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 Continue Reading …