What font size should I use for my college essay?

Sticking to clear, readable formatting is important for your college essay, but you don't need to stress too much about the specifics as long as you follow general guidelines. For the Common Application personal essay, the standard recommendation is to use a 12-point font size with a classic font like Times New Roman or Arial. Both are widely accepted, but Times New Roman is a bit more traditional.

The Common App's essay text box automatically sets everything to a standard font and size when you paste or type in your essay, so what you see there is what the admissions officers will see. If a school asks you to upload your essay or submit supplements separately (like for the University of California system), check their directions. Usually, they'll specify if they want something different, but 12-point Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri are almost always safe choices.

If you’re formatting your essay in a word document first (which is a good idea so you can save your work), use:
- 12-point font size
- Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri
- 1" margins
- Double-spacing or single-spacing is fine for the Common App, since formatting may change when you paste it in. Double-spacing is more helpful for school-specific essays where you upload files.

Colleges aren't expecting fancy formatting, and it won’t give you an advantage. The key is to make your essay easy to read and professional-looking, not creative from a design perspective. For example, if you submit an essay in 10-point Comic Sans, it will stand out—in a bad way—while a clean 12-point Arial looks polished and won’t distract from your story.

Summing up: Keep it simple—12-point Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri is always safe. Focus on your content, and let standard formatting do its job to present your writing clearly.