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How to Write the Florida State University Essays 2021-2022

Located just west of Tallahassee, Florida State University is a suburban public university that hosts over 41,000 students on its campus. FSU offers its students a wide selection of 351 programs, including 107 undergraduate majors across various disciplines.

Florida State is well known for its vibrant social scene and its top varsity athletic programs. The beloved “Seminoles” have won many Atlantic Coast conferences and national championships. The intensity of the football team’s rivalry with the University of Florida’s Gators spreads throughout the entire student body and reaches a climax at the annual Sunshine Showdown.

Approximately 37% of applicants gain admission. Calculate your chances of acceptance to FSU using our free chancing engine.

Florida State accepts its own FSU Application, the Common Application, or the Coalition Application. For the FSU and Coalition Applications, there are 5 essay topics you can choose from. You only need to choose one and write a 650-word essay. We’ve broken those 5 down below. For the Common Application, you can choose from the Common App prompts .  

FSU Application Essay Prompts

Essay prompt instructions.

Candidates are to compose one 650-word essay after deciding on one of the five prompts published on the school’s website.

The purpose of the essay is to help the admissions committee learn more about you as a person. Although the essay is described as only “highly recommended,” in reality admissions officers are expecting serious applicants to submit an essay (unless under extenuating circumstances). Your writing will paint a personal picture for the admission officers and demonstrate serious interest in the school.

Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.

The first prompt asks for you to discuss a memory or story of a situation that either showcased or affected you personally. FSU’s goal here is to assess your storytelling ability and better understand your values and character through a specific example.

It is crucial for you to connect your story and its effect on your character to who you are as a person. It would be an easy mistake to use all 550 words to discuss this important narrative and ignore the crux of the question: its “demonstration of your character.”

Impactful essays do not have to be based on extreme physical or mental experiences. In fact, it is the accumulation of small experiences that defines how we react during turbulent times. An act of any scale that was especially memorable to you can work; it’s about how you analyze the incident, not what the incident was.

For instance, you might choose to write about being friends with someone who faced mental health issues and how that changed your feelings toward such illnesses and led you to participate in a campaign for raising mental health awareness. You could take it a step further, explaining how the experience shaped your behavior not only around that particular friend, but also around everybody else you know.

Keep in mind that the scope of the question also includes experiences that helped shape your character, so you can even choose to write about something you’ve witnessed others do. Remember to use concise but vivid imagery to describe the situation in the first 150-250 words and then devote the rest of the words to analyzing its impact on character.

It may be wise to write longer drafts at first (in the 700-word range). This allows the editing process to filter for the essence of the writing, instead of trying to add more content, thereby ensuring the fluency of the writing.

Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution.

This question appears to be more challenging than the previous one, as you have to detail a selfless act of sacrifice while explaining your motivations and avoiding corny wording.

Note that this “greater good” contribution does not limit you to instances in which you interacted with groups of “great” numbers. No matter the scale of your impact, if there existed a beneficiary to your actions, then you can write about it. Remember that “greater good” excludes class assignments or other activities that were required of you.

The key to this essay is making sure your motivations for the contribution are portrayed as personal and unique to you.

Many students will choose to write about a volunteer experience they participated in. If you choose to discuss a community service activity, make sure you differentiate your experience by highlighting your motivations and your emotions during the experience (rather than describing simply the activity you participated in).  

For example, you might choose to write about a mission trip to another country that you took in your sophomore year of high school. However, rather than discussing the trip as a whole, it would be more effective to focus on a particular moment or problem that you encountered during the trip.

For instance, you could elaborate on the experience of visiting one of the children’s homes and the feeling of speaking to his parents directly. Describing a particular moment, as well as the specific emotions you felt and how your perspectives changed because of it, would help the essay stand out in a pile of volunteering essays.

In addition, focus on the process of the contribution and how you felt emotionally throughout the act.

Try to answer the following questions:

• What would have happened if you did not make that sacrifice/contribution? How would you have felt then?
• How did the contribution make you feel? How did it make others around you feel? How did it make the beneficiaries feel?
• What did you learn?

Emphasizing the internal development that occurred during your experience is key to making this essay shine.

Has there been a time when you’ve had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged? How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs?

