nyt college essays 2021

College Essays About Money Highlighted in The New York Times

Similarly, when you write your college essay, writing your authentic personal story in your own voice makes all the difference. Even though money and status can seem intimidating or even off-limits as topics, they are also worth exploring if they have truly shaped your life experience. A thoughtful exploration of a complex topic makes for a much more interesting read than a topic that plays it safe.

In what has become a yearly tradition, the New York Times recently selected seven stellar examples of college essays about money and work that tackle these complex subjects with honesty and perspective. We’ve selected two of our favorite excerpts to point out the importance of writing in your own unique voice.

1. Rob Henderson’s story speaks for itself and thus his simple telling is hugely effective, showcasing his experiences in all their complexity. The drama of his experience trying understand his mother’s divorce situation unfolds naturally and requires no embellishment. Let’s take a look:

She was a coworker of my mother’s named Shelly. She related that when adults are hurt, they can behave irresponsibly. I was grateful for her honesty and we became close. My mother soon entered a relationship with her. As a young boy, I was puzzled that my mother could now be in a relationship with Shelly. My mother explained that in our society young gay people are often socialized into believing they’re heterosexual and then, as adults, embrace their attraction to the same sex. This blew my 9-year-old mind and intensified my interest in the complexities of human behavior. My mother and her partner Shelly raised me into adolescence. Shelly was shot when I was 14. I was terrified that she wouldn’t survive; I felt great affection for her. I was rejected by other parental figures, yet Shelly chose to help care for me. She survived after extensive surgery and received an insurance settlement which she and my mother used to buy a home. One year later, our home was foreclosed. I’d developed enough resilience to overcome the ordeal and I decided to take initiative.

You couldn’t possibly pack more feeling into this essay. Sometimes a good story just needs to be told and adding extra bells and whistles can lead to overwriting that distracts the reader. Writing in your own natural voice demonstrates both authenticity and self control.

2. Adriane Tharpe begins her essay about working at Domino’s with a description of her fluid identity: “Whenever I donned my black visor and navy blue polo, customers didn’t see an art school feminist who loved banned books, French films and protest songs. I was a face, a face who took orders and tossed pizzas.” From there, her essay continues in its earnest yet quirky exploration of the ways in which pizza can unite people and reveals her to be a keen observer of the world around her. 

Domino’s was like an Island of Misfit Toys floating in the middle of Alabama. My coworkers all joked about each other for what made us different: Richard was a walking Star Wars database, Mike was O.C.D. when it came to stacking pizza boxes, I was a vegetarian who often had to package the meat. Kristen, now 40, had worked at pizzerias since she was 14 and was currently filing applications to enroll in college. Terry preached to a small congregation when he wasn’t delivering. Ever since I moved here, I’ve felt like an outsider in my community. I live for the arts while my town prioritizes football and fishing. The general population is Caucasian, Christian, Republican, anti-gay, and pro-guns — or so I thought. At Domino’s, three of my coworkers fasted for Ramadan, one of the drivers read novels while waiting for deliveries and both of my bosses were women. The people who came in were far from homogenous, as diverse as the pizzas they ordered: Caucasian, Asian, African-American, and Mexican lawyers, firemen, construction workers, stay-at-home mothers, house painters. Many were married, some were divorced and some were single. Many had kids. Many were still kids. I couldn’t help but admire them.

Adriane’s most effective strategy is pointing out a host of details, which reveal not only a keen eye but a genuine compassion for those around her. This ultimately builds to a much larger observation about community and identity.

These are but two small excerpts from a series of stellar highlighted essays.  As you can imagine, all are worth a full read.

Read the rest via The New York Times .

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About Thea Hogarth

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Written by Thea Hogarth

Category: College Admissions , Essay Tips

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NYTimes Annual College Admissions Essays on Money (Not Bad Things!)

Looking for more college admissions essay examples that tell a good story and effectively reflect on their anecdotes AND aren't about tough or traumatic topics?

Every year, the NYTimes publishes college admissions essays around particular themes. This year's essays around the topic of money are here .

