Most people who write their college essays about travel are concerned about one thing: “Oh no! What will happen if I seem privileged to the admissions office? They’re going to reject me because of it!”

There are a lot of differing opinions out there. And, no one seems to be able to agree on whether writing about travel in a college essay is actually okay. So, we’re going to debunk this.

Here’s the gist: yes, it’s okay to write your college essay about travel. However, there are both powerful and weak ways to approach it.

You are not barred or automatically rejected for writing about that one vacation you took to England, and you’re not thrown in the rejection pile for having a generic mission trip essay. If anything, there are good and bad ways of writing about travel.

In truth, choosing how to write about travel is much more complicated than you may expect. There are a lot of nuances that can make or break the essay. Thus, this article will serve as a comprehensive guide on how to write your college essay about travel.

Table of Contents

1. Should I Write About Travel in my College Essay?
2. How to Write a Travel College Essay.
   • Growth in the Wake of Privilege.
   • Make Yourself Likeable.
   • Demonstrate Humility.
3. Travel College Essay Example

Should I Write About Travel in my College Essay?

Like most things in life, “it depends.”

Yeah, okay. We know. It’s not a satisfying answer because it’s too vague. Okay, here’s a more specific answer.

It’s okay to write about travel in your college essay so long as you can demonstrate more value from your experience than with other topics.

Therefore, this is less a matter of the topic in and of itself. Rather, this is more about the implications of said travel experience you want to talk about. How does it make you an impressive candidate? Does it show things about you that you believe would impress admissions officers and show that you’ll be a great addition to the school?

Then, ask yourself this. With the given pros of writing about travel, will they be more impressive than some of the other topics you have? Let’s take a look at an example of this way of thinking below.

List of possible topics:

1. College essay about Asian culture.
   • can be generic
   • you can add to the diversity of a school
   • opening up to admissions officers about a personal identity you have
2. College essay about travel.
   • personal spiritual journey
   • chance to open up on a personal level about your emotions in an adventure
   • can seem privileged
3. College essay about being an introvert.
   • can be generic
   • overcoming great adversity (shyness)
   • demonstrating a deeper look at what life is like as an introvert and how hard it can be

You may notice from this pool of college essay topics that the college essay about travel may be privileged compared to other topics. However, that doesn’t mean the other topics don’t have negative attributes as well.

If you only have these three topics to possibly write about, you may make an inference on which topic is the best to choose. You’ll have to calculate and weigh the value of each pro and con. Then, make a decision on whether to write a college essay about travel.

More often than not, a college essay about travel is going to be much stronger than you think. This is especially the case if you deconstruct the underlying themes and motifs of your travel topic. You may discover it reveals things about you such as courage, overcoming fear, curiosity, etc.

We’ll show you how to do exactly this in the next section below.

How to Write a Travel College Essay.

Growth in the Wake of Privilege.

If you want to write your college essay about travel, you’re going to need to address the privilege problem.

This is not to say that all who have opportunities to travel are inherently privileged, as privilege doesn’t exist in a monolithic manner. There are spectrums of privilege and some elements of one’s life may be more challenging than others.

Nonetheless, a college essay about travel still brings with it the underlying theme of privilege and freedom of time. As such, it may be useful to approach your essay addressing it. Now, how does one address privilege?

Well, the initial reaction one may have is to try to downplay any kind of privilege. However, this more often than not is not suitable for any discussion, let alone a college essay. Instead, addressing privilege means having the humility to admit to the advantages you have and being graceful about it.

Next, think about how you may have grown in spite of privilege. There are many instances when being privileged may stunt growth and personal development. It is often the case that people believe severe adversity and tragic backstories are necessary for development. However, travel is a moment of adventure and discovery; as such, it’s still a great experience for growth.

To show that from your travel experience you’ve become a more powerful, suitable candidate, or meaningfully unique person is a great way of writing the essay.

Next, we’re going to cover likeability.

Make Yourself Likeable.

The great thing about writing your college essay about travel is that it can actually say a lot about you.

Unfortunately, many students who write about their travel experiences often show colleges more about the places they went to than themselves. Remember, at the end of the day the college essay is not about the topic you’re writing about.

It’s about you.

So, even if the main topic is about travel, you’ll need to truly write the essay to show more of your personality and character. This is where making yourself into a likeable person in the essay becomes unbelievably useful.

Often, you can’t really write your college essay about travel and look like a jerk without writing something offensive. It’s usually some form of ingratitude, the pursuit of meaningless pleasure and instant gratification, or banal itinerary details that leave a bad taste in the admissions officer’s mouth.

But, usually, college essays about travel just seem simple and ultimately a bit basic. There’s potential to write yourself as a fantastic candidate with worldly experience. Yet, this opportunity is missed by a lot of applicants.

Think about your travel experiences and some of the emotions that you felt when you were there. Chances are you felt an umbrella emotion: something very vague like happiness or excitement. If you look deeper, you’ll find that in your happiness there may be a sense of relief, nostalgia, adventure, yearning, cultural connection, spiritual awakening, etc. In the same way, you may feel abstract feelings of dread, fear, insecurity, covert narcissism, etc.

If you can dig into some of the more intrinsic and abstract feelings you experienced during your travels, you may forge a much more sophisticated and relatable essay. This may help admissions officers truly understand you on a more personal level, and ultimately make you a more likeable candidate.

Speaking of likeability, let’s cover a bit more on the aspect of humility.

Demonstrate Humility.

Let’s be honest. It’s hard to write your college admissions essay about travel without sounding privileged or entitled. To be fair, there are a million reasons why someone would travel to another country.