This third prompt asks to hear about a philosophical difference you have had with a family member, teacher, peer, society at large, or even yourself. In a sense, this prompt is similar to the previous one about the “meaningful contribution.” In both cases, FSU wants to learn about a process occurring in your mind. The previous prompt emphasizes actions and their effects, while this focuses more on an ideological struggle.

For example, though you’ve believed in religion all your life, perhaps you learned of a different viewpoint while reading a research paper and began questioning the validity of adhering to the religion in which you grew up. The research paper may have been the stimulus that led you to develop your own feelings toward particular values or even the presence of the supernatural.

An average essay would discuss an incident in which you completely disregarded the challenging viewpoint or, on the other end of the spectrum, completely threw away your previous tenet and grasped onto the new idea. Such an essay does not show any meaningful growth or internal re-evaluation. Instead, a great essay would elucidate the internal struggle stemming from confronting a new viewpoint and the difficulties associated with challenging your own beliefs.

As with the first prompt, remember to focus the essay on your response to someone/something’s questioning of your tenant. Using too much of the essay for a description of the conundrum will render it ineffective in answering the latter two parts of the question.

What is the hardest part of being a teenager now? What’s the best part? What advice would you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)?

This prompt is the wild card. It allows more room for creativity and “fun” writing than any of the other questions. FSU’s goal here is not only to evaluate your ability to reflect on experiences, but also to understand what you value in life.

This essay can be particularly difficult to write well because it requires additional effort to compose an engaging, intriguing, fun, but also appropriate essay. There are universal challenges to being a teenager: arguments with parents; teenage angst; finding one’s place in school, family, and life, etc. It is completely fine to write about “common” obstacles, but you need to be able to differentiate your stories from others.

Humor and style of writing will play large roles in this essay, so we recommend this prompt if you sincerely enjoy creative writing, particularly short stories, novels, and comedies. Keep in mind, however, that the majority of admissions officers reading these essays are going to be in a generation older than you. It is not a bad idea to consider what kinds of teenage experiences would be relatable to them.

Additionally, the essay is asking for the “hardest part” as well as the “best part;” answering both of those separately in 550 words can make both answers short and ineffective. We recommend that you choose one single story that can relate to both of those questions. For example, you could use stories from your part-time job at Dairy Queen to connect the difficulties of adjusting to added responsibility in conjunction with the increased respect you received from your parents.

Submit an essay on a topic of your choice.

This last question is a catch-all.

Do not let your guard down because you can write about anything here. Unless you already have a great essay prepared from answering another school’s prompts, without a prompt here your creative idea may lose focus. Oftentimes, candidates are so engrossed in telling the story that they lose sight of what is really important: selling yourself.

As with the previous essays, you should decide and write down concretely what exactly you want the admissions officers to think about you upon finishing this essay. Build the rest of the essay around how you want them to perceive you, and dedicate more than half of the writing to demonstrating that main point through various anecdotes, not general statements.

We here at CollegeVine wish you the best of luck on your FSU essay!

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College Essays

Florida State University, or FSU, is a top-100 school and ranked number three in Florida Colleges . With a 25 percent acceptance rating , they’re considered to be a competitive school. That means you’ll need to impress them in your application, and a well-written FSU essay is one great way to go about it!

This guide will walk you through the FSU essay, including whether or not writing one is the right choice for you.

Feature image: Ayzmo /Wikimedia Commons

What Should You Know About the FSU Application Essay?

Unlike many schools, FSU’s essay is optional. You can apply using the Coalition or Common Application, or even FSU’s own app—the Coalition and FSU apps have the same prompts, whereas the Common app has its own set.

Whether you should use the Coalition, Common, or FSU-specific application depends on a few different variables. What application system do the other schools that you’re applying to use? Because these applications can be sent to multiple schools, you can use whatever one is most convenient.

If you’re not sure, read up on the pros and cons of each to help you make a decision. If you’re still not sure, you can always use FSU’s unique application.

FSU only requires one essay. You have five prompts to choose from if you’re using the FSU or Coalition Application, and seven to choose from if you’re using the Common Application. Regardless of what prompt you choose, your essay should be under 600 words.

If you're thinking about writing an FSU essay, you probably should.

Should You Write an FSU Essay?

Because FSU’s essays are optional, it’s natural to ask whether you should write one at all. You’re likely writing tons of essays for other applications, and maybe you just want a bit of a break from the whole process.

