what are the worst college essay topics

• [email protected]
• (650) 338-8226

Cupertino, CA

• Our Philosophy
• Our Results
• News, Media, and Press
• Common Application
• College Application Essay Editing
• Extracurricular Planning
• Academic Guidance
• Summer Programs
• Interview Preparation

Middle School

• Pre-High School Consultation
• Boarding School Admissions

College Admissions

• Academic and Extracurricular Profile Evaluation
• Senior Editor College Application Program
• Summer Program Applications
• Private Consulting Program
• Transfer Admissions
• UC Transfer Admissions
• Ivy League Transfer Admissions

Graduate Admissions

• Graduate School Admissions
• MBA Admissions

Private Tutoring

• SAT/ACT Tutoring
• AP Exam Tutoring
• Olympiad Training

Research Programs

• Science Research Program
• Humanities Competitions
• Passion Project Program
• Ad Hoc Consulting
• Athletic Recruitment
• National Universities Rankings
• Liberal Arts Colleges Rankings
• Public Schools Rankings

Acceptance Rates

• University Acceptance Rates
• Transfer Acceptance Rates
• Supplemental Essays
• College Admissions Data
• Chances Calculator
• GPA Calculator

National Universities

• College Acceptance Rates
• College Overall Acceptance Rates
• College Regular Acceptance Rates
• College Early Acceptance Rates
• Ivy League Acceptance Rates
• Ivy League Overall Acceptance Rates
• Ivy League Regular Acceptance Rates
• Ivy League Early Acceptance Rates

Public Schools

• Public Schools Acceptance Rates
• Public Schools Overall Acceptance Rates
• Public Schools Regular Acceptance Rates
• Public Schools Early Acceptance Rates

Liberal Arts

• Liberal Arts Colleges Acceptance Rates
• Liberal Arts Colleges Overall Acceptance Rates
• Liberal Arts Colleges Regular Acceptance Rates
• Liberal Arts Colleges Early Acceptance Rates

10 College Essay Topics to Avoid

By Eric Eng

What makes a good college essay? This is a common question among high school seniors during the application process. A successful college essay captivates admissions officers and reveals the student’s identity and personality, creating a vivid picture that extends beyond grades and test scores, ultimately compelling the reader to advocate for the student’s admission. Thus, students must know which college essay topics to avoid.

Essays play a crucial role in the college admissions process. A well-crafted essay can significantly boost your chances of acceptance, while a poorly written one can jeopardize your prospects.

How can you ensure your college essays stand out? Sometimes, understanding the pitfalls to avoid is the best strategy. In this guide, we’ll explore the college essay topics to steer clear of and offer helpful tips to make your essays shine in the competitive admissions landscape.

Topics To Avoid In Your College Essays

Summary of Your Achievements and Transcripts

Why avoid it

• Redundant Information: Admissions officers already have access to your activities list and transcripts. Rehashing this information in your essay is redundant and doesn’t add any new insight into who you are as a person.
• Missed Opportunity: The essay is your chance to showcase your personality, values, and unique experiences. Repeating what’s already documented in your application wastes an opportunity to present a deeper, more personal narrative.
• Lack of Depth: This approach often results in a superficial essay that lacks depth and fails to provide a compelling story or insight.

Admissions officers may view this as a sign of laziness or a lack of creativity which is why this is one of the most common college essay topics to avoid. They might think you didn’t put in the effort to craft a meaningful essay. Is it so wrong to focus on what you have achieved during high school? It is not, but the main problem is that it misses the essay’s purpose—they won’t get a true sense of who you are.

With limited words, a long list of achievements will feel cramped and lack depth. In fact, it is considered one of the most overused college essay topics. There won’t be enough room to provide context or to showcase your personality. You already have the Activities List and Additional Info sections for these details. Ultimately, it’s far more effective to craft your essay around a single impactful experience rather than turning it into a resume.

Romantic Relationships and First Heartbreak

• Overly Personal: These topics can be very personal and may make the reader uncomfortable. They can also come off as immature if not handled with extreme care and maturity.
• Risk of TMI (Too Much Information): There is a fine line between sharing personal growth and oversharing. Admissions officers are looking for a professional, insightful narrative, not the details of your romantic life.
• Limited Universality: These experiences may not resonate with all readers, and they might be perceived as trivial compared to other potential topics.

Admissions officers might see essays on these topics as lacking maturity or relevance to your academic and personal development . Your love life isn’t relevant to the admissions committee. This makes it one of the Common App essay topics to avoid. Additionally, love is a vast and complex topic, making it unsuitable for a college application essay.

Another issue with this topic is that it shifts the focus away from you and onto someone else. Your essay should be centered on you, as you are the person the admissions committee wants to learn about. Make sure to put yourself first in your essay.

Your Life Hero

• Focus on Someone Else: This topic often results in an essay that focuses more on the hero than on you. Admissions officers want to learn about you, not someone you admire.
• Common Theme: Many students write about their heroes, making it a very common and less original topic.
• Lack of Personal Insight: These essays often fail to show how the hero’s influence has directly shaped your character, decisions, or future goals.

Admissions officers may see this as a missed opportunity to learn about you. They’re looking for essays that reflect your own experiences and perspectives. It’s a cliché college essay topic to avoid and not one of those good topics to write about. Much like writing about a romantic relationship, writing about your hero shifts the focus away from you and onto someone who isn’t applying to college.

That One Big Sports Challenge

• Overdone: Many students write about their sports experiences, making it one of the most common and clichéd topics.
• Predictable Plot: Sports stories often follow a predictable narrative arc (e.g., facing challenges, overcoming them, winning or losing a game), which doesn’t stand out.
• Focus on Events, Not Personal Growth: These essays can sometimes focus more on the events of the game rather than personal growth, lessons learned, or deeper reflections.

These essays may be viewed as generic unless the story offers a unique angle or deep personal insight that is rarely seen which is why this is one of the college essay topics to avoid. 

Another major reason to avoid writing a college essay about a sports challenge is that it requires a lot of words to explain the context of the game, key plays, and the outcome. This leaves little room for personal reflection or stylistic writing, resulting in an essay that may label you as a “generic athlete” to the admissions committee.

Instead, think critically about your experiences to find a unique and compelling topic. For example, Laura Stratton, Director of Admission at Scripps College in California, recalls an exceptionally well-written sports essay about a student who was benched during a final game.

“The self-awareness the student showed by being a good team member, supporting her teammates, and staying positive despite not having the personal experience she wanted, spoke volumes about her character and the kind of roommate or classmate she would be.”

Private Confessions

• Inappropriate Content: Confessional essays can include sensitive or controversial topics that might not be appropriate for a college application.
• Risky Content: Sharing deeply personal issues or past mistakes might not portray you in the best light and can make readers uncomfortable.
• Lack of Positivity: These essays can sometimes come across as overly negative or self-pitying, which is not the tone you want to set.

Admissions officers might see these essays as risky and may question your judgment or maturity. If you feel guilty about something you’ve done that no one else knows about, it’s best not to share these confessions with the admissions committee. Such revelations likely won’t present you in the light you were hoping for.

Instead, focus on an experience that changed your perspective or how you navigated a challenging situation to the best of your ability. These anecdotes demonstrate growth, adaptability, and a willingness to change your viewpoint when presented with new information. These should be the topics to write about for college essay.

Unethical and Illegal Activities

• Negative Impression: Writing about illegal or unethical activities, even if you learned from them, can create a negative impression.
• Judgment Issues: Such topics can raise questions about your judgment and values.
• Inappropriate for Application: This content is generally considered inappropriate for a college application essay.

This topic will be viewed as a red flag, questioning your suitability for their institution making it one of the college essay topics to avoid. Even if it’s not an outright crime, you should avoid writing about unethical activities that reflect poorly on you. For instance, some students have written college essays about being caught cheating on a test and learning from the experience. While learning from mistakes is important, such an essay might lead the admissions committee to question your integrity and wonder if you’ll cheat on college tests and assignments.

The ideal essay topic should build trust with the committee and demonstrate that you’ll add value to the college. Writing about illegal or unethical activities makes this difficult to achieve.

Your Luck and Privilege 

• Tone-Deafness: Essays that focus on how fortunate or blessed you are can come across as tone-deaf, especially if you do not acknowledge your privilege.
• Lack of Hardship or Growth: These essays often fail to show personal growth or resilience since they emphasize luck rather than effort or overcoming challenges.
• Perceived Superficiality: They can seem superficial and may not provide the depth of insight admissions officers are looking for.

Admissions officers might perceive you as lacking awareness or depth in your reflections which makes this one of the Common App essay topics to avoid. If you want to discuss your privilege or blessings, focus on the experience that made you aware of your life circumstances.

Describe how this realization changed you—not just in terms of perspective, but also in your actions. Explain what you did in response to this awakening, ensuring you convey it without coming across as a savior. Admissions committees appreciate vulnerability and honesty.

Your Experience in Volunteering and Educational Trips

• Overdone Topic: Many students write about volunteer experiences, making it one of the most cliche college essays.
• Savior Complex: These essays can sometimes come across as having a savior complex or as condescending towards the people you helped.
• Superficial Reflection: They often fail to move beyond the surface level of the experience to offer deeper personal insights or growth.

These essays are often viewed as unoriginal and lacking depth unless you can provide a unique perspective or profound personal growth making it one of the college essay topics to avoid. 

If you’re determined to share an experience from a trip, choose one meaningful moment to focus on. Did you meet someone who significantly impacted your character or beliefs? Did you encounter an unexpected challenge that required you to rise to the occasion?

The Senior Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Student Aid at Bowdoin College , Whitney Soule, noted, “Overuse of a topic doesn’t make it a bad topic.” By honing in on one specific aspect of your trip, you can differentiate your essay and provide more depth than simply summarizing your entire excursion.

Destroying the ‘Box’

• Trying Too Hard to Be Different: Essays that try too hard to be unconventional can come across as forced or insincere. Good topics to write about always allow you to appear sincere and honest.
• Lack of Substance: Sometimes, these essays focus more on the format or the attempt to be different rather than the content and personal insight.
• Confusion: Unconventional essays can confuse or alienate the reader if not executed well.

These essays can be viewed as gimmicky and lacking in genuine reflection or substance. Being creative doesn’t require reinventing or destroying the wheel with your essay. Instead, focus on describing an anecdote or situation with detailed descriptions and vibrant imagery. Channel your creativity into your word choice and scene-setting. This approach will resonate more effectively with the admissions committee than a poem or song ever could (pun intended).

An Experience From Way Before High School

• Irrelevance: Admissions officers are more interested in your recent experiences and growth, particularly during high school.
• Lack of Current Reflection: Events from early childhood or before high school may not reflect your current maturity, skills, or perspectives.
• Missed Opportunity: Focusing on distant past events might cause you to miss the opportunity to showcase your more recent and relevant experiences and achievements.

Admissions officers may view these essays as irrelevant or uninformative about your current self, which is what they are most interested in. 

What do admissions officers look for in college essays?

Overall, colleges aim to understand who you are through your essays, focusing on your perspective, values, and unique voice. However, there’s a paradox in the essay prompts: they are often quite broad. For instance, a prompt might ask you to describe a time you overcame a challenge.

Many students assume the admissions committee is primarily interested in the challenge itself. In reality, what the committee truly wants to learn is more about you, and these prompts were created to reveal your character in an insightful manner.

Admissions officers look for several key elements in college essays to understand applicants better and determine their fit for the institution. Here are some important aspects they consider:

1. Authenticity

• Genuine Voice: They want to hear your unique voice and see your true self. Authenticity stands out and makes your essay memorable. The best topics to write about for college essay should bring out your unique and honest voice.
• Personal Stories: Sharing personal anecdotes and reflections helps convey who you are beyond your grades and test scores.

2. Self-Reflection

• Insights: Demonstrating self-awareness and the ability to reflect on your experiences is crucial. Admissions officers are interested in how you interpret and learn from your experiences.
• Growth: They look for evidence of personal growth and development over time.

3. Clear and Engaging Writing

• Clarity: Your essay should be well-written and easy to follow. Clear, concise writing is important.
• Engagement: The essay should capture and hold the reader’s interest from start to finish.

4. Specificity

• Details: Use specific details and examples to illustrate your points. Vivid descriptions make your story more compelling.
• Focus: Rather than covering too many topics, focus on one or two key experiences that highlight your strengths and personality.

5. Originality

• Unique Perspective: Offering a unique perspective or angle can make your essay stand out. Avoid clichés and overused topics unless you can present them in an original way.
• Creative Expression: Creativity in how you express your ideas can make your essay more memorable.

6. Relevance to the College

• Fit: Show why you are a good fit for the college and how the college is a good fit for you. Mention specific programs, opportunities, or values that attract you to the school.
• Contribution: Highlight how you plan to contribute to the college community and what you bring to the table.

7. Values and Character

• Integrity and Ethics: Admissions officers look for students who demonstrate strong moral character and integrity.
• Passion and Commitment: Showing passion for your interests and commitment to your goals is important.

8. Resilience and Problem-Solving

• Overcoming Challenges: Discussing how you’ve faced and overcome challenges can demonstrate resilience and problem-solving skills. The best topics to write about for college essay should demonstrate how you have overcome challenges and what you learned from them.
• Adaptability: Showing how you adapt to new situations and learn from them is valuable.
• Community Involvement: Essays that highlight your involvement in and impact on your community can be very compelling.
• Making a Difference: Demonstrating how you have made a positive difference, whether large or small, can be impactful.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are personal experiences I should not talk about in my college essays?

Avoid discussing overused college essay topics and sensitive personal experiences such as illegal activities, romantic relationships, deeply personal confessions, traumatic events, or controversial topics in your college application. Instead, focus on experiences that showcase your growth, character, and suitability for the college. We also highlighted the college essay topics to avoid to help you write great college admissions essays.

What topics might come across as arrogant or boastful in my college essays?

Topics that might come across as arrogant or boastful in college essays include excessive bragging about achievements, highlighting privilege without self-awareness, and focusing too much on personal success without acknowledging others’ contributions or showing humility.

How do I know if an essay topic is overdone or unoriginal?

An essay topic is likely overdone or unoriginal if it frequently appears in common advice articles, feels generic, or lacks a unique personal angle. Researching overused college essay topics and common essay themes and seeking feedback can help determine their originality. To stand out, try to find a unique perspective or a more personal approach to these topics.

What are considered cliche college essays?

Cliché college essays typically include topics such as:

• Overcoming a sports injury
• The “big game” sports story
• Mission trips or volunteer experiences abroad
• Essays about a hero or influential person
• Generic reflections on personal growth
• Descriptions of a family member’s illness or death
• Essays centered around romantic relationships or breakups
• Stories of achieving academic success or winning awards without deeper personal insight

These topics are often overused and can lack the personal, unique touch that admissions officers seek.

