College Essay Topics Your Admissions Officer Will Never Forget

Webinar Transcription

2025-04-23 – College Essay Topics Your Admissions Officer Will Never Forget

Anna: Hello everyone. Welcome to our webinar on, “College Essay Topics Your Admissions Officer Will Never Forget.” Um, we’re joined tonight with a former admissions officer from CollegeAdvisor and, um, a special guest from ESAI. They’ll introduce the themselves in just a second. But first I should introduce myself.

My name is Anna Vande Velde. I’ll be your moderator today. I’m a Senior Advisor at CollegeAdvisor. I’ve been in the company for almost four years. Uh, and in addition to working with students one-on-one, I’m a co-captain on our essay review team. To orient everyone with our webinar timing, we’re gonna start off with a presentation then answer your questions in a live Q&A.

You can start submitting your questions anytime in the Q&A tab, but please note given our format for today, questions that are really, really specific to your situation are not going to be appropriate for us to answer. Those tend to require follow up questions on our part in a full conversation. So as best you can share your questions that you think would be helpful to other students as well, and we’ll get to as many of them as we can at the end.

On the sidebar, you can also download our slides, um, and like I said, you can start submitting questions anytime. Alright, that’s enough for me. I’m gonna turn over to our presenters to introduce themselves. And Aya, can we start with you?

Aya: Absolutely. Hi everyone. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. I am Aya Waller-Bey.

Uh, I’m a former admissions officer, uh, where I, I worked as an admissions officer at Georgetown University, um, where I also went to, uh, for undergrad. So a little bit about me. I’m a proud Detroiter and proud first generation college student, which means I was the first person in my family to go to college.

As I mentioned earlier, I studied at Georgetown University where I then became a admissions officer and coordinator of multicultural recruitment. Upon graduation, I then found myself across the pond in England, where I got my master’s in Philosophy of Education at the University of Cambridge in England.

And now I’m finishing my PhD in sociology at the University of Michigan, where I study the college admissions essay. So I have a lot of experience talking about thinking about and writing the college admissions essay. I have been with CollegeAdvisor going on four or five years, actually in the fall. So I’m super excited to, uh.

Answer your questions and share this webinar with Julia. So Julia, I’ll pass it on to you.

Julia: Awesome. Thanks Aya. And thank you everyone for, for joining us. Um, I am the founder of ESAI and we are a college admission support platform where, um, instead of being a human tutoring service, we do, um, self-service, college admission support from college, essays to school matching, um, and all the way down to helping you find scholarships.

Um, a little bit about me is that I was a private college advisor for eight years. I started when I was also at the University of Michigan, um, an undergrad. I started my advisory business and started working with high schools in the Detroit area. And now I’m based in New York City where I continue to help students one-on-one as well as helping now over 500,000 students with their college applications via our ESAI support platform.

So I’ll, um, be happy to tell you more about it, but for now, excited to kick things off. Great. Thank you

Anna: both so much. Before we get into your fantastic content, I thought it could be helpful to get a sense of who’s joining us tonight. So I’m gonna open a poll. Please let us know students what grade you are in, and if you’re here as a support person, educator, parent, guardian, whatever, any other capacity, please select other while we wait for your responses.

Aya, I’m gonna throw a question to you, but Julia, in a few slides, I’m gonna throw it to you so you’ll be, you’ll be prepared. Um, Aya, do you remember what your personal statement was about?

Aya: I do remember what my personal statement was about, um, which actually informs the research that I do about trauma in college, which is essays.

But, um, yeah, I, I wrote about a very, uh, kind of personal experience coming to like coming home and having to like. I, I use a lot of metaphors of like, putting my life together or like putting pieces together, but it was just like a story about, and we’ll talk about this later, about like overcoming something very difficult and how that kind of empowered me and inspired me to like, go on to college and be a, a agent of, of change.

So that was like broadly, uh, uh, what my, my essay was about.

Anna: Thank you for sharing. Um, and it looks like our poll results are in, so vast majority of folks joining us are in 11th grade, about almost 80%, and then about 20% say others. So probably parents, educators, um, counselors, that sort of thing. Thank you everyone for participating.

I’m gonna close the poll and then Aya, I’m gonna pass the baton to you to get us started.

Aya: Fantastic. Awesome. So welcome again everyone in this space and it’s, it’s really good to hear we have so many juniors or 11th graders in the conversation because this is really relevant to where you are in the stage of your application or missions process.

So to begin, I know this, this, this conversation is about like topics we’ll never forget, but we also wanna level set and make sure we are clear about what you’ll be talking about and like what the personal statement is. So. Oftentimes when students are applying to college, they are using the common app, which is this large submissions platform that a lot of universities are on.

Uh, and there’s seven topics or six topics, but then they choose your own adventure topic as you like to say. So there’s again, six main topics. Um, some asks about background identity. Some ask about obstacles or lessons learned. Some ask about, um, you know, accomplishments. Some ask for you to kind of reflect on experiences.

And then also others are asking about like, what really excites you? What keeps you up at night? What captivates you in your time? So there are, again, six specific topics, and then there’s that seven, choose your own adventure. Something to keep in mind is there is no benefit from answering question one as opposed to question five or question seven, as opposed to question two.

Okay? So just keeping that in mind. Sometimes students think that they’ll be at a disservice or a disadvantage if they answer one question over the other, but these are the topics students are primarily responding to. When they apply to colleges, universities using the common app, it is important to note that if you’re applying to some of the ucs and you’re in California, they have their own platform and they have the p uh, uh, personal questions.

