College Essay Outline (How to Structure a Draft)

Fill this four-beat outline with your story, then draft. Why those beats work is in Common App personal statement structure. After you have a draft, revise with college essay draft checklist. This page is the fill-in outline, not those pages.

Your four-beat outline

1. Hook scene (specific moment, not a resume):
2. Development (what you did, thought, and chose):
3. One reflection sentence (the so-what):
4. Tie-back (who you are now, and where you are headed):

Drafting workflow (check as you go)

• Listed 3–5 moments that changed how you think (not only awards)
• Picked one moment and wrote the scene first
• Added what you realized, what you changed, and what you value now
• Cut any sentence that could describe any motivated student

Strategy and examples: admissions essays hub. For help on a draft, explore undergraduate admissions services.

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