What should I write about in my perfect college essay?

Most of the students sit down and begin writing their college essay and before words could jump out of them, their mind is entirely blank. What should I write about? Where should I begin? How many words are enough to present me in the most impressive manner in front of counselors? If you have come across any of the above questions then you are not alone in this.

Students often face this problem since a part of them is afraid of not coming up with the best essay they could possibly write. In such a scenario, you could really use some of the ideas that have proved to be worthy in the past for a number of students. Never let yourself be disappointed if your mind goes blank because in reality there are a bunch of ideas waiting in the back of your head. Let’s move ahead and see talk more to help your brain get started.

Share The Experiences That Shaped Your Life

Firstly, you need to understand that no number of sample essays could help you in writing your own if you don’t share the experiences you personally encountered. Your experiences somehow shape your reality and turn you into the person you are today. It is important to be completely honest and show your true self in your college essay.

You are talking in front of professionals which is why you must think twice before lying. It does not take long for them to find out if a student is simply lying to make a good first impression. Lying in your college essay is definitely not the kind of impression you would like to make, right?

There are a ton of experiences that you must have come across till now. Some must be pleasant while others might be the worst and pushed you down. In the end, what matters is how you pulled yourself back together.

Let The Counselors Know The Real You

Secondly, never let your personal essay be merely a source to convince counselors why you are better than others. You are not fighting for a spot amongst the crowd through your voice in your essay. You are here to tell them about your stories, your life, and how you plan on shaping it further. The counselors are willing to know you rather than a perfect person who simply does not exist. Nothing will convince them that you are worthy of a spot if you are not being authentic. Due to this, before sitting down and writing your essay, it is essential to get into a good questioning session and understand who you truly are and what you expect.

Why Do You Require Interesting Topic Ideas?

• Writing about unnecessary topics gives the impression that you are not mature enough to talk about the things that matter the most. Do you really think there is a place for immature students in prestigious colleges?
• Talking about dull and regular things gives the impression that you are a boring person with no interest in interacting with the outside world. Throughout your journey, you will have to interact with people, ideas, and situations that require your full interest.
• If your beginning is filled with irrelevant topics that add nothing of value, it’s kept aside no matter how interesting the middle or end is.
• Converting your personality and character through your college essay is of utmost importance

Now that you are aware of the importance of having interesting topic ideas, let’s move ahead and see the topics you can write about in your perfect college essay.

How Do You Overcome Challenges?

Think about a time in your life when you came across something that was too difficult to deal with. How you thought you could never go through it and eventually did. Yes, the time in your life when all the doors were closed and you took a leap through the window. There is always such a phase in a person’s life. When it comes down to challenges, you might think some of them are too easy to be called challenges. But that’s not true, no challenge is big or small. Think it through and write it down as if you are telling it to a friend who you know would understand.

The people reading your essay want to know if you are tough enough to deal with any challenge that comes in your life throughout the years that you will spend on campus. Ask yourself about the true story or phase in your life that took all of your strength but you eventually dealt with it and moved forward.

Before doing that, make sure you are aware that there is no fairytale waiting for you once you enter the campus. There will be more challenges and hurdles deliberately kept in your way to ensure you deal with them right. The counselors are aware of it and would want to see if you are strong enough to deal with the difficulties that will come across your way forward.

A Strong Vision

Counselors really like engaging with students with a great sense of vision. Where do you see yourself going and how much effort are you willing to put in order to reach there? You cannot predict the future entirely but you can plan your way forward. One thing that isn’t attractive to counselors is a vague answer or even a broad answer. For example, if you specify a particular industry rather than a firm that you target and plan on working in, it is less attractive.

To have a strong vision, you need to analyze every possible opportunity and come up with the one that is the most suitable for you. It’s true that things might not always end up just like you planned, but being absolutely certain about them helps you in working hard enough to make that happen. There is nothing more attractive than having a clear idea about what you want from your life. But again, you need to be completely honest rather than focusing on making a great impression on readers.