Someone may be travelling for pleasure. Or, there’s a great business opportunity. A more dire example may be travelling as immigration for greener pastures. Maybe you are conducting a non-profit project overseas.

Whatsoever your reason, being able to travel more often than not demonstrates that you have both the wealth and time to travel. This, may put you at a disadvantage and leave a bad taste in the admissions officer’s mouth. But, there’s an antidote: humility.

Now, the question is this: how do you prove you’re humble?

Well, you don’t. You show it.

We’re not trying to be smart alecs about it. You truly can’t “prove” to admissions officers that you’re humble. Think about this scenario and how it would manifest in a person. How would you feel if someone tried to prove their humility to you? Humility is one of those qualities that can’t really be proven through logic or reason; it’s felt through expression and emotion. It’s the intuition and feeling that one gets when one sees someone and feels their demeanour.

So, let’s go back to the first section about privilege. Let’s say you’re addressing your privilege by showing how you can grow from the privileges afforded to you in life. Then, how would one show and not tell humility?

Well, the most common form of showing humility is through admitting the weaknesses and minor setbacks you have. By showing that you can accept a smaller position, you can reveal vulnerability to admissions officers. If admissions officers can see you let go of your ego to admit to weakness and vulnerability, they will infer your humility.

Alright. Here’s an example.

You have every chance and opportunity to travel to fantastic countries and famous cities known for their tourism. Rome. Paris. England. New York. You, in a fit of adventurous excitement, book a plane ticket to Rome for fun with your friends during the summer.

There, you realize that despite how fun and beautiful Rome is, there’s a lot to the culture that you are not accustomed to. You cannot wait for people to accommodate your delicate sensibilities and must, as a result, adapt to the culture there.

This requires having to admit that you are not used to adapting for others instead of the other way around. However, admitting this and showing the willingness to improve over time is a sign of humility and openness to improvement: a crucial factor that may help you stand out in the admissions process.

Travel College Essay Example

“‘Now you’ll be less likely to get bitten by the scorpions.’”

Diego was my couchsurfing host. He lived in a small house in Nicaragua without running water or electricity; nonetheless, from what little he had, he generously offered his own extra set of blankets so I’d be lifted from the ground and out of reach from scorpions. 

Outside his home, the half-restored houses, burned crops, and atomized topsoil as a result of the fallout of rioting years prior, made the streets look dystopian. It was Daniel Ortega: the president. His reforms shrinking social security coupled with the lethal police response silencing protests ignited the powder keg that would lead to civil unrest.

Even so, the maelstrom of protests and brutalizing police didn’t stop Diego from restoring his community. Now, with me by his side, we cleaned up the chaos by assisting the local farmers. We helped them harvest their fruits and sell them on the vending stands to get back on their feet. 

We weren’t the only ones. 

The old, the young, the women, the men; they bonded together and congregated into a collaborative effort to rebuild the community so dear to them. 

I’ve witnessed such a deep sense of camaraderie in many communities across the world: the Saharan Berber nomads fighting to preserve their culture, the Ecuadorian community bonding to fight off robbers during riots, Syrian refugees coming together to integrate into Turkey, and the people of Columbia working together to ward off the cartels who destroyed their community. 

As a student who took their entire college course load digitally while traveling, seeing that camaraderie between communities showed how much true connection I was missing with my classmates online. Now, I am seeking a college with the kind of tight-knit community I saw in my travels. I know I will find this at Vanderbilt, as its commitment to community will provide the bonding I yearned for as a digital nomad student. 

Within Vanderbilt, I plan to work alongside other entrepreneurial students to expand my organization: Business Without Borders (BWB). It is a consulting group I created that collaborates with family-run small businesses around the world, like those I’ve had the privilege of engaging with on my travels. The goal of BWB is to provide our services to those most often overlooked to promote global equity, especially in developing countries. 

However, I cannot do this alone. 

Vanderbilt’s deeply-rooted culture in camaraderie is perfect for building a team of future visionaries who share a similar global vision. To find the right community that shares my passion, organizations like Vanderbilt Students Consulting for Nonprofit Organizations (SCNO) would be a strong platform to start with. Their pro bono market analysis and revenue models for organizations such as The Pencil Foundation and Book’em are exactly what would prepare me to fulfill BWB’s mission.

Entrepreneurial visions can not be fulfilled with community alone: in-depth academic knowledge and problem-solving skills are needed to have any hopes of scaling.  
Everything from helping Nicaraguan farmers sell their goods to hustling outside stadiums selling $53,000 worth of water bottles solidified my love for entrepreneurial endeavors. However, the comprehensive academic rigor at Vanderbilt is exactly the depth of learning I will need to fill in the gaps of my business education.

Thus, I would like to major in Human and Organizational Development with the Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness track. Its courses such as HODL 3274, Managing Organizational Change align with my goals of helping small businesses around the world. 
If taking my college Zoom classes across 18 countries and 123 cities taught me anything, it’s that the most meaningful experiences abroad are made by joining the inconspicuous communities to help and work alongside them. Although I am an entrepreneur, I am also a student. To succeed at both, I will need the worldly curriculum and collaborative companionship at Vanderbilt to spearhead a worldwide initiative greater than myself.“

Successful Vanderbilt Common App Essay About Travel

Still struggling to write your college essay about travel? Don’t worry! Our college admissions advisors and consultants have helped students write about unconventional college essay topics, and even help them get accepted into elite universities in the US News and World Report’s Top 25 national colleges list. Schedule a consultation with us, and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours to help you write a winning essay that gets you accepted!