College Essay - Topics to Avoid

It's been a few weeks since our Essay Brainstorming workshop for the juniors.  Have you continued to work on your blue sheet to come up with ideas that appropriately help describe you and can potentially transition into college essays for you in the future?  I hope so.  Don't let it slide too far into the back of your mind and continue to work on it periodically even if it is just 5-10 minutes a week to come up with some more "that's so you" stories or reflecting on times you have changed.

We talked a little about some of the cliche essays that you likely want to avoid because they are overdone and won't make you stand out. I wanted to share a few more "avoid this" reminders for you.

- Some essays are simply predictable.  Even if you're trying to make it unique, the colleges know better.  So, for example, if you write an essay with a 3rd person and then try to say the unique thing is the "twist" and it is really about you, they actually already knew that as they were reading it.  This is not a strategy that tends to work.

- If you focus only on the story without the reflection, you're writing about someone else who has impacted you, or you stay focused on something from a long time ago in the past without tying it back into you today, then you are missing the opportunity to give the college insight into who you are today.  You need to have the reflection and do it within the word count given.

- Remember that it doesn't have to be a BIG thing in your life.  Small moments are perfect.  This is an essay, not a life memoir or complete biography about yourself.  As a result, don't try to embelish the story to make it more dramatic.

- Watch your tone.  You need for the essay to sound genuinely like YOU.  Not a thesaurus, not AI, not your parents or your teacher.  You also need to make sure that it doesn't sound elitest (I am the greatest/ unlike other people), defeated (oh poor me), and that the way you're writing it translates to whomever is reading it.  This usually comes from having lots of people reading it to make sure that the tone is sounding genuine to you without rubbing people the wrong way.  (Which also means you have to be open to editing your essay lots before you ultimately submit it!)

As we discussed in the workshop, you CAN still write about one of these topics, but it just tends to be more challenging because if you are picking a common topic like these then you need to work to make uncommon connections.  If, on the other hand, you pick a unique topic that hasn't been overdone, you are safe to make common connections.