Do I steer clear from writing about controversial and polarizing political or religious beliefs in my college essays?

Yes, it’s generally advisable to steer clear of writing about controversial and polarizing political or religious beliefs in your college essays. Such topics can be divisive and may detract from the primary goal of showcasing your personality, values, and potential fit with the college. Instead, focus on experiences and perspectives that highlight your growth, character, and individuality.

Want to assess your chances of admission? Take our FREE chances calculator today!

Why College Admissions Isn’t Perfect

US News Rankings

The Personal Statement: The Holy Grail of College Admissions

The Modern Day 4.0 and 1600 SAT Score Student Is No Longer Impressive

The Competitive Nature of College Admissions for Asian Americans

The College Application

Our Comprehensive Approach

Ivy League Schools

How Early Should You Prepare for College?

Featured in US News & World Report Best Colleges Publication

Congratulations to AdmissionSight Students and their Acceptances!

College Rejection

College Rankings

College Consultants Could Make A Difference

College Admissions Scandal and Higher Education

The 7 Best Colleges for Figure Skating

Understanding Restrictive Early Action at Harvard

How to Get into Harvard: Admission Requirements and Tips

Carnegie Mellon University: Weighing the Pros and Cons

The Best Colleges for Pre-Med

Top 5 Princeton Majors: A Quick Guide

How Many People Apply to Stanford: Impact of Legacy Preferences on Admission

Top 10 Unique Classes at Brown University

Yale’s Hidden World: How Many Secret Societies Exist?

Discover the Best Law Schools in the US This 2024

Is Georgetown University a Good School? Insights and Tips

Fun facts about princeton university: discover why it’s one of america’s top universities.

What Is the Best Ivy League School For You? A Quick Guide

UCLA Scholarships: All You Need to Know

Pros and Cons of Harvard University: All You Need to Know

How Hard Is It to Get into the University of Chicago?

A Quick Guide to the Different Colleges and Universities in the U.S.

Leave a comment cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Recent Articles

The 7 Best Colleges for...

Understanding Restrictive Early Action at...

How to Get into Harvard:...

Carnegie Mellon University: Weighing the...

Top 5 Princeton Majors: A...

How Many People Apply to...

Top 10 Unique Classes at...

Yale's Hidden World: How Many...

Discover the Best Law Schools...

Is Georgetown University a Good...

Fun Facts about Princeton University:...

Sign up now to receive insights on how to navigate the college admissions process..

Admissions Counseling

• Academic & Extracurricular Profile Evaluation

Copyright © AdmissionSight 2024

Privacy Policy - Terms and Conditions

15 College Essay Topics To Avoid and Why | Tips & Examples

Reviewed by:

Former Admissions Committee Member, Columbia University

Reviewed: 4/26/24

Entrance essays are an integral part of your college application. Beyond your test scores, GPA, and other achievements, your essays are essentially the heart of your application. Essays help admissions committees get to know the person behind the stats. 

While your essays showcase your adept writing skills , they also uncover your personality, voice, background, experiences, and more. 

You can choose your essay topics when you apply through the Common Application, Coalition Application, or any other online application portal. However, there are some topics you should avoid, or at the very least, slightly steer your narrative in another direction. 

Below we’ll walk you through why it’s best to avoid some topics in your college entrance essays and a brief overview of some common topics to steer clear of or adjust the trajectory.

Why Should You Avoid Certain Topics for College Entrance Essays? 

Your college entrance essay is your chance to make a lasting impression on admissions officers. It's a way to reveal who you are as a person, separate from your grades and test scores. But some topics can backfire, hindering your application instead of highlighting your strengths. Starting an essay topic right can be your ticket into your desired school.

Adam Sapp , Assistant Vice President and Director of Admissions at Pomona College, said, “The essays are important in part because this is a student's chance to really speak directly to the admissions office.” 

What Do Colleges Look For in College Essays?

When it comes to college essays, colleges are on the hunt for a few key things. They want to get to know you beyond just your grades and test scores, so your essay is your chance to shine. Here's what they're generally looking for:

• Your Personality : Colleges want to see your personality come through in your essay. They want to know what makes you tick, what you're passionate about, and what kind of person you are. This is your chance to let your individuality shine.
• Writing Skills : Of course, colleges also want to see that you can write well. They'll be looking at your grammar, punctuation, and overall writing style. So, make sure your essay is well-structured and free of errors.
• Your Story : Everyone has a unique story to tell, and colleges are interested in yours. They want to know about your experiences, the challenges you've faced, and how you've grown as a result. Share something personal and meaningful.
• Why You're a Good Fit : Colleges also want to see that you've done your homework. They want to know why you're interested in their school specifically. What do you like about their programs, campus, or culture that makes you a good fit?
• Thoughtfulness : Your essay should show that you've put thought into your future and your academic goals. They want to see that you're serious about your education and have a clear sense of purpose.
• Creativity : While you want to be thoughtful and serious, don't be afraid to be creative and unique in your writing. A fresh perspective can make your essay stand out.
• Impact and Growth : Colleges love to see how you've made an impact in your community or how you've grown through your experiences. Share any leadership roles, volunteer work, or challenges you've overcome.
• Adherence to Guidelines : Finally, make sure your essay follows the specific guidelines provided by the college. Don't go over the word limit or ignore any prompts they've given.

Overall, colleges are looking for an authentic, well-written essay that gives them insight into who you are as a person, why you're interested in their school, and how you can contribute to their community. So, be yourself, put some thought into it, and don't forget to proofread! 

15 Topics to Avoid in Your College Essays 

The perfect college essay demonstrates your growth, character, and fit with the school. To drive the point home, choose an essay topic that has proven results . Before you start brainstorming, know there are many college essay topics to avoid altogether. 

Some college essay topics are cliche, and some are risky, uncreative, or just downright inappropriate. We’ll talk you through all the topics to avoid in college essays. 

1. Inappropriate Topics

Some people think rolling with an inappropriate topic and shocking the admissions committee is a great idea, but it’s not. Stay far, far away from anything to do with illegal activity, alcohol, substance use, and anything else following these themes. 

You don’t set yourself up for success using topics like these. The admissions committee could cast judgment, and you’re certainly not putting your best foot forward. 

The only time something like this may be appropriate is if you volunteered at a needle exchange or harm reduction facility. Even then, you’d want to delve into the topic with tact and grace or consider choosing another topic altogether. 

Why Is This A Bad Topic For a College Essay?

Inappropriate topics like these are ill-advised because they can portray the applicant in an extremely negative light to admissions officers. Writing about illegal activities or substance abuse raises major red flags about the applicant's judgment and ability to make good choices. The admissions committee will likely view such topics as a lack of maturity and responsibility - qualities that are essential for college students.

2. A Rehash of Your Activities List and Transcripts 

Essentially summarizing your achievements won’t make for a compelling narrative. The admissions committee already has access to your activities list and transcripts, so there’s no need to reiterate all of the items you wrote down. 

Summarizing these documents is a mistake because it won’t add anything else to your application. Remember, you want to tell the admissions committee something they don’t already know. 

If you want to write about a specific extracurricular, get close and personal with just one. Select the most meaningful activity or the one you were most passionate about and delve beyond the surface. Focusing on one activity can make for a successful essay if it shows your growth, positive character traits, or personality. 

Rehashing information from other parts of the application is a wasted opportunity for the personal essay. The essay is meant to provide new insights into the applicant's personality, values, and experiences that transcripts and lists cannot convey. Simply recapping accomplishments fails to reveal anything meaningful about the applicant as an individual.

3. Relationships, Romance, and Breakups 

As much as you may be head over heels for your partner, or scraping the bottom of ice cream tubs after a breakup, don’t turn these experiences into essay topics. It sounds a little harsh, but your love life doesn’t matter to the admissions committee. Besides that, love is a gigantic and complex topic not well-suited to a college application essay. 

The other problem with this topic is it takes the focus off of yourself and onto another person. You want to ensure your essay is all about you . That's the person most important to the admissions committee, so put yourself first. 

Romance and relationship drama makes for poor college essay topics because they are too personal and not relevant to the applicant's qualifications for admission. Admissions officers are focused on evaluating the applicant's academic potential, not their romantic endeavors. Essays on this topic come across as immature and could raise doubts about the applicant's ability to prioritize their studies over their love life.

4. Writing About Your Hero

Writing a story about your hero sounds nice in theory. However, it’s a cliche college essay topic to avoid. Like writing about your sweetheart (or ex-sweetheart), writing about your hero takes the spotlight away from you and directs it to someone who isn’t applying to college. 

If you wanted to write about your hero in the first place, why? What did they inspire in you, or what experiences did you go through together? How did those experiences or “a-ha” moments make you a better person or a better candidate? Cut through the fluff and focus the lens back on yourself. 

The problem with writing about a hero is that the essay becomes more about glorifying someone else rather than providing insights into the applicant's own life experiences, growth, and motivations. Admissions committees want to learn about the applicants themselves, not read an ode to someone else's accomplishments. The personal statement should maintain a strong focus on the applicant as an individual.

5. The Sports Story

Ah yes, the classic sports story. These essays typically follow different plots. Maybe you scored a point in the last moment, or your team won a championship game against all odds, or you wanted to showcase your training regimen. 

Most people will tell you to stay away from sports topics altogether. If you are dead-set on writing about your sports experiences, don’t let your essay fall into cliche and predictable patterns. 

Approach your sports story from a creative and new angle. Ask yourself the following questions: 

• How did the skills you learned from sports impact another experience? 
• Did being team captain give you the leadership skills you needed to succeed in leading an unrelated project? 

Think critically about your experiences, and you could have a stellar essay topic on your hands to start writing . 

Laura Stratton , Director of Admission at Scripps College in California, recounts an exceptionally well-written sports essay about a student benched in a final game. 

“The self-awareness the student showed of being a good team member and showing up for her teammates, and continuing to be positive even though it wasn't the personal experience that she wanted to have, said a lot about her character and about the type of roommate she would be or classmate she would be.” 

Always look for a fresh angle in your sports story if it’s the one you want to tell. 

Sports stories are often cautioned against because they tend to be cliché and unoriginal. There are only so many ways to rehash the "big game" narrative before it becomes stale and uncompelling. Unless the applicant has a truly unique angle, a sports essay runs the risk of blending in with other applications and failing to make a memorable impression on admissions officers.

6. Tragedies

While tragedies you’ve faced can be formative experiences, this may be a college application essay topic to avoid. Some people aren’t comfortable sharing the intimate details of a tragedy they’ve faced, and that’s okay. Similarly, some people aren’t comfortable reading about the personal details of someone else’s tragedy. 

However, if a tragic event such as the death of a loved one is imperative to your narrative, you can carefully craft a story including it. How was the tragedy an index event that impacted your thoughts or actions?

Tragic events require an extremely delicate approach in college essays. There is the risk of either oversharing disturbing details that make readers uncomfortable, or glossing over the tragedy too briefly to give it proper context. 

Admissions officers may also worry that an applicant who has experienced major trauma is not in a good mindset for the rigors of college life. Overall, tragedies are very personal topics better avoided unless absolutely essential to the narrative.

7. Highly Personal Topics

Like tragic events, highly personal topics don’t always make the best essays . Examples of highly personal topics include past trauma, severe illnesses, and injuries. To fully explore the details of their stories, writers may get too graphic or go into way too much detail about these situations. 

If a highly personal topic is central to the story you want to tell, ensure you handle your narrative delicately. It’s okay to briefly share these anecdotes as long as you don’t go into way too much personal detail. 

Similar to tragic events, highly personal topics involving trauma, health issues, or other very private matters should be avoided unless directly relevant to the main narrative. Oversharing disturbing or graphic personal details can make readers uncomfortable and detract from the overall essay.

8. Controversial Topics: Politics, Religion, and More 

Controversial topics are typically college essay topics to avoid. The problem with these is that not everyone will share the same views, and you may open yourself up to judgment from the admissions committee members who don’t. 

Of course, admissions committees don’t make decisions based on criteria such as what political party you voted for or whether or not you attend a place of worship consistently. These topics work against you. Instead of showing why you’re the right candidate, writing about politics and religion can feel like you’re trying to convince the committee your views are correct. 

The only time you may want to write about a polarizing topic like religion is if you plan to attend a school where religion is a part of its heritage, founding, and teaching, such as Notre Dame University. 

Touching on controversial topics like politics or religion is inadvisable because it injects personal opinions and beliefs that may not align with the admissions officer reading the essay. This creates the potential for bias and judgment based on the applicant's stance on the issue. 

The personal statement should aim to unite readers around the applicant's strengths, not divide them over polarizing debates.

9. The Confessional 

If you want to craft a narrative about an obstacle you’ve faced or to share your growth throughout your high school years, avoid “the confessional.” 

You may feel guilty about something you’ve done that no one else knows about: it’s probably best not to share these confessions with the admissions committee. Your confessional probably won’t paint you in the light you were hoping for. 

Instead, focus on an experience where something or someone changed your perspective or how you navigated a challenging situation in the best way you could. These anecdotes show growth, adaptability, and the willingness to change your perspective when offered new information. 

Confessional-style essays delving into past mistakes, guilt, or skeletons in the closet are cautioned against because they can very easily misfire. What the applicant intends as a narrative of growth may come across as a laundry list of poor choices and immaturity. Admissions officers want to see the present, best version of the applicant, not dwell on their past missteps.

10. Throwing the Box Away 

It’s one thing to think outside the box, it’s another to throw the box out entirely and send it downriver. Sometimes students think an ultra-creative essay means going for an entirely new format, like writing a song or poem. While it might be more fun, it could put you at a disadvantage. 

Being creative doesn't mean you have to reinvent the wheel with your essay. It means you can describe an anecdote or situation using detailed description and vibrant imagery. Pour your creativity into your word choice and how you set up a scene, and it’s sure to strike a much better chord with the admissions committee than a poem or song would (pun intended).

While creative writing is encouraged, completely disregarding traditional essay formatting and structure can be a gamble. Admissions officers have to read thousands of personal statements, so presenting the information in an unconventional way like a poem or song may just come across as gimmicky. It's better to channel creativity into excellent writing within the bounds of a standard essay format.

11. The Service/Mission/Class Trip 

One of the problems with these essay topics is that everyone who has had the opportunity to participate in one of these trips wants to write about them. The second problem is that these narratives tend to follow similar themes and that students tend to write about the trip as a whole. 

If your heart is set on sharing an experience from a trip, pick one meaningful moment to focus on. Did you meet someone on your trip that impacted your character or beliefs? Did you face an unexpected challenge that made you need to rise to the occasion? 

Whitney Soule , Senior Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Student Aid at Bowdoin College, said, “Overuse of a topic doesn’t make it a bad topic.” Remember, honing in on one element of your trip can help differentiate your essay and show more depth than just glazing over your excursion.

