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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, how do i write a college essay about my future goals.

I have some pretty clear goals for my future, and I think writing about them in my college essay might help me stand out. How can I approach this topic in a way that's engaging and doesn't sound like I'm just listing my ambitions? Thanks for any suggestions!

Hey there! Writing about your future goals is a great idea for a college essay, and it can definitely help you stand out. The key is to tell a story that highlights your goals while also showcasing your personality and experiences.

Start by reflecting on your past experiences and achievements that have led you to these goals. You could talk about a specific moment or event that inspired your ambition, and then explain how it has driven you ever since. This helps to show your passion and dedication towards your goals.

Next, focus on your present efforts to work towards these goals. You could mention any relevant extracurricular activities, internships, or projects you've been involved in that align with your future aspirations. This demonstrates your commitment and hard work.

Finally, discuss your future goals in a way that ties everything together and shows the admissions committee how you plan to make a positive impact in the world. Remember to be authentic and genuine in your writing, and don't be afraid to show some vulnerability. Good luck with your essay!

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College Admissions , College Essays

The personal statement might just be the hardest part of your college application. Mostly this is because it has the least guidance and is the most open-ended. One way to understand what colleges are looking for when they ask you to write an essay is to check out the essays of students who already got in—college essays that actually worked. After all, they must be among the most successful of this weird literary genre.

In this article, I'll go through general guidelines for what makes great college essays great. I've also compiled an enormous list of 100+ actual sample college essays from 11 different schools. Finally, I'll break down two of these published college essay examples and explain why and how they work. With links to 177 full essays and essay excerpts , this article is a great resource for learning how to craft your own personal college admissions essay!

What Excellent College Essays Have in Common

Even though in many ways these sample college essays are very different from one other, they do share some traits you should try to emulate as you write your own essay.

Visible Signs of Planning

Building out from a narrow, concrete focus. You'll see a similar structure in many of the essays. The author starts with a very detailed story of an event or description of a person or place. After this sense-heavy imagery, the essay expands out to make a broader point about the author, and connects this very memorable experience to the author's present situation, state of mind, newfound understanding, or maturity level.

Knowing how to tell a story. Some of the experiences in these essays are one-of-a-kind. But most deal with the stuff of everyday life. What sets them apart is the way the author approaches the topic: analyzing it for drama and humor, for its moving qualities, for what it says about the author's world, and for how it connects to the author's emotional life.

Stellar Execution

A killer first sentence. You've heard it before, and you'll hear it again: you have to suck the reader in, and the best place to do that is the first sentence. Great first sentences are punchy. They are like cliffhangers, setting up an exciting scene or an unusual situation with an unclear conclusion, in order to make the reader want to know more. Don't take my word for it—check out these 22 first sentences from Stanford applicants and tell me you don't want to read the rest of those essays to find out what happens!

A lively, individual voice. Writing is for readers. In this case, your reader is an admissions officer who has read thousands of essays before yours and will read thousands after. Your goal? Don't bore your reader. Use interesting descriptions, stay away from clichés, include your own offbeat observations—anything that makes this essay sounds like you and not like anyone else.

Technical correctness. No spelling mistakes, no grammar weirdness, no syntax issues, no punctuation snafus—each of these sample college essays has been formatted and proofread perfectly. If this kind of exactness is not your strong suit, you're in luck! All colleges advise applicants to have their essays looked over several times by parents, teachers, mentors, and anyone else who can spot a comma splice. Your essay must be your own work, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting help polishing it.

And if you need more guidance, connect with PrepScholar's expert admissions consultants . These expert writers know exactly what college admissions committees look for in an admissions essay and chan help you craft an essay that boosts your chances of getting into your dream school.

Check out PrepScholar's Essay Editing and Coaching progra m for more details!

Links to Full College Essay Examples

Some colleges publish a selection of their favorite accepted college essays that worked, and I've put together a selection of over 100 of these.

Common App Essay Samples

Please note that some of these college essay examples may be responding to prompts that are no longer in use. The current Common App prompts are as follows:

1. 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. 2. 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? 3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome? 4. Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you? 5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. 6. 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?

7. 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.

Now, let's get to the good stuff: the list of 177 college essay examples responding to current and past Common App essay prompts. 

Connecticut college.

• 12 Common Application essays from the classes of 2022-2025

Hamilton College

• 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2026
• 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2022
• 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2018
• 8 Common Application essays from the class of 2012
• 8 Common Application essays from the class of 2007

Johns Hopkins

These essays are answers to past prompts from either the Common Application or the Coalition Application (which Johns Hopkins used to accept).

• 1 Common Application or Coalition Application essay from the class of 2026
• 6 Common Application or Coalition Application essays from the class of 2025
• 6 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2024
• 6 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2023
• 7 Common Application of Universal Application essays from the class of 2022
• 5 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2021
• 7 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2020

Essay Examples Published by Other Websites

• 2 Common Application essays ( 1st essay , 2nd essay ) from applicants admitted to Columbia

Other Sample College Essays

Here is a collection of essays that are college-specific.

Babson College

• 4 essays (and 1 video response) on "Why Babson" from the class of 2020

Emory University

• 5 essay examples ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) from the class of 2020 along with analysis from Emory admissions staff on why the essays were exceptional
• 5 more recent essay examples ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) along with analysis from Emory admissions staff on what made these essays stand out

University of Georgia

• 1 “strong essay” sample from 2019
• 1 “strong essay” sample from 2018
• 10 Harvard essays from 2023
• 10 Harvard essays from 2022
• 10 Harvard essays from 2021
• 10 Harvard essays from 2020
• 10 Harvard essays from 2019
• 10 Harvard essays from 2018
• 6 essays from admitted MIT students

Smith College

• 6 "best gift" essays from the class of 2018

Books of College Essays

If you're looking for even more sample college essays, consider purchasing a college essay book. The best of these include dozens of essays that worked and feedback from real admissions officers.

College Essays That Made a Difference —This detailed guide from Princeton Review includes not only successful essays, but also interviews with admissions officers and full student profiles.

50 Successful Harvard Application Essays by the Staff of the Harvard Crimson—A must for anyone aspiring to Harvard .

50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays and 50 Successful Stanford Application Essays by Gen and Kelly Tanabe—For essays from other top schools, check out this venerated series, which is regularly updated with new essays.

Heavenly Essays by Janine W. Robinson—This collection from the popular blogger behind Essay Hell includes a wider range of schools, as well as helpful tips on honing your own essay.

Analyzing Great Common App Essays That Worked

I've picked two essays from the examples collected above to examine in more depth so that you can see exactly what makes a successful college essay work. Full credit for these essays goes to the original authors and the schools that published them.

Example 1: "Breaking Into Cars," by Stephen, Johns Hopkins Class of '19 (Common App Essay, 636 words long)

I had never broken into a car before.

We were in Laredo, having just finished our first day at a Habitat for Humanity work site. The Hotchkiss volunteers had already left, off to enjoy some Texas BBQ, leaving me behind with the college kids to clean up. Not until we were stranded did we realize we were locked out of the van.

Someone picked a coat hanger out of the dumpster, handed it to me, and took a few steps back.

"Can you do that thing with a coat hanger to unlock it?"

"Why me?" I thought.

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal like I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame. Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. In fact, I'd been born into this type of situation.

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally. My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill—you know, in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed. "The water's on fire! Clear a hole!" he shouted, tossing me in the lake without warning. While I'm still unconvinced about that particular lesson's practicality, my Dad's overarching message is unequivocally true: much of life is unexpected, and you have to deal with the twists and turns.

Living in my family, days rarely unfolded as planned. A bit overlooked, a little pushed around, I learned to roll with reality, negotiate a quick deal, and give the improbable a try. I don't sweat the small stuff, and I definitely don't expect perfect fairness. So what if our dining room table only has six chairs for seven people? Someone learns the importance of punctuality every night.

But more than punctuality and a special affinity for musical chairs, my family life has taught me to thrive in situations over which I have no power. Growing up, I never controlled my older siblings, but I learned how to thwart their attempts to control me. I forged alliances, and realigned them as necessary. Sometimes, I was the poor, defenseless little brother; sometimes I was the omniscient elder. Different things to different people, as the situation demanded. I learned to adapt.

Back then, these techniques were merely reactions undertaken to ensure my survival. But one day this fall, Dr. Hicks, our Head of School, asked me a question that he hoped all seniors would reflect on throughout the year: "How can I participate in a thing I do not govern, in the company of people I did not choose?"

The question caught me off guard, much like the question posed to me in Laredo. Then, I realized I knew the answer. I knew why the coat hanger had been handed to me.

Growing up as the middle child in my family, I was a vital participant in a thing I did not govern, in the company of people I did not choose. It's family. It's society. And often, it's chaos. You participate by letting go of the small stuff, not expecting order and perfection, and facing the unexpected with confidence, optimism, and preparedness. My family experience taught me to face a serendipitous world with confidence.

What Makes This Essay Tick?

It's very helpful to take writing apart in order to see just how it accomplishes its objectives. Stephen's essay is very effective. Let's find out why!

An Opening Line That Draws You In

In just eight words, we get: scene-setting (he is standing next to a car about to break in), the idea of crossing a boundary (he is maybe about to do an illegal thing for the first time), and a cliffhanger (we are thinking: is he going to get caught? Is he headed for a life of crime? Is he about to be scared straight?).

Great, Detailed Opening Story

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal like I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame.

It's the details that really make this small experience come alive. Notice how whenever he can, Stephen uses a more specific, descriptive word in place of a more generic one. The volunteers aren't going to get food or dinner; they're going for "Texas BBQ." The coat hanger comes from "a dumpster." Stephen doesn't just move the coat hanger—he "jiggles" it.

Details also help us visualize the emotions of the people in the scene. The person who hands Stephen the coat hanger isn't just uncomfortable or nervous; he "takes a few steps back"—a description of movement that conveys feelings. Finally, the detail of actual speech makes the scene pop. Instead of writing that the other guy asked him to unlock the van, Stephen has the guy actually say his own words in a way that sounds like a teenager talking.

Turning a Specific Incident Into a Deeper Insight

Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. In fact, I'd been born into this type of situation.

Stephen makes the locked car experience a meaningful illustration of how he has learned to be resourceful and ready for anything, and he also makes this turn from the specific to the broad through an elegant play on the two meanings of the word "click."

Using Concrete Examples When Making Abstract Claims

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally.

"Unpredictability and chaos" are very abstract, not easily visualized concepts. They could also mean any number of things—violence, abandonment, poverty, mental instability. By instantly following up with highly finite and unambiguous illustrations like "family of seven" and "siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing," Stephen grounds the abstraction in something that is easy to picture: a large, noisy family.

Using Small Bits of Humor and Casual Word Choice

My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill—you know, in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed.

Obviously, knowing how to clean burning oil is not high on the list of things every 9-year-old needs to know. To emphasize this, Stephen uses sarcasm by bringing up a situation that is clearly over-the-top: "in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed."

