College applications are a drag: filling in bubbles, your basic information and scores spiral me into a deep, college application depression.

Alright, that was a little dramatic, but it does get really repetitive if a lot of the schools you’re applying to aren’t on the Common App, so you have to fill each application individually. That’s why my favorite part of the application process is the essays. It allows you to break apart from the numbers each admissions office judges you on and express yourself. That may sound a little cheesy, but it’s true. This is the best way to brag about yourself in a creative way.

There are a lot of different types of prompts you can receive. There’s the classic, “tell us why you want to attend Blah University”, or the thought provoking “what’s your favorite piece of advice you’ve received”, or even the more creative “describe yourself in a tweet with 140 characters or less”. Whatever prompt your school throws at you, the best thing to do is make it your own.

Here are some “do’s” and “don’t’s” on the college essay process.

1. Do plan ahead. Have a calendar or schedule of all your supplemental due dates so you can keep track of all the essays you have to write. Also, keep a notebook with a few pages for each essay prompt you have, and take it wherever you go. That way whenever you have free time, you can brainstorm. When I was writing my essays, this notebook was always by my side; even when I went to bed, I kept it on my nightstand because I have the tendency to get random inspiration in the middle of night.
2. Don’t just “yolo” it. Write at least 2 or 3 drafts: Unless you truly don’t care about your admissions into a school, make sure you write a few drafts on your essay. You want these essays to be perfect and have an accurate reflection of your work. Have a teacher, parent, friend, anyone look over your essay. I had both my parents, my grandparents, three teachers and a friend look over my essay. That may sound like an overkill, but you can never be too careful.
3. Do proof read. This ties in with the number above but even after all your teachers, family and friends look over your essay, don’t forget to look over it yourself. You may catch something others didn’t. The best way to proofread is to read your essay out loud, that way you can easily point out sentences that don’t make sense or sound awkward.
4. Don’t write multiple essays for one prompt. A lot of the time during this process you’ll run into schools that have the same prompt. This is a huge relief. Don’t write the same essay twice, write one really strong essay and then tailor it to whatever school you’re applying to. Just a quick FYI, if you are reusing essays and putting in school names, before you submit your essay double check that you have the right school name! You don’t want to put the wrong school name in the essay you submit.
5. Do make it unique. I know I really emphasize getting your essay revised by a lot of people, but make sure they aren’t taking “your voice” out of the essay. You still want your essay to be unique, so when people are editing it, make sure they’re only reading for grammatical mistakes and word choices. The point of the essay is for colleges to get to know you, not a robot.
6. Don’t be afraid to brag. College essays aren’t the time to be humble. Brag about your achievements and activities from high school, and also about your future goals. It’s okay to brag about these things because you want to show yourself off to your college and show them that you are the best candidate for them to accept. Now, when I say brag I don’t mean “I’m the best on my sports team and everyone else sucks”. What I mean by brag is by showing and explaining everything you’ve achieved in high school without being conceited.
7. Do delete unnecessary words. If there’s anything I’ve learned through this essay process, it’s choosing the right amount of words. Many of the essays you’re going to write are going to have word limitations, which means that you’re going to have to be very picky with the words that you pick. A lot of this is going to come with a lot of proofreading and editing, and this is also why multiple drafts are key. The right word choice makes a huge difference.
8. Don’t only focus on bad grades or parts of your four years, highlight the good, too. Sometimes, students make the wrong choice in using these essays to just explain why they had bad grades. And although that may be good for some parts of the essay, make sure this isn’t an essay full of excuses. If you need to justify a bad grade, do it with a limited amount of words and then be more focused on the good parts of your high school career.

I truly believe that if you follow these steps and stay on top of your due dates, not only will your essays be perfect, they will make your applications stand out.