5 College Admission Essay Examples That Got Students into Top Universities

“Congratulations, your admission application has been accepted for the year 2025-2026.” Imagine you are reading these words in the acceptance letter just received from your dream institute. We know that even imagining this scenario creates a burst of excitement and joy.

Whether you want to get admission to your country’s top college or the Ivy League schools, an admission essay is the key milestone that you must complete successfully to get admission. This piece of paper carries so much weight that your entire admission relies on it.

To help you, we have come up with some great college admission essay examples that helped students get into the top universities. Not only that we also break down each essay piece to find out why these impressed the admission officers.

So, without any further ado, let’s get started.

Key Insights:

• An impactful college admission essay is the key to getting admission to your dream school.
• Writing an admission essay demands strong critical thinking, analysis skills, and writing skills.
• Learn how well-structured essays helped the students secure a seat in the top educational institute.
• Explore our experts’ in-depth analysis and review of the best admission essays.
• See how our expert writers structured an engaging and impactful essay in this blog.

5 Admission Essay Examples that Helped Students Secure a Seat in Top Universities

Let’s face it. Getting admission to one of the world’s best universities is challenging, as you have to compete with thousands of intelligent minds. The only thing that can help you stand at the top of this competition is your college admission essay. Yes, you read it right.

The admission essay is the stepping stone of your overall admission process. So, if we say that you have to give this task your sweat and blood, then it would not be wrong. We understand that writing this essay is not child's play.

That’s why we are here to help you. In this section, the Cheap Essay Writing UK experts will share an in-depth review of the best college admission essays from the top-notch universities.

So, read this article to the end.

Example #1 

School Year: Harvard University 2020

Author: Chaffee

School Acceptances: Harvard University, Princeton University, University of California Berkeley, University of California Santa Cruz, CSU Sonoma, New York University

Prompt: Your intellectual life may extend beyond the academic requirements of your particular school. Please use the space below to list additional intellectual activities that you have not mentioned or detailed elsewhere in your application. These could include, but are not limited to, supervised or self-directed projects not done as school work, training experiences, online courses not run by your school, or summer academic or research programs not described elsewhere.

Why This Essay Stands Out - An Analysis

She starts the essay by telling her preschool study ethics and ends it by stating her high school activities in the context of the importance of her name, which helped her in shaping her entire educational career. Another amazing thing about this essay is the personal anecdote of Chaffee that immediately pulls the reader's attention.

However, a quite dull thing about Chaffee’s essay is that she only focuses on the negative aspects of her name in the whole essay until the last paragraph. Maybe it happened due to the limited space that the administration allows the students to write their personal statement essays.

Yet, her overall work is quite good, as Chaffee seamlessly describes how she is different from the rest of her siblings and others. With this, she also highlights her ability to manage her studies without the help of anyone since childhood. The most appreciated part of her essay is the end, when she is now amazed when others pronounce her name wrong or seem a little confused when they pronounce it.

Key Takeaways from This Essay

• The tone and writing style of the Chaffee was incredible; she tried hard not to lose the reader's attention, and she was quite successful in her attempt.
• Neither did she pretend to be miserable, nor did she boast about the uniqueness of her name; she simply wrote about her genuine feelings that she experienced in her entire childhood, which is the key to winning a personal statement.
• The admission committee always gives higher marks to essays that come up with a unique approach, and Chaffee knew that, so she used her name for the personal anecdote. Choosing her name was a smart approach, we must say. You can also think creatively and come up with a smart approach, as Chaffee did.
• The best part of her essay is that she didn’t abruptly end the essay, as most of the students do, because they are unable to cover their stand within the given word count limit. Chaffee precisely wrapped up her essay with a positive note on how she now enjoys the uniqueness of herself, which showcased her ability to accept things as they are. 

Example # 2

Author: Winnie Wou

School Year: Princeton University 2021

School Names that Accepted the Admission: Princeton University, University of California Berkeley, Harvard University, University of Yale, University of California Santa Cruz, Oxford University, New York University

Prompt: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.

A Review of the Essay

In our opinion, the strength of this college admission essay is honesty. The way Winnie describes all the details about her life is by connecting them with the mess that always lies on her work desk. From empty paint tubes to guitar picks, she relates every single object on her desk to her real-life experiences.

The best part of her essay is how casually she tells how she manages to read the Complete Works of Shakespeare while preparing for the Chemistry exam. Her meticulous descriptions depict how real and quirky her personality shines despite being the least organised person.

Overall, Winnie successfully describes her personality by just telling us about the little objects on her writing desk. The only weak point that we analysed in her essay is that it has a little lack of central focus in her narrative. Apart from that flaw, she gives a detailed overview of how her personality has changed with time, from a shy young seedling to a mature young adult.

The best thing is that she describes all her personality development by giving her a role model, a writing desk. We can say that despite having an unclear narrative admission essay structure, Winnie completed the difficult task of telling the vibrant personality development with just some familiar objects successfully.

