How should I approach writing my college essay if I'm passionate about computer science?

You're on the right track by thinking about how to make your essay personal and distinct from a resume or generic list of achievements. When writing about your passion for computer science, the best approach is to anchor your essay in a vivid, specific story that reflects your personal growth or worldview thanks to CS, rather than just describing your interest or reciting your projects.

Colleges get many essays from students who love coding or have built apps, so your essay will be much more memorable if you focus on a particular moment or challenge that had a real impact on you. For example, maybe you struggled for weeks to fix a bug in your first robotics project, and the frustration almost made you quit, but then that breakthrough moment taught you patience and creative problem-solving. Or perhaps a simple project, like automating a daily task for a family member, made you realize the power of using tech to help people in your community. Telling a story about a single experience makes your passion tangible and reveals something deeper about who you are.

It's totally fine to reference projects you’ve done, but avoid turning your essay into a list. Instead, use details selectively to immerse the reader in your process—describe what it felt like to debug code at 2 am, or how you brainstormed with teammates to crack an algorithm challenge. If you want to get a little technical, briefly mentioning the tools or languages you used is okay, but keep things accessible. Your main audience is an admissions reader who likely isn’t a CS expert, so focus more on your thought process, your emotions, and what you learned.

Here's an example of a strong approach: A student once wrote about how building a chatbot for a local helpline taught them about language, empathy, and the ethical side of technology, not just programming itself. The essay explored how coding moved beyond syntax and became an exercise in understanding people’s needs—a much more personal and reflective story than just describing the bot’s features.

If you can tie your story to a larger reflection—how computer science changed how you solve problems, approach setbacks, or connect with people—your essay will stand out. Always ground your story in something only you could write, and let colleges see the real person behind the keyboard.