Reading these essays is a great way to think about how you might take an ordinary topic or compelling anecdote and write engagingly about it -- and then reflect strongly on it. Telling a good story and telling why that story matters are the two most important parts of the college admissions essay!

Here are a few quick notes about why these essays work so well:

*Zoya Garg writes about another person (a supposed no-no) but we clearly see her own commitments (to feminism, to family, to helping others) shine through so this essay reveals as much about herself as it does about her mother.

*Adrienne Coleman's opening line is wrenching and infuriating to read. She follows it up with pointed and whip-like supporting anecdotes and brief, one-liners that encapsulate her fury, struggles to balance her beliefs with a world that doesn't give her that space, as she explores how these experiences help her to understand herself.

*Hoseung Nam's essay really caught me in one of his last paragraphs -- there's a long sentence that expertly balances his academic knowledge with his deepest worries and life experiences. The sentence starts out with a lot of economic jargon -- academic and very distant from his immediate experiences -- but then he concludes with a straight-forward and simple mathematical principle that shows how this academic knowledge reflects real-world problems. (The sentence starts "Although I can now conduct t-tests.")

*Neeya Hamed balances two stories -- the community she left behind in Sudan and the simultaneous welcome and repulsion she feels in America. There's a moment when she stops to reflect "I learned, however, that sometimes the color of my skin speaks before I can." It's a powerful, single line that conveys so much. This is the best way to include reflection in a story -- to tell a story, simply and engagingly, and then, almost casually, throw in the zinger that makes your audience sit up taller and listen harder than they were before. This is also a story about immigration, about feeling like you are in two places and want the best form both, but it doesn't focus on pain but on resilience.

*Chaya Tong nails the hook. She builds on it throughout her essay -- her line about being the "memory keeper" is outstanding. Her ability to not just see other people but to see herself in them, her compassion, is immediately compelling as is her absolute conviction that the ordinary matters, should be celebrated, should be remembered, and should be told.

Each of these essays avoids listing their accomplishments but instead reveals their writer's core values and shows how they demonstrate those values in their everyday. When they step back to reflect, they don't add a solid block of analysis (i.e. 'this is what I think,') but they add one-liners and asides that show us exactly what they are thinking and why that matters.

Hope you find reading these essays helpful as you think about how to share your own experiences and figure out how to be you in 650 words!

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College Essay Examples, Why They Worked, and Essay Tips

• By Debbie Schwartz

Published July 21, 2023 | Last Updated April 20th, 2024 at 03:51 pm

Your application essay is pivotal in distinguishing yourself from other candidates in the competitive college admissions landscape. College essays offer a unique opportunity to showcase your personality, experiences, and aspirations to admissions officers. 

This article explores why college essays matter, presents examples of successful college essays to inspire and guide you, and provides tips for writing yours.

Why College Essays Matter

College essays can make you stand out from the crowd. College admissions officers review countless applications, and a well-crafted essay can help you leave a lasting impression.

While your grades and extracurricular activities provide valuable information, your essay offers a glimpse into your character, values, and potential contributions to the campus community. It allows you to showcase your individuality and make a personal connection with the admissions committee.

Admissions officers seek essays demonstrating your ability to think critically, communicate effectively, and present who you are. They seek a compelling narrative showcasing your self-awareness, maturity, and growth. Additionally, they want to see evidence of your passion, intellectual curiosity, and unique perspective. You can tailor your essay to meet their expectations by understanding what admissions officers seek.

How to Use Essay Examples Effectively

When writing college essays, some people debate whether it’s helpful or not to read other students’ college application essay examples for inspiration.

It’s worthwhile to read essay examples ONLY if there’s a critique of what worked or didn’t work in the essay. Otherwise, reading other students’ essays can be confusing since you won’t know if it was their style, topic, or approach that worked with admissions officers.

Helpful College Application Essay Examples

In particular, we’re huge fans of Johns Hopkins articles on “Essays That Worked,” since admission officers detail why they thought the college admission essay examples were effective.

Also included is some general advice on answering the “Why This College” essay, as it’s important for students to explain why a particular school can be a good fit for them.

