The Common App essay is one of the most important parts of the college application.
By the time we read the personal statements that made it to the admissions office, they are edited, polished and seemingly perfect. But all college students can tell you it doesn’t just magically turn out that way. Some students are luckier than others and already have an essay topic in mind when they approach the personal statement. Others aren’t so lucky. It can even take months for students to boil down to the essay topic they want to write about before they even start going through essay drafts.
That’s why we had college students share their experience of how they narrowed down and chose their essay topic:
1. Do I Need to Reveal my Darkest Secrets?
Student advice from amustoe
Harvard University ‘20
“The most difficult part of my application was writing my personal statement. It felt so daunting, and I felt like I needed to reveal my darkest secrets or my greatest accomplishment in order for the admissions officers to like me. But it turns out that’s not at all what they’re looking for. Yeah, they’ve read a lot of essays about sports, the arts, and your family, but they’ve never read your story. The best piece of advice I received from an admissions officer about writing a personal statement is: “If you’re bored writing it, we’re bored reading it.” Write about something you’re excited about writing about! I struggled to write an essay for a while, then suddenly I wrote my Rodeo essay in about an hour. It doesn’t have to be an earth-shattering essay, it just has to be something that gives insight to who you are.”
Unlock her Harvard application file to read more of her application advice.
2. Give Yourself Time
Student advice from kdequa
Stanford University ‘22
“Just give yourself time to come up with a good essay. Read up on many essays of successful students and get an idea of what a good essay ‘feels’ like. It helped me make a good essay. And don’t underrate your peers’ advice. ‘I was lucky—My first essay idea(for the personal statement) turned out to be a good one!”
Unlock her Stanford student profile to learn more about her application journey!
3. Try Different Topics
Necchiserena
Fordham University ‘22
“At first I was looking for an interesting topic to write about, and I struggled for a very long time because I wrote several essays with different topics and couldn’t finish a single one. What I recommend is writing about your true passion, if you have many then choose what you love most. Even if you think the topic is not interesting, you will see that when you write about your passion it’s easier to develop and pull together a good essay than if you write about something you’re not that keen on but you think the admissions committee will like.”
Unlock her Fordham application file to read how her personal statement turned out!
4. Jot Down Ideas
Marissarose
Macaulay Honors College - CUNY ‘22
I spent a couple months at the end of junior year just brainstorming topics. I had a notebook dedicated to writing my main essay in which I kept all my ideas. Over the summer I began narrowing down topics by thinking of what has enough material to make it possible to write 800 words about (after editing, you’ll lose a couple hundred).
Unlock her Macaulay Honors student profile to learn more about her application journey!
5. Find a Conversation Partner!
Student Advice from Randostudent
Stanford University ‘22
“I found that having a conversation partner was immensely helpful in narrowing down my essay topics. Most people are surprisingly articulate when they talk out loud—people speak far more than they write, so their thoughts come more naturally when talking. Here’s what I did: I sat down with a conversation partner, who would ask me an essay prompt, out loud. I would respond to her and talk through my ideas, and my partner would jot down verbatim notes/things that stuck out to her as I talked.”
Unlock his Stanford application file to continue reading how a conversation partner helped him narrow down his essay topic!
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