation. 

Despair weighed me down. I sank to my knees as a stream of competitors, coaches, and officials flowed around me. My dojang had no coach, and the tournament rules prohibited me from competing without one. 

Although I wanted to remain strong, doubts began to cloud my mind. I could not help wondering: what was the point of perfecting my skills if I would never even compete? The other members of my team, who had found coaches minutes earlier, attempted to comfort me, but I barely heard their words. They couldn’t understand my despair at being left on the outside, and I never wanted them to understand. 

Since my first lesson 12 years ago, the members of my dojang have become family. I have watched them grow up, finding my own happiness in theirs. Together, we have honed our kicks, blocks, and strikes. We have pushed one another to aim higher and become better martial artists. Although my dojang had searched for a reliable coach for years, we had not found one. When we attended competitions in the past, my teammates and I had always gotten lucky and found a sympathetic coach. Now, I knew this practice was unsustainable. It would devastate me to see the other members of my dojang in my situation, unable to compete and losing hope as a result. My dojang needed a coach, and I decided it was up to me to find one. 

I first approached the adults in the dojang – both instructors and members’ parents. However, these attempts only reacquainted me with polite refusals. Everyone I asked told me they couldn’t devote multiple weekends per year to competitions. I soon realized that I would have become the coach myself. 

At first, the inner workings of tournaments were a mystery to me. To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side. I learned everything from motivational strategies to technical, behind-the-scenes components of Taekwondo competitions. Though I emerged with new knowledge and confidence in my capabilities, others did not share this faith. 

Parents threw me disbelieving looks when they learned that their children’s coach was only a child herself. My self-confidence was my armor, deflecting their surly glances. Every armor is penetrable, however, and as the relentless barrage of doubts pounded my resilience, it began to wear down. I grew unsure of my own abilities. 

Despite the attack, I refused to give up. When I saw the shining eyes of the youngest students preparing for their first competition, I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was. The knowledge that I could solve my dojang’s longtime problem motivated me to overcome my apprehension. 

Now that my dojang flourishes at competitions, the attacks on me have weakened, but not ended. I may never win the approval of every parent; at times, I am still tormented by doubts, but I find solace in the fact that members of my dojang now only worry about competing to the best of their abilities. 

Now, as I arrive at a tournament with my students, I close my eyes and remember the past. I visualize the frantic search for a coach and the chaos amongst my teammates as we competed with one another to find coaches before the staging calls for our respective divisions. I open my eyes to the exact opposite scene. Lacking a coach hurt my ability to compete, but I am proud to know that no member of my dojang will have to face that problem again.

This essay is great because it has a strong introduction and a strong conclusion. The introduction is notably suspenseful and draws readers into the story. Because we know it is a college essay, we can assume that the student is one of the competitors, but at the same time, this introduction feels intentionally ambiguous as if the writer could be a competitor, a coach, a sibling of a competitor, or anyone else in the situation.

As we continue reading the essay, we learn that the writer is, in fact, the competitor. Readers also learn a lot about the student’s values as we hear their thoughts: “I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was.” Ultimately, the conflict and inner and outer turmoil is resolved through the “Same, but Different” ending technique as the student places themself in the same environment that we saw in the intro, but experiencing it differently due to their actions throughout the narrative. This is a very compelling strategy!

The main weakness of this essay is that it is slightly confusing at times—how the other students found coaches feels unintentionally under-explained (a simple phrase like “through pleading and attracting sympathy” in the fourth paragraph could have served the writer well) and a dojang is never defined. Additionally, the turn of the essay or “volta” could’ve packed a bigger punch. It is put quite simply with “I soon realized that I would have become the coach myself.” A more suspenseful reveal could’ve served the author well because more drama did come later.

Prompt #5: Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Prompt #5, example #1.

Tears streamed down my face and my mind was paralyzed with fear. Sirens blared, but the silent panic in my own head was deafening. I was muted by shock. A few hours earlier, I had anticipated a vacation in Washington, D.C., but unexpectedly, I was rushing to the hospital behind an ambulance carrying my mother. As a fourteen-year-old from a single mother household, without a driver’s license, and seven hours from home, I was distraught over the prospect of losing the only parent I had. My fear turned into action as I made some of the bravest decisions of my life. 

Three blood transfusions later, my mother’s condition was stable, but we were still states away from home, so I coordinated with my mother’s doctors in North Carolina to schedule the emergency operation that would save her life. Throughout her surgery, I anxiously awaited any word from her surgeon, but each time I asked, I was told that there had been another complication or delay. Relying on my faith and positive attitude, I remained optimistic that my mother would survive and that I could embrace new responsibilities.

My mother had been a source of strength for me, and now I would be strong for her through her long recovery ahead. As I started high school, everyone thought the crisis was over, but it had really just started to impact my life. My mother was often fatigued, so I assumed more responsibility, juggling family duties, school, athletics, and work. I made countless trips to the neighborhood pharmacy, cooked dinner, biked to the grocery store, supported my concerned sister, and provided the loving care my mother needed to recover. I didn’t know I was capable of such maturity and resourcefulness until it was called upon. Each day was a stage in my gradual transformation from dependence to relative independence.

Throughout my mother’s health crisis, I matured by learning to put others’ needs before my own. As I worried about my mother’s health, I took nothing for granted, cherished what I had, and used my daily activities as motivation to move forward. I now take ownership over small decisions such as scheduling daily appointments and managing my time but also over major decisions involving my future, including the college admissions process. Although I have become more independent, my mother and I are inseparably close, and the realization that I almost lost her affects me daily. Each morning, I wake up ten minutes early simply to eat breakfast with my mother and spend time with her before our busy days begin. I am aware of how quickly life can change. My mother remains a guiding force in my life, but the feeling of empowerment I discovered within myself is the ultimate form of my independence. Though I thought the summer before my freshman year would be a transition from middle school to high school, it was a transformation from childhood to adulthood.

This essay feels real and tells readers a lot about the writer. To start at the beginning, the intro is 10/10. It has drama, it has emotions, and it has the reader wanting more.

