Choosing a Topic for Your College Essay
Write about something that is genuinely important to you. You might feel pressured to pick a topic that you’re not actually passionate about because you think it’s what the admissions office wants to hear, but Santos cautions against this. “Don’t try to write the essay that an admissions officer is after,” he says. “Write what you know. What do you actually care about? What comes naturally to you? If you go with that approach, you’ll probably have a more unique topic, one differentiated from other kids.” For example, you may feel like you need to come up with a super dramatic or showy topic because you think admissions officers respond well to these topics, but this can actually backfire. Your reader will likely be able to tell if you aren’t being authentic and honest about your experiences, and your essay probably won’t land as well. The most important thing is to be authentic, and to let your unique passions, ideas, and personality shine through. Remember, even topics that are seemingly small or ordinary can lead to some truly beautiful and poignant college essays!
Brainstorm about your personal characteristics, interests, and skills. To get started, Corredor recommends doing a bit of brainstorming about the things that make you you. “Creating a list of all of your different traits and interests would be the first step in a brainstorming session,” he says. Afterwards, you can start evaluating the list and narrowing it down until you’ve zeroed in on the traits that would be “most effective for college admissions purposes.” To narrow down your list, Corredor recommends asking yourself, “Which of these things about me would be helpful and contribute to a college environment?” He explains that things like leadership skills, discipline, and community building would all be great things to touch upon in your essay. Be careful not to overdo it, though. Your college essay will have a specific word count (usually 650), so you won’t have room to cover all your traits. “I would probably choose no more than two to three,” says Corredor.
Focus on themes and storytelling, rather than listing accomplishments. The admissions office will already have access to things like your grades, extracurriculars, and awards from your application forms and your transcript. Your essay is a chance to share things about yourself that aren’t immediately obvious from these documents, so don’t spend it listing out facts. Instead, focus on telling a story about your unique interests or experiences. If you have a good GPA, play water polo, and volunteer at an animal shelter, you don’t need to list all these things in your essay—they will be listed in other areas of your application. Instead, it's more effective to tell a story about how one of these experiences made you the person you are today. For example, maybe your experience at the shelter helped you realize your ambition of becoming a veterinarian, and maybe working there while juggling familial and academic responsibilities taught you discipline and determination. An essay that focuses on themes like these, rather than a laundry list of your traits and achievements, will end up being much more personal and engaging.
Make sure you’re actually answering the prompt. Whether you’re using the Common Application or a specific college’s platform, you’ll be responding to a prompt, rather than writing a general essay about who you are. “Oftentimes, high school students will write generic college essays that talk about the challenges they faced or something they overcame because these are common topics in [the admissions] space, but I think students need to be more customized and make sure they’re addressing the prompt and responding to the question,” explains Santos. For example, the Common Application releases 7 essay prompts several months before your application is due. If you're using the Common App, you’ll need to choose a prompts and directly respond to it in your essay. One prompt included in the list for 2024-2025 applications reads, “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?” If you were to pick this prompt, it would be important to make sure you’re not just recounting the story of the obstacle, but also addressing the second part of the prompt (how this obstacle affected you and what you learned from the experience). It would also be a good idea to address how the things you learned might shape your future success, since the beginning of the prompt uses this language.
Avoid writing about clichéd, overused, or controversial topics. In general, it’s a good idea to avoid the following essay topics: winning or losing a big sports game, the death of a pet, religious epiphanies, controversial political issues, friendship problems, bashing your parents, or travel experiences. College admissions experts also caution against humorous topics, since comedy is highly subjective, and there’s always the chance that your jokes won’t land, or that they’ll come across as unprofessional or inappropriate. This isn’t a hard and fast rule—if you’ve genuinely experienced one of the above topics and you think you have a unique perspective or angle to share, you may still be able to write a great essay on it. However, if there’s another topic you’re thinking about that may be more fresh, uncommon, or interesting, it might be best to go in that direction, instead.
Tips for Writing and Structuring a Strong College Essay
Start with an attention-grabber. Santos explains that it’s important to grab the reader’s attention within the first few lines of your essay. Remember, the admissions officer will be reading tons and tons of college essays, so a punchy opening that captures their attention makes a huge difference. Here are some suggestions: Share a meaningful personal anecdote or a famous quote that relates to the themes you’ll be addressing in your essay. Ask a thoughtful question that you’ll be answering in your essay. Make a surprising or unexpected statement that you’ll elaborate on in your essay.
Make sure your essay has a clear beginning, middle, and end. You don’t need to follow a typical 5-paragraph structure that you may have learned in high school, but it is important that your essay follows a clear progression. Don't write one long, rambling paragraph, or a stream-of-consciousness. Instead, break up your essay into digestible paragraphs, and take the reader on a clear journey that ends in a distinctly different place from where they started. For example, if you’ve decided to focus on your passion for marine biology in your essay, you might start with a hook about the first time you visited an aquarium as a child, and how fascinated you were with everything you saw. The middle of your essay could then focus on the ways your love for marine biology deepened throughout high school, including any classes, clubs, or extracurriculars you participated in to learn more about aquatic life. Finally, you could end your essay with the reason you want to continue studying marine biology at a university, why you’re so passionate about this field, and how your love for the subject makes you the person you are today.
Write in your own unique voice. You don’t need to use overly stiff, academic, or flowery language to impress the admissions officer reading your essay. In fact, they’ll likely be able to tell if you’re writing in a voice that isn’t genuine to you, and this tends to have a negative effect. Instead, focus on writing in your real voice, without changing up your whole vocabulary and sentence structure. This doesn’t mean being overly casual or informal—this is still a college essay, after all! It simply means writing in a way that feels true to your style. To assess the tone and flow of your essay, try reading it out loud. You might not be able to see that your language is stiff or awkward when you’re reading, but you’ll likely be able to hear it when it’s spoken aloud.
Start early, and give yourself lots of time to finish your essay. A college essay is typically pretty short (about 650 words), but this doesn’t mean that you should wait until the last minute. A good college essay will require lots of brainstorming, outlining, proofreading, and potentially re-writing, so it’s always best to start well in advance of the deadline. Don’t be afraid to write several different drafts, or to start over completely if you realize that the topic you chose just isn’t working. If you start early, you’ll have plenty of time to change your plan, if necessary.
Proofread, proofread, and proofread again. In a college essay, perfect punctuation, spelling, and grammar truly matter. This indicates discipline and attention to detail, which are traits your admissions officer definitely wants to see in your application. Reread your essay a few times on your own and make any necessary edits, and then give it to a teacher or college counselor for a final look-over. This will ensure that your essay is as polished as it possibly can be!
Editor Advice
“It’s important to write about something you’re truly passionate about, even if it’s not a sensational or showy topic.” “In my college essay, wrote about my two biggest passions at the time, which were studying literature and being a singer-songwriter. I focused on how these two interests were connected by a common thread: my desire to understand and empathize with others."- staff writer Annabelle R. "First, I explained how reading books gave me a chance to put myself in character’s shoes and explore their mind. I then connected this to my passion for music, explaining that my process for songwriting involved reading deeply into my interactions with others and turning these observations into art.” “This essay topic may not have been the flashiest choice, but it was deeply personal and meaningful to me, and it seemed to pay off—I was accepted into my dream school." The bottom line? I think the best course of action for a college essay is to write about something you care about deeply, something that reveals a truth about who you are. Honesty, vulnerability, and authenticity are key here!”
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