The humor also feels relaxed. Part of this is because he introduces it with the colloquial phrase "you know," so it sounds like he is talking to us in person. This approach also diffuses the potential discomfort of the reader with his father's strictness—since he is making jokes about it, clearly he is OK. Notice, though, that this doesn't occur very much in the essay. This helps keep the tone meaningful and serious rather than flippant.

An Ending That Stretches the Insight Into the Future

But one day this fall, Dr. Hicks, our Head of School, asked me a question that he hoped all seniors would reflect on throughout the year: "How can I participate in a thing I do not govern, in the company of people I did not choose?"

The ending of the essay reveals that Stephen's life has been one long preparation for the future. He has emerged from chaos and his dad's approach to parenting as a person who can thrive in a world that he can't control.

This connection of past experience to current maturity and self-knowledge is a key element in all successful personal essays. Colleges are very much looking for mature, self-aware applicants. These are the qualities of successful college students, who will be able to navigate the independence college classes require and the responsibility and quasi-adulthood of college life.

What Could This Essay Do Even Better?

Even the best essays aren't perfect, and even the world's greatest writers will tell you that writing is never "finished"—just "due." So what would we tweak in this essay if we could?

Replace some of the clichéd language. Stephen uses handy phrases like "twists and turns" and "don't sweat the small stuff" as a kind of shorthand for explaining his relationship to chaos and unpredictability. But using too many of these ready-made expressions runs the risk of clouding out your own voice and replacing it with something expected and boring.

Use another example from recent life. Stephen's first example (breaking into the van in Laredo) is a great illustration of being resourceful in an unexpected situation. But his essay also emphasizes that he "learned to adapt" by being "different things to different people." It would be great to see how this plays out outside his family, either in the situation in Laredo or another context.

Example 2: By Renner Kwittken, Tufts Class of '23 (Common App Essay, 645 words long)

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver. I saw it in my favorite book, Richard Scarry's "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go," and for some reason, I was absolutely obsessed with the idea of driving a giant pickle. Much to the discontent of my younger sister, I insisted that my parents read us that book as many nights as possible so we could find goldbug, a small little golden bug, on every page. I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon.

Then I discovered a real goldbug: gold nanoparticles that can reprogram macrophages to assist in killing tumors, produce clear images of them without sacrificing the subject, and heat them to obliteration.

Suddenly the destination of my pickle was clear.

I quickly became enveloped by the world of nanomedicine; I scoured articles about liposomes, polymeric micelles, dendrimers, targeting ligands, and self-assembling nanoparticles, all conquering cancer in some exotic way. Completely absorbed, I set out to find a mentor to dive even deeper into these topics. After several rejections, I was immensely grateful to receive an invitation to work alongside Dr. Sangeeta Ray at Johns Hopkins.

In the lab, Dr. Ray encouraged a great amount of autonomy to design and implement my own procedures. I chose to attack a problem that affects the entire field of nanomedicine: nanoparticles consistently fail to translate from animal studies into clinical trials. Jumping off recent literature, I set out to see if a pre-dose of a common chemotherapeutic could enhance nanoparticle delivery in aggressive prostate cancer, creating three novel constructs based on three different linear polymers, each using fluorescent dye (although no gold, sorry goldbug!). Though using radioactive isotopes like Gallium and Yttrium would have been incredible, as a 17-year-old, I unfortunately wasn't allowed in the same room as these radioactive materials (even though I took a Geiger counter to a pair of shoes and found them to be slightly dangerous).

I hadn't expected my hypothesis to work, as the research project would have ideally been led across two full years. Yet while there are still many optimizations and revisions to be done, I was thrilled to find -- with completely new nanoparticles that may one day mean future trials will use particles with the initials "RK-1" -- thatcyclophosphamide did indeed increase nanoparticle delivery to the tumor in a statistically significant way.

A secondary, unexpected research project was living alone in Baltimore, a new city to me, surrounded by people much older than I. Even with moving frequently between hotels, AirBnB's, and students' apartments, I strangely reveled in the freedom I had to enjoy my surroundings and form new friendships with graduate school students from the lab. We explored The Inner Harbor at night, attended a concert together one weekend, and even got to watch the Orioles lose (to nobody's surprise). Ironically, it's through these new friendships I discovered something unexpected: what I truly love is sharing research. Whether in a presentation or in a casual conversation, making others interested in science is perhaps more exciting to me than the research itself. This solidified a new pursuit to angle my love for writing towards illuminating science in ways people can understand, adding value to a society that can certainly benefit from more scientific literacy.

It seems fitting that my goals are still transforming: in Scarry's book, there is not just one goldbug, there is one on every page. With each new experience, I'm learning that it isn't the goldbug itself, but rather the act of searching for the goldbugs that will encourage, shape, and refine my ever-evolving passions. Regardless of the goldbug I seek -- I know my pickle truck has just begun its journey.

Renner takes a somewhat different approach than Stephen, but their essay is just as detailed and engaging. Let's go through some of the strengths of this essay.

One Clear Governing Metaphor

This essay is ultimately about two things: Renner’s dreams and future career goals, and Renner’s philosophy on goal-setting and achieving one’s dreams.

But instead of listing off all the amazing things they’ve done to pursue their dream of working in nanomedicine, Renner tells a powerful, unique story instead. To set up the narrative, Renner opens the essay by connecting their experiences with goal-setting and dream-chasing all the way back to a memorable childhood experience:

This lighthearted–but relevant!--story about the moment when Renner first developed a passion for a specific career (“finding the goldbug”) provides an anchor point for the rest of the essay. As Renner pivots to describing their current dreams and goals–working in nanomedicine–the metaphor of “finding the goldbug” is reflected in Renner’s experiments, rejections, and new discoveries.

Though Renner tells multiple stories about their quest to “find the goldbug,” or, in other words, pursue their passion, each story is connected by a unifying theme; namely, that as we search and grow over time, our goals will transform…and that’s okay! By the end of the essay, Renner uses the metaphor of “finding the goldbug” to reiterate the relevance of the opening story:

While the earlier parts of the essay convey Renner’s core message by showing, the final, concluding paragraph sums up Renner’s insights by telling. By briefly and clearly stating the relevance of the goldbug metaphor to their own philosophy on goals and dreams, Renner demonstrates their creativity, insight, and eagerness to grow and evolve as the journey continues into college.

An Engaging, Individual Voice

This essay uses many techniques that make Renner sound genuine and make the reader feel like we already know them.

Technique #1: humor. Notice Renner's gentle and relaxed humor that lightly mocks their younger self's grand ambitions (this is different from the more sarcastic kind of humor used by Stephen in the first essay—you could never mistake one writer for the other).

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver.

I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon.

Renner gives a great example of how to use humor to your advantage in college essays. You don’t want to come off as too self-deprecating or sarcastic, but telling a lightheartedly humorous story about your younger self that also showcases how you’ve grown and changed over time can set the right tone for your entire essay.

Technique #2: intentional, eye-catching structure. The second technique is the way Renner uses a unique structure to bolster the tone and themes of their essay . The structure of your essay can have a major impact on how your ideas come across…so it’s important to give it just as much thought as the content of your essay!

For instance, Renner does a great job of using one-line paragraphs to create dramatic emphasis and to make clear transitions from one phase of the story to the next:

Suddenly the destination of my pickle car was clear.

Not only does the one-liner above signal that Renner is moving into a new phase of the narrative (their nanoparticle research experiences), it also tells the reader that this is a big moment in Renner’s story. It’s clear that Renner made a major discovery that changed the course of their goal pursuit and dream-chasing. Through structure, Renner conveys excitement and entices the reader to keep pushing forward to the next part of the story.

Technique #3: playing with syntax. The third technique is to use sentences of varying length, syntax, and structure. Most of the essay's written in standard English and uses grammatically correct sentences. However, at key moments, Renner emphasizes that the reader needs to sit up and pay attention by switching to short, colloquial, differently punctuated, and sometimes fragmented sentences.

Even with moving frequently between hotels, AirBnB's, and students' apartments, I strangely reveled in the freedom I had to enjoy my surroundings and form new friendships with graduate school students from the lab. We explored The Inner Harbor at night, attended a concert together one weekend, and even got to watch the Orioles lose (to nobody's surprise). Ironically, it's through these new friendships I discovered something unexpected: what I truly love is sharing research.

In the examples above, Renner switches adeptly between long, flowing sentences and quippy, telegraphic ones. At the same time, Renner uses these different sentence lengths intentionally. As they describe their experiences in new places, they use longer sentences to immerse the reader in the sights, smells, and sounds of those experiences. And when it’s time to get a big, key idea across, Renner switches to a short, punchy sentence to stop the reader in their tracks.

The varying syntax and sentence lengths pull the reader into the narrative and set up crucial “aha” moments when it’s most important…which is a surefire way to make any college essay stand out.

Renner's essay is very strong, but there are still a few little things that could be improved.

Connecting the research experiences to the theme of “finding the goldbug.”  The essay begins and ends with Renner’s connection to the idea of “finding the goldbug.” And while this metaphor is deftly tied into the essay’s intro and conclusion, it isn’t entirely clear what Renner’s big findings were during the research experiences that are described in the middle of the essay. It would be great to add a sentence or two stating what Renner’s big takeaways (or “goldbugs”) were from these experiences, which add more cohesion to the essay as a whole.

Give more details about discovering the world of nanomedicine. It makes sense that Renner wants to get into the details of their big research experiences as quickly as possible. After all, these are the details that show Renner’s dedication to nanomedicine! But a smoother transition from the opening pickle car/goldbug story to Renner’s “real goldbug” of nanoparticles would help the reader understand why nanoparticles became Renner’s goldbug. Finding out why Renner is so motivated to study nanomedicine–and perhaps what put them on to this field of study–would help readers fully understand why Renner chose this path in the first place.

4 Essential Tips for Writing Your Own Essay

How can you use this discussion to better your own college essay? Here are some suggestions for ways to use this resource effectively.

#1: Get Help From the Experts

Getting your college applications together takes a lot of work and can be pretty intimidatin g. Essays are even more important than ever now that admissions processes are changing and schools are going test-optional and removing diversity standards thanks to new Supreme Court rulings .  If you want certified expert help that really makes a difference, get started with  PrepScholar’s Essay Editing and Coaching program. Our program can help you put together an incredible essay from idea to completion so that your application stands out from the crowd. We've helped students get into the best colleges in the United States, including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale.  If you're ready to take the next step and boost your odds of getting into your dream school, connect with our experts today .

#2: Read Other Essays to Get Ideas for Your Own

As you go through the essays we've compiled for you above, ask yourself the following questions:

• Can you explain to yourself (or someone else!) why the opening sentence works well?
• Look for the essay's detailed personal anecdote. What senses is the author describing? Can you easily picture the scene in your mind's eye?
• Find the place where this anecdote bridges into a larger insight about the author. How does the essay connect the two? How does the anecdote work as an example of the author's characteristic, trait, or skill?
• Check out the essay's tone. If it's funny, can you find the places where the humor comes from? If it's sad and moving, can you find the imagery and description of feelings that make you moved? If it's serious, can you see how word choice adds to this tone?

Make a note whenever you find an essay or part of an essay that you think was particularly well-written, and think about what you like about it . Is it funny? Does it help you really get to know the writer? Does it show what makes the writer unique? Once you have your list, keep it next to you while writing your essay to remind yourself to try and use those same techniques in your own essay.

