How to end a college essay. Best strategies with examples

A bland final line can ruin two pages' worth of brilliant writing. The conclusion stays with the admissions managers the longest and often guides their decision to accept or reject your application. Go the standard route of overused quotes, rhetorical questions, and mechanical repetition of the introduction, and you might as well forget about getting into your dream school.

Fear not, there’s still a chance to rework and improve your closing. In this post, we’ll cover the best strategies to wrap up your college essay in a memorable way and provide examples with analysis to solidify our explanations. We’ll also point out major mistakes you’ll want to avoid and give you a checklist to run through before finalizing your conclusion.

4 winning strategies to end a college essay strongly

No one can tell you how to conclude a college essay to get into your dream school. But we can share four excellent strategies to go beyond the basics and impress admissions officers. Check our brief explanations to see which tactic fits your narrative best.

“Full сircle”

The final line echoes the opening. It’s not a word-for-word repetition, but rather a reflection of how things changed between the beginning and the end of your journey. This type of conclusion creates a satisfying sense of completion. It also shows growth, which is exactly what admissions boards are looking for.

For example, if you start an essay with a question, the closing should answer it. If you start with a vivid image of your childhood room, end it with packing your boxes for moving to college.

“So what?”

The closing explains “Why does this matter?” in the context of your application. Instead of restating the thesis, you analyze how the experience you describe changed you and what it means for your future as a student or a professional. Essentially, you zoom out from a specific story to its impact on your life and future.

For example, if you describe how you had to move and change schools every year, conclude by explaining how it taught you to be adaptable and to make friends quickly while maintaining ties with those left behind.

“What next?”

Describe the next step in your journey and how college fits into it. Don’t list your 10-year life plan. Focus on the near future. It’s a great way to tie your experiences and interests to your chosen school and major, and what you expect from life on campus.

For example, if you’ve described your childhood adventures with a family dog, you can tie it to your interest in becoming a vet or general study of biology.

“Tiny shifts”

Zoom in on a small but impactful change you’ve experienced throughout your journey. Such an ending can be a form of reflection on what you’ve learned and how it shaped your perception or your skills. This conclusion will keep your essay grounded and focused on you as a personality, which is the primary goal of a personal statement.

For example, you can highlight how you’ve noticed yourself shifting your habits in small ways after surviving a car accident or dealing with a family member’s illness.

Writing tip from SpeedyPaper:

As you’ve noticed, many of these strategies tie the conclusion to the introduction. So, if you need help with your opening lines as well, check out our post on how to start a college essay.

Best conclusions for different essay types

The strategies for college essay endings we shared above are universal, but adjusting them to a specific prompt can further increase your chances of getting into your chosen school. Here’s how you can incorporate our advice into personal statements on different topics:

Writing tip from SpeedyPaper:

Formatting is just as important as the contents of your essay. Make sure to check out our guide on how to format a college essay if you’re unsure how to make it look its best.

How long should the conclusion be?

The typical college essay ending is 10% to 15% of the overall word count. So, depending on the requirements, it can be:

• Up to 100 words for essays of 600 to 650 words long
• 40-75 words for essays of 400-500 words
• One or two short sentences for 150 to 250-word-long applications

If you cannot fit everything you want to say within these limits, rethink your body paragraphs. You can likely tighten them to fit all the additional ideas you have without expanding the conclusion too much.

Examples of successful college essay endings

Here’s the ending of a successful Johns Hopkins University application:

“Great job with the weather!” someone yells. Another wave. I shoot upright, scanning from one smiling face to another. As I record more and more broadcasts, even people I hadn’t known before begin to say “hi” to me across campus. I’d always been one with a small, tight circle of good friends, but unexpectedly, my social network broadened as my campus “celebrity” grew. As I forge connections with new peers, my confidence builds. I expand my role within the broadcast and my school. I no longer recite the bare minimum but rather report on sporting events and dare to write my own jokes. Contributing to our school spirit in this small way makes me proud. By trying new things and breaking the cage of conformity, I’ve also learned to love myself and my differences from the girls on social media. I wear my coral blush with pride for the freshman girl in Target. She finally learned how to be herself.