And, when you keep going, you get to learn a lot about a very resilient and mature student. Through sentences like “I made countless trips to the neighborhood pharmacy, cooked dinner, biked to the grocery store, supported my concerned sister, and provided the loving care my mother needed to recover” and “Relying on my faith and positive attitude, I remained optimistic that my mother would survive and that I could embrace new responsibilities,” the reader shows us that they are aware of their resilience and maturity, but are not arrogant about it. It is simply a fact that they have proven!

Sometimes writing about adversity can feel exploitative or oddly braggy. This student backs up everything they say with anecdotes that prove and show their strength and resilience, rather than just claiming their strengths. When I read this essay, I want to cheer for its writer! And I want to be able to continue cheering for them (perhaps, if I were an admissions officer, that would make me want them at my school!).

Prompt #5, Example #2

Armed with a red pen, I slowly walked across the room to a small, isolated table with pink stools. Swinging her legs, my young student beamed and giggled at me, slamming her pencil bag on the table and bending over to pick up one of her toys. Natalie always brought some new toy with her to lessons—toys which I would sternly take away from her and place under the table until she finished her work. At the tutoring center where I work, a strict emphasis on discipline leaves no room for paper crowns or rubber chickens. 

Today, she had with her a large stuffed eagle from a museum. As she pulled out her papers, I slid the eagle to the other side of the table. She looked eagerly around, attempting to chat with other students as I impatiently called her attention to her papers. “I should name my eagle,” she chimed, waving her pencil in the air. I cringed—there was no wondering why Natalie always had to sit by herself. She was the antithesis of my academic values, and undoubtedly the greatest adversary of my teaching style.  

As the lesson progressed, Natalie became more fitful; she refused to release her feathered friend, and kept addressing the bird for help with difficult problems. We both grew increasingly more frustrated. Determined to tame this wryly, wiggling student, I stood my ground, set on converting this disobedient child to my calm, measured ways of study.  

As time slowly crept by, I noticed that despite Natalie’s cheerful tone and bright smile, the stuffed eagle was troublesomely quiet and stern-faced. Much like myself. Both the eagle and I were getting nowhere in this lesson—so we hatched a quick plan. Lifting the eagle up in the air, I started reading in my best impersonation of an eagle, squawking my way through a spelling packet. The result provided a sense of instant gratification I never knew I needed. She sang out every letter, clapped her hands at every page, and followed along with the eagle, stopping at every few letters to declare that “E is for eagle” and pet her teacher fondly on the beak.  

Despite my ostensibly dissatisfied attitude toward my students, I did not join the tutoring center simply to earn money. I had always aspired to help others achieve their fullest potential. As a young adult, I felt that it was time for me to step out of the role of a pupil and into the influential role of a teacher, naively believing that I had the maturity and skill to adapt to any situation and help these students reach their highest achievements academically. For the most part, the role of a stern-faced, strict instructor helped me get by in the workplace, and while my students never truly looked happy, I felt that it was part of the process of conditioning a child to learn. 

Ironically, my transition to adulthood was the result of a stuffed animal. It was indisputable that I always had the skill to instruct others; the only thing needed to instruct someone is knowledge of the subject. However, it was only upon being introduced to a stuffed bird in which I realized that students receive the most help not from instructors, but teachers. While almost anyone can learn material and spit it back out for someone, it takes the maturity and passion of a teacher not only to help students improve in their students, but also to motivate them and develop them into better citizens. From my young pupil and her little bird, I have undergone a change in attitude which reflects a growth in maturity and ability to improve the lives of others that I hope to implement in my future role as a student, activist, and physician. My newfound maturity taught me that the letter “e” stands for many things: empathy, experience, enthusiasm, and eagle.

In this essay, the student effectively explores their values (and how they learned them!) then identifies these values through a reflective conclusion. While the writer humbly recognizes the initial faults in their teaching style, they do not position their initial discipline or rigidity as mean or poorly intentioned—simply ineffective. This is important because, when you are discussing a transition like this, you don’t want admissions officers to think of you as having been a bad person. 

My favorite part about this essay is its subtlety. The major shift in the essay comes through the simple sentence “The result provided a sense of instant gratification I never knew I needed.” The facts of this narrative are not too complicated. Simply put, the writer was strict then learned that it’s sometimes more effective not to be strict. The complexity of this narrative comes through reflection. Notably, through the ending, the student identifies their values (which they hadn’t given a name to before): “it takes the maturity and passion of a teacher not only to help students improve in their students, but also to motivate them and develop them into better citizens.” 

The final sentence of this essay ties things up very nicely. Readers are left satisfied with the essay and convinced that its writer is a kind human with a large capacity for reflection and consideration. That is a great image to paint of yourself!

Prompt #5, Example #3

When it’s quiet, I can still hear the Friday night gossip and giggles of my friends. It’s a stark contrast from the environment I’ve known all my life, my home. My family has always been one to keep to themselves; introverts with a hard-working mentality—my father especially. He spent most of his time at work and growing up without him around, I came to be at peace with the fact that I’d probably never really get to know him. The thought didn’t bother me at the time because I felt that we were very different. He was stoic and traditional; I was trying to figure out who I was and explore my interests. His disapproval of the American music I listened to and my penchant for wearing hand-me-downs made me see him as someone who wanted to restrain my individuality. That explains why I relied heavily on my friends throughout middle and high school; they liked me for who I was. I figured I would get lonely without my friends during quarantine, but these last few months stuck at home gave me the time to make a new friend: my father. 

It was June. I had the habit of sleeping with my windows open so I wouldn’t need to set an alarm; the warmth of the sun and the sounds of the neighborhood children playing outside would wake me. One morning, however, it was not the chirping of birds or the laughter of children I awoke to, but the shrill of a saw. Through the window screen, on the grass below, my father stood cutting planks of wood. I was confused but didn’t question him—what he did with his time was none of my business. It was not until the next day, when I was attempting to work on a sculpture for an art class, that the sounds of hammering and drills became too much to ignore. Seeking answers, I trudged across my backyard towards the corner he was in. On that day, all there was to see was the foundation of what he was building; a shed. My intrigue was replaced with awe; I was impressed by the precision of his craft. Sharp corners, leveled and sturdy, I could imagine what it would look like when the walls were up and the inside filled with the tools he had spread around the yard. 