#3: Find Your "A-Ha!" Moment

All of these essays rely on connecting with the reader through a heartfelt, highly descriptive scene from the author's life. It can either be very dramatic (did you survive a plane crash?) or it can be completely mundane (did you finally beat your dad at Scrabble?). Either way, it should be personal and revealing about you, your personality, and the way you are now that you are entering the adult world.

Check out essays by authors like John Jeremiah Sullivan , Leslie Jamison , Hanif Abdurraqib , and Esmé Weijun Wang to get more examples of how to craft a compelling personal narrative.

#4: Start Early, Revise Often

Let me level with you: the best writing isn't writing at all. It's rewriting. And in order to have time to rewrite, you have to start way before the application deadline. My advice is to write your first draft at least two months before your applications are due.

Let it sit for a few days untouched. Then come back to it with fresh eyes and think critically about what you've written. What's extra? What's missing? What is in the wrong place? What doesn't make sense? Don't be afraid to take it apart and rearrange sections. Do this several times over, and your essay will be much better for it!

For more editing tips, check out a style guide like Dreyer's English or Eats, Shoots & Leaves .

What's Next?

Still not sure which colleges you want to apply to? Our experts will show you how to make a college list that will help you choose a college that's right for you.

Interested in learning more about college essays? Check out our detailed breakdown of exactly how personal statements work in an application , some suggestions on what to avoid when writing your essay , and our guide to writing about your extracurricular activities .

Working on the rest of your application? Read what admissions officers wish applicants knew before applying .

The recommendations in this post are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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• Applying For Scholarships

Writing Tips for a Career Goals Essay (2023)

Jennifer Finetti Mar 1, 2023

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For your college scholarship essay, you may be asked about your career goals. The scholarship committee wants to see how investing in your education will help your career. Do you have a definitive plan? Will a college education fit into that plan? These are the answers they want to see.

In this guide, we will provide some scholarship essay examples about career goals to jumpstart your essay writing.

Writing tips for career goals scholarship essays

Here are some quick tips for writing career goal scholarship essays:

• Write about career goals that tie into the scholarship. This doesn’t mean you have to lie about your career goals to make them fit. Find a way to relate them to the scholarship committee or other elements of the scholarship.
• Be precise about your career goals. Avoid vague statements that suggest you do not have a plan. Judges like to see determination because it shows they’re making a worthy educational investment.
• Discuss how your education will help you achieve your career goals. The scholarship will assist with your education. Show a connection between the two so they can see why you deserve this scholarship.
• If you mention multiple goals, indicate which one you feel most strongly about. Longer essays may allow you to mention a backup plan, but the committee needs to see where your focus lies.
• Avoid cliché statements. Describe how your specific talents, experiences, and degree pursuits will help you succeed.
• Point out solutions, not problems. You may mention struggles you’ve had in the past, but pinpoint how you will learn from them. Moreover, show how those struggles led to your career goals.
• Organize your thoughts in a fluid manner. This will most likely be in chronological order, starting with your degree and progressing through your career growth.
• Write, revise, rest, revise. This goes for any essay writing. Write the first draft from start to finish. Then read through it and edit any grammar or flow errors. Take a break, preferably overnight, and then re-read your content with fresh eyes.

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Example 1: Scholarship essay about career goals (100 words)

In a 100-word scholarship essay, you need to quickly make your point. There is not enough room for a lengthy intro or backstory. Use concise, comprehensive statements to deliver the most information in the fewest words.

I’m a sophomore at Texas Tech University, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Companion Animal Science. After graduation, I hope to attend Texas A&M to become a veterinarian serving rescue organizations and animal shelters. I was born and raised in the south, where it is common for people to abandon animals in rural areas. Those animals then go into a rescue – emaciated, frightened, and confused. I want to work with rescues to provide affordable veterinary medicine to the animals they save. This scholarship would help me continue my education and potentially save thousands of abandoned animals in the future.

Word count: 99

Example 2: Scholarship essay about career goals (250 words)

With a 250-word scholarship essay, you have a little more room to discuss the details of your career goals. You can explain situations from your past that inspired your career pursuits. You could use one paragraph to talk about your short-term goals and another to talk about your long-term goals. Just make sure the big picture ties into the scholarship.

My name is Patrick Holden and I am a freshman at the University of Michigan, majoring in English and minoring in linguistics. I plan to become an English teacher, but this wasn’t always what I had in mind.  When thinking about my future, I always saw myself in some sort of corporate office, perhaps as an executive assistant or a loan officer at a bank. My father works in the finance office for a car dealership and my mother works at a call center. I assumed I would follow a similar, albeit boring, path in life. In my junior year of high school, everything changed. My English teacher inspired me in ways I could have never imagined. She got me to love writing, literature, etymology, and everything about the English language. She made me want to be a better student in all of my classes, and she helped me see the value of education. I decided then that I wanted to inspire other students just as she did for me. My parents are unfortunately not able to contribute much toward my college expenses. I have earned a tuition scholarship based on my ACT score, but I still need additional funding for books and supplies. English majors have particularly high book costs because we have to purchase multiple books for each class. With the help of this scholarship, I could afford to continue my degree and become an English teacher.

Word count: 240

Example 3: Scholarship essay about career goals (500 words)

With 500 words or more to play around with, you have plenty of space to talk about your career goals. Maintain the same theme throughout the scholarship essay. Each paragraph should connect to the next, and they should all work together to describe your career plan. Avoid making disconnected statements for the sake of word count. In the end, the scholarship committee should have a clear view of your educational plans and professional aspirations.

Internet marketing has gone from an optional method of advertisement to a vital step in business outreach. Even small businesses in remote towns look to the internet to attract customers and spread the word about their services. I am currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing with an emphasis on Digital Marketing. With this training, I will be able to enter a profession that will only grow year by year. When I was younger, I found print advertisements to be fascinating. I loved reading the newspaper with my father just to see the full-page ads in between stories. When I got older though, those ads became less appealing because they were not adaptive. They seemed dated, static and ill-fit for changes in society. That’s when I discovered internet marketing. It was still in its infancy when I was in middle school, but by the time I graduated high school, it had become a staple in business development. I loved the way internet marketers had to constantly adjust to fit Google’s algorithms, new mobile devices, and new audiences. I knew this was the career for me. Originally, I planned to focus solely on business marketing because there were not many digital marketing degrees available. Over the last two years though, several schools throughout the country have developed internet marketing courses that explain fundamental methods of search engine optimization, website analytics, and more. These are the foundations I will build my career around. The best part about internet marketing is that there is always something new to learn. I can use my creative mind and exploratory nature to try new advertising methods that help businesses succeed. Every time they do well, I do well. This is the kind of job fulfillment most people can only dream of, but my educational plan and job prospects will allow me to achieve it. I have picked up some freelance jobs online to supplement my studies and help pay for my education. It is difficult to maintain a steady stream of income in freelance because I spend so much time on my school work. This scholarship could offset some of the costs and reduce my workload as a whole. While I will still work throughout the semester and full-time in the summers, having extra financial aid would greatly reduce my stress in college. I look forward to a future where I can use my marketing skills to help business owners achieve their career goals. I plan to spend the first few years after graduation working for a successful, long-standing digital marketing company. After I have enough on-the-job training to feel confident in my abilities, I will open my own internet marketing company in Chicago, where my family lives. I have a clear picture of where I will be in the next 10 years, and I know this degree is going to help me get there.

Word count: 481

• Scholarship Essay

Jennifer Finetti

As a parent who recently helped her own kids embark on their college journeys, Jennifer approaches the transition from high school to college from a unique perspective. She truly enjoys engaging with students – helping them to build the confidence, knowledge, and insight needed to pursue their educational and career goals, while also empowering them with the strategies and skills needed to access scholarships and financial aid that can help limit college costs. She understands the importance of ensuring access to the edtech tools and resources that can make this process easier and more equitable - this drive to support underserved populations is what drew her to ScholarshipOwl. Jennifer has coached students from around the world, as well as in-person with local students in her own community. Her areas of focus include career exploration, major selection, college search and selection, college application assistance, financial aid and scholarship consultation, essay review and feedback, and more. She works with students who are at the top of their class, as well as those who are struggling. She firmly believes that all students, regardless of their circumstances, can succeed if they stay focused and work hard in school. Jennifer earned her MA in Counseling Psychology from National University, and her BA in Psychology from University of California, Santa Cruz.

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Blog > Essay Advice , Personal Statement > Three Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a College Essay About Goals

Three Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a College Essay About Goals

Admissions officer reviewed by Ben Bousquet, M.Ed Former Vanderbilt University

Written by Ben Bousquet, M.Ed Former Vanderbilt University Admissions

Key Takeaway

Writing a successful college essay about goals requires avoiding three common mistakes: ignoring the 'why' behind your goals, not linking your goals with the university's offerings in supplemental essays, and focusing only on yourself without considering how your goals impact others.

In a lot of ways, applying to college is all about goals. You have a goal to get in, to study a particular subject, to have a great time on campus, and to get a job that can support you after you graduate.

So writing your college essay about goals makes a lot of sense.

But “goals” is a popular topic for the Common App personal statement and supplemental essays.

To write a good essay about goals, you’ll need to avoid three common mistakes.

Ready? Here we go.

Mistake #1: focusing on the outcome but not the why

Let’s say you’re applying to be a biochemistry major because you want to go on to be a doctor.

You write your college essay all about how you started a medicine club at your high school, you volunteered at your local hospital, and you can’t wait to practice medicine someday. You go in-depth about how you’re so passionate about biology and are excited to be a doctor.

But in doing so, you don’t give admissions officers any sense of the why behind your goal to become a doctor.

Without the why, your goal only tells admissions officers where you’re hoping to go. It doesn’t reveal any genuine insight about who you are, and it certainly won’t help you stand out from the tens of thousands of other applicants .

Admissions officers need to know your motivations so that they can better understand who you are. Be vulnerable and reveal a deeper part of yourself by delving into the “why” behind your goals.

Questions to consider:

• Why do you have your goal?
• Where did it come from?
• Why is it meaningful to you?
• How does your goal connect to your deeper values and motivations?

Mistake #2: not making direct university connections in a supplemental essay

As you might already know, supplemental essays are all about showing how well you fit into a school’s community and academic environment.

And to do that, you often need to make explicit connections to the school you’re applying to.

Sometimes supplemental essays about goals get so caught up in the goal itself that they forget to fulfill the mission of a supplemental essay.

In a supplemental essay, you want to show that you’ve done your research, know what the school has to offer, and are able to make a compelling case for your admission.

Take this Virginia Tech supplemental prompt, for example:

Describe a goal that you have set and the steps you will take to achieve it. What made you set this goal for yourself? What is your timeline to achieve this goal? Who do you seek encouragement or guidance from as you work on this goal?

To return to our aspiring doctor example, a strong response to this prompt wouldn’t just touch on why you want to be a doctor or how you came to that goal. It would also mention VT’s pre-health academic advising , the ample biochemistry research opportunities , and even EnglePalooza .

The more specific, the better. Be sure to make those connections for admissions officers.