Key Learning for You From This Essay

• Winnie wrote a great essay that started by describing the oldest furniture in her room, which was her writing desk. We are amazed at how she related the small objects to her personality development. This is a great technique that you must learn.
• The next amazing thing about this essay is the assertive tone that Winnie has used to convey her message to her audience. Keep in mind that this assertive tone is the perfect blend of positivity and persuasion, without any traces of command.
• Also, Winnie used a great treasure of vocabulary, which is surely one of the many reasons to score higher grades, because the admission committee gives higher grades to those essays that are the epitome of great words and phrases, and Winnie knew it very well.

As you have noted, the key takeaways from this essay, we hope that these will help you in writing your own essay. Suppose you are still in doubt. In that case, you can seek guidance from our expert guide on writing your admission essay.

Example # 3

Author: Lisa

School Year: Harvard University 2022

School Names that Accepted the Admission: Harvard University, University of Oxford, Princeton University, University of Yale, University of California Berkeley, New York University

Prompt: 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?

An In-depth Analysis of the Essay

This is another masterpiece that is written by Lisa, a free soul who wants to pursue her childhood passion, ‘Ballet Dance’. We are amazed at how Lisa crafted a scene full of emotions, hope, and passion. Lisa just created a winning essay by invoking real emotions in the audience with her creative and descriptive prose and introspection.

We felt like Lisa wants to describe her situation like a bird that is close to a cage but desperately wants to fly in the air. But when it gets a chance, it is afraid to fly because of not flown in the open air for so long. Lisa metaphorically creates a situation that all of us face once in a lifetime when there is a need to showcase self-reflection and embrace future challenges.

We loved how Lisa first describes her immobilised condition due to fear, failure, and embarrassment. Then, after deactivating all the brain neurons, she suddenly sees her teacher, her comfort zone, and she decides to face her fears.

In the end, Lisa's description of turning her fears into passion and excitement is incredible. Within moments, Lisa decided to embrace this challenge and let her soul enjoy every dance step without fearing that every eye was on her.

We apparently don’t see any weak points in this college application essay. To us, Lisa’s essay won because it is closely related to a real-life situation. We all experience the same fear in our lives when we face any hard situation, but the movement to embrace this challenge with a fearless attitude becomes the key to our success.

What Can You Learn From This Essay?

• The first thing that you must notice in this essay is the storytelling technique that Lisa has used in this winning essay. How she opened her essay introduction by describing her fears and ended it with a powerful transformation is incredible.
• From start to end, Lisa’s essay kept us engaged and thrilled to get to know what would happen next.
• Another amazing thing about this college admission essay is the rich vocabulary that Lisa used in her piece of work.
• There are a few writers who can create some metaphoric situations to convey real-life lessons, and we think that Lise is one of them.
• Writing a short, inspiring story with a powerful message and without any loopholes is the key to a successful admission essay, and Lisa did this very well. 

Example # 4

Author: Allie

Class Year: Cornell University 2023

Name of Universities that Accepted the Essay: Cornell University, Princeton University, Harvard University, New York University

Prompt:We all contribute to and are influenced by the communities that are meaningful to us. Share how you’ve been shaped by one of the communities you belong to. Remember that this essay is about you and your lived experience. Define community in the way that is most meaningful to you. Some examples of communities you might choose from are: family, school, shared interest, virtual, local, global, and cultural.

A Review of This Essay

In this college admission essay, the writer, Allie, outlines his incredible journey to publish a student newspaper in every high school. Allie told us about the day when his team released its first issue. This was not more than a dream for Allie as he faced numerous challenges during this journey.

We liked how Allie outlined all the challenges that he faced while fulfilling his dream with a positive attitude. This shows how dedicated he was to his ambition, that despite all the dark times and hardship, he was able to publish a student newspaper.

This essay also depicts the leadership skills that every good institute wants to have in its students. We think that it was one of the key reasons to accept Allie’s essay. Another thing is the way of storytelling, that is, how Allie started his essay with the classroom scene and seamlessly outlined all the hardships that he faced during the journey, and then again brought the readers to the classroom where his team published their first newspaper for high school students.

Key Points that You Will Learn from This Essay

• The first thing that you will learn from this great essay writing is the narrative technique that Allie used. From start to end, he took the audience to different scenes outlining the challenges that he faced during his journey without losing the key message that he wanted to convey.
• This essay is a true example of showcasing the personality trait of the student, which is the key purpose of every college admission essay. So, it is important to note how Allie highlighted his leadership skills by sharing his real-life experience.
• The storytelling way of the writer is also worth noting, as without missing a beat, he shared an entire life experience with the audience.
• The tone is another important thing to consider in this essay, as despite telling all the challenges, he maintained a positive tone throughout the essay.

Pro Tip: Admission essay writing is all about exceptional writing and storytelling techniques. If you have a great idea to write an essay, but your weak writing skills are stopping you from getting admission to your dream school. You can approach a reliable admission essay writing service, such as Cheap Essay Writing UK, to write a successful essay on your incredible idea.