• Tufts Essays That Worked
• How to Answer “Why This College?”Essay: Part 1
• How to Answer “Why This College?”Essay: Part 2
• How to Answer “Why This College?”Essay: Part 3

For the past few years, The New York Times has invited students to share their college admissions essays on money, class, working, and the economy, followed up with reactions and thoughts on the essays’ effectiveness by Ron Lieber.

• 2018 essays: Standout College Application Essays
• 2019 essays: Standout College Application Essays
• 2020 essays: Standout College Application Essays
• 2021 essays: Standout College Application Essays
• 2022 essays: Standout College Application Essays
• 2023 essays: Standout College Application Essays

In summary, here are Lieber’s main points about why he liked these essays:

• “They took brave and counterintuitive positions” on their topics.
• They were all “talking openly” about issues that are “emotionally complex and often outright taboo.”
• They had “an appetite for risk.” (One student wrote about the application process itself, a topic that is usually discouraged.)
• They were bold (with their ideas, language, and opinions).
• They kept their edges (meaning, they didn’t allow parents or counselors or editors to over-edit their pieces and retained their unique, though sometimes rough, teenage voices).

How to Write a Strong College Essay

Do your research first. Review examples that explain why the essay worked. Reflect on that, and then choose your topic. It should reflect your core values and make you stand out from the crowd. Be specific. Use details, not vague generalities. Finally, edit and proofread.

Here are the details on how to write a standout college essay:

• Review examples and why they succeeded: Use the above examples for precisely this reason. They explain why they worked. Without explanations, it’s too easy to get confused.
• Pick a meaningful topic: Choose one that is meaningful to you and allows you to showcase your personality, values, or experiences. Consider significant moments, challenges you’ve overcome, or transformative experiences that have shaped your outlook on life. Selecting a topic that resonates with you will make it easier to convey your emotions and capture the reader’s attention.
• Keep the focus on you: While it’s important to mention external experiences or people that have influenced you, remember that the essay should primarily focus on your own thoughts, reflections, and growth. The admissions officers want to understand who you are and how you navigate the world. Be introspective and demonstrate self-awareness throughout your essay.
• Use specific details and examples: General statements can dilute the impact of your essay. Instead, use vivid descriptions, specific examples, and anecdotes to illustrate your points. By providing concrete details, you paint a vivid picture that engages the reader and helps them understand your experiences more deeply.
• Reveal something unique about yourself: Admissions officers read countless essays, so it’s crucial to stand out. Highlight your distinctive qualities, perspectives, or skills that make you unique. Avoid clichés and focus on what sets you apart from other applicants. Show your passion, originality, and authenticity.
• Tell a story: Craft your essay as a compelling narrative that captivates the reader from beginning to end. Engage the reader with a powerful opening, maintain their interest through a well-structured middle section, and leave a lasting impression with a memorable conclusion. A compelling story showcasing your personal growth or transformation will have a lasting impact.
• Edit and proofread: Writing a strong essay is the first step; revising and proofreading are equally important. Review your essay for clarity, coherence, grammar, and spelling errors. Seek feedback from trusted teachers, mentors, or family members who can offer constructive criticism. Make sure your essay is polished and error-free before submitting it.

Other Resources

Look at Big Future ‘s (via College Board) advice and answers to frequently asked college admissions essay questions.

• College Essays: FAQs
• Tips for Writing and Effective Application Essay

And if professional help is needed, check out our 1:1 essay coaching sessions.

– Contributor Jackie Palochko contributed to this report.

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The New York Times Announces Fourth Modern Love College Essay Contest

The New York Times recently announced its  fourth Modern Love College Essay Contest .

The Times is inviting college students nationwide to open their hearts and laptops and write an essay that tells the truth about what love is like for them today. In  previous contests, which attracted thousands of entries from students at hundreds of colleges and universities, the winning essays explored ambivalence about hooking up, the way technology is changing how we connect and how an aversion to labels can impact relationships.

“This is the fourth time we’re holding a college essay contest for Modern Love, and every time I’ve been so impressed by the quality of writing and depth of thought of a lot of these students,” said Modern Love editor Daniel Jones. “We’re looking forward to seeing what’s on their minds this year.”

