You probably clicked on this blog post hoping you would find specific advice about what topics or themes to avoid when writing the college application personal statement.
Let me disappoint you early: we believe that, with work, nearly any topic can make a successful college essay. Yes, even topics that typically top “college essay cliche” lists like athletics, mission trips, moving, or tragedy. One of our personal favorite “yes, you can really write about anything” examples was a successful essay a few years back about chicken nuggets!
But even though students can write about anything, there are some things to avoid. We have a whole webinar about the 10 Things Not To Do When Writing the College Essay, and today, we’ll discuss 5 essay types students shouldn’t write.
And if you’re realizing your rough draft looks an awful lot like one of these types… don’t worry, I’ll give you some tips on how to fix it!
THE “BRAGGING ABOUT MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS” ESSAY
It’s tempting to write about your greatest achievement or your proudest moment. Maybe it’s what you’re hearing from a parent, teacher, or friend that you should write your college essay about. And I get it! If you’re trying to put your best foot forward, wouldn’t it make sense to write about your best moments? You want colleges to know all the amazing things you’ve done.
But really, colleges are trying to get to know you through this essay - not just what you’ve done. They don’t want a laundry list of accomplishments. And only focusing on your crowning glories can come off a little bit boring at best and bragging at worst. Plus, that accomplishment is probably already captured in your application somewhere else (see: The Repetitive Essay).
How to fix it:
Think of your favorite stories where the main character has to accomplish a major feat. It doesn’t just happen for them - that’d be a boring story! You learn so much about the character’s motivations and core drivers as you watch them grow over time. There’s often more story in the journey, and the same may be true for you. Try refocusing your essay from this angle.
Keep those “journey stories” in mind as you’re writing. Does it bug you when a story or its takeaways are too predictable? (“Through hard work and the power of friendship, the underdogs managed to win after all…”) Make sure your journey isn’t falling into any cliche traps along the way!
THE REPETITIVE ESSAY
On average, essays are being read very quickly. Many colleges spend just minutes on whole applications (essays included!), so students should make the best use of their time by not presenting the same information in multiple locations of the application. For example, if a student is deeply involved in a particular activity like a sport or academic club, there’s a good chance that something related is showing up in at least one place on that student’s Activity List. Maybe they also asked their coach or club advisor for a letter of recommendation. They may have also needed to include some contextual details in the application’s Additional Information section. An essay on the same topic would just be more of the same.
To use your time effectively, essays should provide new information or, at the very least, give new context that can’t be gained anywhere else in the application.
How to fix it:
If it feels inauthentic not to write about something that you know is already well-represented elsewhere in your application, consider ways that you can make it part of your story rather than the whole story.
So instead of an essay solely about what you learned about yourself through playing volleyball, maybe you write about how you grew through a completely different experience, but use a story about volleyball as an example of applying that growth in another part of your life. That way, you’re showcasing more than one side of yourself to your reader but still getting to work in something that’s been important to you throughout high school.
THE ESSAY ABOUT SOMEONE ELSE
Sometimes, students have a hard time writing about themselves and have a tendency to hide in the scenery of their essays. Maybe the essay is about a family member or a role model. Maybe it’s about a team experience. Maybe it’s even about the student, but it’s a younger version of the student. Whatever or whoever the essay is about, the reader ends up learning more about someone else than they do about the student who is applying to college. And that’s a problem.
How to fix it:
No matter what your essay topic is—whether it’s Grandma or chicken nuggets—the real topic of your essay is YOU. Never lose sight of that.
If you’re writing about someone else, make sure that your reader walks away remembering more about how that person has impacted you than they do about anyone else. And if you’re writing about a younger version of yourself, don’t forget to catch the reader up to the present so they can learn about your most current self - the one who’s applying to college!
THE ENGLISH CLASS ESSAY
This is a tough one because students have mostly been taught to write in a very particular way throughout their school years. Things like “five paragraphs,” thesis statement, and topic sentences probably feel like your writing comfort zone. Especially if essay writing isn’t your favorite assignment. But this is not the time to break out the school rubric. The college essay is a different style of writing.
There aren’t as many rules here. It’s much less formal than a school essay. First-person is expected. Contractions are okay—and a great way to cut down on your word count! Even slang is fine if it’s appropriate. And please, don’t use a thesaurus!
You may think that a more academic essay makes you seem smarter to colleges, but really, it’s just more boring to read. And because academic writing generally lacks personality, colleges don’t get to know you which is the whole point of the college essay.
How to fix it:
Your essay should sound like you. So write the way you speak… with a few qualifiers. You’re going to want to have a little more formality than you would with your best friend. I tell students to think of telling a story to their favorite teacher. They’re going to have personality and still be themselves. They’re going to speak the way they speak. But because it’s a teacher, there is a line they aren’t going to cross. That’s what we’re going for here.
Also, know that while your essay is almost certainly being read too quickly for things like grammar to be evaluated with a red pen, you do want colleges to know that you put your best effort into this essay. It’s usually pretty obvious when someone hammered out their essay on their phone the night before a deadline. So plan ahead. Run it through a spell checker like Grammarly. Take time to write more than one draft.
THE ESSAY SOMEONE ELSE COULD WRITE
Before you start to panic, I’m not suggesting that you need to come up with a topic that no one else is writing about. From a numbers perspective, that might be statistically impossible (I talk more with Arielle on our podcast about this). But the truth is that many essays are written about universal experiences that many teenagers experience. And it’s equally true that many essays are not personal or reflective enough. The results of this combination are a lot of vague essays that could have been written by lots of students.
How to fix it:
The easiest way to make a college essay stand out is to add more personal details. Try going through your five senses or giving a glimpse of your inner thoughts to really bring the reader into your shoes.
A personal essay doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily writing about something that’s deeply personal but that you have included enough of yourself (your thoughts, your observations, your reflection) in your essay that no one else could have written it. That’s because no one else has lived your life the way you’ve lived it. No one else has thought your thoughts. If someone else experiencing the action of your story could produce the same essay, you’ve not added enough personal detail yet.