How to write outstanding essays – the S.T.A.R. Story method
Do you want to ace your Naval Academy, West Point, or Air Force Academy essays? You’ve come to the right place. Stories are the most persuasive way to communicate your value, so you need to excel at telling your story. There’s a framework we teach that will help you tell a story in a concise, yet powerful way.
We promise you, if you apply what we teach here, you will be able to write outstanding essays for the Academies, and it will even improve your interview skills as well.
You’ll probably have 10-20 college essays that you’re will have to write. Communicating your value in written form is critical to your success.
Using the S.T.A.R. Framework
To lay the foundation of communicating your value we need to present the STAR framework. It is the best and most effective and most concise way to tell your story.
| Situation: | Background/setting of the story |
| Task: | Problem to be solved/Challenge to be overcome |
| Action: | Action steps you took to fix the problem. Should be 70% of the story. |
| Result: | Positive outcome Lesson Learned |
You lay the groundwork with your situation and the background of the story. Then, you talk about the problem to be solved or the challenge to be overcome briefly. You will spend most of your time talking about the action steps. What did you do to solve that problem or overcome that challenge? We then want to end in a strong way. Every good STAR story has a strong ending. We want to give the result, the positive outcome of the story, and the lesson learned if its appropriate.
Why is it important to prepare your STAR stories?
You are going to use these STAR Stories in most of the essays.
| Type | Example Question | Key Characteristic | Strategy | Essays |
| Why | Why do you want to attend a Service Academy? OR What led to your initial interest in naval service and how will USNA help you achieve your long range goals? | Credible Enthusiasm | -Personal Examples -Specific Career Path | Congressional USMA 1 USNA 1 USCGA 1 USMMA AROTC 1 NROTC 1 NROTC 5 Marine NROTC 1 |
| Character | Describe a setback or ethical dilemma that you have faced. How did you resolve it, what did you learn about yourself, and how would you handle a similar situation in the future? | Resilience Self-Awareness | *STAR Story | USAFA 1 USMA 2 USNA 2 NROTC 1 USCGA 3 Marine NROTC 1 |
| Achievement | What attributes, life experiences, unique perspectives, and/or special talents do you possess that would contribute to the classroom, student body, and/or USAFA? | Leadership Selflessness | *STAR Story | USAFA 2 AROTC 3 NROTC 4 Marine NROTC 2 |
| Diversity | Why will you be successful in working with leaders, peers, and subordinates of a gender, color, ethnicity, and/or religion different from your own? | Empathy Collaborative | *STAR Story | USMA 3 USCGA 2 NROTC 2 Marine NROTC 3 |
| Open | Provide any additional information you believe will be of assistance in evaluating your application. | Any of the above | Any of the above | USAFA 3 USCGA 4 |
Characteristics of STAR Stories
All great STAR Stories have the following characteristics:
- You must be the central player in the story. We want you to be the main character, we want you to be the protagonist.
- There must be a significant challenge. Something that actually captures the reader’s attention. We are all programmed in our brains to recognize when a significant challenge occurs. That’s why all great movies introduce a significant challenge or a significant problem to be solved at the very beginning. Our brain stays focused on that problem or challenge throughout the whole movie until we finally find out in the end if the main character going to be able to solve this story.
- The story must have an impressive ending. A strong ending can be characterized in a character essay as reflective and insightful. An achievement essay should be climactic or deeply impactful on others.
Those are the 3 great characteristics of STAR Stories. All great stories have those 3 characteristics. Think about any great movie or book you read. We want you to have the same thing! If you’re not the protagonist, then why are we even talking about it. If there’s not a significant problem, people are going to drift and they’re not going to pay attention. If there’s not a strong ending, they’re going to be left wondering that there were loose ends that weren’t tied.
Action Step: Brainstorm 7 STAR Stories
Now that you know what a STAR story is, and which Academy essay questions need STAR Stories, its your turn to get to work! Open up a word document, and make a grid of S-T-A-R. Now fill in the grid with 7 stories that describe yourself, using the example questions in the table above as inspiration. Go!