However, if you’re given the opportunity to expand on your application in an essay, it’s usually in your best interest to take it. Before you start, do some brainstorming about what aspects of yourself could use some fleshing out in your application. If you have an interest that hasn’t been covered elsewhere or an experience you want to share that will help make you a more appealing candidate for FSU, definitely write the essay—it’s your best opportunity to showcase that side of you, and those personal details are exactly what FSU wants to see.

I f you’re struggling to think of something to cover in the supplemental essay, spend some time brainstorming and looking through all of the available prompts . If you’re offered a place to write an essay, it’s best to take it, unless you truly feel that you have nothing to expand upon. If that’s the case, consider why that is—you may find that there’s an essay topic there, too!

Essentially, you should be writing an essay for this section, even if it’s optional. Taking this opportunity to expand on your application both demonstrates your commitment and shows your multiple facets. It won’t be the sole determining factor in your application, but if you have the opportunity to up your chances, do it!

A fresh notebook is one great way to get your brain in gear to write.

What Are the FSU Essay Prompts?

FSU’s essay prompts are determined by which application you choose to use— Coalition, Common, or FSU’s own application . If you choose the Coalition or FSU application, you have five prompts to choose from, and if you choose the Common Application you’ll have seven. You only need to write one essay, so choose whichever prompt resonates with you most strongly.

Because these are the same prompts used in the standard application formats, follow the guidelines for either the Coalition Application or the Common Application depending on which prompt you choose. Do feel free to get more specific than you would if the essay was going to every school, however—if you’re only sending it to FSU, tying your essay to something specific about the college can demonstrate that you’re more serious about attending!

Coalition Application/FSU Essay Prompts

• Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.
• Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution.
• Has there been a time when you've had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged? How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs?
• What is the hardest part of being a teenager now? What's the best part? What advice would you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)?
• Submit an essay on a topic of your choice.

Common Application Essay Prompts

• Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
• The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
• Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
• Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
• Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
• Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
• Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Having a plan from the start will help you write a better FSU essay.

5 Key FSU Essay Tips

As with all college essays, having a plan before you start is the best way to ace FSU’s supplemental essay. Don’t just jump in and hope for the best—start early, give yourself plenty of time to revise, and polish your essay as best you can to impress the admissions office with your achievements and individuality.

Remember everything you learned in school about brainstorming and outlining? Now’s the time to put it into action. If you brainstorm and outline a few different options to find the one that works best for you and that makes you feel the proudest of it, you’ll save yourself some time. A strong outline is the first step to a strong essay, and you won’t be losing hours and hours of work if you decide midway through that a prompt isn’t working for you.

Once you’ve settled on a topic and you have a firm idea of how you want to write it, it’s time to draft. Don’t worry about making your first draft perfect—nobody has to see it but you! Get your ideas out first, set them aside, and return to them after a few days to polish them into a state where you’re comfortable letting others see them.

#3: Seek Feedback

Now comes the hard part—letting other people give you feedback. Choose a few people you trust to give you honest and helpful advice on your essay, not just those who are going to tell you it looks great. When you receive feedback, don’t feel like it’s a personal attack or that you need to make every change people suggest—often, you can find a middle ground between readers not understanding what you meant and maintaining your own voice and writing style.

Revising is one of the most important steps in crafting a great essay. All that feedback you got in the previous step will help guide your next draft, giving you a roadmap to work from. Make notes on your draft, add and delete things, and read the whole thing aloud to make sure it flows well. Once you’re satisfied, put it away!

#5: Let It Rest

Letting your draft rest for a bit gives you some time to forget what you’ve written and come back to it with fresh eyes. When you read your essay for the first time in a while, you can start to see any errors that have crept in or any inconsistencies in your logic. Now that you’ve already gotten feedback and revised your essay, you can clean these last bits up and have an essay you’re really proud of!

What's Next?

If you're applying to FSU, you want to be sure that your standardized test scores are up to snuff. Whether you're taking the ACT or SAT , our guides will help you figure out where you are and where you need to be.

Part of college searching is figuring out what colleges you can afford and how much financial aid you'll need to cover. With our guide to FSU's tuition and financial aid , all your bases are covered!

Not sure if FSU is for you? Check out this list of other schools in Florida to find the college that suits you best.