Throughout the week, when I was trying to finish my sculpture for art class—thinking about its shape and composition—I could not help but think of my father. Art has always been a creative outlet for me, an opportunity to express myself at home. For my dad, his craftsmanship was his art. I realized we were not as different as I had thought; he was an artist like me. My glue and paper were his wood and nails.

That summer, I tried to spend more time with my dad than I have in all my 18 years of life. Waking up earlier than usual so we could have our morning coffees together and pretending to like his favorite band so he’d talk to me about it, I took advantage of every opportunity I had to speak with him. In getting to know him, I’ve recognized that I get my artistry from him. 

Reflecting on past relationships, I feel I am now more open to reconnecting with people I’ve perhaps misjudged. In reconciling, I’ve realized I held some bitterness towards him all these years, and in letting that go, my heart is lighter. Our reunion has changed my perspective; instead of vilifying him for spending so much time at work, I can appreciate how hard he works to provide for our family. When I hear him tinkering away at another home project, I can smile and look forward to asking him about it later.

This is an outstanding example of the great things that can be articulated through a reflective essay. As we read the essay, we are simply thinking alongside its author—thinking about their past relationship with their father, about their time in quarantine, about aspects of themselves they think could use attention and growth. 

While we reflect, we are also centered by the student’s anecdote about the sculpture and the shed during quarantine. By centering us in real-time, the student keeps us engaged in the reflection.

The main strength here is the maturity we see on the part of its writer. The student doesn’t say “and I realized my father was the best dad in the world;” they say “and I realized my father didn’t have to be the best dad in the world for me to give him a chance.” Lots of students show themselves as motivated, curious, or compassionate in their college essays, but a reflective essay that ends with a discussion of resentment and forgiveness shows true maturity.

Prompt #5, Example #4

As a wide-eyed, naive seven-year-old, I watched my grandmother’s rough, wrinkled hands pull and knead mercilessly at white dough until the countertop was dusted in flour. She steamed small buns in bamboo baskets, and a light sweetness lingered in the air. Although the mantou looked delicious, their papery, flat taste was always an unpleasant surprise. My grandmother scolded me for failing to finish even one, and when I complained about the lack of flavor she would simply say that I would find it as I grew older. How did my adult relatives seem to enjoy this Taiwanese culinary delight while I found it so plain?

During my journey to discover the essence of mantou, I began to see myself the same way I saw the steamed bun. I believed that my writing would never evolve beyond a hobby and that my quiet nature crippled my ambitions. Ultimately, I thought I had little to offer the world. In middle school, it was easy for me to hide behind the large personalities of my friends, blending into the background and keeping my thoughts company. Although writing had become my emotional outlet, no matter how well I wrote essays, poetry, or fiction, I could not stand out in a sea of talented students. When I finally gained the confidence to submit my poetry to literary journals but was promptly rejected, I stepped back from my work to begin reading from Whitman to Dickinson, Li-Young Lee to Ocean Vuong. It was then that I realized I had been holding back a crucial ingredient–my distinct voice. 

Over time, my taste buds began to mature, as did I. Mantou can be flavored with pork and eggplant, sweetened in condensed milk, and moistened or dried by the steam’s temperature. After I ate the mantou with each of these factors in mind, I noticed its environment enhanced a delicately woven strand of sweetness beneath the taste of side dishes: the sugar I had often watched my grandmother sift into the flour. The taste was nearly untraceable, but once I grasped it I could truly begin to cherish mantou. In the same way the taste had been lost to me for years, my writer’s voice had struggled to shine through because of my self-doubt and fear of vulnerability.

As I acquired a taste for mantou, I also began to strengthen my voice through my surrounding environment. With the support of my parents, peer poets, and the guidance of Amy Tan and the Brontё sisters, I worked tirelessly to uncover my voice: a subtle strand of sweetness. Once I stopped trying to fit into a publishing material mold and infused my uninhibited passion for my Taiwanese heritage into my writing, my poem was published in a literary journal. I wrote about the blatant racism Asians endured during coronavirus, and the editor of Skipping Stones Magazine was touched by both my poem and my heartfelt letter. I opened up about being ridiculed for bringing Asian food to school at Youth Leadership Forum, providing support to younger Asian-American students who reached out with the relief of finding someone they could relate to. I embraced writing as a way to convey my struggle with cultural identity. I joined the school’s creative writing club and read my pieces in front of an audience, honing my voice into one that flourishes out loud as well.

Now, I write and speak unapologetically, falling in love with a voice that I never knew I had. It inspires passion within my communities and imparts tenacity to Asian-American youth, rooting itself deeply into everything I write. Today, my grandmother would say that I have finally unearthed the taste of mantou as I savor every bite with a newfound appreciation. I can imagine her hands shaping the dough that has become my voice, and I am eager to share it with the world.

This essay is structurally-sound, with the student’s journey learning to savor mantou and their journey trying to find their voice serving as outstanding parallels. Additionally, as they describe the journey to find a voice in their writing, they definitely show off their voice! The clear introduction provides a great image and draws us in with an intriguing question. Additionally, their little inserts like “a strand of sweetness” and “falling in love with a voice that I never knew I had” work very well.

When the student describes their first published poem, however, their writing gets a little more stilted. This is a common error students make when writing about their achievements. If this student is writing about the craft that goes into writing, we should hear the details of the craft that went into the poem, instead of simply learning that they “opened up about being ridiculed for bringing Asian food to school at Youth Leadership Forum.” This is interesting information but would be stronger if it were supplemented by descriptions of the voice they created, comparisons to the styles of other poets, and analysis of their stylistic choices. This would make the essay feel more cohesive, centering entirely around concepts of voice and style.

Prompt #6: Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Note: We don’t have a stellar example for this prompt, so instead, we’re sharing a couple examples that need improvement, and what can be done to make the essays more engaging. 

Prompt #6, Example #1

What factors shape the depth and allure of a literary character? This is the exact question I asked myself as my eyes riveted on the white pages covered with little black letters.

I was reading my old novels. I’ve written three novels and many short stories. Each of them repetitively portrayed the hero as intelligent and funny, and the antagonists as cold and manipulative. I came to the appalling realization that my characters were flat, neither exciting nor original. They just didn’t stand out! 