It combines several of the successful strategies we’ve covered: it demonstrates the gradual shifts in the applicant’s life based on her choices and actions, but it also ties directly to her potential contributions to the university community. Besides, it’s a great example of “showing, not telling”. It provides clear examples of tangible changes while showing humility instead of bragging.

Here’s another, more formal example of a postgraduate application from the University of Connecticut:

An academic career would allow me to combine my creative abilities in designing new and exciting methodologies and my intellectual abilities in analyzing results and communicating my discoveries with other members of the academic community. In addition to intellectual merit, leadership is another important component of this career, and my experiences directing a laboratory and teaching others have left me well-equipped in this area, also. Finally, my extensive research experiences have taught me the skills necessary to create valid and replicable designs. I look forward to using all these abilities in a career filled with the excitement of innovative research design and the joy of discovery. Thank you for your consideration of my application, which is the first step toward new opportunities for me in research and academia.

This is a less creative sample, but it remains focused on the applicant’s experiences and achievements and highlights how they would guide their future in the doctoral program. It also includes the final “thank you” statement, which may seem too formal, but can also show humility and gratitude, which admission boards appreciate.

4 types of college essay endings to avoid

Now that you know the best ways of finalizing a college essay, let’s talk about mistakes to prevent. Here are three typical scenarios you’ll want to avoid:

1. Formulaic summary. Your school has taught you to restate the thesis statement and summarize the main points in the final paragraph. That doesn’t work for personal statements. Your essay should read more like a narrative, and the conclusion is supposed to be the culmination and satisfying ending of the story, not a “previously on…”
2. Basic grand statement. Things like “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” or “Everyone has to learn to deal with grief”. They don’t add value to your essay and sound generic. If anyone else can say the same thing in their application, avoid it. Focus on your experience and perspective, that’s what the admission board wants to see.
3. Major new reveal. Plot twists are fine if they fit the overall tone and narrative. But you shouldn’t add new information so close to the ending. You won’t be able to develop it, and it’ll make your paper look disjointed and incomplete. Remove it or shift it into one of the body paragraphs if it’s so important to your story.
4. Lengthy quote. It shifts the narrative from your tone to someone else, and may even look like you’re shifting responsibility or have nothing smart to say. If you absolutely have to include a quote, make it short and include your own understanding or analysis to tie it to your story. Better yet, leave it out and say what you want to say.

Humor and flattery are also not the best fit for ending a personal statement. They can give the wrong impression and disrupt the narrative's tone.

College essay conclusion checklist

You’ve done a good job if your ending checks most boxes on this list:

• Your final passage adds a new layer of meaning to the introduction instead of simply restating it.
• The tone and voice of the final part are consistent with the rest of the piece.
• The conclusion is proportionate to the whole essay, taking up no more than 15% of the word count.
• You avoid generic filler phrases, such as “in conclusion” or “as this essay has shown”.
• The paper ends with your words, not a lengthy quote by someone famous.
• The conclusion ties your experiences to your chosen college.
• You avoid pleading or flattery and keep your messaging consistent.

The rule of thumb is: if the admission officer skips your whole essay and only reads the conclusion, they should get a clear sense of who you are and what you bring to the table.

Conclusion

Now you know how to finish your college essay with a bang and make a strong first impression on the admissions board. But if you need a little more help, contact our college application essay writing service. We can help write, edit, and format your piece to boost your chances of getting into your dream school.

References

1. Essays That Worked. (n.d.). Johns Hopkins University Admissions. 
2. Personal Statements | Writing Center | University of Connecticut. (2018, February 10). Uconn.edu. 

FAQ

What are good ways to end a college essay?

You can tie the conclusion to the beginning of the story to create a full circle narrative, use future-facing sentences, or end on a quiet reflection. Whichever option you choose, it should be consistent with the rest of the essay.

Do I have to summarize a college essay in the conclusion?

No, the ending of a personal statement should be a wrap-up of the story, not a bullet-point list of your major achievements.

Is a question a good final line for a college essay?

No. An open-ended question may fit your narrative, but in most cases, vague rhetorical questions sound too generic to be a good parting thought for a personal statement.

What should I avoid in college essay conclusions?

Avoid basic generalizations, long inspirational quotes, and moralizations. You should also avoid introducing major new information or switching the tone of your story in the last passage.