What's the proper way to format a college essay?

Great questions—essay formatting can definitely feel confusing since there’s a lot of conflicting advice out there! For the Common App essay, you actually don’t have to worry much about traditional manuscript formatting (like double spacing or specific margins) because you’ll end up copying and pasting your essay into a text box directly in the application portal.

Here are some clear guidelines:

- Plain text is preferred. Most formatting (bold, underline, italics aside from a few sentences or words) won’t transfer over, so don’t worry about fancy fonts or styles. Stick to simple, readable text.
- No need for specific fonts or spacing. The Common App will standardize everything once your essay is pasted in.
- Paragraphs can be separated with a single line space (hit ‘Return’ twice) rather than indentation. Indents sometimes get lost or look odd in the text box, so block paragraphs are safest.
- Do not include a title.
- Pay attention to the word count! The limit is 650 words, and the text box will cut you off mid-sentence if you go over.

Here’s an example of a typical submission:

It’s a good idea to paste your essay into the Common App and preview it before you officially submit, to make sure the format looks clean and there aren’t any odd line breaks. Also, watch out for strange characters or lost apostrophes from Google Docs formatting—sometimes they don’t copy over perfectly.

Bottom line: Focus on clear, readable text, line break between paragraphs, and don’t stress about traditional manuscript formatting. The content is what matters most!

Best of luck polishing your essay—you’re almost there!