Different College Essay Topics

At the same time, you'll impress the college admissions folks greatly if you can show your ability to learn from your failures and mistakes.

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Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure.

How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Be careful with that opening word "describe"—you'll want to spend much more time analyzing the problem than describing it.

This essay prompt, like all of the options, is asking you to be introspective and share with the admissions folks what it is that you value.

Your "interest" or "talent" could be a passion that has driven you to become the person you are today.

However you approach the prompt, make sure you are inward looking and explain The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success.

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. The prompt gives you a lot of latitude for answering the question since you can write a story about your "background, identity, interest, or talent." Your "background" can be a broad environmental factor that contributed to your development such as growing up in a military family, living in an interesting place, or dealing with an unusual family situation.

If this sounds like you, then please share your story. You could write about an event or series of events that had a profound impact on your identity.

According to the folks at the Common Application, in the 2018-19 admissions cycle, Option #7 (topic of your choice) was the most popular and was used by 24.1% of applicants.

Second most popular was Option #5 (discuss an accomplishment) with 23.7% of applicants.