Admissions Prep: How to Choose an Essay Topic
And why I don't love prompt #2
The admissions essay is, for many students, one of the more anxiety producing parts of the application process.
There are a whole host of reasons for this, of course.
Some students aren’t super confident writers generally (and might get tempted by the siren call of generative AI). Some students believe that the essay matters a lot more than it actually might1. Unfortunately, the myth that trauma dumping is the key to success still leads too many students to worry that if they don’t have some sort of tragic tale of overcoming adversity, they’ll have nothing to write about.
The good news is that trauma is not required to write a compelling admissions essay and that a solid essay is within the grasp of any student willing to put in some work. It all starts with choosing the right topic… with the understanding the “right topic” is different for every student.
Before we dive into how to choose a topic, a couple of quick reminders about essays in general:
Not all applications will require essays and the lack of an essay requirement is NOT an indication of the quality of the school or the program. Plenty of great schools just don’t require them because their admissions criteria are based on objective and not subjective criteria
All good writing takes time and the admissions essay is no exception. It might be helpful to think about it having four phases that all require dedicated time: idea generation, first draft, review/edits, final drafts and polish. I encourage students to start the process in the summer before the senior year if they can.
Some schools will change their essay prompts every years and many will use the same and/or allow students to choose from essay prompts found on the Common App. Before spending too much time brainstorming topics, make sure you know that you are looking at the right essay prompts for the current application year.
Do not, DO NOT, do not - seriously, do not- use ChatGPT or other generative AI for the essay. Not only do the essays these tools produce suck (to use a technical term) but they can also contain plagiarized material and might get flagged as plagiarized or AI content by the admissions reviewer (or the software they use to check), which can lead to an application be rejected or an admissions decision rescinded if it is discovered after the fact
The best essays are the ones that have the strongest, most distinct voice. A great essay helps the admissions reader know something about who the student is or what the care about and what they’ll bring to the campus that nobody else could bring.
Most essays have pretty low word count limits, so there is really no room for fluff. Get into the topic quickly, aim for a strong opening and closing line, and make sure to fully use the available word count.
For students who are applying to ultra selective selective schools (the ones where less than 10% of their applicants get accepted): Yes, the essay is important but always remember that getting admitted to these schools is an inherently unfair process and that you can write the perfect essay and still not get in because the odds are not in any student’s favor. Do your best, but don’t blame yourself if you don’t get accepted.
On that cheery note, let’s talk essay topics!
First, a quick look at the Common App essay prompts:
In most years, prompts #7 and #2 are the most frequently used (and I blame #2 for why students think they need to have an adversity story to get in), so I often encourage students to consider using one of the other prompts instead. This might help their application stand out a little bit or at least give the person(s) reading essays a change of pace from all of the essay #2s they’ll surely be wading through.
Some students will look through that list of questions and have an immediate idea of what they want to write about. Other students might draw a blank at first. Either way, I suggest trying to generate a list of three to five possible topics. While they first topic they think of might be great, it can be helpful to have a few options to do some thinking about and maybe even early drafts to see which emerges as the strongest. They may also need to do more than one essay for some schools, so this will help with that as well.
How Parents Can Help
During the idea generating phase there are a few ways that parents, if they choose to, might be able to help (and that aren’t considered cheating or, in my mind, helicopter parenting):
Encourage your kid to set aside a dedicated hour or two some time in the summer to start brainstorming ideas
Consider if your kid is an internal or external processor. External processors often do better when they can talk aloud while they figure things out, so facing a blank page might be tough for them. For my external processor kid, my plan is to use the list of prompts below and have them answer them out loud while I either jot down notes for them or record it for them to listen to later. For my internal processor kid (yep, I’ve got both!), they’ll do better with the list of prompts and taking their own notes.
If your kid generates more than three to five topics, this is fine. Ask them to read you the list of ideas and pay attention to their tone and body language as they do. Which ones are they the most animated about? Which ones do you think they have on the list because they think they are “supposed to” but maybe aren’t all that interested in. Encourage them to focus in on the ones that made them light up the most.
Obviously these suggestions presume a certain willingness to engage with their parents that not all high school students have. Some students will want to have privacy around their essays, so it might be helpful to discuss with them who they could talk to about their topics or to review their draft if they aren’t comfortable with it being a family member. I’ll note here that some teachers or counselors might review essays if asked, but many won’t because of time constraints and in fairness to other students, so that may or may not be an option. I’ve seen some students posting their essays to Reddit and asking for feedback and WOW THAT IS A BAD IDEA. Not only does that fully open the door to someone stealing and using their essay, they also have no idea if the person giving them feedback is remotely qualified to do so or a strong reader/writer themselves.