Uh, I think Pukey, uh, pqs, pqs, excuse me, where you have to answer these specific questions that they have for their particular platform. So those questions are slightly different, but it’s around the same things, overcoming talents, interests, et cetera. So, just wanted to point out, these are the, the topics generally students are responding to.

Now when thinking about what do most personal statements look like, they vary widely in continent style. And you know, they really just invite you to reflect on your diverse backgrounds experience and aspirations. But most personal statements include some of the following elements. Again, they vary widely, but generally an introduction, right?

Like with any essay or story you tell, there’s an intro. People often describe starting your college personal statement with a hook, you might see that language often or an antidote. Sometimes people will use quotes or poems, et cetera. So it may provide insight into your background and just really set the tone of the rest of the essay.

And then the bulk of the essay remains that narrative, that personal narrative. So this is when students are highlighting, experiences, challenges, or achievements. Um, and again, you’re answering.

Hello, and, and you’re answering the question there. So just really important that you kind of outline, you know, really kind of make sure you’re answering the question. And then we have the reflection and insight. So, applicants often reflect on the impact of their experiences and what they learn from them.

So this reflection really allows you to kind of demonstrate self-awareness, um, how you came out on the other side of whatever you identified as the challenge, the opportunity, what may, you know, what may answer the question. And just, again, you really wanna demonstrate your ability to grow from experiences.

Um, so in thinking about what is a good personal statement, topic, you know, a lot of students wanna know, like, what is a good example of a topic? Well, the first and foremost, a good response is a, a essay that actually answers the, the question, right? It also shows, you know, your, it’s authentic. It is authentic portrayal of your life, your background, your personalities, your aspirations, right?

So authenticity. It’s paramount. I want everyone to kind of think about being true to themselves and also making sure they answer the question. So topics again, vary widely. Some students choose to talk about a significant life, ex life experience, so you can reflect on a pivotal moment or experience in your life that has shaped who you are today.

This could be overcoming a challenge, experiencing a cultural exchange, or discovering a passion or talent. Um, you also have students who talk at length about passion or interest, and sometimes students say like, well, I already mentioned I, this activity that I do on my activities list, I shouldn’t write a essay about it.

That’s not necessarily true. In some cases, you might be invited to talk about an activity that you love or if there’s an activity or maybe you know, you volunteer with the local circus and you wanna talk about that, you can talk about an activity you described in your activities list. It could be a passion or a genuine interest, and you really want the admissions officers reading your essay or reading your application to know this is something you’re passionate about.

So you can write about a subject, a hobby or activity, uh, and explain why it’s important to you and how it has influenced your personal academic goals. So how have these experiences that you have and forming your, your broader goals, that’s a, you know, great way students use to kind of respond to some topics.

And then community involvement and service. So highlight your involvement in community service, volunteer work, or extracurriculars, right? Share how you’ve had made a positive impact on your community and how these experiences have shaped your values and aspirations Again. Thinking about the types of schools you’re applying to.

For an example, my alma mater, Georgetown, um, a commitment to being of service, you know, to others, right? So there is a social justice, a community service ethos, right? So some students wanna talk about their community service because they want the university to know like, I’m a good fit, you know, these are the experiences I’ve had and this is how it aligns to your institution, right?

So you just wanna think about if, if the service, if you’re service led or guided by some of the work that you do in the community, that also could be a great way to respond to one of the personal statement topics on the common application. In continuing our, our, our conversation, some students really wanna write about cultural personal identity.

You know, they wanna explore aspects of, uh, ethnic or personal identity, culture, um, and, and things that are just really important to them, right? Discuss how their identity has influenced their perspectives, their values, their goals, and how they contribute to diversity and inclusivity in their community.

Right? So some students. So like, I wanna walk, I wanna write about my racial and ethnic identity. It’s very important to me. I want folks to know who I am and you know, how important my, my Nigerian heritage is to me, right? So some students really lean into that, or, you know, maybe they’re Greek and they’re like, you know, I grew up in this really robust Greek culture and we ate this amazing food and we traveled and we just had such a love for community in a way that’s really important to who I am and the student I will be when I’m on campus.

So, students want to talk about that and how they will contribute to the fabric of a campus community. And then you have feature goals and aspirations. So some students are motivated by, you know, their larger why, right? They want to talk about how they want to kind of serve the community in the future, or the types of jobs they wanna hold in the future, or the type of career they wanna have in the future.

So there are also essays where people talk about future goals and aspirations. So they outline their academic and career goals and explain why they. They’re interested in pursuing them. So they discuss how their experiences and skills align with future aspirations and how they make, how they plan to make a meaningful impact in their chosen field.

Now I understand things change. I know I worked with some students who felt like if they wrote about it and their, and their personal statement, that mean they had to stick to it. And that gave them some sense of concern and worry. The college admissions officers know that students are applying, they’re 16, 17, 18 years old.

You might have this goal of being, you know, a pediatrician and then you get into college and you take some classes or join some clubs or talk to some people. And those aspects change too, so you’re not beholden to what you talk about and your college personal statement. But for some folks, they’re like, I really want to be a dentist.

You know, I’m fascinated with teeth and mouths and, and head health, if you will. And I really want to kind of write about the importance of that. And they choose to write their personal statement about that. And that is appropriate. And in one of the many ways students approach, um, writing a good personal statement.

Now in thinking about just kind of the nature of this, this webinar at large, and just how, um, during my tenure, I’ve been working in college admissions, now, I guess it’s 10 years. Um, so I’ve gotten to see thousands of essays. Again, I, I, I study college admissions essays, so I’ve gotten to read a lot of great stories.

