College Essay Topics to Avoid or Rethink
With 10,000 things inside you…why choose the few that aren’t the best bet for your college essay topics? If you’ve been on the planet roughly 17 years, you have PLENTY to write about.
While I have seen students write great, successful college admissions essays on almost every topic imaginable, including ones we’ll advise against here, there are some topics that take you into risky territory. Those risks may not be worth the possible strike against your admissions options.
In the end, you decide.
Certain college essay topics are considered particularly inappropriate to write about for this purpose (admissions) or are best to avoid for very specific reasons. These topics:
- don’t really focus on you and your growth
- wade deep into trauma from which you may not yet have adequate emotional distance
- Make you look like someone who makes destructive choices, and might do so again
- are cliche or predictable in story arc
- Are B O R I N G
- Are better handled elsewhere in the application
Write those stories- but elsewhere
It’s NOT that those essay topics should not be written about, period. Many of them must be written about for the world–or your world–to go on with integrity and wholeness.
In fact, nothing (at all) should stop you from writing about no-no college essay topics of burning importance to you for another purpose. Sometimes, we have to free-write a personal essay that is pulling at our heart, masticating our mind or freeloading off us emotionally. We get it out on the page, and set it to the side for another day.
Only THEN can we craft one that is best suited for admissions readers and the application genre– which, like most genres, comes with its important constraints.
As a coach, teacher, and person, I’m never a proponent of self-censorship. However, knowing your audience is a crucial part of admissions essay (and any writing) success.
Here, I’ll lay out some of the most common topics that I’d suggest you think twice before writing about, and why I’m cautioning you against using them– unless you find a distinctive, *original* angle in.
If you’re set on using one of these topics anyway, because, you know, you do you, please get tailored guidance from an experienced coach, mentor or teacher about the best approach.
Note: It might be crucial to touch on or include some of these topic as part of the CONTEXT or background for whatever your essay is about, but you should not necessarily make them centerpiece or central story of the essay.
College Essay Topics You Might Want to Avoid Writing About
General Caveat Categories:
Not You
- Writing about someone else, however amazing or important they are, where you are the side character. (Ask yourself: is the college accepting me, or accepting my mom?)
- “It’s all due to God’s love/grace/strength” – essays that center religion /God’s strength rather than yours (God is not getting admitted to college that we know of!)
- How much you love your dog or cat, gerbil or parakeet. (Don’t we all! They are also not being admitted to college.)
Too much to process, trauma-based narratives
- Family Trauma or illness (includes mental illness) – you don’t owe anyone your trauma. It can be hard to process sufficiently, or to focus on your own traits in light of tragedies or deep adversity.
- Personal Trauma or illness (includes mental illness) – often unprocessed, and can take years to work out; can border on self-victimization, or dwelling in the dark (melodrama looms even when written well).
- Death of someone you love– It can turn into a eulogy; also, it takes a long time to process fully. Again: Is this about you?
Destructive choices- even if you’ve learned from them.
- Illicit substance use (yes, I was also once in high school. But why air this?)
- Lying (though stats say we tell little lies thousands of times per day, major lies are always a concern)
- Plagiarizing (you can be expelled at any moment – really).
- Self harm. Before even college admission, the priority here is mental health support. This is a triage situation – call 988.
- Violence against others.
The cliches come calling
- Sports Injury & Recovery (Got injured; got better; persevere!)
- Sports Victory after lots of effort (we expect worthwhile victories to be hard won)
- Divorce of parents and how you were torn (Divorce mostly sucks. And there is lots of fighting)
- Romantic Heartbreak (We also saw the movie).
It all happened so fast
- That trip you took that changed you forever…unless it really changed your life, like you survived a volcanic explosion. (Life changes tend to be more incremental)
- That community service day that made you a better person…unless it really made you a better person. (Voyeurism. Schools look for lasting commitments).
Snooze
- How you became amazingly skilled at a video game and went up many levels…(wheeeee. Play one, then write your college essay).
- Learning to manage your time well…
- The workload during junior year you almost couldn’t manage …(this is college too, so get ready! Junior year is like academic hazing for college)
Common App Gives you a different opportunity to write about….
- The Pandemic and remote/online school. We all had the roughly same experience during the COVID pandemic, unless you did something truly extraordinary. There is also a designated space in the Common App to talk about covid-related disruptions or extenuating circumstances.
- Working hard after a rough freshman year and getting straight A’s. (Schools hope you know how to do this – at least to some degree? The Common App also offers an “Additional Information” section where you can describe specific academic challenges that would otherwise be invisible to the admissions readers.)
TOPIC TEST!To Know if a topic works, ask yourself if your essay inarguably shows one or more of the following information/ideas: |
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When risky topics do work: it’s all about how the writer handles it, and what the essay is about UNDERNEATH the story you are telling.
Here are a few examples.
College Essay Topic Example 1: A star athlete football student tears his ACL, is out for the season or possibly longer, and goes through a deep depression…during which he starts knitting begrudgingly. He becomes an exceptional knitter and learns not only about using his hands to occupy his mind, but also joins a knitting community with the kinds of people he never would have met or bonded with in his 100% jock life.
College Essay Topic Example 2: A teen is facing the slow death of his grandma from cancer as he starts high school…but the essay focuses on their relationship in his childhood and into his early teens, when his dyslexia made it hard for him in school. His grandma coached him nightly through his workbooks, and did not let him avoid the challenge. When she got old and very sick, he made and brought her daily chicken sandwiches (a ritual and source of shared joy). She was a force of positivity and nurturance in his life, but the essay is really about how she helped him believe in and enact his competence.
College Essay Topic Example 3: A student has been raised in a deeply religious household, and she has always found comfort, faith and support in her religion/church community. When she gets to high school, she notices that a lot of her friends are lacking that sense of support and community, so she starts a Community Connections club where students can come together to work on community-facing projects (collecting donations, bringing recycling bins to their school, fundraising for the local women’s shelter) and build friendships and community along the way.
Considering one of the risky college essay topics?
Try defending your choice, in the space below, before committing. What are the counterarguments?
Example: “I want to write about the death of my aunt BECAUSE it also shows…. about me.”
Still not sure if your topic is a good one, or how to find that perfect angle in?
I can help.
Book a free consult or admissions intake session
If you’re clutching your grandma’s plastic pearls and still hoping to write about her, don’t worry: we can probably find your perfect, surprising angle into this college essay topic, where your grandma’s main job is to hold up a mirror to your character.
Book your complimentary consult HERE to discuss college essay topics and holistic writing support. Or contact us to request more information on services and fees.
If this list made you think twice about your topic, and you’re ready for immediate guidance, you can book an admissions essay intake session with me, HERE. Together, we’ll be the topic whisperer, generating new topics, or sharpening and freshening your angle on the college essay topic that appears on this list you’re still itching to write about.
Finally- my background is as a writing teacher, and I still teach writing beyond the scope of admissions. If you want help writing the essay of your life, even if you’ll never send it to college, I believe this is deeply worthy work. Please book a time to talk.
Credits
An earlier version of this piece was developed in conjunction with my thought-partner and co-consultant, Jackie Stowers, for the Cooperman College Scholars Program, where we are implementing a college essay intensive writing coaching program, as well as working directly with their students. The Cooperman Scholars are supported through all aspects of college access and success, and are a shining example of how attending college really can change lives and communities.
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