The winning author will receive $1,000 and his or her essay will be published in a special Modern Love column in late April.

Submission Deadline: March 19, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. EST

Contest details appear at  nytimes.com/essaycontest . For more information, follow Modern Love on Facebook ( facebook.com/modernlove ) and the Modern Love editor on Twitter ( @danjonesnyt ).

Honors for Doug Mills

Laura reston promoted to deputy op-ed editor in opinion.

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The 2021-2022 Common App Essay Prompts Are Here

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What’s Covered:

2021-2022 common app prompts, what has changed, tips for writing your common app essay.

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The Common App recently released their essay prompts for the 2021-2022 admissions cycle, and unlike the past several years, the prompts are not the same as before.

In this post, we’ll go over the prompts, the changes, and tips for writing a strong Common App essay.

Here is a list of the prompts for this cycle. While they are largely unchanged, Prompt #4 is different this year (which is kind of a big deal, considering that the prompts have been the same since 2017).

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 (NEW): 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?

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.

As usual, there are six prompts, with the seventh allowing you to write on a topic of your choice. The prompts are all the same except for Prompt #4. 

Here’s a side-by-side of the old and new versions of the prompt.

Before: 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.

After: 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?

While all Common App essays should be personal, the old prompt was more “scientific” and analytical than the new one. The focus of the essay was a problem, its relevance to your life, and how you found a solution (or how you would find a solution).

The theme of the new prompt is gratitude, and it is inherently more reflective than the old prompt, as the focus is a personal story. The new prompt is likely to apply to more students, but there are some potential tripwires to keep in mind.

A common mistake is to spend too much time elaborating on the “thing” that was done, or on the person who did it. While you should absolutely provide some context, the essay should mainly be about you and how this event impacted your life.

It’s also important to note that the prompt asks for an act that “made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. ” Admissions officers don’t want just a classic feel good story about an act of kindness. This act of kindness can be small or significant, but it should have a relatively big impact on your life that you may not have expected. The act itself may have also been surprising, or maybe your response to it was the unexpected part. 

While this prompt may seem straightforward, it’s actually encouraging a reflection on a nuanced situation. Some examples of good topics would be: 

• Your friend signs you up for robotics even though you didn’t want to join at first, but then you discover a love for programming and want to use it to help build medical devices and prosthetics.
• Your parents don’t approve of your artistic pursuits due to their immigrant background and desire for stability in “practical” careers, but after years of showing no interest in your art, they attend your gallery opening. This leads to a mutual understanding and inspires you to create art based on your parents’ struggles.

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1. Get a head start

The topics are out, so you should consider drafting your Common App essay before the rush of the fall semester. Once senior year begins, you’ll be dealing with schoolwork, supplemental essays, extracurriculars, and other responsibilities. Your Common App essay will go to most, if not all, of the schools on your list, so it’s important that you take the time to write, edit, and get feedback on your essay. 

Read our ultimate guide to the Common App essay (which will soon be updated with the new prompt) and take a look at some strong essay examples to get a better idea of what admissions officers are looking for.

2. Know what topics are good, and which ones to avoid

There are two ways to brainstorm your essay. You can either pick a prompt that resonates with you and look for a matching story from your life, or come up with a story essential to who you are and find a prompt to match.

Keep in mind that there are some essay topics to avoid, however. Some cliche college essay topics include:

• Sports injury story
• Working hard in a challenging class
• Immigrant story
• Tragedy (death, divorce, illness)
• Volunteer trip
• Your religion
• Romantic relationships
• Family pressure to pursue a particular field

In general, these topics are bad because they’re extremely common and too often focus on the event itself rather than you and your personality. This doesn’t mean you can’t cover these topics, but it’s very difficult to do so in an effective way (see the post linked above for tips on how to revamp these cliche topics).

On the flip side, some good topic ideas are:

• A unique extracurricular activity or passion
• An activity or interest that contrasts heavily with your profile
• A seemingly insignificant moment that speaks to larger themes within your life
• Using an everyday experience or object as a metaphor to explore your life and personality
• An in the moment narrative that tells the story of a important moment in your life

These topics are much broader and allow for greater creativity. 