Um, some that were difficult, where students really kind of talked about some experiences that they consider traumatic. Um, and I know Julie will talk a little bit about that in, in her portion of the presentation. And I’ve also read stories of like, joy and happiness. So here’s just like four that kind of stand out to me.

And these are just broadly because, you know, I wanna honor the students who, who wrote them. But in thinking about, um, some topics, like there was one student I worked with who talked about having to relocate back to Nigeria, um, and, and. And hard work and gratitude through a very distinct African boarding school experience.

And he kind of. He was pretty lazy. You know, he didn’t use those words exactly, but he was like, it was a big wake up call about the persistence and resilience and just like the hard work ethic that he witnessed around the, the students he witnessed, uh, around him from the other students. And I thought that was really interesting.

It was like a compare contrast of like his American education experience and his Nigerian experience. Then there was a student, um, and I think increasingly I encountered students who are really passionate about stem, but for this student, she talked about her passion for stem, but how she’s motivated to mentor and encourage other girls and women to pursue interest in STEM related fields and disciplines.

So she started some clubs at her school, um, that really kind of talked about the importance of having diverse perspectives in the STEM fields. In her perspective, it was girls and women. She invited leaders to come in the area to, to speak to her, her classmates. And it was just a really great way to talk about, this is my passion and interest, but this is also how I.

I want to contribute to my community and the future communities that I join when I go to college. And then I had a, a young, young woman who also talked about some of the cha challenging cultural norms about a women’s place in politics and social activism, uh, in her own community. And she used different extracurricular activities and organized, um, women to like become more, uh, active, um, using like her local place of worship, which I thought it was like really interesting, right?

So challenging the norms and also really, um, kind of breaking out the mold and really being a, um, kind of, um, just really kind of persistent and really just kind of changing the game and being a change agent in her local community. And then finally, um, I always talk about this, sometimes students feel like embarrassed to talk about jobs like summer jobs or, you know, school year jobs.

And it could be a being a barista or whatever. And there was one student who talked about being like. The activities and the encounters and experiences he had working at a local sandwich shop. Um, and he talked about the customers who became like family to him and just like the lessons he learned in the day to day and building community and respecting folks and just a hard work ethic.

And I just thought it was so important. But also just a really beautiful display of just like a, what we might consider mundane, but just like of the human experience. And I think sometimes students take those types of topics and experiences for granted. So those were just some examples of essays or essay topics that I, uh, will never forget.

Anna: Thank you Aya. We’re gonna pause now and do another poll. So folks, please let us know where you are in the application process and as promised, Julia, I’m coming back to you with a question I gave Aya earlier, which is. Do you remember what your personal statement was about?

Julia: I do, and it, it ties in well with where Aya ended around summer jobs because I spent, um, age 16 to 21 working at a summer camp.

I worked on a, on a ranch where I helped, um, kids learn how to ride horses and work with farm animals. And it was a really formative experience for me. I spent my summers there from the moment I was eight years old and I kind of wrote about the transition from being a, a camper there and being a kid growing up on this ranch to being able to pay it forward.

Um, it was an all girls camp and, and helping other girls learn about. Empowerment and leadership, um, through, through work on a farm. And, um, I wrote about how important that was to me and it felt authentic. It was my favorite place in the world. And, um, yeah, I think it worked out.

Anna: Sounds like a great experience and a great essay.

So thanks for sharing. Our poll results are in, uh, about 60% say they’re researching schools. Uh, 15% are working on their essays. A lucky 15% are getting their application materials put together. And then about 10% say they haven’t started. I would say you’re here at this webinar, so you’ve started in some way.

Uh, you are thinking about it, you’re getting the process going. That’s great. Uh, we’re happy you’re here. And with that, I’m gonna close the poll and turn it over to Juliana.

Julia: Awesome. Um, thank you so much. I think I gave some incredible examples of topics that are great to write about in your college essays.

I wanna touch on for a minute some examples of college essay mistakes, um, misconceptions that I often see when I read students’ college essays or read their first attempts. So one of the common things that we’ve alluded to already is something that’s often referred to as the trauma dump, and that’s when students assume that their college essay is meant to be something incredibly sad.

Um, it’s meant to be the most tragic moment in their life. You’re supposed to make admissions officers feel bad for you and. This is definitely not true. Your, your, uh, college essay can be about a hardship. I’ve read some really powerful college essays that are about overcoming hardship or are about loss or a thing a student had had to overcome.

But in many cases, I’ve seen students really reach and think that they had to write about a, you know, a, a distant, um, death in the family or trauma they experienced. And, um, it doesn’t necessarily fit why this makes you the best applicant to be at that school. So I always just encourage students to not start with what’s, what’s the most, um, extreme hardship I can write about in my life.

And instead figure out what’s the most impactful way to describe you and what makes you unique. And if that is through a hardship story, that’s fine. Let’s focus on. How you overcame it and what you learned. And if not, there are so many other things to write about. And your college essay definitely doesn’t have to be about hardship or trauma.

So that’s often where I like to start because it’s a very common, um, misconception that I see. Uh, the next one I’ll touch on is just this idea that your college essay has to be overly formal or extremely academic in your writing. Um, it’s fine if, if you’re naturally a more formal speaker to use, um, some big vocabulary words, especially if depending on what you’re writing about, um, it makes sense for you.

