Applying for college and financial aid is hard enough. It’s even harder when your application essay can determine whether you get into your dream school. No pressure, right?
Here’s the secret: You don’t need to have a 4.0 GPA or perfect SAT score or be the president of every high school club to get into your college of choice. At universities like Ivy League schools with the most competitive acceptance rates, a strong essay can improve your chances of impressing the admissions officers and getting into your dream school.
Even when using the common app, college admissions essays aren’t always one-size-fits-all. While you can reuse some of your main ideas, the supplemental essays that stand out are the ones that show why you’re a good fit for each school you’re applying to.
So, what are the college admissions staff looking for in your application essay? We’ll cover some of the most popular essay questions and provide tips for writing a great college essay.
9 college application essay topics & prompts
A personal essay is all about applying your experiences in a targeted way. But with so many different essay prompts, what’s the best way to approach each one? Below are some of the most common essay questions.
“Tell us about your story.”
Here, college admissions staff want to learn about the unique parts of your identity you’d bring to campus.
You could discuss your heritage or a special interest that defines your life. Remember that college admissions officers read thousands of essays, and other students likely have similar stories. Avoid cliche phrases and ideas; use specific examples from your life to make your essay engaging.
“Tell us about an obstacle you overcame.”
A strong essay about obstacles showcases your resilience to the admissions counselors. The obstacles you write about could be internal, such as facing mental health struggles, or external, like moving across the country and adjusting to a new high school. Explain what the topic of your choice reveals about you.
“What's an important issue you care about?”
Essay prompts about issues invite you to explore what you want to accomplish. Make the issue personal and use it as an opportunity to be creative. Writing about a niche issue, like the conservation of your favorite animal, will set you apart more than a vague or cliche problem like climate change.
“Tell us about a time you failed and what you learned from it.”
How you react to failure is more important than the failure itself. Reframe your failure as an opportunity for personal growth. Don’t forget to explain to the admissions committee how the failure taught you to face future situations with a wiser mindset.
“What do you hope to accomplish by attending college?”
Here, admissions officers want to know how their school can help you attain your goals. Why are you a good fit for the specific school or program?
Work backward when brainstorming for this personal essay. Start with why you want to attend (e.g., a specific major or degree program) and think of examples to support why you can see yourself on that specific college campus.
Are you interested in a school because of its smaller faculty-to-student ratio? Talk about your interpersonal skills and why you think you’ll fit into a cozy environment. If you want to participate in extracurricular activities, include examples of your high school club involvement, especially within the last year.
Your College Rover account keeps all of this college-specific information a click away.
“Who do you admire and why?”
When brainstorming for this personal essay, consider your big goals by connecting them to a specific person. The topic of your choice could be a well-known figure or a family member. Take what you admire in that person and explain how it informs how you want to show up in the world.
“Tell us about a time when you challenged a pre-existing worldview.”
To write this personal essay, think of a time you respectfully challenged an opinion that differed from your own. Keep the focus on your personal growth instead of on why the opposing idea was wrong. This is a great opportunity to show how you can reach outside of your specific perspective and engage with difficult ideas in a mature way — which is what college is all about!
“Tell us about a problem you would like to solve.”
These essay prompts let you write about any problem, big or small. The trick here is to make a big problem personal and a small problem universal.
If you choose a large problem, like homelessness or access to medical care, narrow the issue to your personal experience. Why is such a big problem personal to you? How has it affected your choice to pursue a specific degree or career?
If you choose a small problem, like helping your grandfather find his TV remote, explain why it matters. Maybe you want to pursue engineering and attached the remote to his chair so he always knows where it is. What are the bigger implications of fixing the problem for those around you?
“Pick a quote that describes you and explain why you connect with it.”
This prompt is a great opportunity to showcase your personality and creativity. Here, the college admissions staff wants to know how you think.
You can choose a serious quote from a favorite author or historic world-changer or draw inspiration from a fun TV show or celebrity. In either case, go deep into stories from your personal experience and showcase your introspective abilities.
College application essay tips to consider
- Stay focused. Going off on a tangent can be easy when writing about yourself. You might write about your love for fishing and what it’s taught you about life, but do the college admissions staff need to know about the best lures for catching trout? Probably not. Remember that every paragraph should connect to the essay's main idea or thesis — why you would add value to the school.
- Have a strong conclusion. The conclusion is the last thing in the reader’s mind, so it’s the perfect opportunity to make a lasting impact. A sneaky way to have a memorable conclusion is to include a callback to your opening paragraph. For example, you could start the essay with how you overcame a soccer injury and end the essay with the fact that you scored the winning goal in the championship game.
- Make an outline. Writer’s block happens. Keep the words coming by outlining the points you want to make and the supporting evidence. You can see where you need to add more information or cut unnecessary points by getting an overview. If you want to outline, remember to give yourself plenty of time to write the essay!
- Read it aloud. Reading your personal essay aloud makes awkward phrasing stick out. You’ll also be able to tell whether your voice is coming through. After all, the point of the essay is to get to know you better — you don’t want to sound like a robot! Speaking of robots, try a text-to-speech program. Some programs even read your personal essay with your favorite celebrity’s voice.
- Proofread. The personal statement essay helps college admissions staff understand what you’re like as a student — you don’t want typos to give them the wrong impression! Proofread your writing before submitting your essay to ensure it’s error-free.
- Work backward. When it comes to showing why you’re a good fit for a school or program, work backward. Start with why you want to attend, such as a specific major or degree program, then brainstorm examples to support why you can see yourself on that college campus. Your College Rover account keeps this college-specific information a click away.
Find the best school for you with College Rover
At College Rover, we understand that the college application process can be daunting. That’s why we’ve created tools and resources to simplify the college search process.
With our college search tool, you can spend less time looking for the right school and more time writing the great college essay that gets you there. Get started today!