As Oscar Wilde said, ‘Vice and virtue are to the artist material to an art.’ Their mixing makes a novel addictive because its plot is rich with turnarounds and its characters more engaging. In his famous work The Picture of Dorian Gray , Wilde deconstructs the psyche of his characters. He brilliantly plays with the protagonist’s youthful appearance and the decaying portrait to build a truly unique idiosyncratic identity. The persona of Dorian Gray is so complicated a psychologist could analyze it for hours on end!

Inspired by this character, It was my turn to explore good and evil into characters to make my stories more enthralling. I skillfully played with vice and virtue, separating, merging them… My latest novel is the fruit of this exercise. I chose to set it in 20th century London. Its opium dens and exclusive salons; middle-class workers, peasants and politicians breathed the same newly industrialized air; modernity in Blackfriars bridge and tradition in St Paul’s Cathedral; all of these contrasts set the perfect environment for my characters to grow. Following Laclos’ Valmont, Maupassant’s Georges Duroy and Duffy’s Myra Hindley, I played with those contrasts to present an intricate character, truly creative – unlike my previous ones. Insanity, religion, depravity and love are merged into each character, reflecting Edwardian London. As I reflected on my work, I realized vice and virtue altogether made them more human and credible. These characters stood out, they were interesting, I even wanted to know more about them! 

After rewriting, erasing, typing, and thinking countless times, I realized writing is a unique exercise. Nothing is definite when you are holding a fountain pen, hearing its screeching sound on the white paper and watching the ebony ink forming letters. When I wasn’t too happy about a change I made in my story, I simply erased and rewrote it. Everything I imagined could happen: white pages are the only place the mouse eats the cat or the world is taken by a zombie attack! 

This exact exercise of diversifying my characters satisfied my relentless curiosity. Asking myself ‘how could this character be if she had lost her parents in a maritime tragedy?’ allowed me to view the world from different perspectives (some very dissimilar to my own) and considering how each character would react to different situations brought them to life. As I was writing, I was aiming to change the usual narratives I had previously traversed. I loved experimenting with countless personality traits in my characters – minutes flowing, my hand dancing on the paper as my mind was singing words coming alive….

There were times where my hand just stopped writing and my mind stopped raging. I tried thinking differently, changing a character’s background, the story, the setting. I was inspired by Zola, A.Carter, Fitzgerald, the Brontë sisters… I could observe the different reactions of their characters, and reflect on mine theoretically. But it was only part one of the work: I then had to write, sometimes aimlessly, sometimes frantically, always leading to fresh ideas – I was exploring the practical, trying, erasing and rewriting. Both theory and practice are required to gain intellectual independence and experience, in writing and more globally: before I can change a character, I have to understand it. Before we can change the world, we have to understand it.

The main strength of this essay is the authenticity of the topic the student chose. They aren’t making anything up or stretching the truth. Writing is something that captivates them, and that captivation shines through—particularly through their fourth paragraph (where they geek out over specific plots and characters) and their fifth paragraph (where they joyfully describe how writing has no limitations). Admissions officers want to see this passion and intensity in applicants! The fact that this student has already written three novels also shows dedication and is impressive.

The main weakness of this essay is its structure. Ironically, it is not super captivating. The essay would have been more compelling if the student utilized a “anecdote – answer – reflection” structure. This student’s current introduction involves a reflective question, citations about their past writing experience, then their thoughts on Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray. Instead, this student could’ve provided one cohesive (and powerful!) image of them being frustrated with their own writing then being inspired by Dorian Gray. This would look something like:

“I stayed up three nights in a row studying my own writing—bored by my own writing. The only thing more painful than seeing failure in the fruits of your labor is not seeing a path for improvement. I had written three novels and numerous short stories, and all I could come up with was funny and intelligent heroes going up against cold and manipulative villains. What kind of writer was so consistently cliche? On the third night, I wandered over to my bookshelf. Mrs. Dalloway caught my eye (it has such a beautiful cover). I flipped through. Then, I grabbed Giovanni’s Room . I was so obsessed with my shortcomings that I couldn’t even focus long enough to see what these authors were doing right. I picked up The Picture of Dorian Gray and decided to just start reading. By the end of the night, I was captivated.”

An introduction like this would flow nicely into the student describing their experience with Dorian Gray then, because of that experience, describing how they have altered their approach to writing. The conclusion of this essay would then be this student’s time for reflection. Instead of repeating content about their passion—“I then had to write, sometimes aimlessly, sometimes frantically” and “I was exploring the practical, trying, erasing and rewriting”—, the student could dedicate their conclusion to reflecting on the reasons that writing is so captivating or the ways that (until the day they die) writers will always be perfecting their craft.

This essay is a great example of how important it is to pick a topic that truly excites you. It also illustrates how important it is to effectively structure that excitement.

Prompt #6, Example #2

Astonished by the crashing sound of waves in my ear, I was convinced this magical shell actually held the sound of the big blue sea — my six-year-old self was heartbroken when I couldn’t take the thirty-dollar artificial shell from SeaWorld’s gift shop . It distinctly reminded me of the awestruck feeling I had when I witnessed the churning waves of a windy night by the ocean the previous weekend; I lost track of time gazing at the distant moonlit border dividing our world from the ever-growing black void. Turning to my mom, I inquired curiously, “Can we go to the place where the water ends one day?”

She explained to me I could never reach the end of the ocean because the harsh line I had seen was actually an illusion called the horizon —  there was no material end to the ocean. For a mind as young as mine was, the idea of infinity was incomprehensible. As my infatuation with the ocean continued to grow, I finally understood that regardless of how far I travel, the horizon is unattainable because it’s not a physical limit. This idea is why the ocean captivates me — no matter how much you discover, there is always more to explore. 

Learning about and exploring the ocean provided an escape from one reality into another; though we are on the same planet, it’s an entirely separate world. Through elementary and middle school, I devoted vast amounts of my free time to learning about simpler concepts like a dolphin’s ability to echolocate and coral reef ecosystems. I rented countless documentaries and constantly checked out books from my local library — my all-time favorite was an episode of the television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey titled “The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth.” This episode remained memorable because it was centered around the impacts of fossil fuels on marine animals; it was the first time I’d learned about the impending crisis we are faced with due to the human mistreatment of our planet.