But often I see students, um, purposefully try to use big words or use really formal writing like henceforth and moreover and. It doesn’t necessarily feel like conversational writing style. Um, a college essay is meant for them to, to hear your voice and to get your personality. And I always encourage students to, to write in simple language and really just try to express who they are and what they did in a way that’s easy to understand.

College admissions officers are reading a lot of that college essays in one day, and, um, you don’t want them to have to try to figure out what you’re saying, um, by parsing through a bunch of really complex language because you think that’s what they wanna hear. The next one that I see a lot is when someone writes more about someone else in their college essay than they actually talk about themselves.

And that’s not to say you can’t write about a significant relationship in your life, in your college essay. I’ve seen really moving, um, college essays about mentors or people in their life who help them figure out what it is that they love or what they’re great at. But I’ve also read a lot of college essays that just go in great detail describing, um, you know, why their grandmother is this incredible person and, and outlining her life story.

And often I finish the essay thinking that was incredible, and your grandmother seems amazing, but she’s not the one that I can admit to college. So at the end of the day, if you’re gonna write about a significant relationship in your life or someone you really admire, make sure you’re tying it back to yourself and you’re ultimately talking about you and your strengths and not just the story of someone else that, that you admire.

The fourth one I will talk about is when students really try to do an extended metaphor that can end up being a bit more confusing, um, than it is powerful. That’s not to say that metaphors aren’t great. I’ll actually tell you about a metaphor that I thought was really great and that I remember, um, a little bit later on.

But when students think that they need to be overly clever or do this extended metaphor that doesn’t really make sense, um, you know, a random object and why it describes them and, and they’re just reaching a bit, um, I sometimes end up a bit more confused than, than I do learning about the student. So if you’re gonna use something like a metaphor or a comparison to, um, an object or, or theme in your life, just make sure that it’s simple to understand that it makes sense for the story you’re telling and the type of skills that you have, and that you are not trying too hard to be clever, um, in a way that ends up sacrificing us understanding the, the awesome skills you have to offer.

Finally a, a common mistake I see in a college essay is something we call the resume repeater. And that’s where you end up just listing the exact same activities that are listed in your activities section on your college essay. And, um, as I mentioned earlier, it’s not to say you can’t talk about an activity that’s listed elsewhere on your app, but what I often tell students is explain the why behind one of those activities and not just list a bunch of what’s.

So in my case, I gave the example of how I talked about being a camp counselor in my college essay. And that job was listed elsewhere on my app. But in this college essay, I really talked about my why and why giving back to the place that I grew up at was so important to me. And teaching young women leadership skills was important to me.

Um, I didn’t just go through and list all the activities again, it’s often better to go in deep on one story and one activity that really describes you versus just listing everything you’ve done in a way that, um, is probably covered elsewhere in that.

So those are some of the things to watch out for. Um, but now shifting to more of what you can and should do, um, I, uh, explained some really great territories. You can, you can talk about when it comes to your college essay topic. I think what a lot of students struggle with that I’ve worked with is thinking maybe they don’t have that standout story or accomplishment that they know they’re gonna write about and they’re worried they don’t have something, um, just at the top of their brain that they know is, is what they need to write about in their college essay.

And what I often encourage them to do is to think about prompts that make them think about their life in a different way or find more extraordinary moments and things that might seem ordinary to them. So the first one I like to use, it’s actually the sample tool on on ESAI’s website is what’s your favorite item in your bedroom?

And this could be anything like a poster on your wall, maybe your favorite band or movie, or something you really love is, um, that you’re paying tribute to that in, in your bedroom or photos of you and your loved ones. That might be one of those mentor relationships that, well, you don’t make it all about them.

Um, could trigger something, uh, really interesting in yourself. Um, collections you have that make you unique, gifts you’ve received, um, that have to do with a moment in time in your life. Sometimes just looking at the objects surround you can prompt you to remember something that really was significant to your time in high school and maybe even significant to what you hope to do next.

A second one I like to ask students is, what’s something that you could just rant about for an hour, whether it’s with your parents or with your friends after school? This is the thing that you’ll just never run out of. Things to say about whether it’s a video game you’re obsessed with or a problem in the world that just bugs you so much, or this random niche hobby or special interests that you know more about than anyone else.

I think sometimes students worry that, that their topics need to be pretty academic, and that’s not necessarily true. Your topic can be just about something you love and we can find a way to tie it to maybe what you’re gonna do next in college and how to kind of make that into a bigger story than just, you know, dumping a bunch of information about a niche topic that you love.

Um, but sometimes that’s a good way to start thinking about what is that value or or passion that you have, and we can find the ways to connect the dots to something bigger. And the last one, maybe if you wanna touch on something like a social issue or a problem you wanna solve in the world while you’re pursuing a career or a major, is there something that really keeps you up at night?

And this could be really big, this could be like a problem in the world that you’re passionate about and you wanna solve, but it could also be really small. Like what’s bothering you right now? Is there something about your school or your technology you use, or, um, a certain dynamic in commuting to school every day that you think could be better and it might strike, um, some inspiration when it comes to stuff that, that you find, uh, problematic and you wanna change in the world.

I think really good college essays sometimes talk about small observations that could lead to, to big changes in the future. So we have a lot of prompts like this on ESAI, but those are some good thought starters. If you don’t automatically have like a formative experience, you know, that you wanna talk about.

And since we’ve been talking about, um, memorable essays, I wanted to kind of touch on a few of mine. And, um, some of them are in this territory of small things that lead to big stories. Um, one of them is an unlikely, uh, path to discovering a passion. I don’t know, um, if some of the, the younger students on, on this webinar remember Tumblr, but this was a while back now where I was talking to a student who had a Tumblr blog and it was a customizable visual blog, um, platform.