Service trips, mission trips, or class trips are very common sources for college essays, which makes standing out difficult. Simply recounting the trip itself in a play-by-play fashion is unoriginal and doesn't reveal much about the applicant's unique perspective or growth. To make this topic work, the applicant needs to go beyond just describing the trip and pinpoint specific moments or interactions that were transformative.

12. Something That Happened Way Before High School 

Many of our most formative experiences can happen long before reaching high school. While these moments are important to you, writing about something that happened to you way before high school may not make the best admissions essay. Your experiences before high school don’t show the admissions committee who you are right now; they show who you were before. 

If you want to pick out a story about your childhood, ensure you relate it to high school or current events. This way, you get to tell that story, but you make it relevant to the person you are today. 

For example, if both your parents are scientists and you used to put on their lab coats at five years old, relate it to how your love of science grew over time to lead you to your school choices now. Don’t just stick to the first part of the story. 

While childhood experiences shape who we become, dwelling too much on events from the distant past can make the essay feel irrelevant to the present-day applicant. Admissions officers want to get a sense of the applicant's current identity, maturity, and mindset - not the person they were as a young child.

13. Your Privilege or Luck

If you’ve lived a privileged life or you’ve had stroke after stroke of good luck, focusing only on these elements isn’t in your best interest. It can come across like you haven't experienced any challenges or have a skewed vision of how the world works. 

It’s fortunate if you’ve lived a reasonably trouble-free life thus far. However, dig deep and look for something beyond the surface of sunshine and rainbows—admissions committees like some vulnerability and honesty. 

Essays that are overtly privileged or present a life of constant good fortune can come across as out-of-touch or lacking perspective. Admissions officers want to see that applicants have dealt with obstacles, learned from setbacks, and developed resilience. 

An essay that reads as completely devoid of any challenges or hardships may raise questions about the applicant's ability to cope with future difficulties in college.

14. Anything That Involves Lying

You would think this one is obvious, but many people feel like their stories just aren’t good enough to tell, so they fabricate elements. The bottom line is you should never lie about anything in your college admissions essays . Admissions committees can smell insincerity. That’s not a personal quality you want to communicate to them. 

Rest assured that you don’t need to have written a dramatic story filled with twists and turns. Excellent college essays can revolve around mundane topics. Write your truth, and don’t fudge any of the details. 

Lying or embellishing details in a college essay is a surefire way to undermine the entire application. If caught, it demonstrates a serious lack of integrity that will disqualify the applicant. 

Even if the lie slips through, the essay will likely come across as inauthentic. Admissions officers can usually spot when an applicant is exaggerating or fabricating stories. Honesty is always the best policy for personal statements.

15. Risky Topics Like Pointing Out a School’s Shortcomings 

This type of writing is uncommon for a reason: it won’t work. Some students may think pointing out a school’s shortcomings and how their attendance may help bridge them will give their essay the shock factor they need to stand out. 

Unfortunately, you’ll stand out in the wrong way. As a general rule, you probably shouldn’t rip apart the school you want to attend. 

A better option is to describe how your acceptance will add to the school and campus culture. A response like this may be better suited to a “Why this school?” supplementary essay, but schools want to admit students who contribute to its culture and add a unique perspective to classrooms.

Criticizing or calling out perceived flaws in the school is an extremely risky move that is very unlikely to pay off. It comes across as arrogant and presumptuous for an applicant to claim they can single-handedly fix an institution's issues before even being admitted. 

This tactic shows a lack of respect for the school and its existing community. Applicants are much better off highlighting their strengths as an additive force.

How To Write a Cliche College Essay That Works? (If You Really Want To)

While certain topics like inappropriate content, rehashing accomplishments, sports stories, and personal topics are generally cautioned against for college essays, there are ways to approach them thoughtfully if you insist on using them.

The key is to find a unique angle that shows personal growth, adaptability, vulnerability, or how the experience shaped you as an individual. 

Rather than just recounting events, analyze how a relationship taught you empathy, how a tragedy changed your perspective, or how being a team captain demonstrated leadership. 

Handle sensitive topics delicately without oversharing graphic details. Above all, ensure your narrative maintains an inward focus on your own insights, strengths, and fit for the university rather than distracting from your candidacy. 

With creativity and self-awareness, even cliched topics can make compelling essays that showcase who you are.

Check out our College Essay Examples Database for a detailed look at successful essays.

Do you still have questions about college application essays? We've got answers! Check out this FAQ section to find the information you need to ace your application.

1. Are There Any Sensitive Personal Experiences I Should Avoid Discussing in My Essay?

Avoid overly sensitive topics that might be uncomfortable for admissions officers. Instead, choose experiences that demonstrate personal growth and resilience.

2. Are There Any Topics That Might Come Across as Boastful or Arrogant in a College Essay?

Avoid bragging about achievements or sounding self-important. Focus on how experiences shaped your character and values.

3. How Can I Identify Potentially Overdone or Unoriginal Essay Topics?

Think about common themes like sports victories or mission trips. To stand out, find a unique angle or a more personal way to approach these topics. 

4. What Are Considered Cliché Topics in College Application Essays?

Cliché topics include sports victories ("the big game"), mission/volunteer trips, and overcoming a generic obstacle. Seek a fresh perspective to make these experiences more impactful.

5. Should I Avoid Discussing Controversial Political or Religious Beliefs in My College Essay?

Yes. It's generally best to avoid divisive topics. Focus on sharing experiences that highlight your values, problem-solving skills, and open-mindedness.

Final Thoughts 

There are many cliche essay topics to avoid and some inappropriate to share with admissions committees. Your college admissions essays should always carry a professional yet conversational tone, and you shouldn’t write about anything that would be detrimental to your application. 

Even though the above list is filled with topics to avoid in college essays, it doesn’t mean you can’t tweak them to make them more appropriate and a better story to tell. Your writing should authentically show your voice and character. Put your best foot (and best writing) forward, and you’re sure to produce stellar pieces of writing! 

Get A Free Consultation

You may also like.

How to Get Into Bowdoin: Acceptance Rate + Requirements

How to Become an Accountant

Choose Your Test

• Search Blogs By Category
• College Admissions
• AP and IB Exams
• GPA and Coursework

Bad College Essays: 10 Mistakes You Must Avoid

College Essays

Just as there are noteworthy examples of excellent college essays that admissions offices like to publish, so are there cringe-worthy examples of terrible college essays that end up being described by anonymous admissions officers on Reddit discussion boards.

While I won't guarantee that your essay will end up in the first category, I will say that you follow my advice in this article, your essay most assuredly won't end up in the second. How do you avoid writing a bad admissions essay? Read on to find out what makes an essay bad and to learn which college essay topics to avoid. I'll also explain how to recognize bad college essays—and what to do to if you end up creating one by accident.

What Makes Bad College Essays Bad

What exactly happens to turn a college essay terrible? Just as great personal statements combine an unexpected topic with superb execution, flawed personal statements compound problematic subject matter with poor execution.

Problems With the Topic

The primary way to screw up a college essay is to flub what the essay is about or how you've decided to discuss a particular experience. Badly chosen essay content can easily create an essay that is off-putting in one of a number of ways I'll discuss in the next section.

The essay is the place to let the admissions office of your target college get to know your personality, character, and the talents and skills that aren't on your transcript. So if you start with a terrible topic, not only will you end up with a bad essay, but you risk ruining the good impression that the rest of your application makes.

Some bad topics show admissions officers that you don't have a good sense of judgment or maturity , which is a problem since they are building a class of college students who have to be able to handle independent life on campus.

Other bad topics suggest that you are a boring person , or someone who doesn't process your experience in a colorful or lively way, which is a problem since colleges want to create a dynamic and engaged cohort of students.

Still other bad topics indicate that you're unaware of or disconnected from the outside world and focused only on yourself , which is a problem since part of the point of college is to engage with new people and new ideas, and admissions officers are looking for people who can do that.

Problems With the Execution

Sometimes, even if the experiences you discuss could be the foundation of a great personal statement, the way you've structured and put together your essay sends up warning flags. This is because the admissions essay is also a place to show the admissions team the maturity and clarity of your writing style.

One way to get this part wrong is to exhibit very faulty writing mechanics , like unclear syntax or incorrectly used punctuation. This is a problem since college-ready writing is one of the things that's expected from a high school graduate.

Another way to mess this up is to ignore prompt instructions either for creative or careless reasons. This can show admissions officers that you're either someone who simply blows off directions and instructions or someone who can't understand how to follow them . Neither is a good thing, since they are looking for people who are open to receiving new information from professors and not just deciding they know everything already.

College Essay Topics To Avoid

Want to know why you're often advised to write about something mundane and everyday for your college essay? That's because the more out-there your topic, the more likely it is to stumble into one of these trouble categories.

Too Personal

The problem with the overly personal essay topic is that revealing something very private can show that you don't really understand boundaries . And knowing where appropriate boundaries are will be key for living on your own with a bunch of people not related to you.

Unfortunately, stumbling into the TMI zone of essay topics is more common than you think. One quick test for checking your privacy-breaking level: if it's not something you'd tell a friendly stranger sitting next to you on the plane, maybe don't tell it to the admissions office.

• Describing losing your virginity, or anything about your sex life really. This doesn't mean you can't write about your sexual orientation—just leave out the actual physical act.
• Writing in too much detail about your illness, disability, any other bodily functions. Detailed meaningful discussion of what this physical condition has meant to you and your life is a great thing to write about. But stay away from body horror and graphic descriptions that are simply there for gratuitous shock value.
• Waxing poetic about your love for your significant other. Your relationship is adorable to the people currently involved in it, but those who don't know you aren't invested in this aspect of your life.
• Confessing to odd and unusual desires of the sexual or illegal variety. Your obsession with cultivating cacti is wonderful topic, while your obsession with researching explosives is a terrible one.

Too Revealing of Bad Judgment

Generally speaking, leave past illegal or immoral actions out of your essay . It's simply a bad idea to give admissions officers ammunition to dislike you.

Some exceptions might be if you did something in a very, very different mindset from the one you're in now (in the midst of escaping from danger, under severe coercion, or when you were very young, for example). Or if your essay is about explaining how you've turned over a new leaf and you have the transcript to back you up.

• Writing about committing crime as something fun or exciting. Unless it's on your permanent record, and you'd like a chance to explain how you've learned your lesson and changed, don't put this in your essay.
• Describing drug use or the experience of being drunk or high. Even if you're in a state where some recreational drugs are legal, you're a high school student. Your only exposure to mind-altering substances should be caffeine.
• Making up fictional stories about yourself as though they are true. You're unlikely to be a good enough fantasist to pull this off, and there's no reason to roll the dice on being discovered to be a liar.
• Detailing your personality flaws. Unless you have a great story of coping with one of these, leave deal-breakers like pathological narcissism out of your personal statement.

Too Overconfident

While it's great to have faith in your abilities, no one likes a relentless show-off. No matter how magnificent your accomplishments, if you decide to focus your essay on them, it's better to describe a setback or a moment of doubt rather that simply praising yourself to the skies.

• Bragging and making yourself the flawless hero of your essay. This goes double if you're writing about not particularly exciting achievements like scoring the winning goal or getting the lead in the play.
• Having no awareness of the actual scope of your accomplishments. It's lovely that you take time to help others, but volunteer-tutoring a couple of hours a week doesn't make you a saintly figure.

Too Clichéd or Boring

Remember your reader. In this case, you're trying to make yourself memorable to an admissions officer who has been reading thousands of other essays . If your essay makes the mistake of being boring or trite, it just won't register in that person's mind as anything worth paying attention to.

• Transcribing your resume into sentence form or writing about the main activity on your transcript. The application already includes your resume, or a detailed list of your various activities. Unless the prompt specifically asks you to write about your main activity, the essay needs to be about a facet of your interests and personality that doesn't come through the other parts of the application.
• Writing about sports. Every athlete tries to write this essay. Unless you have a completely off-the-wall story or unusual achievement, leave this overdone topic be.
• Being moved by your community service trip to a third-world country. Were you were impressed at how happy the people seemed despite being poor? Did you learn a valuable lesson about how privileged you are? Unfortunately, so has every other teenager who traveled on one of these trips. Writing about this tends to simultaneously make you sound unempathetic, clueless about the world, way over-privileged, and condescending. Unless you have a highly specific, totally unusual story to tell, don't do it.
• Reacting with sadness to a sad, but very common experience. Unfortunately, many of the hard, formative events in your life are fairly universal. So, if you're going to write about death or divorce, make sure to focus on how you dealt with this event, so the essay is something only you could possibly have written. Only detailed, idiosyncratic description can save this topic.
• Going meta. Don't write about the fact that you're writing the essay as we speak, and now the reader is reading it, and look, the essay is right here in the reader's hand. It's a technique that seems clever, but has already been done many times in many different ways.
• Offering your ideas on how to fix the world. This is especially true if your solution is an easy fix, if only everyone would just listen to you. Trust me, there's just no way you are being realistically appreciative of the level of complexity inherent in the problem you're describing.
• Starting with a famous quotation. There usually is no need to shore up your own words by bringing in someone else's. Of course, if you are writing about a particular phrase that you've adopted as a life motto, feel free to include it. But even then, having it be the first line in your essay feels like you're handing the keys over to that author and asking them to drive.
• Using an everyday object as a metaphor for your life/personality. "Shoes. They are like this, and like that, and people love them for all of these reasons. And guess what? They are just like me."

Too Off-Topic

Unlike the essays you've been writing in school where the idea is to analyze something outside of yourself, the main subject of your college essay should be you, your background, your makeup, and your future . Writing about someone or something else might well make a great essay, but not for this context.

• Paying tribute to someone very important to you. Everyone would love to meet your grandma, but this isn't the time to focus on her amazing coming of age story. If you do want to talk about a person who is important to your life, dwell on the ways you've been impacted by them, and how you will incorporate this impact into your future.
• Documenting how well other people do things, say things, are active, while you remain passive and inactive in the essay. Being in the orbit of someone else's important lab work, or complex stage production, or meaningful political activism is a fantastic learning moment. But if you decide to write about, your essay should be about your learning and how you've been influenced, not about the other person's achievements.
• Concentrating on a work of art that deeply moved you. Watch out for the pitfall of writing an analytical essay about that work, and not at all about your reaction to it or how you've been affected since. Check out our explanation of how to answer Topic D of the ApplyTexas application to get some advice on writing about someone else's work while making sure your essay still points back at you.

(Image: Pieter Christoffel Wonder [Public domain] , via Wikimedia Commons)

Too Offensive

With this potential mistake, you run the risk of showing a lack of self-awareness or the ability to be open to new ideas . Remember, no reader wants to be lectured at. If that's what your essay does, you are demonstrating an inability to communicate successfully with others.

