The Best Guide to College Essay Topic Ideas

That’s right: this is going to be the best guide to college essay topics.

Not only that, we’re confident that this is going to be the ONLY guide you need to come up with a strong college essay topic.

Why is that?

Well, okay. The reason isn’t as heroic as you may think. We’re confident you won’t need any other guide to college essay topics because all the ones available online are bare bones. But hey —we at least deserve to pat ourselves on the back for making a strong guide, right?

*cue self-high-fiving noise*

Anyway, this guide is going to be split into 3 sections.

The first section is going to cover the one big thing about college essay topics that NO ONE talks about. That’s right —consultants, admissions officers, alumni, teachers, your neighbor, your neighbor’s dog. No one addresses this one issue, but we’ll be covering it here.

Next, we’ll be covering everything you need to know to come up with the right college essay topics. This will be a bit different from just telling you what not to write about, and requires you to do some brainstorming exercises —don’t worry, it’s not too scary!

Lastly, we’ll be linking a set of other guides we’ve written in the past on common college essay topics and how to write them. More often than not, students have college essay topics that we’ve already helped edit and advise. These are common tropes like video games, depression, obstacles, etc. You can use these as inspiration and advice for your own essays.

With that said, let’s get right to it.

Table of Contents

What People Don’t Understand About College Essay Topics. Impossible Standards.
How to Actually Come Up With Good College Essay Topics.
A List of Guides to College Essay Topics

What People Don’t Understand About College Essay Topics. Impossible Standards.

When students try to come up with college essay topics, there’s often a utility error.

Okay… what does this mean?

This is a bit complicated. So, we’ll try to keep it as short and sweet as possible.

When people try to give advice on how to come up with strong college essay topics, there’s an error of utility with the advice. That means most advice on college essay topics doesn’t actually put you in a better spot.

Now, you may be thinking: “How can this be possible? The advice is correct; so, I should be in a better place if I follow the advice. Right…?”

Well, here’s where things get tricky.

Most college admissions advice pertaining to college essay topics are sweeping conclusions that are absolute. There is no room for negotiation. Don’t write about “x” topic. Ever. Period.

Here is an example:

This is an article from College Vine discussing “11 cliché college essay topics + how to fix them.”

It’s understandable that this advice steers students away from certain topics. It’s also understandable that the article aims to convince students to make their topics more unique and special. Maybe they’re overused so there’s a competition problem. Perhaps the topic is so cliché that admissions officers groan upon seeing it. That’s fair.

However, the problem arises when it sets an unachievable standard. Students often believe that they cannot write about certain topics altogether or that they need to scrap their topics completely. There’s this idea that all students shouldn’t just have average essay topics that everyone else has. That’s… impossible.

Think about that again. All students need to have essay topics that are unique. That’s not just a tall order. That’s impossible. It defies the literal definition of average. With college applications reaching thousands upon thousands, you’re bound to have someone who has the same or at least somewhat similar college essay topic.

Expecting that every student should have a unique topic that is completely perfect is too tall an order to ask. It’s true that certain college essay topics are cliché. However, there’s no practical utility in expecting that all students can write completely unique essays.

This post on Reddit is a great summary of the problem, and you can check out more about it here.

Now, this leaves a lot of students stuck. They want to come up with good college essay topics; but, no topic is ever good enough. It has to be better, always. This topic is too “x”. Oh no! It’s too “y”! The problem with this mindset is that students will start writing their college essays expecting that the “perfectly right” essay topic should just make the whole writing process stress free. The perfect essay topic doesn’t exist.

Yup. It doesn’t exist. It will never be perfect. There will always be errors and things to nitpick with it.

So, what should they do?

What should you do?

Well, let’s cover that in the next section.

How to Actually Come Up With Good College Essay Topics.

Some of this advice may be different from what you see online. Most advice on coming up with good college essay topics and ideas involves finding a unique and strong essay topic that no one has ever thought of.

Underwater basket weaving. Interpretative bubble gum chewing. Owning a Fortune 500 company.

These four points will hopefully provide you with more actionable advice than doing the impossible. You can use this advice knowing that there is more utility and execution to writing the college essay other than just trying to find the “perfect topic”.

Using What You’ve Got.

When trying to come up with a good college essay topic that is unique and not cliché, you may come across the realization that you’re not some special fairy amongst a sea of students. You may realize there are some attributes and experiences that to you may be profound but to others is cliché.