• How would the school’s offerings help you meet your goals?
• What specific resources or opportunities are appealing to you because of your goals?
• Given your goals, what would you be able to contribute to the community or classroom at the school?

Mistake #3: focusing entirely on yourself

Now, of course any college essay you write will be about yourself. That’s the whole point!

But when you only write about yourself in a college essay about goals, your essay can come across as conceited or out-of-touch.

Think about it: your goals exist because of particular experiences, influences, and interactions you’ve had, whether they were good or bad or somewhere in between.

It’s hard to write about the “why” behind your goals without delving a little deeper into how your goals came to be based on your involvement with the people around you.

What’s more, you should also write about how your goal will help people beyond yourself. Sure, becoming a doctor will be great for your own life. But how would it help you help others? How would people be positively impacted along the way?

As you’re writing, be specific and genuine, and think about what you want your admissions officers to learn about you through your essay.

• How is your goal influenced by your family, friends, or loved ones?
• How will your goal help others?
• Why will the world be a better place because you attend this school and meet your goal?

Example College Essays About Goals

Want to read some great examples? Check out some of our personal statement favorites: Gone Fishing , The Bowl that Taught Me Not to Quit , and The Muscle Show .

Remember, colleges want to admit students who will become great alumni. They want people who are leaders in their field and who make the world a better place. Having goals is a great way to show that you’re just that kind of person.

But when writing any college essay about goals, you need to connect the dots between where you’ve been and where you want to go. When relevant, be sure to discuss how this particular school can help you get there. It’s all about creating a cohesive application narrative .

You’ve got this.

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This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Jordan Sanchez in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered:

Admissions profiles, the common app essay.

In this post, we discuss the purpose and importance of the college essay . For more information on college essays, check out this post about how to write this year’s Common App essays . 

There are several aspects to your admissions profile. The first is your academic performance, which is measured by your GPA, class rank, and other academic achievements. The second is your extracurricular activities, which should speak to your passions inside and outside of the classroom. The third is your scores on exams, including the SAT, ACT, AP, IBS, and subject tests. The fourth and final part of your admissions profile is essays, including your personal statement and any supplemental essays.

However, many schools are now adopting test-optional policies, and, for some students, that can mean losing the exam section of their admissions profile. In this case, the essay will hold even more weight. Essays usually make up 25% to 30% of an admissions profile. 

The Common App essay is typically the only chance that admissions officers have to hear from you directly, so make the most of this opportunity. Whether an essay is optional or required, you should always complete it to the best of your ability. 

The Common App essay should give the admissions committee a clear sense of who you are. Your writing should showcase your personality and how you would fit in with the culture of the school to which you’re applying. The essay functions to complete the picture that you’ve painted with the rest of your application. It’s a chance to show how you’ve grown throughout your high school experience or how you’ve remained consistent if that’s the case. You can talk about major life experiences or lessons that you’ve learned; many students focus on a specific moment in their lives and how it has affected them.

In your writing, be as specific as possible about yourself and your experiences. Throughout the process, ask yourself this question: could anyone else write this essay? Writing about your specific life experiences is a guaranteed way to make your essay stand out. 

Remember, a strong essay can even make up for weaknesses in other areas of your application.

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February 29, 2024

• Writing Your Career Goals Essay

Check out all the blog posts in this series:

• Identifying the Ingredients of a Winning Essay
• Finding a Theme for Your Statement of Purpose
• Revise and Polish Your Application Essays

Your career goals essay demands a laser-like focus. A personal statement, by contrast, allows for some flexibility in its content, though you can – and often should – discuss your career goals. But a career goals essay has a particular and packed agenda. In fact, the prompt for a career goals essay could actually include multiple questions, and in such cases, you want to make sure you address each of them.

For example, in 2022, Kellogg asked applicants to its one-year program to respond to the following prompt: “Please discuss your post-MBA career goal, the current experience you will leverage to support the transition, and the Kellogg 1Y opportunities that will help you reach this goal.” 

This prompt has three parts: (1) What do you want to do post-MBA ? (2) Why is the 1Y program appropriate for you? And (3) what experience has so far prepared you to succeed in your target role? 

So, always pay close attention to your target school’s prompt to ensure that you answer all the questions within its “single” question. 

Three elements of a successful career goals essay

In addition to having a distinct theme , your career goals essay should achieve the following:

• Highlight specific career achievements. Choose from your most notable or defining experiences. These could be related to your work, community involvement, or extracurricular activities. The experiences you select should showcase your leadership skills , creative thinking, collaborative abilities, and personal reflections about what you learned or gained.
• Explain why your experiences and influences make your career goal a logical and wise choice.
• Demonstrate why you are suited to a particular field as a result of your education, experience, abilities, and enthusiasm. Ideally, the material you choose to include will also allow you to prove your knowledge about industry trends and suggest how your abilities and strengths can help you contribute to that field.

It’s a very tall order to achieve all this.

Putting these elements together to create your goals essay

Let’s take a look at a sample MBA Goals Essay and see how these three key elements are incorporated.  

You should be able to easily recognize why the writer’s opening is attention-getting for all the right reasons. The writer introduces herself as the supremely busy executive she visualizes becoming in the future. She trades large amounts of stock, rushes off to a Zoom conference, hurries downstairs, flags down a taxi, then hops on a plane. As she describes this whirlwind of activity, we can practically feel her heart pumping.

After establishing her voice and personality in this opening, she offers context for her MBA goal. Notice that in writing about her work as an accountant for a major firm, she provides relevant details, including how many years she has been in the field, her bilingualism, and her specialty area as an auditor. This information is her springboard to explain why she is pursuing an MBA: she’s bursting out of her limited role as an accountant. Her eyes and ambition are set on a larger playing field as an international investment manager.

Write an essay, not a list or CV

Outstanding career goals essays are not lists of an applicant’s roles and achievements. Instead, they have a narrative flow and arc that convey the candidate’s palpable excitement about their career choice. This writer’s enthusiastic, dreamy first paragraph achieves this, and she returns to that image at the end, where she paints her idealized (if frantically busy) future. She also proves her seriousness by noting that she registered for the CFA exam.

Connect your career goals to your reasons for choosing a particular program

Many essay questions, especially those for MBA programs , will ask why you have chosen the school you’re applying to. Be prepared to respond knowledgeably and enthusiastically. And the only way to become knowledgeable – and enthusiastic – is by visiting campus in-person or virtually, attending student recruitment meetings, participating in forums, reading student blogs, watching videos of students speaking about their experiences, communicating directly with students and/or recent alumni, and otherwise doing your homework. As part of your research, make sure you have familiarized yourself with the courses and specializations that are relevant to your goals.

Summary Tips

• Focus on answering each and every question asked in a career goals essay prompt. Often, there is more than one.
• Highlight specific achievements vividly and in a way that shows that your career choice is logical for you.
• Do the research so you can write about why the school is a good fit for you and do so with genuine enthusiasm.

In the next post in this series , we’ll explain how to take all this advice and apply it to create an exemplary first draft.

Work one-on-one with an expert who will walk you through the process of creating a slam-dunk application. Check out our full catalog of application services . Our admissions consultants have read thousands of essays and know the exact ingredients of an outstanding essay.

By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. She is also the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools . Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related resources:

• The Winning Ingredients of a Dynamic MBA Goals Essay , a free guide
• Grad School Personal Statement Examples
• Focus on Fit , podcast Episode 162

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How to Write an Awesome Essay About Your Career Goals

• Before you begin, ask yourself a few key questions like:
• What are my short-term and long-term career goals?
• Where do I see myself in ten years?
• What events in my life have led me to have these goals?
• What major will help me reach my goals?
• What skills do I need to reach my goals?
• What impact do I want to have on society?

Career Goals Essay Template

Need more inspiration.

After you brainstorm the responses to these questions, look for common themes, or pick out the most interesting stories. You can build your main essay “thesis” or idea around this.

Once you’ve got the main idea, create an outline to put your ideas into essay format. This will give you a general idea of structure.

You can use the career essays template below to give you some ideas. But remember that some rules are meant to be broken, so don’t be afraid to be innovative and think outside the box!

Also, when you’re done, head over to Going Merry to apply for the Career Goals scholarship essay bundle (one essay, one application, multiple scholarships!). You might as well make that essay count. Sign up for Going Merry to apply for scholarships more efficiently.

Here’s a paragraph-by-paragraph breakdown:

Paragraph 1 : Establish the main theme of what you’re going to talk about. It should also grab the reader’s attention. For example, instead of starting your essay with something generic (e.g. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a zoologist), get creative with it! Try something like My greatest memory as a young girl was going to the zoo for the first time or While most kids play house or school, I always wanted to play zookeeper.

Paragraph 2 : Elaborate on what inspired your career goals. Perhaps it was a relative, a TV show, or simply an experience that you had. Remember that old writing adage, “Show, don’t tell.” In other words, try to demonstrate your interest with story or description. 

Paragraph 3 : Discuss your short-term career goals and your intended major. How will your intended major help you reach these goals? What skills do you need to learn to reach them? At the end of the paragraph, try discussing how your short-term goals can help you achieve your long-term goals.

Paragraph 4 : Focus on your long-term goals and the impact that you hope to have on society. If you’re not sure what your long-term goals are, don’t sweat it; they’ll probably change anyways. You can instead focus on the difference you’d like to make overall. And don’t worry too much about the size of the impact…remember that just doing what you’re truly passionate about has a massive impact on those around you.

The last paragraph is your conclusion. You can use this paragraph to summarize what you discussed in the previous few paragraphs. If you want to be even more creative, try ending your essay with a question for your readers or a new insight. Good luck!

And now that you’re ready with that essay, put it to good use! You can recycle that same essay, when applying for the Career Goals Scholarship Bundle. We’ve joined together multiple scholarships (all requesting essays on career goals), into just ONE simple application! See more info here , or just sign up to get going.

Check out examples from other students just like you. Here are links to some great career goal essay examples:

• Example 1  
• Example 2  
• Example 3  

Or maybe you’re looking for help with an academic goals essay — we’ve got you covered there too.

Also, check out this helpful list of the 10 most common scholarship essay topics !

Sign up for Going Merry today, and upload your career goal essay right to your profile. It’s that easy!

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Career Goals Essay For Scholarships (With Examples)

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Scholarship programs often want you to write a career goals essay to see that you have a clear plan for how you’ll apply your education to a specific career path. This helps show a scholarship committee why you’re seeking funds for the next step on the path toward your success.

Answering “what are your career goals” effectively can help increase your odds of impressing landing a scholarship opportunity. If you’re a prospective student applying for scholarships, this article will provide tips on how to write a career goals essay, along with essays on career goals examples to help you get an idea of what scholarship committees are looking for.

Key Takeaways:

When you’re writing a career goals essay, make sure to write about the goals that are relevant to the scholarship.

Be honest and use your own voice to stand out in your scholarship essay.

Go into detail about how the scholarship will help you achieve your goals.

What is a career goals essay?

Why scholarship essays ask about career goals, example career goals essay prompts, career goals essay examples, tips for writing a scholarship essay about career goals, what to write in a career goals essay if your goals have changed, career goals essay for a scholarship faq.