Prior to viewing that episode, I relied on the ocean as an outlet — I fueled all of my emotions into studying marine organisms. Once I learned of its grave future, I delved into the world of environmental activism. This path was much more disheartening than studying echolocation — inevitable death due to climate change took a toll on my mental health. I attended two climate strikes in November of my sophomore year. Following the strikes, I joined Sunrise Movement Sacramento, a youth-led climate justice organization advocating for the Green New Deal. While analyzing legislation and organizing protests were significant takeaways from my experience with climate activism, they were not the most important. I became an organizer because of my love for the ocean and I remain an organizer because of my passion for dissolving the disproportionalities marginalized groups face due to the sacrificing of people’s livelihood for the sake of profit. The more I learned about our modern society, the more hopeless I grew that I could see any significant change within my lifetime.

However, this hopelessness comes in waves; every day, I remind myself of the moment I discovered the horizon. Or the moment I first dove into the beautiful waters of the Hawaiian coast and immediately was surrounded by breathtaking seas of magnificent creatures and coral gardens — life felt ethereal and beautiful. I remind myself that like the ocean, the vast majority of the universe has yet to be discovered; that distant border holds infinite opportunity to learn. In a universe as vast as ours, and life as rare as ours, individuals still choose to prioritize avarice over our planet. Despite this grave individualism, the ocean reminds me every day there is hope in the fight for a better world. Though I will never discover every inch of the ocean’s floor, I will forever envision and reach for new horizons.

Sometimes the path to a great essay is taking something normal and using it to show admissions officers who you are and what you value—that is precisely this student’s approach! Finding the ocean fascinating is not unique to this student. Tons of kids (and adults, too!) are obsessed with the ocean. What this student does is take things a step further as they explain their curiosity about the ocean in relation to their pain about the destruction of the environment. This capacity for reflection is great!

This student shows a good control of language through their thematic centering on ocean and horizons that carries through their essay—with ”this hopelessness comes in waves” and “I will forever envision and reach for new horizons.” The details provided throughout are also effective at keeping readers engaged—things like “ my six-year-old self was heartbroken when I couldn’t take the thirty-dollar artificial shell from SeaWorld’s gift shop” and “ my all-time favorite was an episode of the television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey titled “The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth.”

The main weakness of this essay is the lack of reflection when the student discusses environmental activism. There’s reflection on the student’s connection to the ocean and horizons at the beginning and at the end, but when the student discusses activism, the tone shifts from focusing on their internal thoughts to their external actions. Remember, a lot of students write about environmental activism, but not a lot of students write about an emotional connection to the ocean as an impetus for environmental activism. This student would stand out more to admissions officers if they had dug into questions of what the ocean means to them (and says about them) in the paragraphs beginning “Learning about and exploring the ocean…” and “Prior to viewing that episode.”

Prompt #7: Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Prompt #7, example #1.

Scalding hot water cascades over me, crashing to the ground in a familiar, soothing rhythm. Steam rises to the ceiling as dried sweat and soap suds swirl down the drain. The water hisses as it hits my skin, far above the safe temperature for a shower. The pressure is perfect on my tired muscles, easing the aches and bruises from a rough bout of sparring and the tension from a long, stressful day. The noise from my overactive mind dies away, fading into music, lyrics floating through my head. Black streaks stripe the inside of my left arm, remnants of the penned reminders of homework, money owed and forms due. 

It lacks the same dynamism and controlled intensity of sparring on the mat at taekwondo or the warm tenderness of a tight hug from my father, but it’s still a cocoon of safety as the water washes away the day’s burdens. As long as the hot water is running, the rest of the world ceases to exist, shrinking to me, myself and I. The shower curtain closes me off from the hectic world spinning around me. 

Much like the baths of Blanche DuBois, my hot showers are a means of cleansing and purifying (though I’m mostly just ridding myself of the germs from children at work sneezing on me). In the midst of a hot shower, there is no impending exam to study for, no newspaper deadline to meet, no paycheck to deposit. It is simply complete and utter peace, a safe haven. The steam clears my mind even as it clouds my mirror. 

Creativity thrives in the tub, breathing life into tales of dragons and warrior princesses that evolve only in my head, never making their way to paper but appeasing the childlike dreamer and wannabe author in me all the same. That one calculus problem that has seemed unsolvable since second period clicks into place as I realize the obvious solution. The perfect concluding sentence to my literary analysis essay writes itself (causing me to abruptly end my shower in a mad dash to the computer before I forget it entirely).  

Ever since I was old enough to start taking showers unaided, I began hogging all the hot water in the house, a source of great frustration to my parents. Many of my early showers were rudely cut short by an unholy banging on the bathroom door and an order to “stop wasting water and come eat dinner before it gets cold.” After a decade of trudging up the stairs every evening to put an end to my water-wasting, my parents finally gave in, leaving me to my (expensive) showers. I imagine someday, when paying the water bill is in my hands, my showers will be shorter, but today is not that day (nor, hopefully, will the next four years be that day). 

Showers are better than any ibuprofen, the perfect panacea for life’s daily ailments. Headaches magically disappear as long as the water runs, though they typically return in full force afterward. The runny nose and itchy eyes courtesy of summertime allergies recede. Showers alleviate even the stomachache from a guacamole-induced lack of self-control. 

Honestly though, the best part about a hot shower is neither its medicinal abilities nor its blissful temporary isolation or even the heavenly warmth seeped deep into my bones. The best part is that these little moments of pure, uninhibited contentedness are a daily occurrence. No matter how stressful the day, showers ensure I always have something to look forward to. They are small moments, true, but important nonetheless, because it is the little things in life that matter; the big moments are too rare, too fleeting to make anyone truly happy. Wherever I am in the world, whatever fate chooses to throw at me, I know I can always find my peace at the end of the day behind the shower curtain.

This essay is relatable yet personal! The writer makes themself supremely human through discussing the universal subject of showering. That being said, an essay about showering could easily turn boring while still being relatable. This writer keeps its relatable moments interesting and fun through vivid descriptions of common feelings including “causing me to abruptly end my shower in a mad dash to the computer before I forget it entirely” and “the stomachache from a guacamole-induced lack of self-control.”