Melissa Brinks graduated from the University of Washington in 2014 with a Bachelor's in English with a creative writing emphasis. She has spent several years tutoring K-12 students in many subjects, including in SAT prep, to help them prepare for their college education.

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Home — Application Essay — University — Florida State University

Florida State University Admission Essays

Florida state university: my passion for linguistics.

Driven by intellectual curiosity, I have always found solace in the intricate beauty of language. This fascination with the complexities of communication has shaped my academic journey and led me to pursue a degree in Linguistics. With its strong reputation in linguistic research and diverse…

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My Potential to Pursue a Degree Programme in Nursing

Improving my human capital has always been a fantasy but pursuing a Degree Programme in Adult Nursing at the University is a dream come true. The zeal and courage to elevate myself academically is entrenched in my personal, academic and professional experiences. Personally I consider…

The Question of Faith

As a young kid growing up, I never thought that life would have its rough moments. When you grow up in a household where both parents are always around and never having to worry about having your next meal, it can cause you to be…

The Value of Persistence and the Inheritance of Culture

A silk road cut the endless desert in half, but it was a significant connection between ancient east and west. The combination and collision of cultures brought people from different cultural backgrounds and regions together. These cultures were static as the yellow sands in the…

Why I've Decided to Study a Degree in Business

Creativity. Innovation. Imagination. Its what drives me to pursue my passion for business management. Daring to dream with new business ideas which could revolutionize the way we live enthrals me. The notion of running a business and the risks involved in business has excited me…

Vires, Artes and Mores: College Admission Essay Sample

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From Sketches to Structures

When I was searching for universities to attend, I knew that I wanted to go somewhere that had a strong architecture program. After researching several universities across the country, I found that Florida State University had the perfect program for me. The more I learned…

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Although my tale is about a basketball player, it is not about a six-foot-eleven athlete whose name is splashed across the sports pages of daily newspapers and whose picture graces the tops of Nike and Adidas boxes. Rather, this is a story of one small…

Unlocking the Power of Data

Florida State University offers an excellent program in statistics that has caught my attention. The reason why I am drawn to this program is that I have always been interested in the field of mathematics and how it applies to the real world. Statistics, in…

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These Florida State University college application essays were written by students accepted at Florida State University. All of our sample college essays include the question prompt and the year written. Please use these sample admission essays responsibly.

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College Application Essays accepted by Florida State University

Running child anonymous, florida state university.

Although my tale is about a basketball player, it is not about a six-foot-eleven athlete whose name is splashed across the sports pages of daily newspapers and whose picture graces the tops of Nike and Adidas boxes. Rather, this is a story of one...

"Vires, Artes, Mores" Laura Jean Kepko

I am fortunate to be able to say that all of the ideas behind the words “Vires, Artes, Mores” are reflected in my life in some way.

Both of my parents have shown me strength throughout my life. My father developed Endocarditis, a bacterial...

My Life as It Reflects Artes Anonymous

Michelangelo, perhaps the most renowned painter of the Renaissance, once said: “A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.” I interpret this quote to mean that art is created with the intention to convey ideas and express emotions as...

Vires, Artes, Mores Anonymous

My yearning for the highest caliber of learning has taken me to Design and Architecture Senior High; it has been the driving force that wakes me up in the morning to prepare for an eight hour day as well as two hours of travel time, it has defined...

Vires, Artes and Mores Anonymous

“On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the scout law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.” The scout law is how I incorporate Artes,...

My Life Jordan Williams

“Jooooorrrrddddannnnn,” my mom screamed with utter fear and panic in her voice. Surprisingly, amongst all of the chaos, her voice was all that I heard. I’m not sure if I was disoriented, bewildered or just in complete shock but at that particular...

My Taste of Abroad Malak Dounia Mahjoubi

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The Spelling Bee Anonymous

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Growing Up Anonymous

I can’t feel my legs.

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Intelligent Life Arese Ediae

When faced with daunting writing tasks--including this one--that call upon me to convey uniqueness and summon eloquence, I have sought the assistance of a higher source: Intelligent Life. They beckoned to me from neon-bordered pages: Leaders whose...

Quietly Fail, Loudly Win Anonymous

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Why Engineering? Anonymous

Jimi is dead. My cousin has succumbed to the interplay of factors beyond his awareness or control. I am eleven years old. I lie on the hard wooden floor of my bedroom and gaze listlessly out the window. I think of my cousin's killer. Why did a...