Example # 5 

Author: John

Academic Class: Princeton University 2024

School Acceptances: Princeton University, Cornell University, New York University

Prompt:You may wish to include an additional essay if you feel that the college application forms do not provide sufficient opportunity to convey important information about yourself or your accomplishments. You may write on a topic of your choice, or you may choose from one of the following topics: Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities.

Why Did This Essay Work?

This essay is a winning essay for many reasons. The writer, John, started this essay by telling his passion for wrestling. He aimed to win the state championship at the high school level. For this, he worked hard and even scheduled his lifestyle according to the requirements of his wrestling passion.

But somehow, despite all the hard work and effort, he failed to win the final of the state championship. But soon he realised that failure is not the end of life, the results never matter, the only thing that matters is the effort.

The writer weaved his story in a great way, we must say. But one thing that we felt was missing was how he realised that his failure was the real blessing for him. That might be a narrative flaw, but the overall story of the writer was a masterpiece, a true inspiration that clearly depicted how he learned from his failure.

The admission committee always gives attention to those essays that are based on personal experience or some reflection of personality. This essay is a good example where the writer shared his failure experience without any guilt. Not only that he also showcased how this failure made him stronger to face challenges in the future.

Key Takeaways from This Essay

• This essay is a great example of a personal statement essay where John stated his personal experience naturally. Without using some fancy words, the writer outlines his journey in an engaging way. 
• Another thing that you just consider is the positive tone of the writer. From start to end, you will note a positive mindset of the writer that helped him to convey his personality’s traits to the admission officers. This technique is important for writing a winning college admission essay.
• This essay also depicts the students’ commitment and dedication to fulfill their dreams. The admission committee loves to consider the essay that outlines the true personality of the student. 
• Simple sentence structure is another thing that makes this essay stand out.

Applying the Lessons: Crafting Your Winning Admission Essay 

Now that you have explored the top college admission essay examples that helped students secure a seat in their dream educational institutions. You also learnt some key lessons from all these great essays. We hope that you can now write your essay to get admission to your desired school. If you are still struggling, you can approach Cheap Essay Writing UK to get their assistance in writing and polishing your essays through admission essay writing services.

Have a look at the example below, which is written by the experts of this writing company.

The best compliment that I ever got was from my younger brother, who said, “You are an incredible storyteller, as my science teacher.” I loved this compliment and thought about it for many days. I learned in my biology class that every human is made of 7 × 10^27 atoms.

But this is just a statement that I learnt. The true meaning of this statement I understood after reading Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, in which he said that “Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you.”

That means that my physical body is made up of a string of hundreds of thousands of atoms, but what about my soul, my essence, and my aura? When I thought about that, I realised that like our bodies, our entire lives, including our aura and essence, are made up of a string of stories.

Every story is made up of different immortal stuff, such as stars, air, or fire, and emerges on the surface of the moon. It made me frustrated that I couldn’t listen to the stories of every person and get to know the reasons why they are like that.

I remembered the first fiction book that I read: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I was fascinated by the invisible cloak and the Quidditch; in short, every detail of this story was remarkable for me.

Fiction is a true revelation; it is like a window to look into others’ stories. Over the years, I often wondered what superpower I would choose if I ever got a chance to pick one — invisibility, flying, or knowing the future — but I threw all these options immediately, because my superpower is storytelling. I want to write exciting stories for the world and mesmerise them with my storytelling. Yes, I want to become a Story Girl.

Conclusion

Getting admission to their desired educational institution is the dream of every student. We know that you have also dreamed about it. But getting admission to a top-ranked school is not easy, especially with weak writing skills. If you have weak writing skills, you can avail yourself of the admission writing services from Cheap Essay Writing UK to ensure a successful admission.

You can also learn from the college admission essay examples that we have outlined in this guide. We meticulously analysed each example and outlined our review and some key takeaways. With this, we also shared a great essay example for your better understanding. You can learn from our analysis and use the key insights of each essay while writing your essay to get admission to your dream school.

References:

1. The Harvard Crimson. (2020, May 15). How they got in: Successful Harvard essays 2020 – Chaffee. https://www.thecrimson.com/sponsored/article/successful-essays-2020-chaffee/
2. Ivy Coach. (2021, July 13). 2021-2022 Princeton University essay prompts. https://www.ivycoach.com/the-ivy-coach-blog/college-essays/2021-2022-princeton-university-essay-prompts/
3. The Harvard Crimson. (2022, July 15). Successful Harvard essays 2022. https://www.thecrimson.com/topic/sponsored-successful-harvard-essays-2022/
4. InGenius Prep. (n.d.). An analysis of the Cornell supplemental essays. https://ingeniusprep.com/blog/an-analysis-of-the-cornell-supplemental-essays/
5. Princeton University. (n.d.). Princeton-specific questions. https://admission.princeton.edu/apply/princeton-specific-questions