While describing a universal feeling, this student also cleverly and intentionally mentions small facts about their life through simple phrases like “I’m mostly just ridding myself of the germs from children at work sneezing on me” and “the childlike dreamer and wannabe author in me.” To put it simply, though we are talking about a shower, we learn about so much more!

And, at the end, the student lets us know that that is exactly why they love showers. Showers are more than meets the eye! With this insightful and reflective ending (“the big moments are too rare, too fleeting to make anyone truly happy”), readers learn about this student’s capacity for reflection, which is an important capacity as you enter college.

The one major error that this writer commits is that of using a trite transition. The inclusion of “Honestly though” at the beginning of this student’s ending detracts from what they are trying to say and sticks out in their writing.

Prompt #7, Example #2

Steam whooshed from the pot as I unveiled my newest creation: duck-peppercorn-chestnut dumplings. The spicy, hearty aroma swirled into the kitchen, mingling with the smell of fresh dough. Grinning, I grabbed a plump dumpling with chopsticks, blew carefully, and fed it into the waiting mouth of my little sister. Her eyes widening, she vigorously nodded and held up five stubby fingers. I did a little happy dance in celebration and pulled my notebook out of my apron pocket. Duck-peppercorn-chestnut: five stars.

In my household, dumplings are a far cry from the classic pork and cabbage. Our menu boasts everything from the savory lamb-bamboo shoot-watercress to the sweet and crispy apple-cinnamon-date. A few years ago, my sister claimed she was sick of eating the same flavors over and over. Refusing to let her disavow our family staple, I took her complaint as a challenge to make the tastiest and most unconventional dumplings to satisfy her. With her as my taste tester and Mum in charge of dough, I spent months experimenting with dozens of odd ingredient combinations. 

During those days spent covered in flour, my dumplings often reminded me of myself—a hybrid of ingredients that don’t usually go together. I am the product of three distinct worlds: the suburbs of Boston, the rural Chinese village of [location removed], and the coastal city of [location removed]. At school, I am both the STEM nerd with lightning-fast mental math and the artistic plant mom obsessed with funky earrings. I love all that is elegant, from Chinese calligraphy to the rolling notes of the Gourd flute, yet I can be very not elegant, like when my sister and I make homemade slime. When I’m on the streets, marching for women’s rights and climate action, I’m loud, bellowing from the bottom of my gut. In the painting studio, though, I don’t speak unless spoken to, and hours can slip by like minutes. I’m loud and quiet. Elegant and messy. Nerdy and artistic. Suburban, rustic, and metropolitan.

While I’m full of odd combinations, they are only seemingly contradictory. Just as barbeque pork and pineapple can combine beautifully in a dumpling wrapper, different facets of my identity also converge. After my tenth-grade summer, when I spent six weeks studying design at art school and another three researching the brain at Harvard Med, I began asking myself: What if I mixed art and neuroscience together? That fall, I collaborated with my school’s art museum for an independent research project, exploring two questions: How are aesthetic experiences processed in the brain? And how can neuroscience help museums design exhibits that maximize visitor engagement? I combed through studies with results from tightly controlled experiments, and I spent days gathering my own qualitative data by observing museum visitors and asking them questions. With the help of my artistic skills, I could identify the visual and spatial elements of the exhibits that best held visitors’ attention. 

By synergizing two of the ingredients that make me who I am—art and neuroscience—I realized I shouldn’t see the different sides of myself as separate. I learned to instead seek the intersections between aspects of my identity. Since then, I have mixed art with activism to voice my opinions nonverbally, created Spotify playlists with both Chinese and western pop, and written flute compositions using music theory and math. In the future, by continuing to combine my interests, I want to find my niche in the world. I can make a positive impact on society without having to choose just one passion. As of now, my dream is to be a neuroscientist who designs art therapy treatments for mental health patients. Who knows though? Maybe my calling is to be a dim sum chef who teaches pottery on the side. I don’t know where I’ll go, but one thing’s for sure—being a standard pork and cabbage dumpling is definitely not my style.

This essay is outstanding because the student seems likable and authentic. With the first image of the student’s little sister vigorously nodding and holding up “five stubby fingers,” we find ourselves intrigued by the student’s daily life. They additionally show the importance of family, culture, and creativity in their life—these are great things to highlight in your essay!

After the introduction, the student uses their weird dumpling anecdote to transition to a discussion of their unique intersections. This is achieved smoothly because weirdness/uniqueness is the focus of both of these topics. Additionally, the comparison is not awkward because dumplings are used as more than just a transition, but rather are the through-line of the essay—the student weaves in little phrases like “Just as barbeque pork and pineapple can combine beautifully in a dumpling wrapper,” “By synergizing two of the ingredients that make me who I am,” and “being a standard pork and cabbage dumpling is definitely not my style.” This gives the essay its cohesive feel.

Authenticity comes through in this essay as the student recognizes that they don’t know what the future holds. They just know what kind of a person they are—a passionate one! 

One change that would improve this student’s essay would be focusing on fewer intersections in their third and last paragraph. The student mentions STEM, music, family activities, activism, and painting, which makes it feel like a distraction in middle of the essay. Focus on the most important things you want to show admissions officers—you can sit at intersections, but you can’t be interested in everything.

Prompt #7, Example #3

“Everyone follow me!” I smiled at five wide-eyed skaters before pushing off into a spiral. I glanced behind me hopefully, only to see my students standing frozen like statues, the fear in their eyes as clear as the ice they swayed on. “Come on!” I said encouragingly, but the only response I elicited was the slow shake of their heads. My first day as a Learn-to-Skate coach was not going as planned. 

But amid my frustration, I was struck by how much my students reminded me of myself as a young skater. At seven, I had been fascinated by Olympic performers who executed thrilling high jumps and dizzying spins with apparent ease, and I dreamed to one day do the same. My first few months on skates, however, sent these hopes crashing down: my attempts at slaloms and toe-loops were shadowed by a stubborn fear of falling, which even the helmet, elbow pads, and two pairs of mittens I had armed myself with couldn’t mitigate. Nonetheless, my coach remained unfailingly optimistic, motivating me through my worst spills and teaching me to find opportunities in failures. With his encouragement, I learned to push aside my fears and attack each jump with calm and confidence; it’s the hope that I can help others do the same that now inspires me to coach. 