Community Service Essay Anonymous

Sarah - with her floral, lilac shirts, bluish, clairvoyant gaze and bass-y Southern accent - is a remarkable woman. I met her whilst serving in the Chelsea House Ministry, several years after she was rehabilitated by the program. Inspired by the...

Life Lessons from Photography Anonymous

My brother stands frozen in time, trapped in eternal wonderment as the gray horse sculpture rears above his head. An open-air church service is being held behind him, underneath the shade of another great, restless beast. A preacher dressed in a...

Master of Answers Anonymous

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Eye of the Storm Anonymous

Danger looms in this idyllic, Floridian community and I, the stranger, am alert to the seamless transitions. The carbon texture of the hardening skies, the desertion of once bustling streets, the tentative schedules that allow room for imminent...

Arcadia Anonymous

I spent much of my adolescence in Arcadia; a world illumined by artificial suns. There, people eschewed costly 'real' clothing for digitally enhanced 'shifts', government propaganda was broadcast hourly onto illusionary blue skies, and one could...

The Voice of Justice Anonymous

A string of jumbled and complex gibberish filled the air as a small group of kids gathered by the swings, rambunctiously joking with one another. I stood on the outskirts of the group, feebly looking from one face to the next, feigning a smile and...

Design in Chaos Anonymous

Here, a door; pale and pink. Two boarded windows painted blue to reflect a cloudless day. Here, the field will be perpetually filled with fragrant blooms because that is how we imagine it. I feel eerily calm as I guide little Grace's hand within...

Something Wonderful Isabella Escalona

Crouched behind my yellow closet door, hearing glass shatter and walls banged, I kept hoping that something wonderful was about to happen. My parents were arguing over my father locking me in my room again. Whenever my mom was not home, he would...

The Music in My Hands Aramis Gabriel Fernandez

For as long as I can remember, my mother has been a singer in my church. I would tag along with her each week to watch the worship band rehearse, and I can recall just sitting there, absorbing the music, with my eyes always fixed on the drum set....

Learning to Adapt Isabella Escalona

I had spent the whole morning preparing to execute an Olympic worthy backflip into my aunt’s community pool. It was the summer before 6th grade; I stood at the edge, took one deep breath, and launched myself into the air. I imagined the intense...

Quiet Anonymous

"Why are you so quiet?"

"Do you speak?"

Those few words would make the color of my pale cheeks turn to the brightest shade of red because they always sounded so judgemental. To many, it's only a simple question. Steaming curiosity formed from the...

Recent Questions about Florida State University

The Question and Answer section for Florida State University is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How does the author use figurative language to establish a tone of wonder in the first two paragraphs of the essay? Provide specific examples and explain how they provide the reader with a unique sense of the desert?

Lmfao boy you better do Mr. Masselle work before you take that L.

republic book x

I have never taken your class so I do not know what you discussed. For what its worth, "D" might be a good choice.

Socrates felt that poetry encourages us to indulge in the emotional frailties of life and thus makes us unjust. At its worst, I imagine Socrates might have picked E. I'm not an experts on this though.

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Florida State University

FSU | University Honors Program

University Honors Program

Division of Undergraduate Studies

High School Students

The FSU and University Honors Program/Presidential Scholars Program applications are currently closed. 

To apply to the Florida State University Honors Program and the Presidential Scholars Program, potential students must complete following steps:

1. APPLY TO FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

To be considered for the University Honors Program and the Presidential Scholars Program, first-year applicants must first submit a complete application to Florida State University (including all required materials) by December 1, 2023, and select "Yes" to the question “Are you interested in applying to the Honors Program?”

• When applying through the FSU Application, this question is located on the Additional Academic History page.
• When applying through the Common App, this question is located under Academics in the Questions section.

Once the university application has been submitted, please allow some time for the University Honors Application to become available on the Application Status Check. For students applying through the Common App, this may take up to 48 hours.

Note: The application essay for the  Presidential Scholars Program  is the same as the University Honors Program application essay.

2. COMPLETE THE HONORS PROGRAM APPLICATION ESSAY

Students must indicate their interest in and complete their supplemental University Honors Program application essay by 11:59 pm EST on December 1, 2023, to be considered for the University Honors Program and the Presidential Scholars Program.

