What character traits should I highlight in my college essays?

Choosing which character traits to highlight in your college essays can definitely feel overwhelming. Most colleges are looking for genuine, multidimensional students, so there's no one set of traits that's ‘the best’ to showcase. Rather than focusing only on traits you think admissions committees want to see (like leadership or perseverance), prioritize the qualities that actually feel core to who you are.

Admissions officers do value leadership, resilience, and dedication—but they also care about authenticity, curiosity, empathy, humor, and quirks that make you memorable. For example, if you're deeply curious and love research, you could craft an essay around how you once spent months studying the migration patterns of birds in your city, developing persistence and close observation skills in the process. If you're creative, maybe you redesigned your room after a move to make it ‘feel like home’ and learned a lot about interior spaces and comfort.

A helpful way to start is to pick one or two stories or moments that really shaped you. What traits did you lean on in those moments? Maybe it was your resourcefulness when you had to fix a broken bike without the right tools, or your sense of humor that helped your debate team through tough competitions. Be specific, and let your personality come through—colleges love essays that feel like only you could have written them.

In my own essay, I focused on adaptability. I grew up moving every few years, and instead of writing another story about 'overcoming moving challenges,' I wrote about the ritual of visiting a donut shop in each new city and how that small tradition helped me build connections and see the fun side of change. That combination of adaptability and openness to new experiences felt true to me and made for a more personal, memorable essay.

In short: pick traits that truly fit you, come up with a unique story or moment that demonstrates those qualities in action, and don't be afraid to think outside the typical 'leadership and hard work' box if that’s not you. Colleges are more interested in seeing who *you* are, not who you think they want.