Essays guides
Personal statement, supplements, structure, voice, sensitive topics, school-specific prompts.
10 guides.
- 01
Essay Types
The Common App personal statement is a single 650-word essay written once and sent unchanged to every college you apply to through the Common Application.
165 min read
- 02
Strategy and Topic Selection
Brainstorming in college essay work is not free association. The goal is to surface raw material, specific memories, objects, values, questions, moments…
77 min read
- 03
Craft and Structure
A structural model is the underlying shape of an essay, the order in which information is revealed and the logic that ties the paragraphs together.
72 min read
- 04
Process and Timeline
Start the Common App personal statement in June or early July before senior year. Finalize it by end of August.
47 min read
- 05
Sensitive and Contested Topics
Writing about mental health in a college essay means telling a story in which a mental health experience (depression, anxiety, OCD, ADHD, eating disorder…
71 min read
- 06
Parent Guidance
Most parents who damage a college essay do so with good intentions. They believe they are helping, and by the metrics of most writing tasks they have ever…
88 min read
- 07
Frameworks Library
Purpose. Surface what the student actually cares about in a named, specific form, so that subsequent brainstorming and topic selection can be anchored to…
73 min read
- 08
Post-2023 Updates
On June 29, 2023, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Post-2023 Updates — a parent-friendly guide.
63 min read
- 09
Selectivity-Tier Overlays
When a user interacts with Solyo's AI counselor, the counselor pulls the relevant content chunks from Sections 1-8 based on the user's question.
40 min read
- 10
School-Specific Pages
Section 10 does not duplicate the general essay craft guidance in Sections 1-8. Each school page assumes the reader has access to: School-Specific Pages — a…
55 min read