Avoid these problems when writing your college essay conclusion:
Also, think of it like this: What if this writer has hit upon the heart of her paper in her conclusion? What if, by “getting it all out,” she found a way to strengthen her thesis, and her overall purpose for her essay? In the lovely book on creative nonfiction called Tell it Slant, one writer describes the writing process this way: “The essayist attempts to surround a something—a subject, a mood, a problematic irritation, by coming at it from at all angles, wheeling and diving like a hawk, each seemingly digressive spiral actually taking us closer to the heart of the matter.” Trust your writing process, even if feels like you keep circling back to your starting point.
In order to do this, you’ll need to take a step back from the essay. Ideally, you should give yourself several days between finishing your draft and going back to look over its conclusion. Getting this high-level perspective on your own story takes time, but later in this article we share concrete suggestions on how to do exactly that.
When considering this challenge, however, it is often helpful to bear in mind that the essay is written for a real person to read. The Admissions Officers at your dream college are looking to empathize with you. In order to do that, your message needs to be clear and cohesive, not all-encompassing. And this can only be accomplished through intent: knowing what content is most important, and what can be done away with.
When writing a CTA for your college essay conclusion, make sure it's:
This example of a "Full Circle" college essay ending is effective because it masterfully connects the ending to the beginning of the story. The essay begins with a vivid description of a rainy day, and the conclusion seamlessly brings the reader back to that initial scene.Â
Ending with values is also a pretty good idea because a) it shows your ability to self-reflect, and b) highlights some qualities that, oh, by the way, will be useful in college and beyond.
Are you the kind of person who prefers facts and figures over emotions and descriptions? Do you dislike talking about yourself? Do you prefer taking apart machines to playing Wordle? Then this option is for you. When ending your college essay, being clear is better than being fancy. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have to write well. It just means that you can choose to focus more on being straightforward—describing a process, ending with a clear purpose for the future—than being colorful or edgy. The most important thing about the whole college essay writing process, after all, is about showing your authenticity.
This article dives deep into how to make these final polishes to your college essay so that you feel confident that you are ready to submit your best application story—one that admissions officers will remember. Read on to learn all about challenges you’ll face, goals to keep in mind, and specific tips on how to end your college application essay.
What a college essay conclusion should include
One further possibility is to mirror how great motivational speakers and clergy make use of stories in their speaking. Often they use a similar approach to what I advocate for essays - start a story somewhat in the middle with a cold open and elaborate and fill in details as they go. Then when they reach the end of the story they relate it to their main point or one of the main themes they want to drive home. You can do the same thing, just make the main point something about you and make sure it relates to the story you're telling.
What a college essay conclusion shouldn’t include
Lastly, go look at how some great stories, movies, plays, and books end. Whether it's a comedy or a tragedy, you'll notice that there is usually relatively little by way of denouement. The Return of The King film notwithstanding, often even long stories give little detail and are much more direct and abrupt when they reach the ending. They start summarizing what happened and "zooming out". Again 1-2 sentences is sufficient here but you can do the same thing - just keep the focus trained on you. Don't broaden to the world around you or some philosophical concept. Instead say something about one of your "whys". For example, why the story you chose to tell is so important to you, why you have the theme/arc that you do in your application, why you did/thought what you did in your story, the why behind your choices, passions, motivations, thoughts, goals, achievements, overcomings, etc. You could also say something about how you've changed/grown or what you've learned (usually about yourself or something really close to you, not some generality or something academic). Show depth of thought, introspection, maturity, and humility. When you do this right, the AO finishes the essay wishing it had continued longer. They want to know more about you and are intrigued by the personality you presented.
But this isn’t simply a collection of college essay examples.
And they’re probably going to have conflicting ideas. Because in the end, a college application essay is, to some extent, subjective. When you aim to communicate something honest and authentic about yourself, people are going to feel different ways about it. They will have their own conclusions and biases because of your personal relationship with them. They may unknowingly try to get you to show the person they think you are, rather than the person you believe yourself to be.
This section contains five examples of good college essays.
It took time and patience, but by observing how various students worked and how I could best help them, I became an effective and efficient Homework Coach. Because I volunteered longer than anyone else, I became the lead Homework Coach. I passed on my hard-won knowledge about developing teaching strategies to the tutors in training so they too could be successful in teaching a variety of subjects. I enjoyed my time helping others and even received a community service award from the President of the United States. Going forward, I plan to continue using my skills as a tutor to help friends and classmates with their homework.