I remember the day a frustrated staff member directed Oliver, a particularly hesitant young skater, toward me, hoping that my patience and steady encouragement might help him improve. Having stood in Oliver’s skates not much earlier myself, I completely empathized with his worries but also saw within him the potential to overcome his fears and succeed. 

To alleviate his anxiety, I held Oliver’s hand as we inched around the rink, cheering him on at every turn. I soon found though, that this only increased his fear of gliding on his own, so I changed my approach, making lessons as exciting as possible in hopes that he would catch the skating bug and take off. In the weeks that followed, we held relay races, played “freeze-skate” and “ice-potato”, and raced through obstacle courses; gradually, with each slip and subsequent success, his fear began to abate. I watched Oliver’s eyes widen in excitement with every skill he learned, and not long after, he earned his first skating badge. Together we celebrated this milestone, his ecstasy fueling my excitement and his pride mirroring my own. At that moment, I was both teacher and student, his progress instilling in me the importance of patience and a positive attitude. 

It’s been more than ten years since I bundled up and stepped onto the ice for the first time. Since then, my tolerance for the cold has remained stubbornly low, but the rest of me has certainly changed. In sharing my passion for skating, I have found a wonderful community of eager athletes, loving parents, and dedicated coaches from whom I have learned invaluable lessons and wisdom. My fellow staffers have been with me, both as friends and colleagues, and the relationships I’ve formed have given me far more poise, confidence, and appreciation for others. Likewise, my relationships with parents have given me an even greater gratitude for the role they play: no one goes to the rink without a parent behind the wheel! 

Since that first lesson, I have mentored dozens of children, and over the years, witnessed tentative steps transform into powerful glides and tears give way to delighted grins. What I have shared with my students has been among the greatest joys of my life, something I will cherish forever. It’s funny: when I began skating, what pushed me through the early morning practices was the prospect of winning an Olympic medal. Now, what excites me is the chance to work with my students, to help them grow, and to give back to the sport that has brought me so much happiness. 

A major strength of this essay comes in its narrative organization. When reading this first paragraph, we feel for the young skaters and understand their fear—skating sounds scary! Then, because the writer sets us up to feel this empathy, the transition to the second paragraph where the student describes their empathy for the young skaters is particularly powerful. It’s like we are all in it together! The student’s empathy for the young skaters also serves as an outstanding, seamless transition to the applicant discussing their personal journey with skating: “I was struck by how much my students reminded me of myself as a young skater.”

This essay positions the applicant as a grounded and caring individual. They are caring towards the young skaters—changing their teaching style to try to help the young skaters and feeling the young skaters’ emotions with them—but they are also appreciative to those who helped them as they reference their fellow staffers and parents. This shows great maturity—a favorable quality in the eyes of an admissions officer.

At the end of the essay, we know a lot about this student and are convinced that they would be a good addition to a college campus!

Prompt #7, Example #4

Flipping past dozens of colorful entries in my journal, I arrive at the final blank sheet. I press my pen lightly to the page, barely scratching its surface to create a series of loops stringing together into sentences. Emotions spill out, and with their release, I feel lightness in my chest. The stream of thoughts slows as I reach the bottom of the page, and I gently close the cover of the worn book: another journal finished.

I add the journal to the stack of eleven books on my nightstand. Struck by the bittersweet sensation of closing a chapter of my life, I grab the notebook at the bottom of the pile to reminisce.

“I want to make a flying mushen to fly in space and your in it” – October 2008

Pulling back the cover of my first Tinkerbell-themed diary, the prompt “My Hopes and Dreams” captures my attention. Though “machine” is misspelled in my scribbled response, I see the beginnings of my past obsession with outer space. At the age of five, I tore through novels about the solar system, experimented with rockets built from plastic straws, and rented Space Shuttle films from Blockbuster to satisfy my curiosities. While I chased down answers to questions as limitless as the universe, I fell in love with learning. Eight journals later, the same relentless curiosity brought me to an airplane descending on San Francisco Bay.

“I wish I had infinite sunsets” – July 2019

I reach for the charcoal notepad near the top of the pile and open to the first page: my flight to the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes. While I was excited to explore bioengineering, anxiety twisted in my stomach as I imagined my destination, unsure of whether I could overcome my shyness and connect with others.

With each new conversation, the sweat on my palms became less noticeable, and I met students from 23 different countries. Many of the moments where I challenged myself socially revolved around the third story deck of the Jerry house. A strange medley of English, Arabic, and Mandarin filled the summer air as my friends and I gathered there every evening, and dialogues at sunset soon became moments of bliss. In our conversations about cultural differences, the possibility of an afterlife, and the plausibility of far-fetched conspiracy theories, I learned to voice my opinion. As I was introduced to different viewpoints, these moments challenged my understanding of the world around me. In my final entries from California, I find excitement to learn from others and increased confidence, a tool that would later allow me to impact my community.

“The beauty in a tower of cans” – June 2020

Returning my gaze to the stack of journals, I stretch to take the floral-patterned book sitting on top. I flip through, eventually finding the beginnings of the organization I created during the outbreak of COVID-19. Since then, Door-to-Door Deliveries has woven its way through my entries and into reality, allowing me to aid high-risk populations through free grocery delivery.

With the confidence I gained the summer before, I took action when seeing others in need rather than letting my shyness hold me back. I reached out to local churches and senior centers to spread word of our services and interacted with customers through our website and social media pages. To further expand our impact, we held two food drives, and I mustered the courage to ask for donations door-to-door. In a tower of canned donations, I saw the value of reaching out to help others and realized my own potential to impact the world around me.

I delicately close the journal in my hands, smiling softly as the memories reappear, one after another. Reaching under my bed, I pull out a fresh notebook and open to its first sheet. I lightly press my pen to the page, “And so begins the next chapter…”

The structuring of this essay makes it easy and enjoyable to read. The student effectively organizes their various life experiences around their tower of journals, which centers the reader and makes the different stories easy to follow. Additionally, the student engages quotes from their journals—and unique formatting of the quotes—to signal that they are moving in time and show us which memory we should follow them to.