(A quick note: paying a college consultant/coach to provide essay feedback is something that some families do. I don’t think it is necessary in a lot of cases and can be pricey, but is an option. IMHO, parents should beware of anyone who makes guarantees about getting in to highly selective schools, anyone whose only real qualification is that they went to a highly selective school2, or anyone who doesn’t actually have past professional experience working in an admissions office)
Brainstorming Prompts
I’ve worked with a lot of students on college admissions essays and often start with the list of prompts below to get them generating ideas, either in writing or out loud. I always start by reminding students that essays are meant to be personal and conversational, so they don’t need to try to have a formal or academic tone. Imagine that they were sitting at a coffee shop with someone that they felt comfortable with (a friend or a teacher perhaps) who asked them these questions and answer like you would answer them… it’s totally fine if the answers are random or rambling or you go down a conversational rabbit hole. There is plenty of time to refine and polish, so starting off messy is just fine!
The prompts:
Tell me about a time you went down an internet rabbit hole: what were you looking up and what did you discover?
What’s “on brand” for you? What are the things that make the people who know you say “oh, that is *so* NAME”? How do you feel about that being your brand?
Think of a person who loves you and knows you well… what is a story they like to tell about you? What does that story say about you?
You are going to be locked into an empty room for five hours with only a book and a chair. You get to chose the topic of the book - what are you choosing and why? Are you actually going to to read it?
Tell me about something that you’ve quit - what was it, why did you quit, what did you feel then and now about it (reminder: quitting can be a good thing or a hard thing or an easy thing … it’s not inherently a bad thing)?
What’s something that you think you love more than most people do?
What’s something you’ve realized you were wrong about?
What would your five, seven, ten, or 13 year old self be surprised about if they got to meet the current version of you?
What’s something you really, really wanted and then got? What was it, how’d you get it, did it live up to the hype?
Where do you feel like your most essential self?
When was the last time you felt grateful?
Thinking about your future self: what’s a problem that you want to solve? (this isn’t a “world peace” kind of answer… think smaller. It could be personal, community, career, etc. )
Who is someone who really sees you? What are some ways (small or large) that you can feel that? How does it feel to be around that person?
What’s something you aren’t sure about yet?
Is there anything that you are afraid you won’t accomplish or get to do in your life?
What’s something you wish people would ask you about?
What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?
This is a long list of questions, so most people won’t want to work through all of them and that’s okay! Start with the ones that spark the most interest and go from there.
Next Steps
After the brainstorming session (or sessions), it’s time for some reflection: which questions were the easiest or most fun to answer? Which made you want to keep talking/writing? Which ones would feel like the most fun to talk to about with your friends? Are there any where you think your answer would be different from most of the other students in your class?
Those reflections might help narrow down the list of topics and give a starting place to start thinking about how to use the notes from the brain storming session to start an essay.
For students who are able to use Common App essay prompts, ANY of the topics from the brainstorming session could be used for essay prompt #7, with the right kind of shaping. Some of the other brainstorming prompts might also naturally align with Common App essay topics as well, so they can start cross-walking their ideas to the list of prompts to see what might fit.
As they start fleshing out some of these ideas into essay topics, a few notes for the student to keep in mind:
It’s always good to start every project with the question “what problem am I trying to solve?” Remember that the problem the essay is trying to solve is that the person reading it doesn’t know who you are but wants to, so be your most authentic self.
You don’t have to try to connect your essay topic to why you want to go to that school (unless they have an essay prompt that is specifically asking you to address that) or why you want to study a particular major… unless that is an organic place for your essay to land.
You don’t have to jump right into drafting. Start with some bullet points or some details, words, or phrases think you might want to use and build from there.
A final note: it can take ideas some time to percolate, so taking a day or two after the brainstorming sessions off is fine. It can sometimes be helpful to come back to the notes and see what sparks interest or excitement after having some more time to think about it. The best gift a student can give themselves with the essay is the gift of time, so start early!
The essay can be a big factor in the application at highly selective schools and a much more minor factor at the rest of them, assuming the student has decent grades.
I am particularly eye rolly at the many, many, many people I’ve seen on Reddit and other social media sites who are current first or second year students at highly selective schools who are using their own admissions status as evidence that they have unlocked some secret about how to access higher ed.