Essays

How To Choose The Best College Essay Topic To Write About

A Framework to Help Students Evaluate and Select Their Top Topics

How To Choose The Best College Essay Topic To Write About
October 2

Lauren P.

Head of Essay Mentoring @ Crimson

Summary

Use this quick framework to map supplements, eliminate clichés/duplication, and pressure-test your shortlist with a simple scorecard. By the end, you’ll have 2–3 strong, distinct topics you’re excited to write about.

When narrowing down your top 2-3 essay topics, you’ll need to play detective with your own story.
1. What have you shared?
2. What would you like to share?
3. What aspects of your personality have yet to be revealed in your application? 
You can use a process of elimination to decide which stories can highlight your personal voice the most, and which topics you definitely want to avoid.

Step 1: Map Your Supplements (Avoid Duplication, Not Ideas)

Look at the supplemental essays required for your first, second and third choice schools. Do any ask “Why this major?” 
If yes, then cross out any essay topics related to this as you’ll want to use these topics  for the supplement and not the personal statement.
One of the most critical elements of topic selection  is ensuring that you haven’t already covered the same ground in other parts of your application. Diversity of thought, perspective and nuance to your profile is key. There is nothing more one-dimensional than seeing only one aspect of yourself represented. 
For example, let’s say you’re a biology major and for your supplemental essays you’ll be writing about how you want to use your passion for environmental conservation in Tanzania to create community driven sustainability models. In this case, you’ll want to avoid any topic areas where there would be potential overlap such as what you’ve learned from the wilderness or why you feel community connection in the context of conservation is so meaningful. 
In the process, you can also determine if any of the supplement questions ask you to describe an extracurricular activity or extracurricular involvement. If yes, then cross out the extracurricular essay ideas for any personal statement topics as you’ll want to use this for the supplement and not repeat any content ideas!
For example, if you’re going to write about how playing the bassoon unexpectedly led you to see that sometimes there is beauty in choosing what’s rare, I would avoid anything related to those themes for the personal statement! 
Here's an example of a worksheet you can use to track your essay coverage:
Essay Idea
Covered in Supplementals?
Keep for Personal Statement?
Notes
Biology + Conservation in Tanzania
Yes (Why This Major)
❌ No
Save for supplemental
Bassoon + Beauty of Rare
Yes (Extracurricular prompt)
❌ No
Covered in supplemental
Grandma's hair salon
No
✅ Yes
Shows community values
Reminder: Diversity of Voice Matters

Admissions officers should see multiple dimensions of you. If your essay repeats supplements or activities, you risk flattening your profile.

Step 2: Review Your List of Cliché Essay Topics to Avoid

Eliminating the wrong topic can significantly increase your odds of choosing the right one!  
If your idea centers on winning an engineering competition, social impact award, or an impressive charity water project in South Africa, cross it off.
If it’s about your summer tennis camp, a list of the worst things that ever happened to you, or an essay topic where you feel tempted to resume dump or humble brag, eliminate them.
Those won’t add any value to your application and will take away from the magic of the personal statement.
Quick Check: Is My Topic a Cliché?

If your essay idea could be summarized as “I worked hard, overcame a challenge, or proved my worth,” it probably needs a new angle.

Step 3: Pressure Test Your Shortlist

Once you’ve steered clear of the red flag cliches and the topics that you’ll already be writing about in supplements or the additional information section, you can focus on narrowing down to the 2-3 ideas that have potential to become standout essays!
Here are a series of questions you can ask yourself to find those compelling ideas!

Does your topic bring in multidimensional concepts(beyond just one experience) that leaves the reader wanting to know more because the connection is thought-provoking and/or surprising?

When thinking of a great topic, you want to consider both grounding your idea in a specific experience, relationship, object or anecdote and leveraging high quality thought analysis in your reflections.
The best kinds of essays not only have shown us that you’ve grown, but also push and surprise the reader to grow in the process.
If you can make connections that aren't traditionally expected, you don’t need to “prove” your intelligence; it comes through naturally in your writing.
Examples

  • Can a torn notebook take us on a journey that highlights the power of the untold stories?

  • Can your grandma’s hair salon be a reminder of where to find the best places for community?

  • If it is a single narrative essay, can it pull in a new take on a traditional idea that the reader wouldn’t expect?

Can you show “consistent intellectual growth” throughout the essay?

Great topics dive deep to showcase a student’s personal and intellectual development by demonstrating their unique perspective.
To ensure you’re engaged in deep thought and not just an unusual experience, assess whether or not the journey is full of external factors or internal factors.
Ask yourself

  • Is this story full of expository detail?

  • Or is it full of emotional highs and lows?

  • Is the change at the end external, an action or change in the world?

  • Or is it internal, a personal shift that takes your intellect to the next level?

