In my decades of working with students on college applications, I’ve read thousands of essays. And increasingly, I’m noticing a troubling pattern: essays that don’t sound like they were written by high school students at all.

girl writing a paperThe Three Voices That Sabotage Your Application

Students come to me worried that their essays aren’t “good enough” or “impressive enough” for selective colleges. They’re convinced they need to sound smarter, more mature, or more sophisticated. So they make one of three critical mistakes:

  1. Some students hand their essays to well-meaning parents who “help” by rewriting sentences, restructuring paragraphs, or inserting vocabulary that sounds more adult. The result? An essay that reads like it was written by a 45-year-old with an MBA, not a 17-year-old navigating high school.
  2. Other students lean heavily on AI tools like ChatGPT to generate or “enhance” their writing. The AI voice is polished and grammatically flawless—and utterly generic. It lacks the warmth, humor, awkwardness, and authenticity that makes a real teenager’s writing compelling.
  3. And then there are students who try too hard to sound like what they think a “college applicant” should sound like. They use overwrought vocabulary or write in stilted formal prose, which can drain every ounce of personality from their writing. I call this the “student trying not to sound like a student” voice, and it’s just as problematic as the others.

Why Your Real Voice Is Your Strongest Asset

Here’s what students don’t realize: admission officers aren’t looking for perfect prose. They’re looking for authenticity.

Your real voice—reflecting how you actually think and express ideas—cuts through the noise like nothing else. Admission officers want to hear your genuine perspective, what fascinates you, and what keeps you up at night. They want to see you grappling with ideas in your own way, even if the phrasing isn’t perfectly polished.

Admission officers can spot inauthentic writing immediately. They know what real teenagers sound like, and they know when an essay has been over-edited by adults or generated by AI. And when they identify inauthenticity in your essay, it raises serious questions about the rest of your application.

How to Protect Your Authentic Voice

The good news is that you can maintain your authentic voice while still writing a strong college essay. You just need to follow these two steps:

  • Start by writing your essay completely on your own, without any input from parents, AI tools, or online essay databases. Get your ideas down in your natural voice first. Don’t worry about sounding impressive—worry about being genuine.
  • When you revise, remember that college application essays do require somewhat formal writing. You’re not texting a friend or having a casual conversation. But formal doesn’t mean abandoning your authentic voice. Focus on making sure your word choices, sentence structures, and most importantly, your ideas remain your own. The key is finding the balance between appropriate formality and genuine self-expression.

The Role of Others

Of course, there are absolutely appropriate roles for parents, school counselors, independent counselors, teachers, and friends in the essay process. These people can provide valuable feedback.

But here’s the key: whenever you get advice on an essay from another person, that advice should ideally be given to you verbally. This allows you to think about what they have to say and then choose what you want to incorporate while keeping the writing authentically yours.

It’s perfectly fine for someone to suggest a word, or for you to use a thesaurus or technology tool to find better vocabulary—that’s what good writers do. The problem arises when the suggested words are obscure or completely unfamiliar to you. If you don’t fully understand a proposed word’s meaning or can’t imagine ever using it in a conversation, don’t use it!

The moment someone starts wholesale rewriting your sentences, or you’re using vocabulary that doesn’t feel like yours, you’ve crossed a line.

And What About Technology?

The same principle applies to grammar and spell-check tools. These are entirely appropriate and help you present polished work. But when tools start restructuring your sentences in ways that don’t sound like you or suggesting complex phrasings you’d never choose yourself, you’ve taken it too far.

Technology should help you refine your authentic voice, not replace it with something artificial.

The Bottom Line

Your student voice—with all its imperfections and unique perspective—is exactly what selective colleges want to hear. Trust yourself and write like you.

Working with students on finding and protecting their authentic voice is one of my specialties. If you’re struggling to write essays that sound like you, I’d love to help. Contact me  to discuss how we can work together.