How to Write a Standout College Essay for Computer Science (CS) Applications
What is a Personal Statement (the “College Essay”)?
The goal of a personal statement (the “college essay”), is to share more with colleges about yourself than they can otherwise learn from your other application components. A strong personal statement shows who you are as a person and what makes you unique and different from other students with similar grades, courses, standardized test scores, and activities. A powerful personal statement humanizes you, makes an emotional connection to the reader, and persuades an admissions officer that you are the type of person they would like to have in their campus community. It differentiates and individualizes you. It may persuade an admissions officer that you are a Deep-Fit™ for their institution and boost your chances of acceptance.
Students may write about any topic for their personal statement as long as it effectively shares important characteristics about them – sometimes, I call these characteristics “their adjectives.”
The Personal Statement for Computer Science (CS) Majors
As people, students have many ‘adjectives’ they can showcase; there are no right or wrong characteristics to highlight. That said, I’ve found that my students with excellent CS application outcomes have written personal statements that show creative thinking and problem-solving in novel and interesting ways. This makes sense since, at its core, computer science is about creative problem-solving. If you have a story to share demonstrating creative problem-solving skills - and as an aspiring computer science student, you likely have many - you might want to consider using it as the basis for your college essay. If you are considering applying to college to study engineering, see my guidance for writing a standout engineering essay.
Example CS Personal Statement
Here is the college essay of one of my students who applied to study computer science. She now studies at Northwestern University.
When I was ten, I proposed to my parents the idea of replacing the stairs in our house with a rock-climbing wall. Unsurprisingly, they weren’t thrilled with the concept, but I decided that when I grew up I would build a house with monkey bars on the ceiling and treadmills between rooms. By now, I’ve accepted that this may not be the most practical idea (or an easy pitch to a bank for a loan), but I still have an idea of one day building public playgrounds for teens and adults. I believe that people should be able to play, no matter their age.
For years, I’ve watched American Ninja Warrior and envied their obstacle courses. It took me a while to realize that these were simply playgrounds made for adults, something I haven’t seen anywhere else. It occurred to me that I could build some version of those obstacles in my back yard, and I made a tiny cardboard model of a structure containing some elements of the obstacle course. My dad and I made it our project last summer to build this structure. We found a set of plans online for something similar to what I envisioned and then modified them to fit the space and the time we had. One of the first problems we ran into was how to make the structure stable enough to comfortably support the weight of at least one adult without risking it collapsing. We ended up deciding that the best solution was to concrete the six posts into the ground. Putting up these main posts felt like what I imagine a barn-raising might be like. A few friends and I spent several hours out in the hot sun in the middle of summer digging six two-foot deep holes for the poles. After we assembled the main frame, our next step was to make and put in the monkey bars, the pinnacle of any self-respecting playground. This proved to be one of the most challenging design issues, because I wanted to make the bars removable in order to be able to change their spacing. At first, I tried to do this by just dropping metal bars into slots in the frame, but they spun in a way that made them too difficult to hold. I could have accepted defeat and just drilled them into the frame, but I was determined to make them removable, as I had originally imagined. After piles of sketches of possible designs and innumerable trips to Home Depot, I struck on a wonderfully simple solution. I discovered that by screwing a straight bracket onto the top of each end of a bar, it wouldn’t be able to rotate when dropped into its slot.
Something I love about this structure is that there are always new features to add. Recently I added a hanging punching bag so that I can continue to practice karate while in-person classes aren’t possible. I’ve also come up with a few unorthodox uses for the structure this past summer. Since I’ve been using our back yard to have socially distanced hangouts with my friends, I wrapped it in Christmas lights to make it nicer to sit out there. To deal with rainy weather, I had the idea to attach one side of a tarp to the structure and support the other end with poles to make a large, open-air tent.
When someone new comes to my house, they are amazed at the idea of a scaled-up playground. Most of my friends and even some of my parents’ friends have tried some of the structure’s obstacles. I love to see how excited people are to try it out because it reminds me that I’ve built a concept as well as a physical frame. I love the idea of someday making this type of playground available to more people so that everyone can continue to play.
Why is This a Standout Computer Science Application Essay?
To start, the topic is extremely unusual. I don’t know anyone else who has built an American Ninja Warrior course, complete with six concrete posts, in their backyard, and certainly not in this student’s home of suburban Boston.
Her opening line is a hook that makes you want to learn more about her. What type of person wants to replace the stairs in their home with a rock-climbing wall? What other cool and interesting ideas does she have?
