Hi, Reader!

Ever hit Submit and then immediately remember the one thing you forgot to mention? Application season is basically that, but with a firm deadline and no do-overs.

(If we're being honest, I'm also like that. I often hit Send on these emails and think of just one more thing I really should have included.)

Let's both figure out how to make a plan to make sure we're always submitting with confidence.

THE FINAL READ

Before you submit your application to a school, read your whole application in one sitting like a stranger who has never met you: essay, activities list, resume, additional info. Then ask what you think this person now knows about you. What values come through? What lessons have you learned? How are you going to set foot on a campus and be not just a great student, but also a great classmate, a great leader, and a valuable member of the larger community?

Look for repeats (are you telling the same story in three different places) and gaps (the thing you're proudest of that appears nowhere because you didn't feel it quite belonged).

The easiest way to see everything at once is to download your Common App as a PDF and read it through carefully from start to finish. Here's how to preview your Common App before you submit. Nothing goes to the college until you pay (shocking, I know), so don't worry that you're accidentally going to submit an unfinished application.

NO BIG STORY TO TELL? TRY THE MONTAGE STRUCTURE

Let me take a quick detour for any seniors who are still staring at a blank personal statement and thinking, "I don't have one big story to share." You're in good company. It's one of the most common things I hear the minute we start brainstorming. A lot of these prompts make it sound as if you need to talk about a challenge or an obstacle. In fact, that's not necessarily the case.

You may not need a big story. Instead, you may just need a different structure.

Enter my friend the montage essay.

A montage essay strings together several smaller moments tied to one thread, and the moments don't have to look connected on the surface. I've had students build them around five colors of sea glass, three colors they added to their tie-dye shirts, five things on their bookshelf, three concert tshirts in their closet. Finding the thread underneath is the real work.

Think about it: you're summing up roughly 17 years in 650 words. A montage lets you show growth across time and across experiences instead of finding one moment. Don't worry: if you do this right, you won't be turning your essay into an activities list. Your list says what you did. Your montage zooms in on different scenes and shows why they mattered.

Want the full breakdown? I walked through the montage essay structure in this new blog post, which was inspired by students who either didn't know what to write about or who were told the montage essay wasn't a well-respected structure. Spoiler: it is.

QUICK WRITING TIP

Are there two spaces after a period in your writing? That's a typewriter habit, and it's one of the quickest ways to make a 17-year-old's essay look like a parent typed it. Your essay should sound like you, and the formatting should agree. Use find and replace (two spaces for one) and it's fixed in about five seconds.

And yes, I'm old enough that I took typing in high school on a manual typewriter and was taught the two-space rule. But I'm young enough that I was able to retrain my brain and am now a staunch advocate of the one-space rule.

UC PIQ BOOTCAMP: OCTOBER 17

UC applicants: the Personal Insight Questions are where a lot of students get stuck. College Essay Guy is running a live 3-hour PIQ Bootcamp on Oct. 17, 2026, from 11 to 2 pm CT. You'll get a step-by-step guide to what the UCs look for and how to answer each of the 8 PIQs so you stand out. It also covers the activities list and the additional comments section. Imagine taking just 3 hours out of your day and walking away with a plan for completing that application!

👉 Save your spot here. (affiliate link)

NEED ADDITIONAL SUPPORT?

If you're getting ready to submit and want one trusted reader who does this for a living to look at some of your essay material from an outside perspective, book a one-hour Power Hour with me. Bring a draft or a question, and we'll work through it together.

ONE LAST THING: YOUR UT RESUME IS DUE OCT. 22

UT early action applications are due Oct. 15. If you decide to not submit your resume with your application and want to submit it separately, your resume is due a week later, on Oct. 22. (You might have some other schools on your list where the deadline for your application differs slightly from the deadline for supplemental materials or for letters of recommendation to be submitted, so make sure you know what is due when.)

UT lists the resume as optional for most applicants. Submit one anyway. UT uses it to judge how well you fit your major, and UT admits you to a school first and then to a specific major. Hopefully that's your first choice, but it might be your second. Either way, your major-related experience needs to be on that page. Optional is a terrible reason to skip it.

My UT Resume Review gets you a written scorecard: what's working, what to fix, and what's missing. I also check how well your resume shows fit to your major and whether your hours make sense. It comes back in three business days, so order by Oct. 16 to have it in hand with time to revise. (Pssst: The first 10 orders will also get $30 off their review!)

📆 UPCOMING WEBINARS & DEADLINES

See my full calendar here.

Happy Writing!

Julia

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