And one of the first ways they learned to code was by customizing their Tumblrs. You could change the theme and the visuals on your, on your Tumblr blog. Um. By doing some light coding. And they kind of learned how to do this when they were in middle school, and it was an unexpected entry point into this love of coding and, and love of software engineering.

Um, and they talked about that journey in a really interesting way, and it, it felt very human. Um, and so kind of talking about your origin, um, into discovering the thing you love is, is a great idea for a college essay. The next one was a really simple like slice of life essay that I remember. It was about a student who lived really far from their high school compared to their friends and their classmates, and.

They talk about how it bothered them a lot and they spent so much of their day commuting and it was frustrating. And they felt like they, they couldn’t participate in social events in the same way because they, they did live so far from, um, some of their peers and they ended up finding, um, this really interesting silver lining, which was, um, getting to bond with their mom on those long commutes and getting to learn about her life.

And there’s also some interesting anecdotes about, um, you know, the type of community they lived in, um, which was a bit more rural versus where some of their peers grew up. And, um, it was just a really touching story about those drive long drives to school and how those students sort of changed their perspective and, um.

I just remember thinking it was super well written. And finally, um, I promised an example of a metaphor that I thought worked really well. Um, this one was from, this is kind of two things that I said can go wrong, but in this case went really right. This student wrote about a, a hardship they endured and they wrote about a metaphor, but it was beautifully done.

They wrote about the loss of a parent, and this student really, um, found meaning and processed their grief through art. They were an art student, they loved art, and they talked about this idea of negative space in their art and what their art teacher had taught them. Um, and kind of used that metaphor of negative space in art, uh, to talk about the loss of their parent and the, the sort of negative space that left in their life.

So. The reason it worked is that it was a very clear and simple metaphor that just made a ton of sense for the student and the specific passions they have. And of course, they had gone through, through something really hard that felt meaningful for them to talk about, um, especially because it did relate to something that, you know, they feel very passionate about or gonna do the rest of their life.

So, um, that one i, I use as an example all the time because it was just beautifully done and, and very moving. So three very different categories of essays, um, and types of things you can talk about, but hopefully inspire some interesting thinking, um, as you’re starting to think about your own topics. Um, finally, I just wanted to share a little bit about how ESAI can help with some of this topic ideation.

Um, I’m gonna go ahead and share my screen here.

Um, so just to give you a little taste of ESAI, we have a full suite of admission support tools. Um, it’s an ethical AI platform that helps you think through your own story and what is most relevant to pull out. And just to be super clear, we never generate any sort of writing or create essays for you that are meant to be submitted.

We just try to give, um, starter support into what kind of schools might I be interested in and what might, what kind of topics might I be interested in order to get there. Um, we also help with how you frame your activities on your common app. Um. Quantifying your impact and things that might not seem super impactful, like just babysitting after school.

We can help you figure out how to frame that in a more interesting way. Like how much money you saved your family and childcare costs every month. Um, which is something, you know, a lot of students don’t think about, but, but can have a really strong impact. But I just wanna take a couple minutes to show you one of our tools.

It’s called the Supplemental Essay Assistant, and it really helps students pull out specific things at schools that they can mention in order to show, um, what kind of student they’ll be on their campus and how they can thrive in specific activities and programs that, that the campus offers. So students can select what kind of essay they’re working on.

Like a supplemental essay. And if they have saved schools on our platform, like you’ve used our School Matchmaker tool, you can even select your, your school of choice right there. And once the common app goes live, um, in August, we actually are connected to the common app. So all the prompts for Indiana would populate right here or for any school that’s on the common app.

But for this one, we can use one of the most common supplemental essay topics, uh, prompts, which is why this school, why do you wanna go there? So maybe they’re asking why you wanna go to Indiana? We just kind of guide students with different categories of things you can talk about. So like IA mentioned, there’s a lot of territories that, that you can touch on.

Um, one I always encourage students to do more is just talk about your hobbies, talk about the things you love with your friends. So maybe for you that’s just things like video games and I would encourage students to add a little more, but for simplicity’s sake, let’s just start there and if there’s anything else about yourself or the school that you’re applying to, you wanna mention, um, maybe at Indiana you really love the business opportunities there.

Um, and what we do is just kind of help you get started based on this thing you love and the school you’re applying to. What are some specific things we could pull out and think about mentioning in the college essay, um, that we might wanna mention? Mention here. So here it pulls out specific courses at the Kelly School of Business that the student might really love, um, or initiatives at the school that they might be a part of.

Um, or in this case it’s specific club on campus, like the eSports Club, given the student loves video games that they might wanna mention. Um, and explaining how they could build community on this campus through a club that they specifically offer. And finally, um, this is a really unique one, a lot of business.

Um, I know this is someone building a business right now, um, especially if you’re building a tech platform or a consumer product is about gamification. And if this student really loves business and they’re really interested in gaming, that’s a really unique angle that they might wanna talk about and explore more.

And again, we have, um, specific competitions at the schools that we suggest that they look into and the student can kind of refine their ideas further just to get them started on what’s a really specific way I can show how I would thrive on this campus. Um, and what I might wanna do, um, if and when I get there.

So students can kind of favorite the ones that they love the most and easily sort through their essay topics, their outlines, the schools that they’re applying to, um, and go ahead and favorite those over time so that they can sort through them really easily. So yeah, we just try to make it really easy for everyone to get that individualized support.

