How to come up with your own college admission essay topics?


College admissions essays are very competitive. Your application essay will mean the difference, at times, between a letter of acceptance or a letter of rejection. More and more admissions officers are looking to the essay as a means of evaluating potential students and yet applicants continue not to take advantage of this. They write about something inappropriate, fail to make a compelling argument, or select the wrong question.

So, how can you come up with your own college admission essay?

Use one of these questions. These questions are leading questions, which lead you to come up with an essay topic.

  1. Evaluate an achievement, ethical dilemma, experience, or risk and the impact it had on you.
  2. Remember that both points in this prompt are important and you must cover each of them.

    Think about an achievement or situation, no matter how big or small, that had a great impact on you. That can be something as small as getting stuck with child care duty in church one Sunday and finding that you loved it, leading to your decision to study early childhood education. Do not dwell on the experience itself, but rather, focus on how you changed because of this experience, or how your outlook was altered. You can talk about a risk you took, no matter how small. You can talk about saying no to peer pressure, with the risk of losing your friends.

  3. Talk about a personal, national, or international concern and the importance it has to you.
  4. Again, cover both aspects. Do not focus on just one. If you go for a national or international issue, don’t dwell on the current destabilization of Iraq or Ukraine. Instead, talk about what you have learned from this, what it means to you. Tie the issue into your personal interests and experiences.

  5. Talk about a person who significantly influenced you and describe their influence.
  6. Just like before, focus on both points. Don’t tell them all about your amazing uncle. Instead focus on how your uncle changed you or how you reacted because of your uncle. Perhaps you found a hobby because of time spent with your uncle trying the hobby. Perhaps you changed the way you treat homeless people because of your uncle’s character.

Focus on these points and you will soon find an essay topic that relates to you entirely and is perfect for your application.


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