The personal essay is easily one of the most difficult parts of the college application process. How can someone describe themselves in such a short amount of space, especially when all their accomplishments are listed on the page before and they don’t want to sound repetitive? There are a few clichés to avoid in the college essay world. Keep reading to find out what to avoid and what to take advantage of in your college essay-writing journey.
The worst of the worst
Okay, let's get the bad ones out of the way first. College admission committees read a lot of essays, and they've likely heard a lot of these things before and are looking for something more unique.
The sports game
A great college admission essay makes the reader say something along the lines of, “Wow, I’ve never heard of someone who did/experienced that before.” Know what nearly everyone has experienced before? Winning or losing at something. More specifically, almost everyone has either won or lost a sports game. Talking about your experience coping with your win or loss will pile you in with every other applicant with an athletic story the admission officer reads about that day, aka the exact opposite of what you want to happen to you and your beloved essay.
The breakup
A lot like dating a bad boy, this essay is tempting. Talking about your love life seems deep. Maybe a breakup feels like the biggest hardship you've faced thus far, or you think the way you supported your 10th-grade girlfriend during her science competition seems like a great metaphor for how you plan to support your university community. However, just like with any other piece of writing, you need to know your audience. And in this case, your audience doesn't care about your high school relationship. College admission officers have not been in high school for a very long time. They might have been through a divorce or had to support their spouse through an impactful loss. Either way, they have a bit more perspective on relationships than the average high school senior, so they won't find the demise of your high school relationship as poignant as you do.
The mission trip
Everyone who has been to a Third World country wants to write about the time they saw real poverty and extrapolate on how their lives were never the same after said experience. While that experience may have really affected your life, it affects the lives of thousands of upper-middle-class students around America in the exact same way, and they're all writing the same essay about it as we speak. But okay, if your mission trip really feels like what you need to tell your dream school about, try talking about a specific experience, like a conversation you had with someone who lived there. The cliché service trip essay often sounds incredibly vague, so if you feel compelled to talk about your experience, make sure you tell a very specific story that brings the reader into a certain moment with you.
The “just to be different” essay
I once had a friend show me an essay he wrote in which he had to describe the best day of his life. Naturally, he wrote about the time he slept until five in the evening, ate some ice cream, then went back to sleep. However, he was not a lazy kid at all. He was really into piano and lacrosse, but he wanted his essay to sound off the beaten path and unique. So rather than talking about one of his passions, he decided to write about something he knew no one else would try: The time he slept all day. Unfortunately, there's a really good reason no one else wrote that essay. It's gimmicky. The same goes for trying to be creative and responding with one word, one sentence, or a poem. Although those are very different responses from what admission officers read, this does not mean they are good responses.
Related: College Admission Essay Ideas That Just Don't Work
Better essay ideas for your best essay
Now that you know what to avoid, let's talk about essay ideas that you should gravitate toward because they'll help you really showcase who you are as a person.
How your unique childhood has shaped you
The first time I went to Harvard University to hang out with friends, I met a student who was raised by wolves. Yes, you read that right; she actually grew up in a wolf rehabilitation community. Sure, she was also a model and an Economics major, but the whole raised by wolves thing was definitely more memorable than anything else about her. If you grew up in a unique way that affects who you are now, it might be worth writing about in a college essay to make your application more memorable. Take that, find a good angle, and really show the college why you're unique.
Focusing on a moment
If you decide you have to talk about one of the cliché essay topics mentioned above, a good way to tell a more common story is to focus on one specific moment and build from there. For instance, if you feel you absolutely have to write about field hockey in your essay, don't write about some vague game and how good it felt when your team won. Instead, write about the sound the ball makes hitting the back of the goal, how your adrenaline changes, and how all the sounds around slowly rush into your ears afterward. After describing the moment, connect its significance to some larger idea, meaning, or characteristic about yourself. Focusing on a moment that changed your life—such as the time your dad told you the family was moving to a different country—can also function well in your college essay.
Personality pic
A good friend of mine in high school had to answer an interesting question for the school he ended up attending. The university’s supplemental application asked him to describe one of his quirks. I distinctly recall reading his essay about him being a storyteller above all else and visibly grinning as my eyes passed over each line because the essay was just so genuine for him. He was a storyteller; he told all of us tales of his fly-fishing summer job in the Adirondacks, of wolves that spoke to him while he was camping, and of his skydiving uncle like he was a superhero in a comic book.
The storyteller's anecdote never would have come through in the rest of his Common Application if he hadn't had the essay prompt to answer, but it was truly one of his most significant personality traits. So, lesson learned, read over your Common Application and ask yourself: What’s missing? The answer to that question could be a great basis for your admission essay.
Passion for literature
If you have a friend or family member who reads a lot of books in their free time, I bet you think they’re pretty intelligent. Fortunately, colleges will think the same thing about you if you decide to incorporate your love of literature into your essay. Maybe you have a book in which you strongly relate to one of the characters. Perhaps a philosophical text really elucidates your current paradigm. Or maybe you strive to write like a certain author one day. Whatever the case, you really cannot go wrong writing about the literature you love, as your passion for it will shine through the pages.
Related: Top College Admission Essay Myths Debunked
There's a good and a bad to everything—and your college application essay is no different. Don't think of it as any old essay that you can write on any old topic. Make sure you take the time and really find the story and moment that will make you shine to admission committees.
We hope these tips help guide your topic selection when it comes time to write your college application essay! Find even more college essay advice in our Application Essay Clinic.