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A career goals essay is a personal written explanation that discusses your background, why you’re interested in participating in the program, and what career you’d like this degree to lead into. A scholarship essay functions to explain why you want to achieve your professional goals and how you intend to get there.

In almost every application process, a portion asks the candidate to answer an essay question. When applying to an educational program, like an MBA, the essay prompt usually relates to your career goals .

Scholarship essays ask about career goals to assess your enthusiasm for the program, learn more about how the scholarship will help you, and ensure that you’ve considered how the program will help you achieve your goals for the future:

Assess your enthusiasm. Passion is important for scholarship administrators, and if you’re able to articulate your enthusiasm for a specific career path , it will show that you’re determined to meet the requirements to reach that goal. The most specific and well-thought-out your essay is, the easier it will be for a reader to understand your devotion and commitment to the program and the field it will allow you to enter.

Learn how the scholarship will help you. Having a firm grasp of your career goals is great, but it’s equally important that you express exactly how the specific program relates to those goals. This shows that you’ve researched the merits of the program and understand exactly how it fits into your professional goals.

Show you’ve considered your future. This goes along with the first two points — show that you know how to set goals and consider the path toward achieving those goals, and you’ll have an easier time convincing the reader that you’ll know how to set goals while participating in the program. They’ll see that you know how to prioritize education because you have a clear vision for navigating your career path.

While some scholarships might come right out and simply ask, “What are your career goals?” most will rework the question into something different that still accomplishes the same goal.

Below are some examples of career goals essay prompts that a scholarship program could pose to its applicants:

Discuss your career goals. Many scholarships prefer the most direct approach when giving an essay prompt to their applicants. This type of question gives the candidate a lot of wiggle room to discuss their passions, motivations, and career goals.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years ? This question is often used as a prompt for a career goals essay because it gives the applicant a timeline to describe their aspirations. It forces them to be realistic about where their career will be and how they will accomplish this within the next ten years.

How will this scholarship contribute to your professional success? A scholarship committee wants to be sure that the money they’re giving will contribute to a student’s overall professional success. This question asks about the applicant’s game plan in the long-term and evaluates how this program is going to assist in their future.

What is your dream job ? Since a dream job is often categorized as a person’s career goals, this is a common question phrasing in scholarship essays. Asking about a candidate’s dream job answers whether this program aligns with the student’s long-term career goals.

What matters most to you and why? Sometimes, a scholarship essay prompt won’t ask about your career or future at all. Instead, they’ll ask a question like this that assesses your motivations , values, and character.

Use these examples of career goals essays for scholarships to help write your own. Pay special attention to how they’re organized, rather than the content, to inspire your own career goals essay:

Career goals essay example 1 – Discuss your career goals

When I was six years old, I was riding bikes with my older sister around our neighborhood. She had just taught me how to ride, and I was excited to have to freedom to explore with her. When she was rounding a particularly difficult bend to see around, a car happened to be coming along at the same time. It struck her. That bike ride changed our lives forever. Over the next year, I went with my sister every Tuesday and Thursday to her physical therapist ’s appointments to help her regain walking strength. Watching her physical therapist patiently assist my sister back to becoming herself awoken something in me. A passion for helping others in the same way eventually turned into a career goal of becoming a physical therapist myself. I decided to get my bachelor’s degree in exercise science. After graduating in 2019, I knew that the next step for me was to attend a graduate program in physical therapy. I was accepted to Lassell University Master of Science in Rehabilitation Services. This presented me with my latest goal along my career path, and I’m eagerly waiting to start. This scholarship would help me afford the wonderful opportunity to be a part of the Lassell University class of 2023, allowing me to continue working towards my ultimate career goal of becoming a physical therapist and helping others to become themselves again.

Career goals essay example 2 – Where do you see yourself in ten years?

In ten years, I will have been successfully running my own construction business for about five years. I’m currently a second-year student at the University of Texas, pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. I decided to get my MBA because I knew it would be a positive asset toward my long-term career goal of owning a construction business. In my high school years, I worked as a construction apprentice for a local business. I loved many aspects of the business, such as building something from nothing. I knew that I wanted to incorporate this work into my long-term career, but I didn’t want to work as an apprentice . This led me to pursue business. In ten years and with the help of this scholarship, I will have graduated with my MBA almost a decade prior . After graduation, I plan to take a business administration internship with a carpentry business to help myself get a footing in the field. After about two years of this, I will have started my own construction business.

Career goals essay example 3 – What matters most to you and why?

The people I surround myself with matter most to me. Whether it be my relatives, friends, or professional acquaintances, I always care the most about the happiness of the people around me. Making the people around me happy matters the most to me because I truly because we find our happiness through others. I believe that this drive to make a positive impression on the people around me is what drove me towards a career as a nurse . I always thought of hospitals as places where people need someone to support them and make their day a little happier. I wanted to be one of those who spend their careers positively impacting people in need. This scholarship will enable me to finally afford nursing school and go after my dream job full force.

Career goals essay example 4 – What are your short- and long-term career goals, and how will earning this degree contribute to achieving those goals? Please provide a minimum of 200 words.

My short-term career goals involve working directly with underprivileged young people to increase the literacy rate in my community. As a student of an underfunded and understaffed school, I’ve seen firsthand how much of an impact early literacy education makes on long-term achievement. It broke my heart to see my peers embarrassed at their struggle with reading at an advanced age, and this shame added another dimension to their lack of opportunity. Being a literacy educator for young people would allow me to serve this community directly to show them not only the necessity of strong written communication skills, but the joy of reading for pleasure. This program focuses specifically on early literacy, and would provide me a direct route to a career in serving the community I hope to serve. As for long-term career goals, I hope to one day create a program where socioeconomically parents can bring their children for literacy education, not only to increase their ability to navigate the world of language, but also to instill confidence and joy in the written word. What drew me to this program was that it also has administrative, legal, and business dimensions that would set me on the path toward achieving this goal.

Here are some tips to keep in mind for writing a career goals scholarship essay:

Write about goals relevant to the scholarship. Although you may have many different kinds of goals for your personal and professional future, a scholarship essay only discusses objectives that are relevant to the program you’re applying for.

Be honest. Applying for a scholarship is stressful because the applicant’s education is usually reliant on receiving these funds in one way or another. Even though it’s tempting to exaggerate your skills or pretend you’re more passionate about something than you are to make yourself a more competitive applicant, it’s a bad move.

Use your own, unique voice. The essay portion of a scholarship application is your chance to stand out by using your voice. Nobody else, regardless of their academic or professional achievements, is you. Make this clear in your career goals scholarship essay by keeping your unique written voice engrained in the words you produce.

Be specific. A big reason that scholarship committees ask applicants to write a career goals essay is to determine how prepared they are in planning their long-term professional goals. They aren’t interested in providing a scholarship to students who aren’t going to follow through with their career plans.

Explain long and short-term goals . Even if the essay prompt asks you to describe where you see yourself in ten years, you still need to tell them the steps leading towards this picture of success.

Include the short-term goals that add up to your larger career objectives in your essay response. Explain how accomplishing the smaller goals gives you an advantage when tackling long-term ones.

Explain how the program and scholarship will help you. Before writing your career goals essay, consider how this program and scholarship will help you in your career. The answer to this question is essential.

Follow the essay formatting guidelines. This may sound obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy to forget this step when your essay is finally flowing and when you’re scrambling to get it submitted on time.

Check, double-check , and triple-check the essay guidelines for content, word count, and formatting requirements. If you miss any of these steps, your essay may be immediately disqualified no matter how good it or the rest of your application is.

Many times career goals essays are written by students who have already completed at least some college or are applying to a post-graduate program and need more money to continue.

There’s a good chance that your career goals have changed since you started or graduated college. For example, say you wanted to be an engineer , so you got your undergraduate degree in engineering but realized you didn’t like it after working in the industry for a few years.

You decided that nursing would be more up your alley, and now you’re applying for a scholarship for a nursing program. While this isn’t unusual, it can make it more difficult to write a career goals essay since your past work doesn’t necessarily match your future goals.

In this case, you’ll simply need to explain why you changed your career path and why this next one is the best choice for you. Share your decision-making process to show that you haven’t taken the switch lightly, and talk about what you’ve already done to try to pursue this path.

How do you write a career goal for a scholarship essay?

You write a career goal for a scholarship essay by sharing your passion, explaining both your long- and short-term goals, and relating your goals to the scholarship.

Explain why you want to pursue the career you’re pursuing, where you hope to be in the future and how you plan to get there, and how the scholarship will help you do this.

How do you describe your career goals in an essay?

You describe your career goals in an essay by explaining what you want to do in your career, why you decided on this career path, and what you’ve done so far to make that a reality.

You can usually work these factors into any prompt you receive, so think through them before you start writing so that you can use them as an outline of sorts.

What are career goals examples?

Examples of career goals include:

Working as a grant writer for a nonprofit organization.

Becoming a department manager and eventually an executive in your field.

Owning your own plumbing company.

Caring for underserved communities as a nurse practitioner .

What are some goals for success?

Some goals for success include growing in your role, building your network, and finding joy in the job. Most careers don’t just happen overnight and require you to set the right milestones that work best for you. Not everyone will have the same goals for success.

How do you start a career goals essay for a scholarship?

You can start a career goals essay for a scholarship by directly answering the prompt. Most scholarship prompts include a word count of between 200 and 500 words, so it’s essential that you immediately respond to the prompt. Attention-grabbing sentences and narratives can be helpful for setting the scene, but an efficient and direct answer will show a clarity of mind that helps enhance the quality of your answer.

BLS – Career planning for high schoolers

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Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.

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3 Most Common Mistakes You Make in a College Essay

Why you never make it as good as an essay writer.

The world is changing and these changes affect all spheres. What your parents and seniors taught you might not longer work. For example, learn hard, get good grades and you'll be admitted to college. Well, turns out this rule is also in the past. College admission committees are no longer looking for studious and obedient applicants. What matters is the personality that shines through the pages of your college essay, ability to think and to create, spatial intelligence and your personal opinion. Do you think you can nail this piece of writing? Check out 3 most common mistakes you might be making!

#1. Absence of creativity. Your work should be unique. It has nothing to do with plagiarism. Making a simple essay saying how good you were at school and how hard you're going to work in college won't help to win a place. Essay writer, for example, never says anything about studying. He tells the story. Your own outstanding story.

#2. Time management failure. How fast can you type 1 page? Probably, it takes you a bit more than 10 minutes. Then why sitting with one thought in the head "How do I write my essay?" if only 10 minutes required. Because it's a challenging task! You can't finish it overnight.

#3. Being trivial. Nothing is as bad for an essay as the very same words and the very same thoughts everyone repeats in their papers. How to avoid them? First, stop reading the website for essay help and templates. If someone has written and posted it on the Internet, there's a high chance it's already been copied to thousands of papers.

Advantages you get with essay writing service

Want to see an email confirming your admission? Then be smarter than copypasting someone's story or thought, especially if you don't share this attitude. The helping hand is always closer than you think. What can be better than to enjoy a readymade essay created personally for you?