Also, remember that no college is eager to admit someone who is too close-minded to benefit from being taught by others. A long, one-sided essay about a hot-button issue will suggest that you are exactly that.

• Ranting at length about political, religious, or other contentious topics. You simply don't know where the admissions officer who reads your essay stands on any of these issues. It's better to avoid upsetting or angering that person.
• Writing a one-sided diatribe about guns, abortion, the death penalty, immigration, or anything else in the news. Even if you can marshal facts in your argument, this essay is simply the wrong place to take a narrow, unempathetic side in an ongoing debate.
• Mentioning anything negative about the school you're applying to. Again, your reader is someone who works there and presumably is proud of the place. This is not the time to question the admissions officer's opinions or life choices.

College Essay Execution Problems To Avoid

Bad college essays aren't only caused by bad topics. Sometimes, even if you're writing about an interesting, relevant topic, you can still seem immature or unready for college life because of the way you present that topic—the way you actually write your personal statement. Check to make sure you haven't made any of the common mistakes on this list.

Tone-Deafness

Admissions officers are looking for resourcefulness, the ability to be resilient, and an active and optimistic approach to life —these are all qualities that create a thriving college student. Essays that don't show these qualities are usually suffering from tone-deafness.

• Being whiny or complaining about problems in your life. Is the essay about everyone doing things to/against you? About things happening to you, rather than you doing anything about them? That perspective is a definite turn-off.
• Trying and failing to use humor. You may be very funny in real life, but it's hard to be successfully funny in this context, especially when writing for a reader who doesn't know you. If you do want to use humor, I'd recommend the simplest and most straightforward version: being self-deprecating and low-key.
• Talking down to the reader, or alternately being self-aggrandizing. No one enjoys being condescended to. In this case, much of the function of your essay is to charm and make yourself likable, which is unlikely to happen if you adopt this tone.
• Being pessimistic, cynical, and generally depressive. You are applying to college because you are looking forward to a future of learning, achievement, and self-actualization. This is not the time to bust out your existential ennui and your jaded, been-there-done-that attitude toward life.

(Image: Eduard Munch [Public Domain] , via Wikimedia Commons)

Lack of Personality

One good question to ask yourself is: could anyone else have written this essay ? If the answer is yes, then you aren't doing a good job of representing your unique perspective on the world. It's very important to demonstrate your ability to be a detailed observer of the world, since that will be one of your main jobs as a college student.

• Avoiding any emotions, and appearing robot-like and cold in the essay. Unlike essays that you've been writing for class, this essay is meant to be a showcase of your authorial voice and personality. It may seem strange to shift gears after learning how to take yourself out of your writing, but this is the place where you have to put as much as yourself in as possible.
• Skipping over description and specific details in favor of writing only in vague generalities. Does your narrative feel like a newspaper horoscope, which could apply to every other person who was there that day? Then you're doing it wrong and need to refocus on your reaction, feelings, understanding, and transformation.

Off-Kilter Style

There's some room for creativity here, yes, but a college essay isn't a free-for-all postmodern art class . True, there are prompts that specifically call for your most out-of-left-field submission, or allow you to submit a portfolio or some other work sample instead of a traditional essay. But on a standard application, it's better to stick to traditional prose, split into paragraphs, further split into sentences.

• Submitting anything other than just the materials asked for on your application. Don't send food to the admissions office, don't write your essay on clothing or shoes, don't create a YouTube channel about your undying commitment to the school. I know there are a lot of urban legends about "that one time this crazy thing worked," but they are either not true or about something that will not work a second time.
• Writing your essay in verse, in the form of a play, in bullet points, as an acrostic, or any other non-prose form. Unless you really have a way with poetry or playwriting, and you are very confident that you can meet the demands of the prompt and explain yourself well in this form, don't discard prose simply for the sake of being different.
• Using as many "fancy" words as possible and getting very far away from sounding like yourself. Admissions officers are unanimous in wanting to hear your not fully formed teenage voice in your essay. This means that you should write at the top of your vocabulary range and syntax complexity, but don't trade every word up for a thesaurus synonym. Your essay will suffer for it.

Failure to Proofread

Most people have a hard time checking over their own work. This is why you have to make sure that someone else proofreads your writing . This is the one place where you can, should—and really must—get someone who knows all about grammar, punctuation and has a good eye for detail to take a red pencil to your final draft.

Otherwise, you look like you either don't know the basic rules or writing (in which case, are you really ready for college work?) or don't care enough to present yourself well (in which case, why would the admissions people care about admitting you?).

• Typos, grammatical mistakes, punctuation flubs, weird font/paragraph spacing issues. It's true that these are often unintentional mistakes. But caring about getting it right is a way to demonstrate your work ethic and dedication to the task at hand.
• Going over the word limit. Part of showing your brilliance is being able to work within arbitrary rules and limitations. Going over the word count points to a lack of self-control, which is not a very attractive feature in a college applicant.
• Repeating the same word(s) or sentence structure over and over again. This makes your prose monotonous and hard to read.

Bad College Essay Examples—And How to Fix Them

The beauty of writing is that you get to rewrite. So if you think of your essay as a draft waiting to be revised into a better version rather than as a precious jewel that can't bear being touched, you'll be in far better shape to correct the issues that always crop up!

Now let's take a look at some actual college essay drafts to see where the writer is going wrong and how the issue could be fixed.

Essay #1: The "I Am Writing This Essay as We Speak" Meta-Narrative

Was your childhood home destroyed by a landspout tornado? Yeah, neither was mine. I know that intro might have given the impression that this college essay will be about withstanding disasters, but the truth is that it isn't about that at all.

In my junior year, I always had in mind an image of myself finishing the college essay months before the deadline. But as the weeks dragged on and the deadline drew near, it soon became clear that at the rate things are going I would probably have to make new plans for my October, November and December.

Falling into my personal wormhole, I sat down with my mom to talk about colleges. "Maybe you should write about Star Trek ," she suggested, "you know how you've always been obsessed with Captain Picard, calling him your dream mentor. Unique hobbies make good topics, right? You'll sound creative!" I played with the thought in my mind, tapping my imaginary communicator pin and whispering "Computer. Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. And then an Essay." Nothing happened. Instead, I sat quietly in my room wrote the old-fashioned way. Days later I emerged from my room disheveled, but to my dismay, this college essay made me sound like just a guy who can't get over the fact that he'll never take the Starfleet Academy entrance exam. So, I tossed my essay away without even getting to disintegrate it with a phaser set on stun.

I fell into a state of panic. My college essay. My image of myself in senior year. Almost out of nowhere, Robert Jameson Smith offered his words of advice. Perfect! He suggested students begin their college essay by listing their achievements and letting their essay materialize from there. My heart lifted, I took his advice and listed three of my greatest achievements - mastering my backgammon strategy, being a part of TREE in my sophomore year, and performing "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" from The Pirates of Penzance in public. And sure enough, I felt inspiration hit me and began to type away furiously into the keyboard about my experience in TREE, or Trees Require Engaged Environmentalists. I reflected on the current state of deforestation, and described the dichotomy of it being both understandable why farmers cut down forests for farmland, and how dangerous this is to our planet. Finally, I added my personal epiphany to the end of my college essay as the cherry on the vanilla sundae, as the overused saying goes.

After 3 weeks of figuring myself out, I have converted myself into a piece of writing. As far as achievements go, this was definitely an amazing one. The ability to transform a human being into 603 words surely deserves a gold medal. Yet in this essay, I was still being nagged by a voice that couldn't be ignored. Eventually, I submitted to that yelling inner voice and decided that this was not the right essay either.

In the middle of a hike through Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, I realized that the college essay was nothing more than an embodiment of my character. The two essays I have written were not right because they have failed to become more than just words on recycled paper. The subject failed to come alive. Certainly my keen interest in Star Trek and my enthusiasm for TREE are a great part of who I am, but there were other qualities essential in my character that did not come across in the essays.

With this realization, I turned around as quickly as I could without crashing into a tree.

What Essay #1 Does Well

Here are all things that are working on all cylinders for this personal statement as is.

Killer First Sentence

Was your childhood home destroyed by a landspout tornado? Yeah, neither was mine.

• A strange fact. There are different kinds of tornadoes? What is a "landspout tornado" anyway?
• A late-night-deep-thoughts hypothetical. What would it be like to be a kid whose house was destroyed in this unusual way?
• Direct engagement with the reader. Instead of asking "what would it be like to have a tornado destroy a house" it asks "was your house ever destroyed."

Gentle, Self-Deprecating Humor That Lands Well

I played with the thought in my mind, tapping my imaginary communicator pin and whispering "Computer. Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. And then an Essay." Nothing happened. Instead, I sat quietly in my room wrote the old-fashioned way. Days later I emerged from my room disheveled, but to my dismay, this college essay made me sound like just a guy who can't get over the fact that he'll never take the Starfleet Academy entrance exam. So, I tossed my essay away without even getting to disintegrate it with a phaser set on stun.

The author has his cake and eats it too here: both making fun of himself for being super into the Star Trek mythos, but also showing himself being committed enough to try whispering a command to the Enterprise computer alone in his room. You know, just in case.

A Solid Point That Is Made Paragraph by Paragraph

The meat of the essay is that the two versions of himself that the author thought about portraying each fails in some way to describe the real him. Neither an essay focusing on his off-beat interests, nor an essay devoted to his serious activism could capture everything about a well-rounded person in 600 words.

(Image: fir0002 via Wikimedia Commons .)

Where Essay #1 Needs Revision

Rewriting these flawed parts will make the essay shine.

Spending Way Too Long on the Metanarrative

I know that intro might have given the impression that this college essay will be about withstanding disasters, but the truth is that it isn't about that at all.

After 3 weeks of figuring myself out, I have converted myself into a piece of writing. As far as achievements go, this was definitely an amazing one. The ability to transform a human being into 603 words surely deserves a gold medal.

Look at how long and draggy these paragraphs are, especially after that zippy opening. Is it at all interesting to read about how someone else found the process of writing hard? Not really, because this is a very common experience.

In the rewrite, I'd advise condensing all of this to maybe a sentence to get to the meat of the actual essay .

Letting Other People Do All the Doing

I sat down with my mom to talk about colleges. "Maybe you should write about Star Trek ," she suggested, "you know how you've always been obsessed with Captain Picard, calling him your dream mentor. Unique hobbies make good topics, right? You'll sound creative!"

Almost out of nowhere, Robert Jameson Smith offered his words of advice. Perfect! He suggested students begin their college essay by listing their achievements and letting their essay materialize from there.

Twice in the essay, the author lets someone else tell him what to do. Not only that, but it sounds like both of the "incomplete" essays were dictated by the thoughts of other people and had little to do with his own ideas, experiences, or initiative.

In the rewrite, it would be better to recast both the Star Trek and the TREE versions of the essay as the author's own thoughts rather than someone else's suggestions . This way, the point of the essay—taking apart the idea that a college essay could summarize life experience—is earned by the author's two failed attempts to write that other kind of essay.

Leaving the Insight and Meaning Out of His Experiences

Both the Star Trek fandom and the TREE activism were obviously important life experiences for this author—important enough to be potential college essay topic candidates. But there is no description of what the author did with either one, nor any explanation of why these were so meaningful to his life.

It's fine to say that none of your achievements individually define you, but in order for that to work, you have to really sell the achievements themselves.

In the rewrite, it would be good to explore what he learned about himself and the world by pursuing these interests . How did they change him or seen him into the person he is today?

Not Adding New Shades and Facets of Himself Into the Mix

So, I tossed my essay away without even getting to disintegrate it with a phaser set on stun.

Yet in this essay, I was still being nagged by a voice that couldn't be ignored. Eventually, I submitted to that yelling inner voice and decided that this was not the right essay either.

In both of these passages, there is the perfect opportunity to point out what exactly these failed versions of the essay didn't capture about the author . In the next essay draft, I would suggest subtly making a point about his other qualities.

For example, after the Star Trek paragraph, he could talk about other culture he likes to consume, especially if he can discuss art forms he is interested in that would not be expected from someone who loves Star Trek .

Or, after the TREE paragraph, the author could explain why this second essay was no better at capturing him than the first. What was missing? Why is the self in the essay shouting—is it because this version paints him as an overly aggressive activist?

Essay #2: The "I Once Saw Poor People" Service Trip Essay

Unlike other teenagers, I'm not concerned about money, or partying, or what others think of me. Unlike other eighteen year-olds, I think about my future, and haven't become totally materialistic and acquisitive. My whole outlook on life changed after I realized that my life was just being handed to me on a silver spoon, and yet there were those in the world who didn't have enough food to eat or place to live. I realized that the one thing that this world needed more than anything was compassion; compassion for those less fortunate than us.

During the summer of 2006, I went on a community service trip to rural Peru to help build an elementary school for kids there. I expected harsh conditions, but what I encountered was far worse. It was one thing to watch commercials asking for donations to help the unfortunate people in less developed countries, yet it was a whole different story to actually live it. Even after all this time, I can still hear babies crying from hunger; I can still see the filthy rags that they wore; I can still smell the stench of misery and hopelessness. But my most vivid memory was the moment I first got to the farming town. The conditions of it hit me by surprise; it looked much worse in real life than compared to the what our group leader had told us. Poverty to me and everyone else I knew was a foreign concept that people hear about on the news or see in documentaries. But this abject poverty was their life, their reality. And for the brief ten days I was there, it would be mine too. As all of this realization came at once, I felt overwhelmed by the weight of what was to come. Would I be able to live in the same conditions as these people? Would I catch a disease that no longer existed in the first world, or maybe die from drinking contaminated water? As these questions rolled around my already dazed mind, I heard a soft voice asking me in Spanish, "Are you okay? Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" I looked down to see a small boy, around nine years of age, who looked starved, and cold, wearing tattered clothing, comforting me. These people who have so little were able to forget their own needs, and put those much more fortunate ahead of themselves. It was at that moment that I saw how selfish I had been. How many people suffered like this in the world, while I went about life concerned about nothing at all?

Thinking back on the trip, maybe I made a difference, maybe not. But I gained something much more important. I gained the desire to make the world a better place for others. It was in a small, poverty-stricken village in Peru that I finally realized that there was more to life than just being alive.

What Essay #2 Does Well

Let's first point out what this draft has going for it.

Clear Chronology

This is an essay that tries to explain a shift in perspective. There are different ways to structure this overarching idea, but a chronological approach that starts with an earlier opinion, describes a mind changing event, and ends with the transformed point of view is an easy and clear way to lay this potentially complex subject out.

(Image: User:Lite via Wikimedia Commons)

Where Essay #2 Needs Revision

Now let's see what needs to be changed in order for this essay to pass muster.