Um, and just because we would love for you all to try it, we’re also offering a code, um. Where you can all get, um, a, a discount in order to try the, the pro version of the platform. There’s a completely free version of the platform as well. You’re welcome to try, uh, but if you use the code webinar, you can get a discount on the pro version as well, so you can get even more support on your college essay topics and your self discovery work to make sure you’re representing the most, um, awesome version of yourself that you deserve to, to share.

So yeah, that’s, that’s just a very brief look at, at ESAI and, um, would love for more of you to check it out.

Anna: Thank you so much, Julia. Uh, okay. There we go. That is the end of the presentation part of our webinar. We hope you found the information helpful. Remember, you can download the slides from the link in the handouts tab, so they’ll have the, the discount code in there. Make sure don’t forget that. We’re now gonna move on to our live Q&A.

I’ve been reading through the questions you submitted in the tab, and as we get to each one, I’ll pay submit to a public chat so you can see them. I’ll read it out loud and then I’ll turn it over to one of our panelists to respond. As a heads up, if your q and a tab is not letting you submit questions, just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page.

Alright, off to our questions then. Aya, I’m gonna send this first one to you. Do you think it is unwise to write a personal statement before choosing the prompt?

Aya: That’s a, that’s a really good question. I, I, I won’t say it’s necessarily unwise and it, and I’ll say this because that final essay or final common app personal statement kind of topic is essentially.

Write whatever you want to write about. So it could not fit one of like the six defined ones. However, any essay you write should be on a topic. So what I mean by that is even if it doesn’t neatly fall into one of the six, there should be a, a topic, you should be responding to some sort of kind of cohesive question or idea.

So it shouldn’t be like an amalgam of like random ideas. So if you, if you find that the essay or the story you wanna tell doesn’t neatly fi fit into one of the six, I think it’s okay to say, I’m gonna respond to choose like number seven. And that’s actually what I did. Um, when I wrote my comment app, personal statement, I didn’t feel like it fit neatly into any of the six.

So I just kind of chose that like. Choose your own or write any, you know, share an idea you wanna write about. And that felt fine. So regardless though, it needs to be answered. It needs to be on a topic. It just, it shouldn’t just be random ideas. Right. But it doesn’t have to neatly fit into one of the six.

Anna: Absolutely. And I, I am gonna throw you another one ’cause I think this one’s very related to that question. And then Julia, I have some for you. Um, how can this year’s Common App prompts help prepare students for next year? So say you’re a sophomore right now, you wanna start brainstorming or writing? Can, can, is it helpful to look at this year’s common app prompts?

Aya: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they haven’t really changed in the past several years, so, um, and even, even if they do change them or tweak them, I don’t think it’ll be so completely different where a essay or idea would be irrelevant. So, yeah, I think it’s a great exercise for, you know, sophomores and juniors to start looking at the common app questions.

Now they’re already online. You can Google Common App. I had them listed in the, the presentation to start brainstorming, uh, responses or different vignettes, which are like small stories that might, um, you know, that you might want to kind of discuss or respond to. And again, Julia already shared some resources she has on her platform that can help kind of get those juices flowing.

So I think, yeah, it’s, it’s, you can take a look at them now and just start to think about like, Hmm, I have some stories that might fit this, or I have some ideas, or I have some things that I think I want to write about that response to the particular question. So they don’t update them too much and they don’t change too much.

So I, I think you should be fine if you wanted to start thinking about what topics you want to, uh, write about now.

Anna: Yes. I don’t believe they changed at all this year from last year. And in my experience. They’ve always been pretty broad. Um, so for a lot of students, the story they write, they really could fit into multiple prompts because they are pretty open-ended.

Um, so if you’re really motivated, you know what you want to write about, but the prompts aren’t out yet, probably Okay. Um, to get started. And then of course, you’ll need to tweak it and, and fit it into the prompt once you choose it. Julia, question for you is, ESAI like chat, GPT, how does it

Julia: compare? That’s a great question.

Um, unlike a sort of generalized AI tool, we’re not a chat bot, so you don’t have to to ask the, the chat like you would ChatGPT, um, questions about what should I write about, or God forbid asking it to write your essay for you. Um, so what we do is we actually go the other way around and instead of prompting a chat out, we prompt you.

So we walk you through how we can pull the best story out of you possible based on the common app prompts that they that exist. And also based on, um, our experience, what gets students to, to share the most detail about who they are and what they excel at. So in that way, um, it’s kind of the opposite of what ChatGPT does.

Uh, we’re really prompting you versus the other way around. You also don’t have to know anything about college admissions or anything about the different schools that exist in order to use ESAI. So we really walk you through. The process of what we need to know from you in order to introduce you to schools and programs you may never have heard of.

And also we can walk you through the different steps of what a great college app looks like instead of you having to figure out all the different steps and everything that goes into a college admissions, um, process, um, in order to, to kind of ask ChatGPT to do it for you. And, and finally, even if, um, you know, you had all of that and you use ChatGPT, we do have more real time information about schools and the clubs and the classes and professors they offer as, as we showed in that short demo, um, than something like a ChatGPT, which is often out of date and can sometimes hallucinate things that, that don’t actually exist.

So, um, yeah, that, that’s, that’s how we’re a bit more specialized and, and different.

Anna: Helpful. Thank you. I might throw this question to both of you, um, and we can, we can start with Aya. What is the number one or the most overused essay topic that you think you’ve seen?

Aya: Oh man, there’s so many. Um, I think what I would say, and I think that my admissions officers colleagues would probably also say’s just like the sports essay, um, writing about, yeah.