Roughly speaking, this is okay.

The proper way of thinking of college essay topics is this: some college essay topic ideas are cliché and therefore at a disadvantage. However, they may just be the best topics you’ve got.

The chances are very high that your strongest topic is also cliché. If there’s something meaningful that speaks to your soul, it may be something that incites a lot of emotional responses from you. It may be something you have a lot to discuss. It may be the easiest topic for your to write on and on about. If this is a topic you find easy to elaborate on, others may think the same way. They may find your topic easy to write about and they’d therefore write about that same topic.

That’s why certain college essay topics are cliché anyway. Why else would anyone just arbitrarily write about playing in the Orchestra? By happenstance? Nope. They all found it profound and strong to write about.

People write about their stage fright because it’s profound. People write about their dead grandmas because it’s profound. People write about hard AP classes because it’s profound.

If you try to go against the grain by writing about a unique topic, you may struggle because it’s not guaranteed you can write it as well.

Therefore, the goal isn’t to choose the college essay topic that is the most special and unique. That’s only part of the equation.

The real goal should be choosing a college essay topic that you KNOW you can write well. You may actually prefer writing your college essay about your experience with overcoming stage fright because, compared to random arbitrary topics you come up with in 2 minutes, that’s the best you’ve got.

After all, coming up with a unique topic to write about in 2 days can’t compare to something you’ve felt strongly about all your life. Chances are that if you feel strongly about a topic, even if it’s cliché or “boring”, it’ll come out better than other topics you choose.

Is there a disadvantage? Sure. Is it the best essay topic you’ve got? Most probably.

Let’s look at an example.

Abigail must write a college essay about the greatest challenge she’s faced and what kind of steps she took to overcome that challenge. She narrowed down her list of topics to two subjects.

Learning to stand up for herself as a shy female against narcissistic men in sixth grade.
Learning how to dive during summer camp.

When you think of the numbers, it’s clear that there are going to be a lot more essays about #1 than #2. #2 is a more special and unique topic. However, if Abigail feels more strongly about #1, which one will sound better?

#1 will sound better because Abigail has had more experience and proper articulation of the topic to write about it. Even if #2 is unique, it may not have the profound level of depth that #1 has. So, at the end of the day, choosing #1 as the college essay topic would be much more powerful since the application essay is covering a topic that she has more aptitude in writing about.

In short, choose the essay topic that you KNOW you can write well. Weigh your options. Sometimes topics are cliché. Sometimes they cover absolutely impossible topics that you can’t cover such as crimes and offenses. Weigh our options, but remember to value your ability to actually write the topic well.

Is this topic cliché? How much? Can I even write about it well in the essay? Ask yourself these questions; the one that you find is easiest to write about will call to you, and you’ll know which one it is very swiftly just with some introspection.

Overcoming the Anxiety Trap: Why is Everything Cringe?

Another crucial element to choosing a college essay topic is managing anxiety. Specifically, don’t let your anxious mind trick you into thinking all topics are bad.

We’ve written an entire guide on this on a Reddit post which you can check out here.

But, if you’re too lazy to read our full post in the link above, here’s a short summary.

“The anxious part of your mind may search for any possible reason your college essay is cringey. That’s what fear does. It’ll look for reasons to justify itself even if it makes no sense. “Oh my god! They’re going to think I’m a total weirdo and the admissions officers are going to laugh and I’ll get rejected because they think I’m “that guy!” Oh no!!!””
Reddit Post U/PenningPapers

The main reason many of our clients can’t settle with any single essay topic is that their anxiety is masquerading as perfectionism. They may think that the topic is strong and works well in their college essay today. However, after a little bit of thought, their anxious mind comes creeping in to construct imaginary scenarios of how their topic wouldn’t work. It’s not even limited to feeling like your college essay is cringe.

My college essay topic is too obscure for anyone to understand.
My college essay topic is too boring.
My college essay topic is going to offend people.
My college essay topic is too cliché.
My college essay topic is too weird.
My college essay topic is too convoluted and hard to articulate.

And… the list goes on.

To overcome this, you simply need to recognize how the anxious mind will search for things to criticize and berate. The anxious mind finds comfort in looking for negative aspects to take down, as it starts to become more anxious as the essay improves. Thus, you’ll never finish the essay when anxiety keeps tearing down any essay topic you choose.

