Do colleges want a cover page for essays?

No need to worry—colleges do not expect a cover page or title page for your college application essays, including the Common App essay. In fact, you should avoid including one. The Common App and most application platforms ask you to paste your essay directly into a text box, not upload a document. These text boxes don’t support formatted title pages, and adding extra text up front takes away from the limited word count you have for your actual essay.

Colleges are used to seeing essays that begin right with the story or content itself. If you start your essay after a cover page or with a heading, it can look out of place. Admissions officers want to get to your narrative right away—think of it as opening a book at chapter one instead of flipping through extra introductory pages.

If you want to include a title for your essay, you can, but it's totally optional and usually unnecessary. Most students just start with the first sentence of their essay. When you copy and paste your essay into the application, double-check the formatting to make sure nothing looks off, but don’t add your name or extra details at the top—the system attaches your application info for you. For example, if your prompt is about a personal challenge, you can start with, 'The morning of my piano recital, my hands wouldn’t stop shaking,' rather than “John Smith, Common App Essay, 2024.”

Your teacher might be used to academic papers, where a cover page is expected, but personal statements are different. Trust the process: skip the cover page, focus on your story, and you'll be matching what colleges want to see!