Getting cut from a team or not making the team or winning the championship, uh, shot is very, yeah. Those types of, uh, essays are very common. Um, and, and to a certain extent overused. And I think also this, the, the trauma dumping, um, where students feel like they have to talk about their pain. Um, but I think that’s because of some of the advice that students receive honestly, about having to talk about overcoming hardship or trauma in very particular ways.

I think those are the two. And they’re not like topics. Well, sports is a topic. The trauma one, trauma comes up in all different types of ways. So it can be different types of topics, but the theme being like how overcame trauma, um, those are two, I, I know Julia probably has several, but those are like the two.

I mean, there’s like several, but those are the two that first come to mind. So I would love to hear what Julia think.

Julia: I, I definitely agree with you. I think, um, even more specifically in sports world, I see a lot of sports injuries and like a career ending injury, which is, um, you know, it, it’s not that it’s a bad topic.

I, I’ve just seen it a lot. Um, and it, it could be maybe hard to differentiate there. Um, another one just in the like same category of like hardship. You know, unsurprisingly, given the, the divorce rates in this country, I see a lot of parents divorce, um, moving houses. Again, these things aren’t bad. Um, they’re just pretty, pretty common hardships that a, a teenager might endure and, um, often might just be a little bit harder to figure out what’s, what’s your spin on it and what’s it saying about you.

So I definitely see, um, those three things a lot.

Anna: Uh, some similar themes there. Thank you both for sharing. I. Aya, can you advise students how long their essay should be? And they’re asking do admissions counselors actually read the full essays?

Aya: That’s a great question. Probably should have just been included in the slide.

So for the comment app, um, you get 650 words for the personal statement, and then you do have some schools who might not use the common app. Um, but 650 tends to be like the rule of thumb, um, as max word limit. So students try to follow, you know, stay between 500 to 650. Um, I can’t say that all universities read every essay that students submit.

I know we did during my tenure, uh, at Georgetown we did, but we also had our own application. So we were not on the common app, so we weren’t receiving a hundred thousand applications like a large public university might. Um, I. I think for applications that they consider competitive, they’re probably reading all of the application materials.

Um, but I think larger public universities in particular that re re like receive 80,000, a hundred thousand applications may have some systems in place where, um, certain applications, if they don’t make it to a certain round, they may not, um, read their essays. But I have to say, like, take everything seriously.

Like if a university’s asking you to write something, whether it’s the personal statement or additional supplements, which are those smaller school specific essays, then I, you should take it seriously and, and, and, and approach it as if they’re going to read it. Um, you don’t wanna waste your own time. You don’t always want to waste theirs.

So I would approach it as if they’re going to, to read the full essay. Um, but, you know, time is real, right. Um, and I’m, I’m not, I would be surprised if some schools also haven’t integrated some type of, um, AI or other tools to support the application reading process.

Anna: Helpful. Thank you, Julia. A student is wondering, should their essay involve just one topic or can they talk about a few different things?

Julia: That’s a great question. I think if there’s a couple different things they might be asking. If you’re looking at the common app prompts themselves and wondering if you should address more than one, you certainly don’t have to. They are broad enough that one essay topic might actually touch on a couple of those themes.

Um, but you definitely need to focus on answering one thing. Um, but I think more broadly, and, and, and Aya definitely touched on this already, like you really should focus on a main topic. And this also goes back to the idea that you don’t just wanna list all the activities you’ve been involved with. Um, I would go deeper on one story, one meaningful experience, um, one aspect of your identity that’s core to who you are, and really flush out that topic in your version of yourself versus, um, try to trying to tie together a bunch of different aspects of who you are.

I think it’s really difficult, um, when we are very complex people and there might be a lot of things that are important to you and, um, that’s why your activities section is, is so important in order to list, uh, the impact that, that you’ve had in, in different things that you’ve been involved with. But for the college essay, I, I would try to stay pretty focused and, and focus on one thing, one story, one one meaningful activity you’ve been a part of, um, and make the most of that because 650 words is actually not that many and it’s gonna be hard to tie in a lot of different topics altogether.

Anna: I agree. A majority of my students need help shortening their essay, not adding to it. So even if six 50 sounds like a lot, it’s, it’s pretty much one page, single space. Um, and it is hard to, to get everything about you that you want in there in it. So focus is really important. Julia and Aya, I’m gonna give you both a break for a minute so I can talk a bit about CollegeAdvisor.

For those in the room who are not already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process can be. We have a team of over 300 former admissions officers, like Aya and admissions experts who are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process in one-on-one advising sessions.

We’ve helped over 8,000 families and counting in their college journeys, and after analyzing our data from 2021 and 2024, we found that CollegeAdvisor students are 2.4 times more likely to get into Harvard. Almost three times more likely to get into Stanford, and almost two times more likely to get into Princeton.

So increase your odds and take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 60 minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team using the QR code on the screen. During that free meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile along with some initial recommendations from us on what you can do to stand out.

At the end. You’ll also learn more about the premium packages we offer that pair you with an expert who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays, and so much more. We’re here for the whole process. Um, so give that QR code scan. It’s gonna stay on the screen while we continue the q and a.

Uh, and remember, it’s also in the slides which you can download in case you aren’t able to scan it right now. Alright, back to questions for the rest of our time together. Um, I can’t remember who I went to last, so I, I am gonna go to you ’cause you’re first on my screen. Uh, does each college asks specific questions?