Allow essay rewriter read your paper and make necessary changes. He will take the best parts of your work and turn them into a brilliant piece. As a result you get an ideal writing without staying awake the whole night.

Another advantage of essay writing service is moderate prices. You don't have to own Tesla company or invent Facebook to pay for the work. A proficient writer would perform the task flawlessly as he has done many times before. It's way better when someone with certain experience is writing an essay, not a person who's torn between leisure time and duty calling. Receive your paper in time, enclose it to your documents and sit until getting an email from college with good news!

What to do after getting the paper

Nevertheless, your participation is required as well. An important part of each task performed by another person is to make sure you've got the proper and suitable paper. We recommend to read essay after you receive it. Check the grammar, learn the words you don't understand or unknown names before blindly sending your paper to college. Add your name if it's not mentioned (might occur if you prefer to keep your confidentiality) and decide whether the story correlates with your own one or if the thoughts are similar to those you share.

5 Things to Remember About your College Essay

How to make a remarkable college essay: tips.

• Each story is unique. You don't have to be a genius, find cure from cancer or get a Nobel prize to have a remarkable background. There's something interesting in everyone;
• Remember about your strengths. An essay writer can help to make you best qualities shine like a diamond. You have skills, he has abilities to make a good story about them;
• Doing everything alone is a bad idea.
• Stick to the format. You should know the proper length of the essay, correct format of format, choose your words wisely and show your personality from the best possible angle. That's what essay writing service can do for you.
• Don't lie and don't copy. The aim of the writing is to tell the story of yourself, not use someone's background or thoughts.

Advantages of essay writing service

First, it makes things faster. The first aim of essay help is to prevent you from hard and mostly pointless job - looking how to make a correct piece of writing instead of expressing your ideas.

Second, you'll be surprised how precise an essay rewriter can rephrase your own ideas into a remarkable writing! Why choose the complicated and unknown words, why spending countless time over a couple of sentences? Get your essay done!

Third, and it's typical for every best essay writing service: you get a flawless result. Proper introduction, necessary length, fonts and even format. No need to look everywhere how to make it right.

Services for making essays are widely used by applicants. Statistics show that the search "write my essay for me" is one of the most popular. Still want to do everything yourself? Be ready to compete with real professionals, because modern students avoid unnecessary workload when there's an easy way.

An important recommendation for each student

Before sending file to college admission committee you should proofread the work. It would help to find mistakes and correct them. Try to look at the work with the easy of another person. What do you like in this essay? What could have been better? Ask yourself questions to decide whether this idea or a thought is necessary here. That will add more chances!

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Admission to college after essay help

The importance of college essay writing.

Self-presentation is an essential part of people's life. It starts with college essay, where you need to convince the admission committee in your uniqueness and worthiness. Later there would be even more complicated papers for self-description, like cover letter for an employer. When you send your documents to a college, it's just a first step, a training before the actual work! How to succeed?

It's not a secret that grades in modern world mean have way less meaning and value as it had been before. Study hard and you'll get what you want, they were saying before. Be unique and original, be yourself! - that's a modern motto. It's hard to underestimate the importance of essay.

We meant no pressure and hopefully didn't make you think "Am I capable to write my essay?". Besides, modern problems require modern solutions. Now it's possible to delegate the task to professionals and stop stressing. With the help of essay writing service you can get a winning paper and earn your place in college. It seems a way better option than composing something on your own.

How to choose essay writing service

When you open Google and look for services to help with your essay, it seems that the choice is so enormous! And it actually is. Plenty of applicants are ready to pay for essay and that creates a huge demand. Are you surprised? Now imagine that everyone is ordering their papers on such websites and send to committee. So you think you stand a chance compared to a professional essay writer? Most likely, no.

The opportunities that services offer are infinite. Are you looking from a brand new essay composed from a scratch or do you already have a draft of your own writing to be improved? Name it, and you'll get what you want. The essay rewriter can edit your own thoughts, put the ideas you have in order, and as a result you're getting a brilliant work that you've participated in yourself. Sounds impressive!

How to choose the best essay help? We recommend to pay attention to three factors: price, reviews and time. In the next part we'll discuss them in details.

Useful recommendations

Getting ready to receive a mind blowing essay from the service? First, choose the proper one! Here are our advice on how to do it:

• Consider the time required for work. Of course, it's possible to complete the whole task in several hours (for a professional writer), but it's better to think about paper beforehand. Thus, you'll get time to read it and to check.
• What's the price of an essay? It largely depends on time and type of college you want to be admitted to. Of course, a complicated and deep piece of writing worth sending to Ivy League would cost way more than a local college. Think about your goal and ambitions and you will be able to find the balance in pricing.
• Read the reviews about the service. What do clients say? Is it worth spending money? Has anyone been admitted?

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08 May , 2021

Are You Making These Mistakes in Your Essay?

Most typical mistakes in a college essay

Starting a new chapter of your life by entering college is always frustrating. Especially, when you almost physically feel the load of responsibility. To earn a place in a college of your dream you need to work hard - and make a good self-representation for an admission committee. How? By sending them a flawless college essay. This is one of the most essential part of the file.

Do you want to be sure your essay is unique and appealing? Check the most typical mistakes you might make in an essay!

Long writing. Of course, you want to highlight all the best qualities and part you have. But let's be honest, admission committee is usually flooded with the applications. They simply have no time for a long read!

Not using help. The thought "I write my essay myself" seems quite proud... And at the same time, it's a bit stupid. If you have not done it before or read a couple of examples on the Internet, that won't help you to reach the ideal result.

Not following the proper format. A professional essay writer can make the job done fast and easy, because he knows the template, follow the plan and had already made hundreds of unique and remarkable pieces or writing.

Mentioning wrong things. Essay is not a composition where you can express whatever you want. It requires time, ideas and an interesting story.

If you're not sure that you will be able to make an ideal job yourself, think about essay writing service. That's how everything would be ready for you, whenever you need it.

Getting professional essay help

We can name dozens of reasons why getting assistance in writing an essay for college admission is better than spending countless hours in front of your PC doing research and reading different tips and recommendations.

First, it saves your time. Essay help allows you not to worry about the deadline and devote your time to whatever desired.

Second, you are getting a perfect result. Without any breakdowns, sleepless nights, thousands of drafts! Sounds like a good idea!

Third, best essay writing service isn't that expensive. There's no need to be one of the Rockfellers to pay for it.

Fourth, it's a professional attitude. Essay rewriter might check your work and correct it.

Still in doubt? Imagine how many people are typing in the search box "write my essay for me" to get into the college you want to be admitted! Be the first in this race

Tips for successful essay

What should you do to make your piece of writing outstanding and remarkable? We can give several recommendations. First, don't rely on your own skills only. Second, remember about strong parts. And third, be confident in a positive result when ordering a writing help!

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Ross Douthat

What i’d assign to today’s college students.

By Ross Douthat

Opinion Columnist

My weekend column used this season of campus protest as an opportunity to discuss the evolution of Columbia’s core curriculum, whose readings on contemporary politics, I argued, usefully distill the core of contemporary progressivism while leaving a great deal else by the wayside.

I included some examples of ideas and writers that the present Columbia syllabus leaves out, but I wanted to give a little more attention to the question of what a supplement to the progressive approach would look like. If you were trying to bring a great-books program all the way up to the present and you wanted to widen the ideological aperture beyond Columbia’s progressive focus, what would you have your students read?

One answer is that the very idea of being up-to-date is a mistake because readings oriented explicitly to the present are everywhere in education and the point of a core curriculum is to stand a little bit apart, to connect you to the riches of the past — riches that have been sifted in a way that just isn’t possible with the publications and arguments of the past few generations.

I have some sympathy with this idea: If I were designing a core humanities program for high school students (not that I’ve ever thought about this or anything), my strong impulse would be to just hit “stop” at World War II or 1965 and decline to make any judgment on what will be remembered as the great books of the recent past and present.

But Columbia’s core curriculum, while very much a great-books program in its execution, has also carried, since its inception in 1919, a mandate to address “ the insistent problems of the present .” So one can criticize the ideological narrowness of the contemporary readings while still recognizing that the syllabus is trying to fulfill its academic mandate, not betray it.

Here, then, are four attempts at fulfilling that mandate but with a wider lens. I’m presenting these as potential modules, packaged similarly to the way the current Columbia curriculum packages its modern readings under “anticolonialism,” “race, gender and sexuality” and “climate and futures.” Note that I’m imagining these as supplements to those existing modules; if I were drawing up a complete syllabus, it would include more socialist and feminist and anticolonial perspectives. And obviously if tomorrow Columbia decided to supplement its syllabus along these lines, it could choose (or excerpt from) only a few of the books and essays I’ve listed; I’m just trying to show the range that each module might include.

The Secular and the Sacred

Harvey Cox, “The Secular City”; Philip Rieff, “The Triumph of the Therapeutic”; Tom Wolfe, “The ‘Me’ Decade and the Third Great Awakening”; Christopher Lasch, “The Culture of Narcissism”; Richard John Neuhaus, “The Naked Public Square”; Charles Taylor, “A Secular Age.”

Technology and Its Discontents

C.S. Lewis, “The Abolition of Man”; C.P. Snow, “The Two Cultures”; Marshall McLuhan, “Understanding Media”; Neil Postman, “Amusing Ourselves to Death”; Jaron Lanier, “You Are Not a Gadget”; Sherry Turkle, “Alone Together.”

After the Cold War

Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History?”; Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?”

Community, Solidarity, Inequality

Robert Nisbet, “The Quest for Community”; Michael Young, “The Rise of the Meritocracy”; Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone”; my colleague David Brooks, “Bobos in Paradise”; Lasch, “The Revolt of the Elites.”

You’ll notice that each of these modules includes conservative-leaning writers but none of them are titled “conservatism.” In my column, I mentioned the dearth of representation for the most important nonprogressive political ideologies, meaning especially modern conservatism and neoliberalism, and you could imagine explicitly building a module around that lacuna — with, say, Friedrich Hayek paired with James Burnham or Milton Friedman with Roger Scruton. But I think if you’re trying to grasp the world through a few key texts, it’s better to come at political ideas a bit more from the side, via figures who are less associated with a specific ideology or team. Fukuyama, for example, isn’t exactly an ideologist of neoliberalism, but if you read “The End of History?” (just the original essay , not necessarily the book), you’ll have a pretty good grasp of what the neoliberal era meant.

Finally, I am under no illusions that the Columbia core curriculum or any other attempt at a collegiate canon is actually the place where progressive orthodoxy is forged or soon-to-be protesters discover their ideological beliefs. The Columbia syllabus is interesting as a manifestation of a worldview, not as its origination; the point of origination is much more likely to be what future Ivy Leaguers are assigned in high school and what they’re given by the ambient culture, which could mean anything from social justice extracurriculars to TikTok discourse to young adult fiction.

So if you asked me what I would assign to readers in their late teenage years, generally, to challenge (or at least complicate) progressive groupthink, I might not even start with any of the texts listed above. Instead, I might try to assemble a list of narrative works, mostly novels and some nonfiction, not all of which would be aesthetically notable enough to fit into Columbia’s “literature humanities” syllabus but all of which would help broaden a too-narrow ideological picture of the world.