Cross off anything that’s solely or primarily a series of external changes or a focus on exposition rather than introspection.

Does the essay topic highlight key values, such as empathy, that allow the admissions officer to truly see what you care about? 

The most human trait is empathy, so it’s no surprise that the best essays demonstrate a depth of empathy or development of it. When you pair this with one of the values you care about most deeply, the magic happens!
To figure out which topics are more likely to hold a strong component of empathy, consider if your topic is about triumph, or about connection.
Ask yourself

  • Are you overcoming, or are you metaphorically bridge-building?

  • Are you being challenged emotionally (internally), or physically (externally)?

  • Are you growing in hard skills, or soft skills?

Eliminate any topics that don’t have a community or personal element that creates an opportunity for empathy.

Will this essay topic actually be fun for you to write?

Never underestimate the power of joy in the writing process! You want to select a topic that genuinely feels like fun! 
The likelihood of being willing to invest the time, thoughts and care into exploring  a narrative becomes increasingly easier if you genuinely like the topic you are writing about.
It’s so common to get stuck in the trap of “this is what I should write about” that we often miss the topics that we genuinely care the most about.
Maybe it’s a pocket watch your grandfather gave you, or a comic book that allows you to dive into a world of fantasy. The moments most meaningful to you are usually the ones worth writing about.
5-Minute Pressure Test

Set a timer and free-write 5 sentences for each shortlisted topic:

  1. The moment

  2. What changed in you

  3. The value it reveals

  4. The unexpected connection

  5. A line of reflection

If your topic stalls at sentence 2 or 3, demote it.

Common Traps in the Essay Selection Process

When asking themselves these questions, many students get stuck. If you’re in that camp & thinking (me too!), I promise it gets easier and isn’t quite as scary as it may seem. 
Here are the top 3 common traps that many students struggle with in the essay selection process.

1. Thinking the topic choice matters more than the reflection of it

One of the biggest misconceptions is that we need to find the best possible topic. However, that is significantly less important than the quality of ideas and depths of reflections related to the topic!
Oftentimes, in pursuit for the “perfect topic”, we waste time that could be spent deepening our reflections/insights that lead to substantially better essays.
It’s not about finding a magic topic; it’s about pulling the magic out of whatever topic you choose.
Do this instead

Focus on a small, specific moment; write a paragraph of pure reflection for it; then decide if the moment can carry 650 words.

2. Assuming bigger is better

The bigger the story does not automatically mean it is a better topic. A topic that feels like it is a really huge life event, such as a divorce, health crisis or family problem, does not automatically translate into a great essay.
These topics can still fall into many cliché categories that leave the essay feeling generic if it is not executed correctly.
Do this instead

Shrink the canvas. Find one scene, one conversation, or one object from the “big thing” and let that carry the meaning.

3. Overemphasizing “personal overcoming”

The personal statement is often synonymous with “showcase your struggle.” However, the overemphasis on the struggle and the desire to prove “I can handle life’s challenges” often can leave an essay feeling flat.
Remember, you don't have to prove that you can overcome adversity. Impressing someone with your resilience is less impressive than showing the admissions officer how you think and the connections you can make through that. 
Do this instead

Shift from “what I survived” to “how my thinking changed.” Add one surprising insight that complicates the story.

Bring Your Boring

Now, you may be reading this but still asking yourself, “But I still have nooooo ideas! Help!” The good news is that I have yet to meet a student who doesn’t have a story. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve gotten a blank stare or worried face from the fear that none of my topics work.
I’d love to challenge you (as I’ve challenged my own students) to look again. Sometimes we think we need a “gigantic story!” Maybe our parents have swum across the Atlantic or camped out with us in a remote village in South Sudan. 
Dare I say you might be reading this and worrying that you feel a bit “average”? 
Good news is we often underestimate just how powerful “average” can be! 
Lean into the things you don’t think anyone will care about. I guarantee you may find a gem of a story there.
Let me share with you how some other students did this!

Aryan brings our a brilliant analysis on his white hair!

In the changing rooms after a gruelling squash match, I was buzzing with the high that followed a winning fixture. Joseph, my teammate, stumbled in, collapsing onto the bench beside me. Staring peculiarly, he fixated on my hair.

“What's that?” he exclaimed. Before I could react, he yanked a strand from my scalp. "Mate, you have a white hair! He waved it in my face as if it were an ancient relic to be displayed in the Natural History Museum.

Presently, I have twelve white hairs interspersed with th

What started from a white hair turned into an analysis on embracing change within the chaos. The power in building out this analysis from something small makes the insight that much more powerful. It would have been so much easier to deep dive into an exploration of chaos from a “chaotic experience.” However, to pull out that reflection from a white hair makes it that much more meaningful.
Try This Quick Drill

Pick an object within arm’s reach.