Once you realize your mind is searching for any reason to take down essay ideas, you’ll be more capable of discerning which ideas are actually bad and which ones are good but just sound bad.

Deconstruction: Analyzing Your Experiences.

This article we’ve written covers deconstruction in-depth.

However, if you’re once again too lazy to read over it, here’s a short summary of what deconstruction is.

“The term deconstruction means to analyze topics at an atomized level. This helps students understand their background and topics on a deeper level. They help reveal themes and motifs which may otherwise go unnoticed when writing the application essay.”

Think about the deeper themes and motifs surrounding some of the topics you have in mind. What are the common tropes you start to notice about your topics?

Typically, you just need to look at the emotional reaction your experiences and topics incite within you. When you think about your experiences, what do they make you feel? Do you feel upset? Do you feel resentful? What about pride? Or, even a sense of perfectionism that evolves into everlasting dissatisfaction?

The more you start to look into what emotional responses your mind and body have when recalling these experiences and topics, the closer you can get to a better understanding of what your college essay topic should be.

If you can identify what your topic makes you feel, try to use it as a better way of understanding yourself. Then, use that understanding as a new essay topic.

So, here’s an example.

You want to write your college essay topic about standing up to authority in school because you knew that a staff member was manipulating and harassing students. You didn’t get the support you wanted from your fellow peers because they simply didn’t want to cause any more trouble, but you had a sense of justice and well-meaning that would still steer you toward the right path.

This essay may initially be about standing up to people despite not having others on your side; however, it can also be about your intrinsic desire to support others and their well-being even if you don’t have their backing. This demonstrates a kind of nobility and self-sacrifice that is conducive to a powerful applicant capable of the emotional maturity to be successful in university.

The best college essay topics are usually the ones that you can dig deep into and analyze. If you find that an experience or college essay topic incites a particularly strong emotional reaction from you, there’s most probably a lot to deconstruct with it. Therefore, the best college essays are usually the ones you feel most emotionally moved by.

Okay, so what if you’re not capable of deeply analyzing your college essay topic? What if you can’t look deeper into your topics to find out if it’s the right one? Well, this is where finding the right college admissions advisor becomes unbelievably useful.

Consulting With a College Admissions Advisor Who Listens

When trying to come up with the right college essay topics, we’ve come across some horrible nightmare stories from tutors, students, parents, teachers, and other college admissions consultants. Particularly, it seems like private college admissions consulting companies and freelancers are quite notorious for pressuring students to follow strict rules without actually considering what the student NEEDS.

This is a major issue in college admissions consulting and has led many students who get private consulting services to actually be set back due to taking in the wrong advice.

For instance, they’d be told that their essay topics are too generic when it really isn’t. Or, they’d say there are red flags that would never get past the admissions process without getting tossed in the rejection pile (which is oftentimes too harsh).

When you’re thinking of what kind of college essay topic you want to write about, it’s crucial to have not only a consultant who is capable and knowledgable about the college admissions process. They also need to be capable of LISTENING to you.

If your advisor or consultant is not listening to your needs and is simply pressuring you to make certain decisions, they’re not a qualified consultant. No amount of experience, writing skill, or notoriety from an elite university would change that, as they can’t actually help you unless they know what you’re saying.

At PenningPapers, we provide college admissions advising and consulting and guarantee that our advisors pay attention to our client’s needs. This does not mean we do everything you tell us. We still provide you with advice based on our observations and expert experience. However, we still put your particular needs first and work our opinions and suggestions around that: not the other way around.

Now that we’ve got that covered, let’s show you some of our guides on common college essay topics you may have.

A List of Guides to College Essay Topics

This is a list of guides we’ve written on some of the most common college essay topics we see. You may see a particular college essay topic listed in this section. If not, don’t worry! This list may update over time to include other essay topics.

If you don’t see your desired college essay topic in this list or would like to make a request for a guide on your specific topic, feel free to contact us! Just send us a message asking us to make an article dedicated to your college essay idea or topic!

List of Guides to College Essay Topics

If you have any other questions about coming up with college essay topics and ideas, or how to write about your college essay topics, feel free to speak with us over a free consultation. We know demonstrating who you are to universities is crucial, especially in a time when admissions officers truly need to learn more about you to make the vital decision of whether to accept you into their institution. At PenningPapers, we ensure that our students can genuinely communicate the topics that they want without sounding strange or awkward.