Choosing a Personal Essay Topic
From college admissions blogs to high school counselors to your neighbor’s mom, it seems like everyone has an opinion on what makes the best topic for an admissions essay. The differences in opinion can be overwhelming. Rather than listening to your great aunt recount the essay she scribbled down for her admission to XYZ University, let’s review advice straight from the source – the college admission offices themselves:
Work on Being Distinctive
“If you believe 10 or 20 or 100 students could write your exact essay, then it’s time to rethink your topic. Work on being distinctive. Here are some overused topics that essay readers have seen many (many) times:
Winning or losing the big game
Loss of friendships or relationships
Critiques of others (classmates, parents)
Pet deaths
Summer vacations
Write About Yourself, Not Your Grandma or Your Dog
“I have read really, really great essays about an applicant’s grandmother or an applicant’s dog. By the time we get to the end of the essay, I’m really, really excited to admit the applicant’s grandmother or their yellow labrador retriever, but we didn’t actually learn anything about the person who is applying to Notre Dame.”
Admissions Officers Have Read Thousands of Essays About Volunteering
“Many students naturally drift towards describing their experience during volunteering missions. However, you should understand two things: firstly, if you do so, you probably do it for the lack of something better and more interesting to write about, which is by definition a not very promising sign. Secondly, it is one of the most boring, clichéd and overused admission essay topics going around. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the majority of essays the admission board gets to deal with consists of samey descriptions of samey volunteering experiences and forced exhortations of how much it influenced the life and views of the applicant. Give them a break, choose something else, anything else.”
Write About What You’ve Done in High School, Not in Your Past
“If an essay is written about an experience that you had when you were five years old or when you were in seventh grade, a lot has happened since then. You’ve changed a lot. You’re 17 or 18. You’re applying to college now. So sometimes students will use that as a starting point and show some growth. But sometimes they’ll just get stuck in the past and we are just like, OK, but what about now?”
Be Careful Writing About Covid
“As we are still navigating uncertain times, you may be tempted to use .. the open essay, to write about recent events and how they have most certainly affected your life. “How I survived the Covid-19 lockdown” might well be on its way to become a recurring essay topic this coming year.
Before you chose this particular subject for your main essay, do ask yourself: What have I lived through that thousands (if not millions) of other high school students around the world have not also gone through? What is my angle on this? How would choosing this subject help me differentiate myself from others and help reveal my true personality? If you are struggling to find satisfying answers to these questions, another topic may be more appropriate.”
Be Unique
“I’ll share the simplest and best piece of advice I received when writing my essays: Write a story that couldn’t apply to someone else. Another way to put it: If you removed your name from your application and replaced it with someone else’s, your essay shouldn’t be able to apply to them.
Take Care in Writing About Tragic Experiences
“Tragic experiences are invariably extremely personal and require very careful handling to write about well and effectively without making it look as if you beg for sympathy. You may find a free essay or two to learn the ropes from, but even so, you are rather unlikely to get any bonus points for your choice of subject matter.”
Make Sure It’s About You
“If we threw your essay in with everyone’s in your senior class, your friends, teachers, and parents should be able to tell us which one was yours. Between what you write about and how you write your essay, it should scream “you” and ooze your personality. That also means that you need to write about yourself. I know – that can be hard! But the whole point of submitting this application is to help us understand why you would be a great fit for Vanderbilt, so make sure you are communicating that. If you tell us about why your mom or cousin or teacher inspire you, that’s great, but that also makes us want to admit them to Vanderbilt.”
Keep Focus on You, Not Your Hero
Boston College
“(Admission Director John) Mahoney cautioned that many students fall into the trap of writing about a hero in their lives. ‘After reading these, we’d often love to admit Mom or Dad, but they’ve told us nothing about themselves,’ he said.”
Don’t Try To Shock
“You’ll usually stand out for the wrong reasons. Your essay does not have to be traumatic, monumental, or even life-altering. It just has to be about you. No need to write a diary entry in which you share your deepest, darkest secrets. If you won’t share your essay with your family, then why let a complete stranger in an admissions office read it? “
Avoid Writing About How Awesome a Person You Are
“Writing an essay summarizing your accomplishments is a bad idea for two reasons. Firstly, it breaks one of the most important rules of storytelling, which is just as functional in an admission essay as it is in a movie: show, don’t tell. Reading for a few thousand words about your diverse accomplishments may summarize your achievements, but it is also just plain boring. If, however, you choose a particular example and demonstrate what kind of person you are through it, it is another matter entirely. Secondly, people bragging about their achievements are annoying, even if these achievements are genuine and laudable.”
Avoid the 4D’s
“I also would avoid what I call the Four D’s — death, divorce, depression and, my favorite, dating. While I am sure you can write a good essay about the first three topics, they are often difficult to write about in a mature and insightful way within 650 words. For instance, death essays usually end up being about carpe diem, living life to the fullest. This is something that we have all heard before, so it’s not original or new.”
Thoughts From Auburn’s Admission Office
“(Don’t) Be negative...…especially about your institution or other institutions. It can give your audience a general bad feeling—and worse, someone on the admissions committee may know who you are talking about.
(Don’t) Talk about hot-button social/political issues: You risk alienating your audience. Of course, the story you want to tell may demand you do both these things—but be sure you have a very good reason to do so.”
Thoughts From William and Mary’s Admission Office
The College of William and Mary
“DO NOT write about someone else. This is not an essay, it’s a personal statement. You may be able to compose a wonderfully eloquent essay about your grandfather or sibling or best friend or teacher (or insert any other person not you in the blank) and at the end of reading it, I may want to admit your grandfather (sibling, best friend, teacher) but I haven’t learned anything new about you; YOU ARE THE APPLICANT! If you think about the composition as a personal statement chances are you will be writing about yourself and that will make for a far more interesting (or at least applicable) read.
DO avoid being cliche. Believe me, we know that going abroad changed your worldview and made you more open to diversity. We know that indigent and downtrodden people can be good and happy people and we know that you learned that lesson on a mission or service trip. We know that when an injury prevented you from participating on your sports team your senior year you learned the value of teamwork and cheerleading. If I can tell you what the rest of your essay says after reading the first paragraph, that’s not a good sign.
DO NOT write an essay that hundreds of other applicants could write. At age 17 or 18 many of your experiences are similar (death of a grandparent, first time abroad, exposure to diversity, etc).
DO pick a topic that is uniquely you …. So, as you ponder your college essay topic, search for something that is unique about you. Whether that’s your collection of ’70s rock CDs or your obsession with shoes. Maybe you were brought up overseas or maybe you have been on an African safari. Perhaps you are a fantasy football superstar or maybe you are passionate about cheesy romance novels. Whatever that topic is, make sure it’s uniquely you. It doesn’t have to be grandiose or particularly moving. There is no need for you to pack 17 years into 500 words. Just be yourself.”
Thoughts From Duke’s Admission Office
“College essays about service to others, either at home or abroad, can be moving to read but difficult to effectively write, given the short amount of space students are allotted for a college essay, some experts say. The Common App essay is limited to 650 words, for example. The idea of other people who are less advantaged being used as the vehicle for someone's increased self-awareness is how that can come across sometimes," (Dean of Admissions Christoph) Guttentag says, "and I think that can be difficult to pull off."
A student's motivation for choosing this topic also matters. If applicants decide to write about service, they should do so because their experience has led to thought and reflection, not because they feel like this is a topic admissions officers expect them to write about, Guttentag says.”
Ready to go?
College a la Carte can help you brainstorm potential essay topics and refine your essay as you work through it. See the services on our website at www.collegealacarte.org.