3. Answer the 4 core questions

The point of the Common App essay is to humanize your application and put a face to your transcript. That’s a tall order for only 650 words max! 

To make sure you’re sharing the fullest range possible of who you are, try to answer these four core questions in your essay:

• Why Am I Here?
• What is Unique About Me?
• What Matters to Me?

4. Consider the different college essay structures

The Common App essay is a piece of creative storytelling, and not your typical analytical paper for school. You don’t necessarily want to write an essay with the standard introduction, thesis, and supporting body paragraphs. 

How should you structure your essay, then? Here are a few ideas:

• In-the-moment narrative: Take us to a specific moment in time and share your story as it’s unfolding, using this moment as a segue into broader themes of your life.
• Narrative told over an extended period of time: This structure allows you to cover several experiences, and is well-suited for those looking to highlight their long-term development.
• Series of anecdotes, or montage: Use several scenes (that aren’t necessarily related or chronological) to highlight an element of your life or personality.

There are also unconventional essay structures that you may consider, such as writing a movie script or a poem. These are high risk, but also high reward if executed correctly.

Learn more about essay structures and see examples in our blog post.

5. Show, don’t tell

One common mistake students make is to simply state what happened in their essay, rather than to use storytelling techniques like imagery and dialogue. To keep your essay as engaging as possible, you need to bring us to these experiences and allow us to be there with you, rather than telling us what happened. 

Here’s an example of telling: “Running a half marathon was a challenge.”

And here’s an example of showing: “My shoe became untied at mile 11, so I paused and bent over to lace it back up. Pain shot through my lower back. I grimaced and let out an audible groan.”

Where to Get Your Essay Edited for Free

Once you clear the academic threshold for selective schools, your essays and extracurriculars are the deciding factors for admissions officers. In fact, your essays and extracurriculars matter almost as much as grades and test scores at top schools. Why is this? Most students applying to top schools will have stellar academics. Your essays and extracurriculars are your chance to stand out and share your personality.

This is especially true for the Common App essay, as the prompts invite reflection and personal storytelling. It’s vital that your essay is engaging and presents you as someone who would enrich the campus community.

Before submitting your application, you should have someone else review your Common App essay. 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 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. We highly recommend giving this tool a try!

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Within hours of the shooting in Kazan, a provincial capital, President Vladimir V. Putin said he had ordered a tightening of Russia’s already restrictive laws on civilian ownership of guns.

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MOSCOW — Gunfire and explosions erupted at a school in central Russia on Tuesday, killing seven students and two school employees, according to witnesses and officials who blamed a teenager for the rare mass shooting in the country.

Within hours, President Vladimir V. Putin said he had ordered a tightening of Russia’s already restrictive laws on civilian gun ownership, a move that is likely to be implemented in the country’s top-down political system.

“The thing is that firearms, which are used as assault rifles and similar weapons in certain countries, are sometimes registered as hunting guns,” said the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov. “The Russian National Guard will urgently consider the issue.”

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Students and teachers in the school’s upper floors barricaded themselves in classrooms and waited for help, said Vyacheslav Yegoshin, a 15-year-old who witnessed the shooting from outside the building because he was late for school Tuesday.

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This conversation, moderated by Christina Abreu, Director of the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies, draws on Smith’s 2021 book , How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2021.

Smith’s bestselling books include  How the Word Is Passed , which  Publishers Weekly  called “an essential consideration of how America’s past informs its present.” It has won numerous awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, and was named one of the best books of the year by  TIME ,  The New York Times ,  The Economist and  The Washington Post .

His latest book,  Above Ground , was named to  TIME  magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books and  NPR ‘s Books We Love. Smith’s first book,  Counting Descent , won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. In his forthcoming book,  Just Beneath the Soil , he will explore the little-known stories behind World War II sites and discuss how they shape our collective memory of the war.

His essays, poems, and scholarly writing have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine , The New Republic, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, the Harvard Educational Review and elsewhere. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic .

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Target Audience

Contact Name

Anne Hanley

Contact Email or Phone

[email protected]

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See Who Is Interested

1 person is interested in this event