Condescending, Obnoxious Tone

Unlike other teenagers, I'm not concerned about money, or partying, or what others think of me. Unlike other eighteen year-olds, I think about my future, and haven't become totally materialistic and acquisitive.

This is a very broad generalization, which doesn't tend to be the best way to formulate an argument—or to start an essay. It just makes this author sound dismissive of a huge swath of the population.

In the rewrite, this author would be way better off just concentrate on what she want to say about herself, not pass judgment on "other teenagers," most of whom she doesn't know and will never meet.

I realized that the one thing that this world needed more than anything was compassion; compassion for those less fortunate than us.

Coming from someone who hasn't earned her place in the world through anything but the luck of being born, the word "compassion" sounds really condescending. Calling others "less fortunate" when you're a senior in high school has a dehumanizing quality to it.

These people who have so little were able to forget their own needs, and put those much more fortunate in front of themselves.

Again, this comes across as very patronizing. Not only that, but to this little boy the author was clearly not looking all that "fortunate"—instead, she looked pathetic enough to need comforting.

In the next draft, a better hook could be making the essay about the many different kinds of shifting perspectives the author encountered on that trip . A more meaningful essay would compare and contrast the points of view of the TV commercials, to what the group leader said, to the author's own expectations, and finally to this child's point of view.

Vague, Unobservant Description

During the summer of 2006, I went on a community service trip to rural Peru to help build an elementary school for kids there. I expected harsh conditions, but what I encountered was far worse. It was one thing to watch commercials asking for donations to help the unfortunate people in less developed countries, yet it was a whole different story to actually live it. Even after all this time, I can still hear babies crying from hunger; I can still see the filthy rags that they wore; I can still smell the stench of misery and hopelessness.

Phrases like "cries of the small children from not having enough to eat" and "dirt stained rags" seem like descriptions, but they're really closer to incurious and completely hackneyed generalizations. Why were the kids were crying? How many kids? All the kids? One specific really loud kid?

The same goes for "filthy rags," which is both an incredibly insensitive way to talk about the clothing of these villagers, and again shows a total lack of interest in their life. Why were their clothes dirty? Were they workers or farmers so their clothes showing marks of labor? Did they have Sunday clothes? Traditional clothes they would put on for special occasions? Did they make their own clothes? That would be a good reason to keep wearing clothing even if it had "stains" on it.

The rewrite should either make this section more specific and less reliant on cliches, or should discard it altogether .

The conditions of it hit me by surprise; it looked much worse in real life than compared to the what our group leader had told us. Poverty to me and everyone else I knew was a foreign concept that people hear about on the news or see in documentaries. But this abject poverty was their life, their reality.

If this is the "most vivid memory," then I would expect to read all the details that have been seared into the author's brain. What did their leader tell them? What was different in real life? What was the light like? What did the houses/roads/grass/fields/trees/animals/cars look like? What time of day was it? Did they get there by bus, train, or plane? Was there an airport/train station/bus terminal? A city center? Shops? A marketplace?

There are any number of details to include here when doing another drafting pass.

Lack of Insight or Maturity

But this abject poverty was their life, their reality. And for the brief ten days I was there, it would be mine too. As all of this realization came at once, I felt overwhelmed by the weight of what was to come. Would I be able to live in the same conditions as these people? Would I catch a disease that no longer existed in the first world, or maybe die from drinking contaminated water?

Without a framing device explaining that this initial panic was an overreaction, this section just makes the author sound whiny, entitled, melodramatic, and immature . After all, this isn't a a solo wilderness trek—the author is there with a paid guided program. Just how much mortality is typically associated with these very standard college-application-boosting service trips?

In a rewrite, I would suggest including more perspective on the author's outsized and overprivileged response here. This would fit well with a new focus on the different points of view on this village the author encountered.

Unearned, Clichéd "Deep Thoughts"

But I gained something much more important. I gained the desire to make the world a better place for others. It was in a small, poverty-stricken village in Peru that I finally realized that there was more to life than just being alive.

Is it really believable that this is what the author learned? There is maybe some evidence to suggest that the author was shaken somewhat out of a comfortable, materialistic existence. But what does "there is more to life than just being alive" even really mean? This conclusion is rather vague, and seems mostly a non sequitur.

In a rewrite, the essay should be completely reoriented to discuss how differently others see us than we see ourselves, pivoting on the experience of being pitied by someone who you thought was pitiable. Then, the new version can end by on a note of being better able to understand different points of view and other people's perspectives .

The Bottom Line

• Bad college essays have problems either with their topics or their execution.
• The essay is how admissions officers learn about your personality, point of view, and maturity level, so getting the topic right is a key factor in letting them see you as an aware, self-directed, open-minded applicant who is going to thrive in an environment of independence.
• The essay is also how admissions officers learn that you are writing at a ready-for-college level, so screwing up the execution shows that you either don't know how to write, or don't care enough to do it well.
• The main ways college essay topics go wrong is bad taste, bad judgment, and lack of self-awareness.
• The main ways college essays fail in their execution have to do with ignoring format, syntax, and genre expectations.

What's Next?

Want to read some excellent college essays now that you've seen some examples of flawed one? Take a look through our roundup of college essay examples published by colleges and then get help with brainstorming your perfect college essay topic .

Need some guidance on other parts of the application process? Check out our detailed, step-by-step guide to college applications for advice.

Are you considering taking the SAT or ACT again before you submit your application? Read about our famous test prep guides for hints and strategies for a better score.

Trending Now

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

ACT vs. SAT: Which Test Should You Take?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Get Your Free

Find Your Target SAT Score

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect SAT Score, by an Expert Full Scorer

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading and Writing

How to Improve Your Low SAT Score

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading and Writing

Find Your Target ACT Score

Complete Official Free ACT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect ACT Score, by a 36 Full Scorer

Get a 36 on ACT English

Get a 36 on ACT Math

Get a 36 on ACT Reading

Get a 36 on ACT Science

How to Improve Your Low ACT Score

Get a 24 on ACT English

Get a 24 on ACT Math

Get a 24 on ACT Reading

Get a 24 on ACT Science

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Are you seeking one-on-one college counseling and/or essay support? Limited spots are now available. Click here to learn more.

College Application Essay Topics to Avoid – 2024-25 Edition

July 10, 2024

We would never unequivocally tell an applicant that any proposed college essay topic is off-limits. Great writers can take the most mundane, banal, and generic topic and transform it into a captivating composition. However, in our experience reading thousands of college essays, we are able to say with confidence that students are wise to steer clear of the following topics. Ahead is our 2024-25 edition of College Application Essay Topics to Avoid, but first…

Why should I avoid these college essay topics?

To avoid falling victim to two all-too-common pitfalls: undersharing and oversharing.

Let’s start with undersharing. Certain college essay topics inspire clichés. We can’t tell you why, exactly, but they just do. There are ways around those clichés, of course (outlined below) but in our experience, they are difficult to avoid. Since clichéd takeaways will prevent you from crafting the most thoughtful possible reflection—and thus prevent readers from connecting with you as an applicant—we would suggest avoiding them at all costs.

On the flip side of clichéd, impersonal essay topics are topics that are way TMI, either emotionally or in regard to their subject matter. These topics can paint you in an unflattering light or simply be very distracting. As a result, they’ll ultimately shed precious little insight into what type of classroom and community member you would be. Remember, your main objective is to convince readers that you are ready and prepared to join a college community, both academically and socially.

Without further ado…

College Application Essay Topics to Avoid

1. drugs, sex, and, well, just those two….

While you’re not auditioning to become an altar boy/girl, there are certain risqué topics that are unlikely to be viewed in a positive light by an admissions committee. On occasion, we’ve seen students aim for shock value by incorporating stories of sexual encounters or drug use into their essays—99% of the time this is an awful idea.

There are of course tactful ways to address these subjects if they are central to revealing who you are. One could easily talk about their sexual identity without writing an abridged version of Fifty Shades of Grey . Likewise, if a story of addiction and recovery is an essential part of your past, it may be a worthy topic. However, students should never mention the casual use of drugs or alcohol. The same goes for any illegal acts. It sounds obvious enough, but you’d be surprised!

2. Travel Experiences

This is a common go-to topic for many students. If done well, recounting a trip to a foreign country will reveal something deeply personal and meaningful about you. Unfortunately, the travel essay is rarely executed well.

Too often, students, even fantastic young writers, waste precious application real estate on fanciful descriptions of Peruvian landscapes or generic observations about impoverished denizens of a Central American village. If you write about a trip to Haiti and chronicle the culture of the Haitian people, then the essay is not really about you – it might as well be a homework assignment for a World Cultures elective.

An admissions officer is not going to emerge from reading an essay like this thinking, “What a worldly chap!” In reality, they are likely to feel like they just read a page from J. Peterman’s catalog of Seinfeld fame.

Remember to talk about something that happened to you, where you are at the heart of the action. Colleges want to know who you are and how you view the world – the essay may be your only chance to provide them with this type of insight and the travelogue is rarely an effective vehicle.

3. Anything Too Grandiose

Many applicants are naturally inclined toward over-dramatization, hyperbole, and enhanced self-importance in their essays. This is natural for two reasons: 1) even students with perfect SATs still have a teenage brain. And 2) they wrongfully assume that this is required to impress admissions officers.

Writing an essay that is compelling doesn’t mean that you need to have wrestled a puma, grown up in a cult, or discovered a new galaxy at age seven. A great college essay can take place on a grand stage but it can just as effectively take place in everyday life. There is a ready supply of dramatic tension and conflict in the course of a typical day.

Parents can help their children in the brainstorming and editing stages by providing them with an adult sensibility and mature, grounded perspective. Many over-involved parents believe that they are helping their child’s essay by rewriting it in the style and tone of the New York Times . This is a mistake. Admissions officers do not want to read Nicholas Kristof’s version of your high school experience; they want it in your real teenage voice. Yet, parents can be of great assistance by reminding their child to tone down their all-too-eager-to-impress natures. For example, a change in school lunch menu policy instituted by a student council president should not be compared to The New Deal. A photographic expose in the school newspaper highlighting the poor condition of the football team’s locker rooms should not lead to comparisons of Jacob Riis. A discovery in robotics club should not…well, you get the idea.

4. Sports Glory

(In a John Facenda voice)…”On a crisp and dreary autumn day, a JV football field was the setting of a clash of titans, middleweight monsters of the gridiron. And there I stood, ready to perform the most challenging of the athletic arts, that fickle mistress known as…punting.”

Ask any admissions officer how many compelling sports-themed essays they’ve read in their entire careers. The answer will likely be somewhere between zero and one. Not even the spawn of Grantland Rice him/herself could breathe life into this black hole of a topic.

The caveat here is that an essay can, of course, involve athletics. However, sports should serve as the backdrop to something more deep and personal. Competition and training undoubtedly provide ample opportunity to show more about your character, ability, sportsmanship, reaction to adversity, and ability to contribute to a larger cause. Just make sure something more revealing is being communicated than the fact that you once netted a hat trick against a rival or drained a last-second, fadeaway three-pointer. If you’re that great at a given sport, chances are a coach has already recruited you.

5. The Stream of Consciousness Essay

Okay, so this isn’t exactly a topic, per se, but more of an ill-fated genre that we’ve seen attempted before. Applicants will throw formality to the wind and spew out a string of stream-of-consciousness thoughts. If it worked for James Joyce, why not me? Unfortunately, such works typically read like a crazy e-mail written by a jilted lover at 3:00 am rather than A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man .

Writing in an authentic voice does not mean scribbling down some stream-of-consciousness thoughts 24 hours before the application deadline. There is a popular myth that Abraham Lincoln penned the Gettysburg Address on a napkin en route to the battlefield. In truth, he spent over two weeks crafting the speech and went through five full drafts. All of that labor for a 272-word document about half the length of a college essay! To sum up: The more time that you dedicate to your essay, the better the product will be.

Final Thoughts — College Essay Topics to Avoid

Now that you know what topics to avoid, your next question is likely this one: What should I write about?! Check out the following blogs for inspiration:

• Common App Essay Prompts
• How to Brainstorm a College Essay
• 10 Instructive Common App Essay Examples
• How to Start a College Essay
• How to End a College Essay
• Best College Essay Help
• College Essay

Andrew Belasco

A licensed counselor and published researcher, Andrew's experience in the field of college admissions and transition spans two decades. He has previously served as a high school counselor, consultant and author for Kaplan Test Prep, and advisor to U.S. Congress, reporting on issues related to college admissions and financial aid.

• 2-Year Colleges
• ADHD/LD/Autism/Executive Functioning
• Application Strategies
• Best Colleges by Major
• Best Colleges by State
• Big Picture
• Career & Personality Assessment
• College Search/Knowledge
• College Success
• Costs & Financial Aid
• Data Visualizations
• Dental School Admissions
• Extracurricular Activities
• General Knowledge
• Graduate School Admissions
• High School Success
• High Schools
• Homeschool Resources
• Law School Admissions
• Medical School Admissions
• Navigating the Admissions Process
• Online Learning
• Outdoor Adventure
• Private High School Spotlight
• Research Programs
• Summer Program Spotlight
• Summer Programs
• Teacher Tools
• Test Prep Provider Spotlight

“Innovative and invaluable…use this book as your college lifeline.”

— Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Nationally Recognized College Expert

College Planning in Your Inbox

Join our information-packed monthly newsletter.

Login or sign up

Get Started

• College Search
• College Search Map
• Graduate Programs
• Featured Colleges
• Scholarship Search
• Lists & Rankings
• User Resources

Articles & Advice

• All Categories
• Ask the Experts
• Campus Visits
• Catholic Colleges and Universities
• Christian Colleges and Universities
• College Admission
• College Athletics
• College Diversity
• Counselors and Consultants
• Education and Teaching
• Financial Aid
• Graduate School
• Health and Medicine
• International Students
• Internships and Careers
• Majors and Academics
• Performing and Visual Arts
• Public Colleges and Universities
• Science and Engineering
• Student Life
• Transfer Students
• Why CollegeXpress
• CollegeXpress Store
• Corporate Website
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• CA and EU Privacy Policy

Articles & Advice > College Admission > Articles

College Admission Essay Topics: Best and Worst

What should you write your college admission essay about? Which topics should you avoid? Check out some of the best (and the worst) college essay topic ideas!

by Phoebe Bain Freelance Writer

Last Updated: Apr 6, 2023

Originally Posted: Aug 16, 2017

The essay is easily one of the most difficult parts of the college application process. How can someone describe themselves in such a short amount of space, especially when all their accomplishments are listed on the page before and they don’t want to sound repetitive? There are a few clichés to avoid in the college essay world. Keep reading to find out what to avoid and what to approach in your college essay writing journey.

Worst of the worst

The sports game.