The University Honors Program Application asks applicants to submit a supplemental short answer response to the following prompt:

FSU’s Honors Signature Courses encourage curiosity; intellectual breadth; the ability to analyze and integrate knowledge across disciplines; and self-driven learning. Design an Honors Signature Course that includes these characteristics while addressing a societal problem or complex issue. Name the course, describe the societal issue, and explain why it is important to you or your community. How would you engage with this issue as an honors student on our campus and beyond?

Applicants will be evaluated based on a holistic approach including, but not limited to, grades and strength of curriculum, honors and awards, extracurricular achievements, unique individual talents, quality of the Honors prompt response, and test scores.

Applicants will be notified of whether they were admitted to the University Honors Program on February 15, 2024.   

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FSU’s Admissions Director explains the college essay

If your student is a rising high school senior, now is the perfect time to start working on that college essay. Many students find the essay challenging because it’s not the academic exercise they’re accustomed to. To do it well, they must discover an authentic, personal voice—and that can feel quite vulnerable.

Hege Ferguson, Director of Admissions of Florida State University, says she never loses sight of that.

“Behind every application, there is a young person who put their time and effort into sharing a part of themselves,” she said. “We have a responsibility to treat each one of their applications with much respect and humility and recognition that that is not an easy thing to do.”

“The most important thing is the academic performance of the student from 9th through 11th grade: the courses they took, the rigor, the grades they earned; the AP, honors, dual enrollment classes,” she said, adding that admissions officers will check that the rigor continues with senior year classes. “What subjects did the student immerse themselves into?”

Admissions officers also look at test scores (the ACT or SAT) and extracurriculars throughout high school, as well as employment (including its duration), internships, summer jobs and responsibilities at home.

“The value of the essay will depend on all of these other factors,” she said. “So if you have an outstanding student with high grades, rigorous curriculum, leadership, etc., there’s not a lot of emphasis on the essay because they have a lot of those factors that are indicators of good success in college.”

The essay does not matter much for the top 25 percent of applicants or the bottom 25 percent, she said. That middle 50 percent is where the essay ends up having the most weight.

“The essay is an opportunity to learn about the student beyond what we can already see on the transcript and test scores and extracurriculars. It lets them lend their voice to who they are,” she said, adding that sometimes a parent or student who is not accepted will call her office to ask why. “They will say, ‘But you don’t know me.’ And I say, ‘What did you share about yourself? Did you share what you wanted us to know about you?’ ”

Ferguson painted a picture of how a student could maximize their essay’s impact. A student whose transition to high school is rough—with a 9th grade GPA reflecting that—could use the essay to talk about that difficult transition and how they overcame it.

Want more advice about the essay? Lance Bergman, a college resource adviser at Pine View School in Sarasota, shares his tips here . Good luck!

“Last year, a young man was on the bubble, with a few wobbles with his academic grades, so I dove into his essay,” she said. “And I learned that he was homeless. He was living out of his car and sleeping on friends’ couches. He had a really traumatic home situation. For him to, one, share that, took a lot of courage. But it also put a lot of perspective on what I was seeing. And then you look at his curriculum and you marvel with what he was able to accomplish.”

Ferguson also shared some basic pointers.

• Yes, good grammar and punctuation matter, because students will do a lot of writing in college and she needs to believe they will be up for that rigor.
• Start the application process early, and follow all directions closely.
• Because email is the primary method of communication, consider getting an email address just for college applications, and be meticulously organized about each college’s requirements and deadlines.
• Finally, if you’re applying to multiple colleges (and you probably are), be sure to swap out names for the proper institution.

“That sounds so simple, but every year I get essays that have that another school’s name in there,” she said. “What it says to me is that you didn’t take the time to look over the information before you hit that send button, so maybe I’m feeling like I’m not as high on your list as I would like to be.”

Contrary to what many think, Ferguson said her focus is on trying to admit students. She also wants to admit a student body that reflects the state and its diversity. Last year, she received close to 64,000 applications for an admission class of about 6,000.

“I have the opportunity every year to read applications from these fantastic students who are just resilient, forward thinking, innovative – they’re just a really cool group of people,” she said.

“I get to see the world through their eyes and feel blessed to be part of their journey.”

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Florida State University Essay

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• Category Application Essays

Disclaimer: This paper has been submitted by a student. This is not a sample of the work written by professional academic writers.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of StudySaurus.