Here’s one such list, suitable for an enterprising high school senior or college freshman: Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World”; Lewis, “That Hideous Strength”; Joan Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” and “The White Album”; Ralph Ellison, “Invisible Man”; V.S. Naipaul, “A Bend in the River”; Wolfe, “Radical Chic” and “The Bonfire of the Vanities”; Philip Roth, “American Pastoral”; Michel Houellebecq, “The Elementary Particles”; P.D. James, “The Children of Men.”

That’s enough for now. Get back to me when your favorite students are caught up.

Dwight Garner reads an enfant terrible .

Dan Hitchens attends a disco at the cathedral .

Leah Libresco Sargeant contemplates Schrödinger’s persons.

Stanley Fish advises college administrators.

Ross Barkan and Freddie deBoer consider the uses of book publishing.

Jamie McGregor Smith cannot make me love brutalist church architecture.

This Week in Decadence

— Eric Goldman, “ Generative A.I. Is Doomed ” Santa Clara University (April 25)

It might be impossible to imagine today, but 1990s regulators often took a deferential and generally hands-off approach to the new technology. This stance was fueled by prevailing concerns that overly aggressive regulatory responses could distort or harm the emergence of this important innovation. As Congress said in 1996, its policy was “to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that presently exists for the internet and other interactive computer services, unfettered by federal or state regulation.” It was a remarkable and exceptional phase of regulator humility. In the mid-1990s, regulators could not anticipate or predict all of the internet’s uses that have emerged over the last three decades — or how those developments have benefited society. Had regulators hard-coded their limited and myopic 1990s conceptions of the internet into law, the internet never could have achieved those outcomes, and I think the world would be poorer for it. But mid-1990s regulators frequently admitted their myopia and unusually chose regulatory forbearance. Generative A.I. will not get a similar reception from regulators. Regulators are intervening now, acting on their unenlightened 2020s conceptions of what generative A.I. does. Because we can’t anticipate what generative A.I. is capable of and how new innovative uses will emerge over time, the interventions taking place today will unavoidably restrict generative A.I.’s potential upside.

Ross Douthat has been an Opinion columnist for The Times since 2009. He is the author, most recently, of “The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery.” @ DouthatNYT • Facebook

15 Best Examples of Professional Goals [+Tips to Achieve Them]

Published: May 01, 2024

“So, where do you see yourself five years from now?” Oof, that can be a tricky interview question, especially if you’re unsure of your professional goals.

When I graduated from college and started interviewing in my chosen field, I felt like I needed to plan my entire professional life, complete with one concrete end goal.

To be honest, it was overwhelming. I desperately needed actionable advice to plan steps to reach my professional goals.

In this post, we’ll define professional goals, provide examples, and give you tips so you can plan, meet, and exceed the goals you set for yourself.

What are professional goals?

Professional Goals Examples

Tips for Achieving Professional Goals

Work Towards Your Professional Goals

What Are Professional Goals?

Professional goals are achievements or milestones you hope to achieve in your career. These include personal and professional development, skill development, salary increases, career advancement, and switches.

Professional goals are often personal, but they don’t have to be. You can set professional goals for yourself and your team to help improve your organization and elevate it to the next level.

Free SMART Goal Template

A free template to help you create S.M.A.R.T. goals for marketing campaign success.

• Set your goals
• Calculate your metrics
• Evaluate your success

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

What makes a good professional goal?

What separates a professional goal from a wish is that professional goals are attainable and achievable when designed with the appropriate framework.

It’s important to point out that you might have one overarching professional goal, like “become professionally bilingual.”

However, under your overarching goal, you might have smaller, more manageable goals with a specific, actionable framework attached to them to help you reach your biggest goal.

The SMART goal framework is the perfect framework to apply to reach your big and small goals. The letters of SMART stand for:

Let’s examine each letter so that you understand how to structure your goals for maximum achievement.

When writing your own professional goals, you need to be specific. For example, if you want to become bilingual to position yourself ahead of your competition in the job market, you need to be specific about the language you’ll need to learn.

There are over 2,000 languages worldwide, but only one or two will be relevant to your job market. Take some time to research your field before choosing your second language.

In other words, you need to ensure your smaller goal is specific enough to help you reach your overarching goal.

If your goal is measurable, you can easily track your progress. You can make your goals measurable by including a number. For example, if your goal is to learn Spanish, a more measurable goal would be, “Learn five new Spanish vocabulary words.”

The difference between “Learn five new Spanish vocabulary words” and “Learn Spanish” is that you now have something to work on. Making your goals measurable can help break down the task, too.

If your goals aren’t attainable, there’s a good chance they’ll fall into the “wishes” category. By adjusting your goals to your ability, you have something to work towards.

Once you reach your initial goal, you can change your objectives for continued improvement.

Attainable goals are helpful because they help you see how far you’ve come from your baseline. Small wins are encouraging and can help you push through to the end.

The trick to the SMART goal framework is to keep your objectives relevant. For example, if I wanted to learn Spanish as a global sales rep, I would need to focus on learning vocabulary specific to my job.

While watching Spanish comedians might be a great way to learn new slang, it won’t help me communicate effectively and professionally with my clients.

Before setting your goals, ask yourself, “Will this goal help me reach my desired objective?” If the answer is yes, make sure it’s specific enough, measurable, and attainable. If the answer is no, this might be a goal you set aside and pick back up later.

Putting a time frame on your goal helps you increase your motivation and stay accountable for your progress. Plus, when your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, and relevant, you can track your progress and better visualize your wins.

If you’re like me and tend to get off track, SMART goals are your best friend.

Writing and implementing SMART goals can help you reach your professional goals much faster because you can break your ultimate objective into actionable steps. Think of them as your plan for success!

Professional Goal Examples

Ready to set a goal for yourself, but you need some examples? Here are FIFTEEN examples of professional goals:

1. Land an internship

If you’re a college student looking for work experience or want to enter a new industry, landing an internship is an excellent goal. Internships are a great way to gain the skills you need to be successful in your industry.

Plus, you’ll gain insider knowledge. You can acknowledge your experience on your resume, giving you a leg up on your competition.

Pro tip: Check with your local labor unions or your university’s Student Success Center for leads on potential internships.

2. Grow Your Network

When I decided to become a freelance writer, I knew I needed to grow my network and connect with others.

Growing your network is a good idea for many reasons, including collaborating with like-minded people and uncovering career opportunities.

Becoming active on social media platforms, like LinkedIn, and attending in-person meetings is a great way to make yourself available and gain new connections.

Pro tip: If you want to grow your network online, commit to regularly posting updates on social media. Social media management tools can help you keep up with your posts and nurture relationships with your followers.

3. Learn a New Skill

Increasing your skill set is a fantastic professional goal. Think about the skills you need to be successful in your work. Are there any skills you need to brush up on?

Or, if you’re looking to change careers or get a promotion, which skills will make your transition easier? Make a list and find ways to gain those skills, like taking a class or attending a seminar.

Pro tip: After making your list of desired skills, use the SMART goals framework to create an actionable learning plan.

4. Start a Podcast

Kaitlin Milliken, Senior Program Manager HubSpot, made starting a podcast one of her professional goals. Podcasting is a great way to gain technical and interviewing skills.

Milliken says, “One of my professional goals was to start a podcast. I was lucky enough to work as a multimedia producer at a startup that was looking to kick one off. I started by listening to other shows for inspiration — Reply All, The Journal, and Post Reports were really big at the time.

Miliken says she spoke with a few folks who had started their own hobby shows to get a sense of what gear was available within her budget.

"After that, I pitched ideas, wrote scripts, and started booking interviews. The big challenge was finding the time," she says. "I was still reporting stories, making newsletters, and creating videos in my role."

She explains, "I had to be very intentional about blocking off time on my calendar so I could accomplish this professional goal.”

Pro Tip: If starting a podcast is one of your professional goals, listen to related podcasts for inspiration for your own.

5. Earn a Professional Certificate

Depending on your job, you may need a professional certificate to advance your career. As a teacher, I needed to become licensed to teach my chosen subject. So, I spent a lot of time taking education courses to gain licensure.

If earning a professional certificate is on your list of professional goals, look for classes that offer relevant certifications. Then, commit to signing up for and completing the course.

Pro tip: Many companies offer continuing education courses for their employees. Take advantage of these offerings to advance your career and deepen your knowledge base. HubSpot Academy is also a great resource for learning new skills and receiving certifications.

6. Start a New Business or Company Initiative

Your personal goals can double as a company initiative, too. Not only will you benefit from gaining new skills, but your company benefits from your efforts, too. Caroline Forsey, Principal Marketing Manager at HubSpot, made starting a new company-wide initiative one of her professional goals.

Forsey says, “A professional goal I set for myself was to own the first thought leadership program at HubSpot -- I succeeded in doing so by leaning into team and company-wide goals and ensuring my program became indispensable to hitting those goals."

She explains, "So, for instance, I knew our team-wide goals were to grow organic traffic on the SERPs."

Rather than leaning into social or email views for my program, Forsey ensured she kept organic views top-of-mind with each piece of content she created for the program.

"I continued to ask myself: Does this have search intent? Is there MSV? Can I make it more SEO-optimized?" she explains. "It's always tempting to lean into personal interests when creating and working towards a goal, but it’s critical you keep the larger picture top-of-mind if you want it to gain buy-in from stakeholders.”

7. Become a Pro at Time Management

If you’re anything like me, the workday can slip by before you know it. And in times like that, productivity seems to go out the window. Becoming better at time management is an excellent professional goal and a necessary skill for many jobs within any industry.

To improve your time management, you might need to reduce your distractions or use a planner to schedule your workday.

Pro tip: Time blocking is a fantastic way to stay on task. At the start of each day, write down your to-do list and break it into smaller chunks that you can complete in a certain amount of time. Then, commit to completing those tasks during your given timeframe.

8. Increase Your Sales

If you’re in sales, you know how important it is for your company to reach your sales and revenue targets yearly. So, setting “Increase My Sales” as a personal and professional goal is not a bad idea. Take a look at your numbers, then determine where and how you need to improve it.

Pro tip: Check with your managers about their sales enablement program. Sales enablement can help you learn how to manage your sales more effectively.

9. Be a Star Employee

Becoming a star employee is really about advancing your career within your company. Erica Santiago, Marketing Manager at HubSpot, made this one of her professional goals and told me how she did it.

Santiago says, "A professional goal of mine at HubSpot was to really own a lane in terms of content so that I could be a go-to for certain projects and really get my name out in the company."

She says she noticed other writers and contributors seemed to really own a topic, and it helped them stand out.

"I wanted to do the same to set myself up for opportunities," she says. "I achieved this by taking a moment to ask myself what my strengths are, what topics I enjoy, and how these things tie in with HubSpot's greater goals."

Eventually, Santiago realized that the creator economy is a topic that she's really familiar with, thanks to the content creation she does outside of HubSpot.

She then realized there are content creators who could benefit from HubSpot’s marketing products and blog content.

"From there, I took it upon myself to write more content centered on creators and eventually started my series 'The Creative,'" she explains. "It‘s still getting off the ground, but the content that’s come out so far has proven it to be a promising project."