A great college admission essay makes the reader say something along the lines of, “Wow, I’ve never heard of someone who did/experienced that before.” Know what nearly everyone has experienced before? Winning or losing. More specifically, almost everyone has either won or lost a sports game. Talking about your experience coping with your win or loss will pile you in with every other applicant that the admission officer reads about that day, aka the exact opposite of what you want to happen to you and your beloved essay.

The breakup

A lot like dating a bad boy, this essay tempts you. Think about it: talking about your love life seems deep . Maybe a breakup feels like the biggest hardship you have faced thus far, or perhaps you think the way you supported your 10th grade girlfriend during her science competition seems like a great metaphor for how you plan to support your university community. However, just like with any good piece of writing, you need to know your audience. And in this case, your audience does not think anything about your high school relationship sounds impressive. College admission officers have not been in high school for a very long time. They might have been through a divorce or had to support their spouse through the death of one of their parents or children. But they have a bit more perspective on relationships than the average high school senior, so they will probably not find the demise of your junior year relationship as poignant as you do. 

The mission trip

Everyone who has been to Togo/Haiti/Guatemala wants to write about the time they saw real Third World poverty for the first time and extrapolate on how their lives were never the same after said experience. And while that experience may have really affected your life, it affects the lives of thousands of upper–middle class students around America in the exact same way, and they are all writing the same essay about it as we speak. If your time in Sierra Leone really feels like what you need to tell your dream school about, talk about a specific experience, like a conversation you had with someone who lived there. The cliché service trip essay often sounds incredibly vague, so if you must write about your experience, make sure you tell a very specific story that brings the reader into a certain moment with you (more on that later). 

The “different” essay

I once had a friend show me an essay he wrote in which he had to describe the best day of his life. Naturally, he wrote about the time he slept until five in the evening, ate some ice cream, then went back to sleep. However, he was not a lazy kid at all. He was really into piano and lacrosse, but he wanted his essay to sound off the beaten path and unique. So rather than talking about one of his passions, he decided to write about something he knew no one else would try…the time he slept all day. Unfortunately, there is a really good reason no one else wrote that essay. The same goes for trying to be creative and responding with one word, one sentence, or a poem. Although those are very different responses from what admission officers reads, this does not mean they are good responses. There are other ways to stand out without compromising your intelligence. 

Related:  Admission Essay Ideas That Just Don't Work

Better essay ideas

The ridiculous way you grew up (and how it affects you now).

The first time I went to Harvard to hang out with friends, I met a student who was raised by wolves. Yes, you read that right; she actually grew up in a wolf rehabilitation community. Sure, she was also a model and an Economics major, but the whole raised by wolves thing was definitely more memorable than anything else about her. If you grew up in a unique way that affects who you are now, it might be worth writing about in a college essay to make your application more memorable. 

Focusing on a moment

If you decide you have to talk about one of the cliché essay topics mentioned above, a good way to tell a more common story is to focus on one specific moment and build from there. For instance, if I were only interested in field hockey and felt I absolutely had to write about the sport in my essay, I would not write about some vague game and how good it felt when my team won. I would write about the sound the ball makes hitting the back of the goal, how my adrenaline changes in that moment, how all the sounds around me slowly rush into my ears afterwards. Then, most importantly, after describing the moment, I would write about its significance by connecting it to some larger idea or meaning or characteristic about myself. Focusing on a moment that changed your life—such as the time you broke your back as a kid in a car crash, or the time your dad told you the family was moving to a different country—can also function well in your college essay. 

Personality pic

A good friend of mine in high school had to answer an interesting question for the school where he ended up enrolling. The university’s supplemental application asked him to describe one of his quirks. I distinctly recall reading my friend’s essay about him being a storyteller above all else and visibly grinning as my eyes passed over each line, because the essay was just so genuine and true. He was a storyteller; he told all of us tales of his fly-fishing summer job in the Adirondacks, spun yarns about wolves that spoke to him while he was camping, and talked about his skydiving uncle like he was a superhero in a comic book. The storyteller anecdote never would have come through in the rest of his Common Application, but it was truly one of his most significant personality traits. So, lesson learned, read over your Common Application, and at the end, ask yourself, “What’s missing?” Who knows—the answer to that question might be the basis for your admission essay.

Lust for literature

If you have a friend or family member who reads a lot of books in their free time, I bet you think they’re pretty intelligent. Fortunately, colleges will think the same thing about you if you decide to incorporate your love of literature into your essay. Maybe you have a book in which you strongly relate to one of the characters. Perhaps a philosophical text really elucidates your current paradigm. Or maybe you strive to write like a certain author one day. Whatever the case, you really cannot go wrong writing about the literature you love, as your passion for it will shine through the pages.

Related: Top College Admission Essay Myths Debunked

We hope these tips help guide your topic selection when it comes time to write your college application essay! Find even more college essay advice in our Application Essay Clinic .

Like what you’re reading?

Join the CollegeXpress community! Create a free account and we’ll notify you about new articles, scholarship deadlines, and more.

Tags: admission essay topics admission essays application essays college admission college applications college essays

About Phoebe Bain

Phoebe Bain is an avid writer, reader, runner, ukulele player, and user of the passive voice. Her favorite show is How I Met Your Mother , and she loves how giraffes look when they sleep.

Join our community of over 5 million students!

CollegeXpress has everything you need to simplify your college search, get connected to schools, and find your perfect fit.

College Quick Connect

Swipe right to request information. Swipe left if you're not interested.

Southern Methodist University

Northwood University

Midland, MI

Barry University

Miami Shores, FL

Vermont State University

Randolph Center, VT

Washington State University

Pullman, WA

Agnes Scott College

Atlanta, GA

Methodist University

Fayetteville, NC

Lewis University

Romeoville, IL

University of Denver

University of Detroit Mercy

Detroit, MI

Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw, GA

Hillsdale College

Hillsdale, MI

St. John's University

Jamaica, NY

University of Delaware

Rider University

Lawrenceville, NJ

Miami University

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

North Dartmouth, MA

Ithaca College

Cleveland State University

Cleveland, OH

Sterling College

Sterling, KS

University of Akron

Covenant College

Lookout Mountain, GA

High Point University

High Point, NC

Dean College

Franklin, MA

Gonzaga University

Spokane, WA

That's it for now!

High School Class of 2019

CollegeXpress has helped me by opening my eyes to new opportunities. I learned about such easy ways to get financial help to achieve my dreams while also learning about myself and who I truly am. I know this isn't a very long explanation of what CollegeXpress has done for me, but nonetheless, I believe it's crucial to how I developed as a person throughout my time as a college student.

Courtney Smith

High School Class of 2022

CollegeXpress has been a huge help! The website is very organized with finding the right scholarship for anyone and anything. With CollegeXpress, I've been able to find many scholarship opportunities to apply for. Not only that, I'm also able to search for the colleges I have interest in and see what’s required and what scholarships they offer. I've learned a lot from CollegeXpress. They've helped me in many ways to achieve my goals!

Samantha Fils-Aime

I love that CollegeXpress has helped me find some scholarships to apply for but also helped me succeed in school with lots of tips. I also really like how they consistently email me about webinars that teach me a lot of things from the comfort of my home!

High School Class of 2023

CollegeXpress helped open me up to many colleges that fit my interests. I’m only a sophomore in high school, so I like having a lot to look at, and CX does a great job of picking colleges that meet my wants. It's a great website that I'll continue to use until it comes time for me to apply for colleges. I also like that it notifies me through email with options to look at. Thanks CX!

Kelly Nogueiro

For me, CollegeXpress has given me a valuable tool to use with my students to explore colleges easily beyond objective data. It helps me find colleges for students that fit their needs and wants that aren’t quite so black and white. It's a wealth of knowledge, and the Type-A side of me loves all the lists and the fact that I know they're coming from folks who know what they're talking about. I share it with colleagues and students alike, and it's always well received.

•   Best Ways to Prepare for 5 Different Supplemental Essays
•   How to Write an Effective, Powerful Personal Statement
•   Don't Use Your English Paper as a College Essay
•   6 of the Worst College Admission Essay Myths You Shouldn't Listen To
•   Top College Essay Tips From Admission Insiders

Personalize your experience on CollegeXpress.

With this information, we'll display content relevant to your interests. By subscribing, you agree to receive CollegeXpress emails and to make your information available to colleges, scholarship programs, and other companies that have relevant/related offers.

Already have an account?

Log in to be directly connected to

Not a CollegeXpress user?

Don't want to register.

Provide your information below to connect with

• Advertising
• Architecture
• Celebrities
• Digital Art
• Entertainment
• Fashion Design
• Graphic Design
• Illustration
• Industrial Design
• Interior Design
• Photography
• photoshop fail
• Product Design
• Relationships
• Social Issues

25 College Admissions Officers Share The Worst Essays They’ve Ever Read

Admissions officers are faced with a barrage of applications when it comes time for the newest batch of kids to enter college. These aspiring hopefuls are inexperienced in the ways of the world, and more often than not their admissions essays give it away.  

One internet user provoked the most interesting discussion on r/AskReddit when they inquired from college admissions officers what was the very worst essay they had encountered. The officers did not disappoint as you can see from the hilarious collection of bizarre submissions that we’ve shared with you below.  

Image source:  Ironghazi , Abhishek Shekhawat

A student began his essay bragging that he was “king” of his school. He was a linebacker, captain of the lacrosse team, and had been with “four older, attractive girls in the last 6 months.” He was attempting to contextualize himself as a dude bro to juxtapose his discovered love of poetry, but only provided the committee with a laughs and eye rolls.

Also read numerous essays this year from middle/upper-class white kids talking about how hard it is to be Christian in the United States because they are ridiculed, mocked, and even persecuted(!) for their beliefs

Image source:  TheBerg18 , Monstera Production

I know a college admissions person and one time they told me that a student wrote down that they can “Distinguish bra cup sizes by a simple glance at a woman”.

They were not impressed

Image source:  D4Bama , Tiểu Bảo Trươn

I read essays for a scholarship foundation and the worst essay I have ever read was from a girl who wrote that she was a good person and she backed that up by stating that she was a virgin. First of all I don’t think being a virgin makes you a good person or not being one makes you a bad person. Second of all, who the hell talks about their virginity on a scholarship application?

Image source:  sorjuana81 , Mikhail Nilov

I was an admissions assistant at a really religious university. Everyone had to sign an Honor Code that included no tank tops, no drinking, no premarital sex or anything close, etc. I think a lot of kids have parents who make them apply because from time to time we would get unrepentant stories about drunken nights of passion. As in, “The candles flickered gently as he asked, ‘”Are you sure you want to do this?'” An interview with a religious leader is included in your packet and I read one that said, “Do not let this girl in under any circumstances. She belongs to a polygamous cult and may be coming to recruit.”

Image source:  needs_more_zoidberg , Anna Shvets

I remember an applicant who wrote at length about how she panics under pressure, lacks leadership skills and can’t stand hospitals. It was a medical school application. I called her to make sure we weren’t getting trolled. 10 seconds into the call she began panicking and said she doesn’t do well with stressful phone calls and hung up. I called later to check up and she seemed to have recovered. No interview for her though.

Image source:  stephanois , Vitali Adutskevich

Read essays for a scholarship, not admissions.

Most were about mission trips through churches and how much the student had learned. Boring and mediocre. But one…

Packed with amazing imagery, the writer described her birth. Into the world of freedom and adulthood she was born. Pushing open the “doors”. Light striking her face for the first time. So vivid. Got to the end and she was describing getting a luxury car at her graduation party. It was a scholarship for needy kids. She didn’t get it.

Image source:  anon , Anna Shvets

Ones with text speak (r, u, 4ever), ones where kids forgot to change the name of the school for a different essay, ones where they tried to explain they’re a good student despite a 2.0 gpa..

Image source:  FoolishConsistency17 , cottonbro studio

“My Mexican nanny was like a second mother to me and I know she felt the same way because she spent holidays with us instead of her own family.

Image source:  the_surly_cashier , Antoni Shkraba

I did data entry for the admissions office of the university I attended as an undergrad. Mostly I just confirmed the identification numbers on papers/e-docs that were sent in, and entered the applications components onto a sort of checklist on the applicant’s profile in the system. It wasn’t my job to read the applications for content, but the job was tedious as hell, so I often did anyway.

I’ve seen some exceptional s**t. I teach high school now, and I tell my students exactly what happens when you write an idiotically over-the-top-first-world-problem sob story or pretentious special snowflake essay. The underpaid data monkeys who process your s**t pass it around the bullpen and laugh our asses off.

The best worst one I ever read was a personal statement from a female student explaining a disciplinary action on her school report. Apparently, she and her boyfriend both ran track and attended the [University Mascot] Invitational track meet on campus. She went into detail about a fight that she and her boyfriend had at the meet, and then explained that he had asked to talk to her in private to “make up.” She went on to say that they found an empty room in the field house and that he “was feeling romantic” and that they got caught having sex. She tried to play it off as her enthusiasm for the campus in the most awkward and horrible way possible. My shift got nothing done that way because we all crowded around the computer reading it out loud. Even the supervisors got in on it.

TL;DR If you get caught f*****g while visiting a university, maybe you shouldn’t apply there mere months later. Or, maybe you shouldn’t try to spin it as a demonstration of your enthusiasm about attending said university.

Image source:  nonnativetexan , Anete Lusina

Admissions counselor here. I’ve been doing this for almost nine years, so everything kind of blends together at this point. I can’t think of a specific “worst essay,” but a lot of them fall into a few broad categories.

Sympathy essays

These essays are usually a big list of all the terrible things that happened to a student in hopes that we will admit them because we feel bad. Don’t just tell us all the things that have happened to you and nothing else. A LOT of prospective students have gone through the divorce of their parents, death of a friend or family member, medical issues, car accident, etc. You need to explain how these events shaped you as a human being, what you learned, how you handled adversity and still managed your academics and so on.

Over-sharing essays

These are kind of like sympathy essays, only with much more graphic details. I’ve had some essays where students share intricate descriptions of sexual abuse they have experienced, or abusive relationships they were in with high school girl/boyfriends… This may have been a major experience that shaped you as a human being, but I don’t think is appropriate for a college essay. If I feel the need to take a shower after reading your essay, that’s not good for anyone. Also included here are essays where you admit that you didn’t try hard in high school or take your academics seriously, but you’re going to start in college. Maybe you should start in junior college then, and we’ll see how it goes before you get to a four-year university.

Poorly written essays

Spelling errors, grammar mistakes, no formatting… THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS. Have someone read your essay before you send it. Have several people read it! It’s not cheating; we encourage you to do this. Also, if you’re using the same essay for multiple colleges, make sure you change the name of the college referenced in your essay before you send it to that college.