College Admissions: Florida State University (FSU) Essay

I am a Senior at West Mecklenburg High School with the desire and the goal of attending your institution in the fall. I have applied, submitted my application fees and my test scores. My test scores were not the highest to meet the minimum requirements for your school but holistically, I am a good student. Hopefully, this letter will provide you with an account of the student that I am along with what was already provided through the application process.

Throughout my high school journey I have experienced highs and lows. Overall I am a good student, Currently, my GPA is a 3.2 and on average my grades are a B average. I complete all my assignments all the time & I show up to class every day prepared and ready to learn. With balancing school and also having a part-time job shows that I am able to balance and maintain focus.

Although I struggle with the standardized test (SAT and ACT), I believe that the anxiety testing brings causes me to not score according to my liking. My score does not provide an adequate testament and analysis of me as a student. My current predicament stands as me being unavailable to retest due to the dates of the test being so far away. The next available test would be in May after the decision day. My super score was an 820 which is not the minimum but it does not define me as a person or a student.

If given the opportunity I will excel in any capacity provided the correct aids are utilized to allow me the chance to prove me the chance to explore. Not only an I good academically I am involved in college prep programs such as TRIO & Communities In Schools, Prom Committee, Student Government & FCCLA.

I hope that this letter has painted a vivid picture of a leader and a worthy candidate for your institution. One who is responsible, committed and determined to succeed in education and in all aspects of my higher level of education and in general.

I look forward to hearing from you as a primary consideration for admission. Based on my research, FSU has an exquisite program in the Carolinas for Criminal Justice and I want to be apart of the best.

Sincerely, Briana M. Griffin Class of 2018 Aspiring Undergraduate Class of 2022

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• Essay Database >
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• Essay on Leadership

FSU Mission Admission Essay Example

Type of paper: Admission Essay

Topic: Leadership , Children , Family , Life , Goals , Experience , Services papers , Fitness

Published: 04/13/2021

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I absolutely love FSU’s mission statement, and its principles of leadership, learning, service and global awareness. Of these characteristics, I find that I appreciate the value of service most of all, because this principle appeals to me more than anything else. My entire life, I have dedicated myself to serving others; I feel that my greatest responsibility in life is to make my talents and effort work for my fellow man (and woman). I have always wanted to help people, even when I was young; growing up in Gainesville, FL, some of my first jobs included babysitting for my neighbors. I quickly grew a reputation as a responsible child care professional, who could be relied upon to take care of children, while also providing an entertaining and nurturing presence for them while I was there.

Service is an incredibly important part of who I am; I believe service can be defined in many different ways based on what way you serve. Leaders serve their populations, for example, by offering their followers or colleagues their services and organizational skills, as well as their decision-making acumen. One summer, I was a counselor at Wiles Elementary Fitness Camp; there, I was placed in charge of a group of children, both to care for them and see that they met the fitness goals that were placed on them over the course of the camp. It was an absolutely challenging experience; I had never been given this much responsibility before. However, instead of making it a transactional experience (i.e. forcing the kids to meet the goals without teaching, ignoring their needs) I chose to make it a transformational one. I got to know each and every one of the children I was to care – their challenges, their personalities – which allowed me to provide them with the motivation and encouragement they needed not only to achieve their fitness goals, but to have a pleasant and enriching experience at the camp. A real leader is of service to those they lead, and I feel that this is the capacity I placed myself in during this experience. Instead of acting as a figurehead for this group, I was simply the person with the most resources and experience – to that end, I chose to lead them in a compassionate and open manner. By the end of the summer, all of my campmates had met their fitness goals and formed a close bond with each other, and with me; I like to believe this is because I treated my leadership role as one of service and not authority.

This approach helped me to understand the way I wish to cultivate a career, and taught me a very important lesson about how I wish to contribute to the world around me. Given all of my experience in leadership, volunteer and service capacities, I must say I connect most ardently with the service principle FSU cultivates in its students. My purpose in an education is to allow myself to reach my fullest potential, so that I may pass those skills and experiences on to others in the form of service. I feel most like myself when I am of use to others, and seeing the positive effects I have had on others is an incredibly fulfilling experience. Because of this, I can safely say that service is my chief priority when contemplating the value of an education at FSU.

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