How important is the formatting of my college essay?
I'm working on my main Common App essay, and I've been seeing a lot of conflicting advice about formatting. Some people say you need to worry a lot about things like font, spacing, and indenting, and others tell me just to focus on the content.
Do colleges actually care how your essay is formatted as long as it's readable? For example, do I need to use standard indentations or double spacing, or do they just want a wall of text? I just want to make sure I don't mess this up for a silly reason. I write most of my essays in Google Docs, so transferring it to the Common App text box sometimes looks weird. Should I be worried about that?
Do colleges actually care how your essay is formatted as long as it's readable? For example, do I need to use standard indentations or double spacing, or do they just want a wall of text? I just want to make sure I don't mess this up for a silly reason. I write most of my essays in Google Docs, so transferring it to the Common App text box sometimes looks weird. Should I be worried about that?
1 month ago
•
6 views
Roger Lopez
• 1 month ago
Advisor
Great question—this is something a lot of students wonder about, especially because you want your application to look polished without stressing over small details you can't control.
The most important thing to know is that colleges care FAR more about what you say in your essay than about the technical formatting. When you submit your essay through the Common App, it auto-formats to their system, which means some stylistic tweaks (like double spacing and traditional indents) are erased or look different anyway. Admission officers are used to this—they aren’t expecting a perfectly formatted document like a school paper.
Here's what *does* matter: your essay should be readable, clear, with normal paragraphs and spaces between them. You don’t need to double space or use special fonts—the default settings are fine. If copy-pasting from Google Docs into the Common App makes things a little uneven with spacing or indents, just make sure there are clear breaks between paragraphs and that your text isn’t running together into one big wall.
Indenting your paragraphs is optional; in fact, most students skip indents and just put a line of space between paragraphs (which is absolutely fine). The only formatting errors to avoid are things that would make your essay hard to read, such as writing a massive block of text with no breaks or strange characters that appear from copying and pasting.
For example, say your essay in Google Docs looks like this:
Paragraph One... (hit Enter)
Paragraph Two… (hit Enter)
Paragraph Three…
That'll transfer cleanly! But if your whole essay is a single giant paragraph, it’s worth adding a space between each new thought. Otherwise, admission officers just want to read an essay that shows your voice and personality.
Bottom line: Don’t worry too much about formatting as long as your essay is easy to read and not distracting. Focus your energy on making your content compelling, not on double spacing or font size. If in doubt, preview your essay in the Common App before submitting, to make sure it looks neat and readable. If everything’s clear and organized, you’re set!
The most important thing to know is that colleges care FAR more about what you say in your essay than about the technical formatting. When you submit your essay through the Common App, it auto-formats to their system, which means some stylistic tweaks (like double spacing and traditional indents) are erased or look different anyway. Admission officers are used to this—they aren’t expecting a perfectly formatted document like a school paper.
Here's what *does* matter: your essay should be readable, clear, with normal paragraphs and spaces between them. You don’t need to double space or use special fonts—the default settings are fine. If copy-pasting from Google Docs into the Common App makes things a little uneven with spacing or indents, just make sure there are clear breaks between paragraphs and that your text isn’t running together into one big wall.
Indenting your paragraphs is optional; in fact, most students skip indents and just put a line of space between paragraphs (which is absolutely fine). The only formatting errors to avoid are things that would make your essay hard to read, such as writing a massive block of text with no breaks or strange characters that appear from copying and pasting.
For example, say your essay in Google Docs looks like this:
Paragraph One... (hit Enter)
Paragraph Two… (hit Enter)
Paragraph Three…
That'll transfer cleanly! But if your whole essay is a single giant paragraph, it’s worth adding a space between each new thought. Otherwise, admission officers just want to read an essay that shows your voice and personality.
Bottom line: Don’t worry too much about formatting as long as your essay is easy to read and not distracting. Focus your energy on making your content compelling, not on double spacing or font size. If in doubt, preview your essay in the Common App before submitting, to make sure it looks neat and readable. If everything’s clear and organized, you’re set!
Roger Lopez
Chicago, Illinois
Yale University BA, Political Science | Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, MBA Candidate |
Experience
4 years