Low-effort essays

Some students submit an essay that is about five sentences long and doesn’t really say anything. If it takes you more time to attach your essay to the application than it does to write the essay, that is not a good thing.

Boring essays

Most essays are not all that interesting to read, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If your essay doesn’t stand out at all, it probably means that you answered the essay topic and didn’t make any, or many, mistakes. That’s about as much as we can ask for. It’s not your fault that the typical high school experience for the vast majority of high school students is… typical. You probably didn’t enter your freshman year thinking, “I better do some really cool stuff during the next few years so that I can write about it in my college essay.” That’s fine, we get that. Just do the best you can.

In reality, for most students, the essay is the weakest part of the application. We realize that, and so in every office I’ve worked in, the essay is the least valued part of the application file. We’re much more interested in whether you challenged yourself academically, earned good grades, scored well on the SAT/ACT, and got involved in extracurricular activities. These things are all way more important.

Image source:  BlueLightSpcl , Pixabay

Former admissions counselor here:

The worst essays, generally, are not particularly interesting. They receive the worst scores because they are short, incomplete, riddled with grammatical mistakes, or are written by non-native speakers. It takes 30 seconds to give the lowest score and move on.

However, one memorable essay sticks out. A student (rich, white, private school) wrote eloquently about how inner city black students ought to take up more sports. Specifically, polo, lacrosse, and squash. With conviction, this particular student, woefully unaware, wrote about how inner city students could learn more about competition and overcoming adversity from taking up these sports. His proposal was to host sports camps (in the suburbs) for the students of color to attend.

Image source:  phoenix-corn , Anna Shvets

I worked in writing centers for several years and we helped people write these essays. Somebody came in with a med school essay about how she wanted to become a doctor to offer her family free surgery, so when I asked her about it and if she knew much about medical ethics, she said she thought operating on family members–esp. plastic surgery–would be just fine. I also asked her if she knew about the Hippocratic Oath and she had never heard of it.

Image source:  capri1722 , PhotoMIX Company

Not an admissions officer, but when I was applying to colleges, an admissions officer told us about one student who wrote about tomatoes. Specifically, how people either like tomatoes or hate them; there is no in-between. She got in.

Image source:  greenoakofenglish , Max Rahubovskiy

I love a question I can legitimately answer!

There was a happiest place prompt. Her happiest place was the bathroom. While pooping.

A story about meeting poor people while on a service trip to South America (a frequent cliche) that ended with tossing soap and pens and pencils to a small child who danced for them, until he cried of gratitude (or perhaps because teenagers were throwing things at him)

Someone who wrote about her school trip to Ireland, where she mentioned staring out at the Pacific Ocean from her hotel

Image source:  I-Hate-Hats , Oladimeji Ajegbile

For their GPA they put 95. One student listed their high school as “idk” One student listed their intended major as teaching and their minor in “principle” I asked one person how to spell their name and they had to ask their mother how to spell it. Multiple people have actually tried listing their IQ as a reason for admittance. If you get to write your own personal essay do not write “Why?” As the title and the entire essay be “why not?” Maybe not too ridiculous but they stuck with me

The worst CV I ever saw as part of an application to a graduate program was a barely-intelligible, un-formatted mess that included such bits of information as she likes to spend her free time reading and her favorite book is “fifty shade gray”

Image source:  dimgray

Image source:  anon , RDNE Stock project

Not an admissions officer, but a college essay proofreader. I had a student who wrote a page worth of complete metaphorical bs that I could make zero sense of. He talked about how his fedora was his most prized possession. The best sentence, however, was something along these lines: “I delight in pondering life’s endless choices, such as whether to indulge in extra guac: Is my palette worthy enough of the delicate mingling of avocado and coriander?” Had another essay where the student wrote about how adventurous she was, using the time she lit her kitchen on fire as a supporting detail. No. Just… no.

Image source:  tingwong , Cecil Stoughton

The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a “Harvard man” is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain.

April 23, 1935

John F. Kennedy

Image source:  TheTaoOfMe , Votsis Panagiotis

I wont say how i know this person but he answered an essay question asking what he would do if he had 100 dollars by explaining he would go to the local playground where homeless people congregated and host a mini olympics where the homeless could compete for the 150 burgers he purchased with the money. The idea was to feed them but also do a study in human behaviors. This was for John Hopkin’s and I’m pretty sure they were not pleased. Haha.

Image source:  Lt-SwagMcGee , Mikhail Nilov

I used to intern at the admissions office at my university and got to read a couple essays from time to time. Firstly, you won’t believe how many of these essays contain a sob story, or a story about how the kid went on a service trip and how it changed their lives.

Not exactly the worst, but I think the most cringe-worthy essay I read was one where this guy talked about how he thought he was more mature than anyone of his age, how he never talked to anyone in school because he thought they were too dumb for him, and how he spends his free time having conversations with scientists on the Internet. Also for some reason he felt the need to mention multiple times that he was straight edge and didn’t understand how other kids of his generation found alcohol and drugs fun.

I mean, his GPA was pretty good and he seemed like a decent kid but f*****g hell was that essay hard to read.

Image source:  now_in_the_know , Karolina Grabowska

I used to work in admissions and my boss had pinned an essay up in her cubicle with the name whited-out. The entire thing was written like the applicant was a cat. She talked about coming to learn with silly humans and how art would be a cat’s true passion if cats had passions. She said that she didn’t care about getting in, she just wanted to prove that she could. I don’t think she was accepted, but that would have just been because of grades or text score, not the essay. That essay was legendary.

Image source:  stone4345 , Lisa Fotios

A applicant literally wrote something along the lines of please don’t accept me I don’t want to go to your school in the addendum section of our application because his parents forced him to apply.

Another time an applicant submitted a essay composed of Japanese characters that when put through google translate turned out to be a loosely translated version of cat in the hat.

Image source:  anon , cottonbro studio

My favourite teacher in high school used to grade provincial English exams. Basically they put you in a room and you rate essays out of 5 all day. You have to do one paper every 5-10 minutes. And you’re supposed to do it in absolutely stone cold silence.

He’s in the middle of grading a pretty blasé paper and he can just sense the guy beside him losing his s**t. He’s practically convulsing he’s trying so hard not to laugh. He cracks and is openly howling and people start to get up and gather around to see what’s funny.

The kid ended every single sentence in exclamation marks.

We went to the mall today!! The mall was really packed!! We went to buy shoes!! The kind I wanted weren’t there!! I was sad but then I bought another pair of shoes!!!! They’re okay! I like my new shoes!!

Who does that?!

Image source:  AFurryPickle , Italo Melo

My dad reviews college admissions for a certain not really well known college (in the middle of Buttf*ck Nowhere, Wisconsin) when he can volunteer. The prompt was of course the stereotypical, “What’s an important thing in your life” or whatever. Y’know, the “big event” in your life. The kid wrote that he had Aspergers, and thus had “superior intelligence to all of the other normals” (A quote from the essay). Kept on writing on and on and on about how he’s superior, and how people just dont “understand him”. I didn’t get to read the whole thing before he threw it away, but it just went on and on. The word limit was like 500 words? He extended it to around 2,000. Gotta give him credit for going the extra mile I guess. He didn’t get into B*ttf**k Nowhere University, what a shame.

Image source:  chazu_ , MART PRODUCTION

Girlfriend is a college admissions officer. She read over a hundred essays from Chinese prospective students that all talked about “helping the blind”. Had no idea that so many Chinese teenagers were active in their blind communities.

Shanilou Perera

Shanilou has always loved reading and learning about the world we live in. While she enjoys fictional books and stories just as much, since childhood she was especially fascinated by encyclopaedias and strangely enough, self-help books. As a kid, she spent most of her time consuming as much knowledge as she could get her hands on and could always be found at the library. Now, she still enjoys finding out about all the amazing things that surround us in our day-to-day lives and is blessed to be able to write about them to share with the whole world as a profession.

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service
• --> --> -->

Daily artshake in your inbox.

25 Of The Funniest Observations Tweeted By Parents This August

25 Abnormal Childhood Experiences That People Grew Up With

25 Everyday Problems That Someone Should Have Resolved By Now

40 Strange Unwritten Household Rules People Grew Up With

35 Adorable Dog Posts That Will Make You Love Pups Even More

Fearless awards unveils the best wedding photos of 2017, and they will take your breath away.

Ta-Ta Towel For Boobs Is Here, And Women Are Going To Love It

People Are Sharing Their Worst Wildlife Photos To This Online Group, And It’s Hilarious (30 New Pics)

Ukrainian Artist Photoshops Classical Painting Characters Into Real Life, And Looks Like Venus Is Going To The Nude Beach

20 well-known phrases that people often use incorrectly, got wisdom to pour.

Hi, I’m Belen! As a student, I’ve discovered that grammarchecker.bot is an essential tool for polishing my writing. Its intuitive interface makes it easy to use, even when I’m short on time. I was impressed by how accurately it catches grammar mistakes and provides practical suggestions for fixing them. This tool not only helped me correct my errors but also offered clear explanations, which helped me understand how to avoid them in the future.

This happens precisely because of the lack of proper preparation for admission. If this is truly your dream profession, you need to pay special attention to the interview. MMI allows evaluators to assess a broader range of competencies, including ethical decision-making, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, providing a more comprehensive evaluation of the candidate’s abilities. Here https://medapplications.com/multiple-mini-mmi-interview/ you will always be helped to prepare properly

The process of writing an essay is not always easy, even if you know the structure of this task. That’s why I came here https://www.academicghostwriter.org/hire-thesis-ghostwriter/ to find out about the service that many students use. I met writers. And they helped me a lot with writing my essay and thesis.

Just got done with the article on “25 College Admissions Officers Share The Worst Essays They’ve Ever Read” – talk about a cautionary tale! The study gives a glimpse into the cringe-worthy side of college admissions essays, highlighting the importance of crafting a compelling narrative. Now, shifting gears to student struggles, I get it. The pressure of creating standout essays, balancing coursework, and maintaining grades can be overwhelming. Personally, I’ve found a reliable support system in edubirdie. Their dissertation proofreading service https://essays.edubirdie.com/dissertation-proofreading-service has been a lifesaver, ensuring my academic work is top-notch and error-free, giving me that extra edge. If you’re diving into the college admissions process or just navigating the ups and downs of student life, check out the article. And for anyone looking to fine-tune their academic writing, edubirdie might just be the secret weapon to elevate your work and improve your grades.

i like this post

College admissions officers, who sift through numerous application essays every year, encounter a wide array of writing, ranging from the profoundly touching to the downright baffling. Source: https://studyheal.com/

Most popular articles

30 Funny Memes For History Buffs That Reveal Another Side Of The Story

25 Tweets Shared This August On X That Are Too Funny To Miss

40 “Ancient Marvels Of Mankind” That Have Survived To This Day

40 Random Memes That Are Funny And Relatable To Distract Yourself With

Related articles, 12 crazy admission stories you probably don’t know about, 45 people whose day is probably worse than yours, 45 weird and funny things people found on the subway, 40 times people had the worst day (new pics), 30 times people tried doing laundry and ended up regretting it.

DeMilked -->

Sign in for a whole new way to experience art.

Don’t have an account yet, register a new user.

By hitting sign up agree Demilked’s Terms of Service

Bad Essay Topics for College Admissions

Essay topics you should definitely avoid

• Essay Samples & Tips
• College Admissions Process
• College Profiles
• College Rankings
• Choosing A College
• Application Tips
• Testing Graphs
• College Financial Aid
• Advanced Placement
• Homework Help
• Private School
• College Life
• Graduate School
• Business School
• Distance Learning
• Ph.D., English, University of Pennsylvania
• M.A., English, University of Pennsylvania
• B.S., Materials Science & Engineering and Literature, MIT

A poorly chosen application essay topic can have disastrous results when applying to a selective college. Some topics are risky because they focus on controversial or touchy subjects, while other topics are simply overused and ineffective.

Choose Your Essay Topic Thoughtfully

A highly skilled writer can make almost any essay topic work. Still, you'll want to avoid taking risks that can backfire. Strong political positions or religious stances can alienate your reader, as can essays that are uncomfortably intimate and personal. Also work to avoid a tone that is bragging about accomplishments, flaunting privilege, or wallowing in self-pity.

Realize this list is not saying that no one should ever write about these ten topics. In the right context and in the hands of a masterful writer, any one of these topics could be transformed into a winning college admissions essay. That said, all too often these topics harm an application rather than help it.

Your Drug Use

Probably every college in the country has to deal with substance abuse on campus, and most people who work at colleges have seen students' academic careers and lives ruined by drugs. If you've had problems with drugs in the past, even if you overcame those problems, the essay isn't the best place to draw attention to your use of illegal substances. On one hand, the college may be impressed with your honesty and courage in addressing the problem. On the flip side, the essay may present liabilities the college would prefer to avoid.

Your Sex Life

Yes, sex is usually a bad essay topic. The admissions officers probably don't care whether or not you have an active or interesting sex life. More importantly, an essay on your sexual experiences is going to make many readers cry, "too much information!" You don't want to write about something that might be embarrassing for your reader.

That said, some touchy topics such as date rape and sexual violence can lead to an excellent essay if handled well. You'll need excellent writing skills to pull off this type of essay, and you'd be wise to get the reaction of readers who aren't close friends or family.

Your Heroism

Sure, if you acted heroically in some way, it's a fair topic for a college admissions essay. It becomes a bad essay topic when the essay is self-absorbed and arrogant. There are a lot of annoying essays about how an applicant single-handedly won the football game or turned a friend's life around. Humility is more pleasant to read than hubris, and colleges are more likely to admit students who shine praise on others rather than themselves. Remember, a college is a community of people working and learning together, and the admissions office may take a pass on applicants who think a bit too highly of themselves.

One-Track Social, Religious or Political Lectures

Be careful with divisive issues like abortion, capital punishment, stem cell research, gun control, and the "war on terror." You can certainly write an excellent and thoughtful essay on any of these topics, but too often applicants stubbornly and closed-mindedly argue what they see as the "right" side of the argument. The readers of your application don't want to be lectured to, nor do they want to be told they are wrong. The chances of offending your reader are high with some of these touchy topics.

Writing can be excellent therapy for working through difficult and traumatic events in life—assault, rape, abuse, incest, attempted suicide, cutting, depression and so on. However, you don't want your college admissions essay to be a self-analysis of your pain and suffering. Such topics might make your reader uncomfortable (a fine thing to do in other contexts, but not here), or they might make your reader question how ready you are for the social and academic rigors of college.

The Travel Journal

Colleges like students who have traveled, and travel can lead to a life-changing experience that could make a great college essay. However, travel is a remarkably common topic for college essays, and it often isn't handled well. You need to do more than highlight the fact that you have traveled, and you should be careful to make sure your essay isn't simply highlighting your privilege. A travel essay should be an analysis of a single and meaningful experience, not a summary of your trip to France or South America. How did you grow as a result of your travel? How did your worldview change?