  • What belief does it challenge or confirm?

  • Write one sentence that only you could write about it.

Evaluating Your Topics

Once you’ve narrowed down your ideas and eliminated the ones above, you can use the scorecard below to score your topic ideas and see which may be the best for you!
Evaluation Question
Yes/No
Does the topic show learning & growth?

Is it separate from extracurriculars already covered?

Does it offer profound insights or fresh perspectives?

Does it reveal empathy or core values?

Is there a clear sense of self-awareness?

How to Use This Scorecard

Consider how many times you answered yes above.

  • 4+ Yes ➡️ Go ahead

  • 3 Yes ➡️ Refine further

  • 2 or fewer Yes ➡️ Rethink the topic

How to Change a “Bad Topic” Into a Good One! 

Let's say you’re stuck on a topic that has gotten less than 4 resounding Yes, from the scorecard above! You may be wondering, how do I improve it? How can I make it better?
Good news is that there are ways to transform a bad topic into a good one! I’m going to dive into how you’ll do it.

Low Potential Student Topic

I learned how sports were not accessible to lower income communities when my mom lost her job and that I could help people through my nonprofit.

What makes this a low potential topic? 

  • The learning opportunities are centered around other people instead of himself.
  • It most likely discusses a topic already covered in other aspects of the application. 
  • The only empathy shown is most likely going to fall into a "I want to help  you" vibe. Not bad for the soul and for sure great for humanity, but not what we are looking for in the personal statement. 
  • There is nothing particularly fresh, thought-provoking or multidimensional about sports becoming more accessible. This is something that almost all of the people reading would already know and agree with!

How we would fix this student's essay

  • Remove sports and helping low-income communities as the central theme of the essay, as this very rarely (if ever) works as the key central question to be explored. 
  • Focus on the experience of the job loss on the student and what it felt like to have to give up a part of a community that he initially felt so attached to. This now leads us to a much deeper question regarding giving up a part of ourselves that we once held so tightly. 
  • Use the non-profit as an end of essay example of how he repositioned his interest! This now becomes an extension of the lesson rather than the lesson itself.
Rewrite Framework

  • Strip away clichés or generic lessons.

  • Refocus on one small, lived moment.

  • Build reflection around how it changed your thinking.

  • Use external examples (like a nonprofit or award) only as supporting details, not the core story.

Some of Our Favorite Essays

Looking back, the best essays always make me feel something. Here are snippets from my top 2 favorite essays where students’ ideas were anything but basic.

Example 1

An Exploration of Birthday Cakes & Broken Homes

Whenever I had a birthday, I asked my mom for a red velvet cake. For me, it was more than just dessert: in my mind, the sweet but tangy flavor of the cake batter was irrevocably associated with our matching aprons and uninterrupted laughter. Each deep crimson layer was carefully positioned by my mother and me between generous amounts of cream cheese–a testament to our unwavering perfectionism. However, on my 12th birthday, contemplating my deep red cake, I perceived it only as a bitter symbol of

Why does this idea work? 

This essay could have fallen into the trap of focusing on her parent’s divorce, but instead by  bringing in the small, unexpected metaphor of the birthday cake, the essay becomes much more nuanced and interesting.
The velvet cake becomes a symbol of connection and what that means for the student. It is multidimensional in scope, taking what would have been seen as a traditional “divorce essay” and making it far more complex!

Example 2

Reconciling a Hunt in the Alaskan Bush as an Environmentalist

Participating in this ritual was a turning point for all the conflicted feelings I had experienced throughout the day. I felt my guilt begin to transform into a deeper appreciation and understanding as I saw that this hunt was not a glorification of the act of killing, but rather an honorary recognition of the life and death of this deer.

My conflicted feelings illustrated the way certain beliefs become lodged within us and how uncomfortable it is to challenge our viewpoints. I am deeply grateful

Why does this idea work? 

There is nothing better than an essay that makes me rethink everything! What I love most about this piece is that this student is navigating conflicting perspectives which shows and highlights a depth of insight.
The belief that sustainability means something more now, shows how something she feared (hunting) became a pathway for connection with the animal. That said, there is also deep humility and vulnerability in admitting that this isn’t something she would repeat! 

Final Thoughts

Decision Time (Pick Your 2–3): Choose the two Green topics from your scorecard. Label one #1 Personal Statement, one #2 Backup, and keep a #3 Supplement Reserve to avoid duplication later.
Now that you have refined some potential ideas for your essay and let your imagination run wild, it’s time to make sure you avoid the pitfalls and cliches that can flatten your writing. When in doubt, trust yourself, refine the angle and let your voice do the heavy lifting. Remember: the topic is just the starting point. What matters most is the reflection and honesty you bring to it. You already have what you need to begin.

Editor

Lauren P.

Book a free consultation with one of our expert advisors.