Also, the essay is written in the first person using an active voice and the word I, which we know is important for connecting to the reader.
It also shows many positive adjectives about the author. The writer has an active mind and enjoys being physically active. She is logical, rational, practical, and realistic. She is original and an independent thinker. A little quirky. A little nerdy. She is exacting and precise. She is also an extremely creative problem solver. Her essay vividly showcases the way she thinks and explores different solutions to and is creative in the face of design challenges. And how great that she describes how she was able to arrive at such an elegant and wonderfully simple solution to one of those challenges.
The writer shows these adjectives and attributes, rather than stating what they are. For instance, instead of saying that she likes to be physically active, she shows this by building a robust and functional adult playground and also by modifying it to add a hanging punching bag so she can practice her karate.
The author’s writing style also communicates a lot about her. She writes clearly and directly, aligned with her practical nature.
She does a great job extending the main essay topic to showcase different parts of herself including karate and time with her friends.
Through modifying the structure to meet her different needs, she continues to demonstrate creative problem solving.
The writer shows reflection and connects her structure to ideas beyond it. Specifically, the concept of the importance of adult play.
She sounds like she’d be interesting to hang out with!
How to Identify Creative Problem-Solving Topics for the Computer Science Application Essay
If you would like to explore the possibility of writing a personal statement showing that you are creative, make things, and are a problem-solver, spend some time considering what your own creative problem-solving story may be; What do you make, fix, or build?
Sign up for my email list below to receive Lantern’s Personal Statement Brainstorming Exercises to help CS majors identify creative problem-solving essay topics.
Other College Application Essay Topics to Explore
Remember, an computer science college essay does not have to showcase creative problem-solving skills. Students may write about any topic for their personal statement as long as it is effective in sharing important characteristics about them - their ‘adjectives’ - and there are many adjectives that they can show; there are no right or wrong attributes to highlight.
If, after brainstorming for creative problem-solving ideas, you are not sure what to write about, perhaps a topic that is not specifically about creative problem-solving will be a better direction for you. In this case, a number of more general (not specific to creative problem-solving) free online brainstorming exercises are available online, which you could use, such as The College Essay Guy Ethan Sawyer's. At that site, you’ll also find significant guidance for writing the essay once you’ve identified a topic.
Can I use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Help Write my College Application Essay?
Lastly, you may be wondering about using AI to help you write your personal statement. There are some positive ways to use AI when applying to college. However, writing the essays is not one of them. I strongly discourage students from using AI to write their essay.
Beyond the risk of running afoul of expectations, there are also many benefits to a student’s writing their own essay, including the opportunity to reflect and grow personally and as a writer, making their strongest authentic application (which is not possible from AI, as described in my article “What ChatGPT Can Teach Us About How to Write a Strong College Application”) – remember, a student’s strongest chances of admission will always be through an authentic application – and feeling pride in having done so. AI is a powerful new tool that students should learn to use responsibly. This does NOT include using it to write a college essay.
An interesting example of college’s response to students using AI to write their essays comes from the University of California. In January 2023, the UC sent applicants the following statement:
All personal insight question responses were reviewed by an anti-plagiarism software program in early January. Notifications were sent out earlier this month via email to students whose responses require verification of their authenticity. Notified applicants have the opportunity to demonstrate that their PIQ responses are their own work and were provided further instructions on how to do so. Applicants who are unable to provide evidence that the PIQs are their own work or who do not respond in the designated timeframe will have their UC application withdrawn. If an applicant has submitted an appeal, they will receive a final decision regarding their cancellation in early February. Make sure you check your email (the one associated with your UC Application) and look in your spam folder (and “Promotions” tab for Gmail) in case you received a notification.
Additional Resources
This article is not a general nor comprehensive “How to Write a Personal Statement” piece. Rather, it provides expertise specific to writing the personal statement as a computer science major. It addresses selecting a powerful essay topic for the personal statement but not a comprehensive treatment of the mechanics of writing the essay.
Students looking for more general guidance about writing a strong personal statement may find it helpful to use additional resources. For instance, The College Essay Guy, Ethan Sawyer, has extensive free online materials to help write college application essays and activity descriptions. Additionally, Susan Knoppow and Kim Lifton at WOW Writing Workshop have excellent and reasonably priced essay and activity writing programs.
If you’re applying to college to study computer science and seeking hands-on support and guidance to develop a standout computer science college application, including the college essays, please schedule a consultation at the link below.