She continues, "Now, I‘m regularly assigned creator economy-based content, and I’ve carved my own niche within the marketing blog.”

10. Become a Mentor

If you feel you have a lot of industry experience and knowledge to share, consider making "Become a Mentor” one of your professional goals. As a mentor, you’ll gain leadership skills, like teaching, while positioning yourself as a leader in your field.

Pro tip: If you want to become a mentor, consider partnering with your manager to design a mentorship program for new employees. If your organization already has a mentorship program, sign up to share your knowledge with others.

11. Create a Work-Life Balance

As someone who works from home, it can be tempting to work 24/7. But one of the biggest reasons I started my own business was to have time for the things I wanted to pursue—like running a half marathon and working on my personal blog.

So, making it a goal to create a better work-life balance was a must! Time to refresh and recharge is critical to decreasing the chance of burnout.

Pro tip: Commit to keeping your work at work. That means getting into the habit of leaving unfinished tasks on your desk for the next day. You can always pick up on your tasks later.

12. Get a Promotion

Many people share the professional goal of working towards a promotion, which often comes with a salary increase.

Martina Bretous, Editor of HubSpot’s Next in AI blog, made getting a promotion her goal. But she didn’t sit idly by and wait for her managers to notice her. Instead, she made a plan and shared it with me.

Bretous says one of her professional goals was to become a blog editor at HubSpot.

"The first thing I did was ask blog editors to shadow them. This was a key part of my learning," she recalls. "I had to understand the day-to-day of the role and ask questions to understand initiatives, goals, and challenges.

She then took any opportunity to fill in when an editor was out of the office. This gave her the hands-on experience she was looking for before she was actually in the role full-time.

"All of this prep work set me up nicely so that when an opportunity presented itself to fill in that role, I was a shoo-in because I knew the property very well," she says. "Other editors could recommend me as someone who understood the blog and confirm that I had hands-on experience."

13. Become a Pro at Technology

Technology is constantly changing, which sometimes means our jobs change with it. If using technology is integral to your job, consider becoming a pro or super user of your tech stack.

This will help keep your skills current and set you up as the office go-to for assisting others in learning, too.

Pro tip: Depending on the tech you use in the office, many organizations offer training courses on how to use their products. Sign up for their email newsletter to stay on top of their training and product releases.

14. Publish Your Research

Publishing your research can set you up for success and position you as an industry expert. Consider writing and publishing your work in industry publications if this is a career goal.

You’ll gain new writing skills and learn how to promote your work to experts in the field.

Pro tip: Research industry publications and their submission guidelines. Each publication may have different submission guidelines, and it’s helpful to know them upfront to save time in the submission process later.

15. Receive an Award

It’s nice to be recognized for your dedication and hard work. Plus, recognition can add to your credibility and credentials as an expert. Receiving acknowledgments and an award takes time, though.

But if this is your professional goal, it’s well worth the effort.

Pro tip: Consider the backgrounds of the award winners within your industry. What did they do to stand out amongst the crowd? Use what you learn from their experiences to map your own path to success.

Be sure to make it your personal roadmap, though, to stand out.

Ready to set your goals in motion? Here are five tips from me and our HubSpot experts for achieving professional goals.

1. Lean Into Your Network

Your network is a gold mine of opportunity. Instead of “gold mine,” rebrand it to “goal mine.”

Milliken offers expert advice on using your network to achieve your professional goals:

“Make the most of your network. The chances are there’s someone you already know who has accomplished the professional goal you want to achieve. In my experience, people have been really generous about sharing their advice. You just need to reach out.”

2. Break Your Goals Down

If you’re not careful, your professional goals can become too big to achieve and manage. Instead, follow Bretous’ advice and break your goals into smaller pieces.

Bretous says, “My advice to anyone with a goal is to break it down into bite-size pieces. Because having a goal can get overwhelming when you see how much you have to accomplish to get there."

She explains, "To avoid that, break it into measurable, smaller goals that you can tackle on a daily or weekly basis. And don’t forget to lean on colleagues and managers for help in achieving this goal.”

3. Find a Mentor

You don’t have to tackle your goals alone. Support, especially from a mentor or manager, is invaluable.

Santiago suggests reaching out to your manager. 

“Share your goals with your manager so they can help steer you in the right direction," she explains. "When I first thought of The Creative, I wasn't sure how to pitch it or what direction to take it in. So, I reached out to my manager, and he helped me fill in the blanks."

4. Be Your Own Advocate

Advocating for yourself is a tough lesson to learn. However, if you want to achieve professional goals, you need to learn to be your own advocate.

Forsey agrees and offers two essential tips for advocating for yourself. Forsey says, “My tip for achieving personal goals is a) ensure your personal goals are aligned with larger business goals, and b) be a major advocate for yourself!"

She explains, "Let people across the company know the impact your goals are having on the company— and, equally importantly, make sure your manager as well as leadership is aware of your personal goals."

Forsey says to continue asking your manager things like, “My personal goal is X. What is your advice on how to get closer to that goal?” or “My personal goal is X. How am I measuring up when it comes to meeting that goal?”

"Having leadership aware of your personal goals helps create personal momentum even on the days that you're feeling less motivated," she says.

5. Seek Feedback

My last tip for achieving professional goals is to seek feedback. In my experience, feedback is an invaluable tool for guiding your personal improvement.

If your manager doesn’t directly offer feedback, don’t be afraid to ask for it. Their insights into your work can help you identify areas for improvement that you might not have been aware of.

Work Toward Your Professional Goals

Professional goals are more than things to check off your to-do list. Instead, they help advance your career and give you a purpose for your hard work.

Don’t let your goals get out of hand, though. Set yourself up for success by using the SMART goals framework and breaking your goals into smaller tasks. With this framework in place, you’ll hit your targets in no time!

Don't forget to share this post!

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Can you trust 2024 election polls on Donald Trump and Joe Biden? Here's how to cut through the noise.

Love them or hate them, political polls aren’t going anywhere. As the 2024 presidential election kicks into high gear, the internet will be flooded with surveys tracking the horserace between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Keeping track of the numbers can be daunting: Who's ahead in national polls? Who's ahead in state-level surveys? Figuring out which numbers to pay attention to – and whether any of it actually matters – can be even more challenging.  

Luckily, the USA TODAY Network has got you covered. Here’s a refresher on why polls matter, whether you can trust them and what to look out for this year.  

What do polls tell us about the election?  

Think of polls as quick snapshots rather than crystal ball readings.  

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

They don’t necessarily predict the results of an election. Rather, they’re used to gauge how people feel about a race during a specific period. Pollsters may ask questions about the future, but surveys have more to say about the voters' current temperature.

Polls also tend to have a short shelf life. Public opinion can shift quickly, meaning that the results of polls are often only a reliable measure of the state of a race during the time they were taken. 

A survey taken two months ago won’t reflect the state of a race today, and a poll fielded tomorrow won’t tell us who is going to win the presidential election in November.

However, that doesn't mean polls captured at the beginning of a campaign cycle don't matter. The insights from early polls tease out the major issues voters are thinking about that could shape the race.  They also help trace the trendlines of how a candidate is performing – whether they’re gaining traction, stagnating or losing support. 

Pollster John Zogby likened the importance of looking at early polling to checking benchmarks while trying to reach an exercise goal.  

“Am I going to get on the scale the day before to see how I did?” said Zogby. “No, I get on the scale every so often to say what am I doing? How am I doing? What am I doing right?” 

Conducting polls early in a race and often throughout the course of an election allows political scientists, journalists and the public to track trends and spot major inflection points in campaigns.  

Beware of two-candidate polls  

Not all polls are built the same. The way a survey is designed, from how questions are worded to the demographics of the participants chosen, can influence the accuracy of its results.  

David Paleologos , director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said political polls are most accurate when they replicate as closely as possible the questions and options voters will see on their ballot.

For instance, he said that polls on the 2024 presidential election should include choices beyond the two major party candidates – Trump and Biden – because most ballots will contain third-party and independent candidates who will garner some support.  

“If the polls only show a binary choice, between Trump or Biden, you're not getting the full picture,” Paleologos said.

He pointed to close margins in critical swing states, including Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia, during the 2020 election as an example. Trump lost in those states by fewer votes than Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgensen received.  

If Jorgensen had not been in the race, the results in those battlegrounds, and possibly the outcome of the election nationally, could have looked markedly different, Paleologos said.

The Libertarian Party hasn’t yet chosen its candidate for the 2024 election. But early polls that include the party and other independent candidates as options are likely to more accurately show how disaffected voters are looking at their options, he explained.

Suffolk University and USA TODAY have a partnership collecting polling data and insights.

Who's being polled?

Another factor that can impact a poll’s accuracy is the sample population surveyed. Polls randomly select a small sample of people designed to represent the broader views and attitudes of a larger population. But every organization uses different methodologies to create their samples.  

For instance, some election polls take the temperature of the general population, while others only include active voters or likely voters. They also may weigh demographic information, such as the ratio of Democrats to Republicans, differently.  

In the 2024 race, Zogby, author of the forthcoming book "Beyond the Horse Race: How to Read Polls and Why We Should," suggested that the most accurate polls include only likely voters, the pool of people already planning to cast a ballot in November.

“A likely voter today may not be a likely voter on October 31,” Zogby said, but capturing these voters allows political scientists to better understand the Americans who will choose the next president.

Should I pay attention to national polls or state surveys?

Pollsters were lambasted in 2016 for projecting that then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would win the election over Trump.

But national polls , which are supposed to reflect the popular vote across all states, were technically right. Overall, Clinton won nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump.  

So, what went wrong? Many analysts overstated Clinton’s lead in national polls, and few organizations conducted state-specific polls in former Democratic strongholds, such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, that Trump was able to capture. His wins in those states ultimately landed him the electoral college victory.  

That’s not to say that national polls are inferior to state polls, but you should think of them differently.

“National polls are more valuable to understand what the issues are impacting likely voters,” Paleologos said, while state polls better represent the horserace.

He and other polling experts told USA TODAY that Biden needs to lead Trump by three to four percentage points in a national poll to be tied with the Republican in the electoral college . That's because large liberal-leaning states like California and New York tend to tilt the results of national polls in Democrats’ favor, whereas the "electoral college these days skews Republican," Zogby said.

In other words, a national poll showing Biden and Trump tied would tell a similar story to a swing state poll that shows Trump leading Biden by a few points.  But generally, experts warn against comparing national and state surveys, which are built off of different methodologies, against one another.

Can you trust the polls?  

Mostly. Because polls are analyzing a myriad of shifting factors, they'll always have some level of uncertainty baked in, regardless of the specific election. Organizations also don’t collaborate on what states they plan to poll, or when, which means there’s always potential for blind spots, like in 2016. 

Some political observers rely on poll averages, such as a tally from Real Clear Politics. These are generally reliable, but they can miss trends.

But when interpreted properly, polls often provide an accurate portrait of the state of an election. 

“There are folks that will say, ‘Oh, you missed the election by two points,’” Zogby said. "Well, two points – that showed the ballpark of what was going to happen.” 

And the more polls there are, the easier it is to evaluate the race.