Thematically, the student uses the idea of shyness to connect the different memories they draw out of their journals. As the student describes their experiences overcoming shyness at the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes and Door-to-Door Deliveries, this essay can be read as an Overcoming Obstacles essay.

At the end of this essay, readers are fully convinced that this student is dedicated (they have committed to journaling every day), thoughtful (journaling is a thoughtful process and, in the essay, the student reflects thoughtfully on the past), and motivated (they flew across the country for a summer program and started a business). These are definitely qualities admissions officers are looking for in applicants!

Prompt #7, Example #5

“We’re ready for take-off!” 

The tires hit the tarmac and began to accelerate, and I just realized what I had signed up for. For 24 hours straight, I strapped myself into a broken-down SUV whereas others chose the luxury of soaring through the skies for a mere two hours. Especially with my motion sickness and driving anxiety, I would call myself crazy too.

To say I have always remained in my comfort zone is an understatement. Did I always order chicken fingers and fries at a restaurant? Yup! Sounds like me. Did I always create a color-coded itinerary just for a day trip? Guilty as charged. Did I always carry a first-aid kit at all times? Of course! I would make even an ambulance look unprepared. And yet here I was, choosing 1,000 miles of misery from Las Vegas to Seattle despite every bone in my body telling me not to.

The sunlight blinded my eyes and a wave of nausea swept over me. Was it too late to say I forgot my calculator? It was only ten minutes in, and I was certain that the trip was going to be a disaster. I simply hoped that our pre-drive prayer was not stuck in God’s voicemail box. 

All of a sudden, I noticed brightly colored rocks in the distance, ones I had been dying to see for years. Their fluorescence popped amongst the magnificent winding hills as the sunset became romantic in hue. The desert glistened with mirages of deep blue water unlike anything I had ever seen. Nevada was home, but home always seemed to be just desert and casinos. For once, I looked forward to endless desert outside my window rather than a sea of clouds.

I never realized how little I discovered of the world beyond home. For years I complained about how there was nothing to do or discover outside. Not once did I set out to prove myself wrong. Instead, I chose a daily routine of homework at the kitchen table and late-night TV. However, as summer vacation ended, I decided to set my stubbornness aside and finally give this drive back home a chance. Little did I know that it would turn out to be my favorite trip of all time. 

As we drove along, the world chose to prove me wrong when I discovered Heaven on Earth along Shasta Lake. I stood out of the sunroof, surrounded by lush green mountains and fog. I extended my arms out and felt a sense of flight that no plane could ever take me on. As the water vapor kissed my face, I floated into a dreamland I never wanted to leave. I didn’t have to go to great lengths to discover the beauty of the world; it was right in front of me.  From this moment on, comfort and convenience would no longer be my best friends. Rather than only looking for famous travel destinations or following carefully mapped-out routes, I would let curiosity lead the way. 

Since then, my daily life has been anything but routine. I’m proud to boast of my family’s homemade kombucha attempts, of flights purchased and taken in one day, and of a home flooded with knick-knacks from thrifting trips. Every day I set out to try something new, see a different perspective, and go beyond normal. Whether it is by trying a new recipe using taro, making a risky fashion choice with wide-legged pants, or listening to a new music genre in Spanish, I always act with curiosity first.

Over the years, I have devoted my time towards learning Swedish, building computers, and swimming. Although my accent is horrid, some computers almost broke, and even a starfish would outswim me, I continue to enjoy activities I once criticized. For me, there is no enjoyment without some risk. Nobody I know is a kazoo-playing, boogie-board loving, boba connoisseur like me.

This essay is an Overcoming Challenges story that centers around a single anecdote. The structure works nicely as the student describes what they were like before their road trip, what happened on the road trip, and what they were like after. 

The most major improvement that this essay needs is better-communicated authenticity. At the beginning, it feels a bit gimmicky. The student describes their preparedness, particularly the fact that they always carry a first aid kit, and it’s not super believable. Then, when they write “Was it too late to say I forgot my calculator?” it feels like we are in a sitcom and the student is that funny obsessive kid. Sitcom characters don’t feel real and you want to make yourself appear profoundly real.

On a similar note, the narrative arc of this essay isn’t entirely believable. The student describes a large personality and value shift but doesn’t describe any struggles that accompany the shift. A quick shift like that is far from easy. On the other hand, if the immediacy of the shift was easy, they could write about moments after their shift in mindset when they have felt troubled by residual desires to stay in their comfort zone, instead of writing “I always act with curiosity first.”

The greatest strength of this essay is the paragraphs beginning “I never realized how little…” and “As we drove along…” The fixation on comfort seems much more believable when it involves “homework at the kitchen table and late-night TV.” The descriptions of the drive provide beautiful, evocative imagery. And it’s topped off with some nice reflection! Digging into this great portion of the essay would make this an even stronger essay!

Want to see more examples? Check out this post with 16 strong essay examples from top schools , including common supplemental essay questions.

At selective schools, your essays account for around 25% of your admissions decision. That’s more than grades (20%) and test scores (15%), and almost as much as extracurriculars (30%). Why is this? Most students applying to top schools will have stellar academics and extracurriculars. Your essays are your chance to stand out and humanize your application.

That’s why it’s vital that your essays are engaging, and present you as someone who would enrich the campus community.

Before submitting your application, you should have someone else review your essays. It’s even better if that person doesn’t know you personally, as they can best tell whether your personality shines through your essay. 

That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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Aspiring for Success: My Vision for the Future

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Introduction

Pursuing higher education.

Choosing a Fulfilling Occupation

Leaving a lasting mark on the world.

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"Aspiring for Success: My Vision for the Future." StudyMoose, Dec 13, 2021. Accessed June 29, 2024. https://studymoose.com/my-future-plans-and-goals-in-life-essay

"Aspiring for Success: My Vision for the Future," StudyMoose , 13-Dec-2021. [Online]. Available: https://studymoose.com/my-future-plans-and-goals-in-life-essay. [Accessed: 29-Jun-2024]

StudyMoose. (2021). Aspiring for Success: My Vision for the Future . [Online]. Available at: https://studymoose.com/my-future-plans-and-goals-in-life-essay [Accessed: 29-Jun-2024]

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