A Comedy Routine

The best essays often reveal a writer's sense of humor, but the jokes shouldn't be the point of the essay. Don't use the essay to showcase how witty and clever you are. A good college admissions essay reveals your passions, intelligence, and strengths. A 600-word comedy routine doesn't do this. Again, humor is good (if you are actually humorous), but the essay needs to be about you and have substance.

If you had a bad semester or two in high school, it may be tempting to use the essay to explain your low grades . Perhaps you were ill, your parents were getting divorced, your best friend died, or you moved to a new country. You will want to convey this information to the college, but not in your personal essay. Instead, have a guidance counselor write about your bad semester, or include a short supplement with your application.

Your List of Accomplishments

A college application gives you a space in which to list your jobs, community involvement, and extracurricular activities . Don't use your essay for repeating this information. Redundancy isn't going to impress anyone, and a tedious list of activities isn't going to make a good essay . The admissions folks want to read a good story, not a list.

Anything Insincere

A lot of students make the mistake of trying to second-guess what the admissions folks want to hear in an essay, and then write about something that isn't actually central to their interests and passions. Sure, you'll want to include all of your community service and good deeds in your list of activities, but don't write about these activities in your essay unless they really are at the heart of what it is that makes you uniquely you.

If your favorite thing in the world is baking, you're much better off writing your essay about an experience with apple pie than you are focusing on a weekend you spent working with Habitat for Humanity. Show the admissions folks who you are, not who you think they want you to be. Colleges want to admit students with diverse interests and passions, so your best approach is to be you.

An essay about one's shyness or love of crafts can be far more effective than one about a humanitarian trip to Haiti if the former comes from the heart and the latter was half-hearted effort to impress the admissions folks.

• Should an Application Essay Be Single-Spaced or Double-Spaced?
• How to Write an Outstanding College Application Essay
• How to Ace Your University of Wisconsin Personal Statements
• Tips for Writing a Winning College Transfer Essay
• Striking Out: Sample Common Application Essay
• "Gym Class Hero" - a Common Application Essay Sample for Option #3
• "Handiwork" - Sample Common Application Essay for Option #1
• "My Dads" - Sample Common Application Essay for Option #1
• Tips for an Application Essay on a Significant Experience
• Tips for Writing a Winning College Application Essay
• A Sample Essay for Common Application Option #7: Topic of Your Choice
• Common Application Essay Option 3 Tips: Challenging a Belief
• 2020-21 Common Application Essay Option 4—Solving a Problem
• College Application Essay - The Job I Should Have Quit
• Tips for the Pre-2013 Personal Essay Options on the Common Application
• Sample College Transfer Essay

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

11 Cliché College Essay Topics + How to Fix Them

←11 Stellar Common App Essay Examples

5 Awesome College Essay Topics→

Does your Common App essay actually stand out?

Your essay can be the difference between an acceptance and rejection — it allows you to stand out from the rest of applicants with similar profiles. Get a free peer review or review other students’ essays right now to understand the strength of your essay.

Submit or Review an Essay — for free!

What makes a good college essay? It’s a question many high school seniors ask while going through the application process. A winning college essay engages admissions officers and shares with them the student’s identity and personality, painting a picture that goes beyond grades and test scores—compelling the reader to become an advocate for the student’s admission. 

The Four Core Questions are at the heart of college essays and answering them is critical. Those questions are: 

• Why am I here?
• What is unique about me?
• What matters to me? 

By answering these questions, a student is able to share information that is otherwise hard to ascertain with admissions officials—things like personality traits, personal journey, interests, skills, and ambitions. A well-conceived and well-written essay is a way for students to separate themselves from other applicants; conversely, an ineffective essay does nothing to distinguish a student, which is why it’s so important to avoid writing a cliché college essay. 

Cliché College Essay Topics to Avoid + How to Fix Them

1. résumé of your life and achievements.

Résumés are an effective method to demonstrate achievements, but they’re boring to read. This is why, in the professional world, résumés are often accompanied by a cover letter. A college application is essentially a student’s résumé—it contains their grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities—which makes an essay listing achievements redundant. 

A better strategy is for students to pick one experience that stands above the rest and write about how it shaped the person they are today. This is especially effective for any experiences that would benefit from further explanation, or those that have an interesting backstory. For example, maybe you participate in a unique extracurricular that most people aren’t familiar with, such as being on a Chinese yoyo/diabolo team. You might choose to focus on that aspect of your identity and what it means to you. Or, maybe you love math, but never had the chance to explain on your application that you used to hate math, until a tutor showed you a different way to appreciate it (and that’s one of the reasons you want to become a math teacher). This would be another strong topic.

You don’t necessarily have to focus on one specific event, but your essay should be cohesive. Another traditional essay structure is telling a narrative over an extended period of time. This structure incorporates a handful of different experiences that are joined by a common thread. If you have a story of growth, change, or development, this is the classic essay structure for you. An example of this might be a football player who was embarrassed to admit he liked writing and poetry, but how he eventually became a published author, and came to accept and own his identity as a poet.

2. Sports injury, challenge, or success

Coaches on every level are known for telling their athletes about how the lessons learned on the field/court/ice translate to life. Unfortunately, these lessons and stories have been told in numerous movies and books, along with countless college essays

To successfully write a college essay about sports, it’s important to steer clear of the common themes.

• Overcoming adversity
• Trusting teammates
• Refusing to quit
• The thrill of victory
• The agony of defeat

For example, instead of an applicant talking about how their team trained and improved to beat their rivals or win a championship, they should write about a unique way that sports shaped who they are. For example, here’s an unexpected way to write about a sports injury: maybe tearing your ACL in a soccer game actually led you to start a podcast while you were recovering, which became one of your biggest passions. 

Along a similar line, a student could write about discovering their motivation for playing sports.  Maybe they always played basketball because they were good, or their parents expected them to play, but they realized they didn’t enjoy the competitive nature of the sport and wanted to gravitate toward less competitive activities like hiking or surfing. 

3. Immigrant story

The U.S. is a nation of immigrants and while not every student has an immigrant story, a lot of them do. Consequently, these immigrant themes are ones that every admissions officer has read before:

• Learning a new language
• Adapting to new customs
• Adjusting to a new lifestyle
• Struggling to fit in

Asian students, in particular, should avoid immigrant-themed essays, as they have a harder time getting into college due to demographics, and this topic only calls attention to their background. 

To make an immigration essay work (and avoid being another cliché college essay), a student needs to make it extremely unique or incredibly personal. One tactic is to write about a singular experience—moments of conflict are always an interesting topic. For example, a student might write about a time they were made to feel unwelcome in the U.S. and how they responded to that moment, such as volunteering at the community cultural center or creating a welcoming committee for new immigrants. 

Another essay opportunity is to write about an experience that is truly unique. Perhaps, when a student first came to the U.S., they didn’t have access to a vehicle or public transportation and needed to walk to school or their job. That student could use their college essay to focus on what they learned on their walks and the ambitions it sparked—such as tenacity to succeed against all odds, or a desire to found a program for immigrants in a similar position.  

4. Tragedy – death, divorce, abuse

Tragedies are formative experiences, which in theory make them a natural theme for a college essay; however, tragedies are often a universal experience. Furthermore, essays on this topic are too often centered on the tragedy itself, rather than the applicant.

It is possible to write a college essay about a tragedy that isn’t cliche, however. The key is to keep it focused on the applicant and highly personal. To start, avoid overused themes like “life is short” and “make every day count.” Instead, highlight how the tragedy affected the writer. For example, if you had a friend who passed away from substance abuse, an essay centered around your subsequent commitment to drug prevention programs and advocacy is an interesting angle. 

In the case of an applicant who had a parent pass away, writing about shifting family dynamics, new responsibilities, and increased challenges are all great themes. For example, a student went from worrying just about academics to becoming the other adult in the house—preparing meals for their siblings, sending them off to school, and helping them with their homework.

5. Working hard in a challenging class

Working hard in a challenging class doesn’t work as an essay topic for a handful of reasons. If you’re applying to a highly ranked institution, it’s likely that most of their applicants took tough classes and worked hard. They also likely faced challenging classes, struggled, and ultimately succeeded. Another reason to avoid this topic? The traits conveyed are likely covered by recommendation letters: 

• Perseverance
• Work ethic 
• Intellectual ability

Instead of writing your essay about overcoming a tough class, think about the personality traits you want to highlight. If you feel that your determination is already covered in other aspects of your application, pick another trait to feature in your essay. Or maybe, you feel like your determination isn’t emphasized enough. Which other experiences highlight this trait?

Another idea is to make the essay less about the class and more about the writer. Instead of sharing how you struggled to understand Crime and Punishment in your advanced lit class, you might detail how the class inspired a desire to write, or how the works covered made you reflect on your own life. 

You could also pick a problem or research question you want to solve, as per the fourth Common App essay prompt. Just remember that while the topic is an intellectual problem, your essay should still highlight your personality, identity, and way you think about the world. Pick something that is deeply personal to you and your background. For instance, maybe you want to create a proposal to solve food deserts in your county. This would allow you to share your personal experiences growing up in a food desert, your passion for increasing access to healthy food, and your analytical abilities.

6. Someone you admire (a person you know or historical figure)

The primary pitfall of writing about an admired person is that the essay is often focused more on the other person than the applicant. Even if students steer the essay toward themselves, they usually find themselves covering familiar themes:

• Learning something about themselves
• Learning something about life
• Learning something about the world

The key to keeping writing about another person from becoming another cliché college essay is to keep the focus on the applicant. A great way to do this is to highlight a specific moment where they exemplified an attribute or action that they commend in a person that they admire. For example, if an essay writer admires their father’s ethos of standing up for what is right, an excellent essay theme is the time they stood up for another student who was being bullied, even though they knew they risked losing popularity, or finding themselves in the crosshairs of the bully as the result. 

If the person they admire is historical, they can talk about how they are trying to live their life according to those ideals. For example, the aspiring writer can focus their essay on how they adopted Hemingway’s ritual of writing every morning as soon after first light as possible, and what they’ve learned from that process. 

7. Volunteer trip

Building a winning essay about a volunteer trip is tricky—at best, these essays come off as cliché; at their worst, they can make an applicant seem pretentious, condescending, and privileged. Like other topics, the key is for the writer to focus on themself, not the group they volunteered for or the place they went. 

One way to avoid the cliché volunteer essay is to write about a specific moment on your trip, rather than giving a chronological account of your time. Get really specific and bring the reader into the moment and share with them how it affected you. An attention-grabbing essay will show the reader how you changed, instead of telling them. 

Another trick for turning volunteer essays from cliché to eye-catching is focusing on an unusual experience that happened during the volunteer trip. For example, a delayed flight while travelling home that left you stranded in a foreign city all alone and how it’s a parable for stepping on campus for the first time.

8. Moving to a different part of the country 

Similar to the immigrant story, writing about moving to a new place is also an overly-done topic. Countless students move or switch schools each year. Many have trouble fitting in or adjusting to a new place, but eventually make new friends. 

If moving was really integral to your high school experience and identity, think about why that is. Did it push you to try new interests or become more outgoing? Focus your essay less on the move itself and your adjustment, and more on how exactly it changed your life. 

For instance, some more original ways of spinning this topic would be:

• How moving led you to start an organization that picks up unwanted furniture for free, and resells or donates items in good condition. For items in bad condition, you find ways to repair and upcycle them. This was motivated by all the trash you saw your family produce during the move.
• At your new school, you joined the gymnastics team because you were known as the uncoordinated, awkward girl at your old school, and you wanted to shed that image.
• After moving, you decided to go by the proper pronunciation of your Spanish name, rather than the anglicized version. You could write your essay on why you made this decision, and how it impacted your experience in your new community.

9. Your religious institution or faith

Religion is generally a very tricky topic, and it’s difficult to cover it in an original way in your essay. Writing about your faith and reflecting on it critically can work, but basic religious essays about why your faith is important to you are a little more clich é . 

It’s important to also remember your audience. If you’re applying to a religious school, essays about your faith will likely be expected. If you’re applying to a super liberal school, you might want to avoid writing your essay about your conservative religious views.  

Regardless of your situation, if you decide to write an essay on religion, share your personal relationship with your faith. Anyone can write broadly about how much their faith means to them or how their life changed when they found religion, but only you can share your personal experiences, thoughts, and perspectives.

10. Romantic relationships and breakups

Your college essays should be personal, but romantic relationships and breakups are a little too personal. Remember that applying to college is kind of like applying to a job, and you want to present yourself in a professional light. This means that writing about your romantic life is a bad idea in general. 

Unlike the other clich é topics, there are not really any directly-relevant alternatives. If you wanted to write your essay on your relationship, think about what traits that story would’ve brought out. For a breakup, was it your ability to overcome a setback? For a happy relationship, is it being emotionally intelligent or finding a compromise during conflict? Think about how you could still write an essay that conveys the same aspect of your identity, without mentioning this cliché topic.

11. Family pressure to pursue a particular major or field

Many students unfortunately experience family pressure to do certain activities or choose specific career paths. If this is the case for you, you shouldn’t focus your essay on this topic—it will only make it look like you lack independence from your parents. This is not a good sign to admissions committees, as they want a campus full of students who have the autonomy to make their own decisions. 

That’s not to say that parental input isn’t valid—you may have very legitimate reasons to follow your parents’ advice to pursue a particular career, especially if your family is low-income and you need to provide for them. But there are absolutely better topics to share your identity and background, beyond parental pressure.

Some ways to make this topic more original are:

• If you have strict parents, discussing how you became more independent from them, and an example of when you did something for your personal development that they might not have agreed with at the time.
• For those whose background influenced their decision to choose a “practical” field, you might talk about your situation growing up and how that influences your perspective and choices. Of course, you should still try to show genuine interest in your plans, as you don’t want to make it seem like you’re being “forced” to do something. 

Wondering if your personal essay topic is cliché? You can ask for the advice of peers and experts in our free  Q&A forum . If you’re looking for feedback on your essay, you can also get your essay  peer-reviewed for free . Just  sign up for your free CollegeVine account  to get started!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

0, text: error()">

0, text: error(), css: errorCssClass">

Reset your password

Enter your email address or username and we’ll send you a link to reset your password

Check your inbox

An email with a link to reset your password was sent to the email address associated with your account

Provide email

Please enter your email to complete registration

Activate to continue

Your account isn't active yet. We've emailed you an activation link. Please check your inbox and click the link to activate your account

0, text: error" style="display: none;">

0, text: success" style="display: none;">

• Relationships

The Bored Panda iOS app is live! Fight boredom with iPhones and iPads here .

• Partnership
• Success stories
• --> -->