Problem Solving Skills

Let’s be honest, no college wants a student who runs away from problems. They are always looking for creative heads who always find their way through a problem. You can create a hypothetical situation consisting of a problem and use your head to come up with unique and considerable solutions to the same. The readers are looking forward to understanding your thought process. The way your mind works plays an important role in their final decision. Also, now more than ever, colleges are putting forth their foot to ensure creative heads with average or low grades do not miss their chance of being selected. We all know that sometimes grades do not do justice to students with a powerful mind and strong determination to succeed in life. After writing you need to get grammar and spelling check online.

The Time You Failed

Everyone talks about the time in their lives when they overcame a challenge successfully. It takes strength to talk about the failures and setbacks in life. You must be wondering why would the admission counselors be interested in knowing about the time you gave up. Yes, you are right they don’t want to know that you gave up, but they do want to know how you made the most out of that situation. Overcoming challenges is attractive and makes some of the great essays but this does not mean you need to hide the story where you eventually give up. You can tell how that decision of yours benefited your life in better ways. Sometimes giving up on a particular possibility can change your life in ways that you can never imagine. Overall, the readers would want to know how you keep yourself calm and sane in the face of challenges.

Let’s be honest, the next few years are not going to be easy and you need to be mentally prepared for what’s coming your way. You also have the option of showing the other side of the situation to show what would have happened if you overcame it. Sometimes in life, a failure takes us to a path that changes our life for good.

If you have a story wherein something similar happened that drove you to the path you currently are on, then you know exactly what you need to write down. The most important part about failures is the lesson you end up learning from that particular experience. Talk about it in detail and show the counselors your ability to learn from your setbacks.

The people sitting and reading the essays are tired of reading the so-called perfection over and over again. Do you know why? Because it takes guts to write about your failures. Writing about it simply means you are living it again in your head. It’s not going to be easy but worth mentioning in your essay if you expect it to be read till the end. Throughout your journey in college, you will come across failures and only a smart head ends up learning from it.

Hidden Talents

There is always at least one student in a classroom who is lost in his own thoughts. These are the kind of students possessing talents they never talk about. We often find them scribbling something behind the notebook or slowly sneaking out to the playground during free periods. If you are one of those students then this is the time to talk about your hidden talents. No matter how afraid you are of the judgments from people, talking about your creative side improves your chances of being selected. What makes you different from the people around you?

The One Thing That Makes You Different

If you want your essay to be unique then you can’t make it unique by adding the same old things. Everyone has been involved in community service and extracurricular activities. In order to make yours different, you must write about an incident or activity that isn’t common. Ask yourself what makes you different or unique. Do not hesitate while writing about it since this could be your ticket to your dream college. Be 100% genuine while writing your essay.

Talk About YOU

You can write about any topic that you want in your college essay but somehow it should always revolve around you. There is no point in filling the pages with the outside world because the readers want to know you and the values you carry, not the outside world. Choosing the correct topic to begin your essay is important to ensure it is read further. A dull and boring starting of the essay could make the readers lose interest in reading further.

Focus On Expressing The Story Right

Once you are clear with the topic ideas and the outline, it’s time to present it right. Focusing on the words you use along with the structure you follow is important. Even if you have a crispy experience, there is a huge difference between talking about it in person and writing it down. You need to ensure your words express your story well enough to the readers.

The Final Verdict

Choose from the above topic ideas and turn to the creative person hiding inside of you all along. Focus on the beginning and edit it as many times as you feel like to ensure you start it right. As a writer, the first rule is to put all your efforts into crafting the beginning in a manner that makes the reader curious to read further.

For writing the perfect college essay, you need to talk a lot. Talk to yourself, your friends, family, teachers, and try to get to know yourself from other’s perspectives as well. Investing time in doing a little research about yourself before you begin will definitely pay off in the future. With the help of the research, write your first draft, and keep editing it until you reach the final piece that’s worth being presented. Your dream college is waiting for you, it’s time to put in the right effort to make the counselors believe you are worthy of a seat.