Aya: That’s a great question and I, I talked a little bit about this in, in one of my previous answers. So, um, for this, for the colleges that do require an essay, and this actually is a fun fact that most people don’t realize that the majority of the colleges and universities on the common app actually do not require a personal statement.

Um, so for the schools who do require a personal statement, you select one of the seven questions we talked about. You write one essay, and when you submit that essay or your application, it kind of goes to that one essay, goes to all the schools on your common app list, right? That’s the personal statement.

However, some schools, and they tend to be some of the more selective schools, but not exclusively. Have what we call supplement essays. Those are additional essays, um, that tend to be school specific, that are often, uh, created to help, um, admissions officers kind of discern fit, right? So it might say, why are you interested in attending University of Wisconsin Madison?

Or, you know, at this school we value leadership, service and, you know, globalization and they want you tell us what this means to you. Or, um, you know, why are you interested in studying biochem engineering at University of Texas? Right? So some schools do have specific essay questions that are school specific, and they can be anywhere from one word, 250 words.

500 words, a thousand words. So they vary largely, uh, and widely. So generally the common app, that personal statement, which we prioritize in this conversation, one essay, it goes to all the schools that you know, that you select on the common app. But some schools do have supplements or supplemental essays that are school specific that might be different, um, depending on what schools you apply to.

Anna, we can’t hear you if you’re speaking.

Anna: Yep, that’s because I was muted. Thank you, Aya. Uh, Julia, how much should students be referencing their chosen major in their essay? And if they mention it, how important is that compared to, you know, sharing a story about their, their life?

Julia: Thank you for that question.

It’s, it’s a really good one. I think that talking about a major or any sort of future career goal or aspiration is, is one route you can go and sometimes it’s a really strong route. I think, especially in supplemental essays that I was just talking about. If you can connect a specific program that that school offers to your aspiration, you wanna be part of this maybe niche, major or major that correlates to what you wanna do long term at the school.

I think talking about majors and supplemental essays is a really good idea. Also not the only route, but, um, it makes a lot of sense in that essay, in your personal statement. Um, it’s definitely an option. I don’t see it as much in personal statements as I do in supplemental essays. I often see, um, maybe broader career goals or aspirations.

Um, but you can absolutely talk about a major and you can also change your mind, uh, like we talked about later. So it’s not something that you have to do. It’s not necessarily better than talking about another aspect of your identity or your accomplishments or self. Um, but it can be a strong one. I’ve seen really good ones and I’ve also seen students, um, maybe lean into it in a way that, that they, they didn’t have to be that decisive necessarily, especially if they’re narrowing in on something that in a personal statement, might not apply to every single school they’re applying to.

So you just wanna be aware of that. Um, but if you know exactly what you wanna do and you’re only applying to schools that, that makes sense for, um, it’s, it’s definitely a route you can go. And I’ve, I’ve seen really strong examples of it.

Anna: Yeah, really. Um, great point, Julia. You might be applying, hoping to go to med school one day and at one school you’re applying to biology and another school you’re applying chemistry.

And so if that’s the case, mentioning the specific major in your personal statement could be a turnoff to the school if you’re right about wanting to do biology, but you’re applying for chemistry there. Um, so definitely be careful about that. Totally.

Aa, any advice for international students, how they can make their essays stand out?

Aya: Thank you for that question. So I don’t have advice that would be specific to international students because I, I think like with any student writing a college personal statement, that they should prioritize being authentic. They should prioritize answering the question or whatever the topic that they’re choosing to respond to, they should make sure it’s within 500, 650 words.

They should make sure that it’s, you know, proofread. Um, perhaps get an opinion of a trusted advisor, uh, a friend, a mentor, a teacher, a counselor, someone here at a CollegeAdvisor. Um, and they should make sure that it’s just, you know, really represents. You know, they walk away feeling like they are sharing a story that they feel is indicative of who they are and what they want the admissions officers or offices or universities to know about them.

So, um, I I, I think the, the stories I’ve worked for quite a few international students, um, via CollegeAdvisor and also during my tenure in admissions. And I don’t think the advice is, is, is unique in the, in a sense of just making sure students are thoughtfully engaging with the, with the questions. Um, and I I will say this, and I know there was a question earlier about, um, referencing ChatGPT, um, I, I want students to be mindful about how they choose to employ, um, ChatGPT and other chat box, uh, box.

I think as someone who reads a lot of essays, I can see I, it’s. It’s quite apparent to me when a student did not write an essay. Um, especially if it’s a student I’ve been working with. I just know stylistically how they write. Um, and then there’s so many AI detection tools, um, particularly those bots that kind of become, you know, uh, they take what you put out and kind of spit out just like a maman of other things they find online.

So just being really mindful of the tools that they use and making sure they’re authentic and honest. I just think that’s something to be mindful about, but I don’t think that’s a international student, um, problem per se. I think there’s a lot of students who might over, uh, use or rely on tools that, um, because it’s a shortcut or they think it’s easier, but I, I really say the personal statement’s, one of the few opportunities you get to talk directly to the admissions officers.

And I really want students to lean into that opportunity to write the essay themselves. Um, so I’ll just say that the advice to me doesn’t feel uniquely different. Um, it’s just like. You know, some of the other things I, I just outlined earlier, but I don’t think there’s unique advice for international students in my opinion, but I don’t know if Julia has that.

Different opinion.

Julia: I, I definitely agree with you. The only thing I would add is that, um, sometimes I, I talk to students a lot on TikTok and I talk to a lot of international students in my comment section. And the only difference, um, if you’re applying to US schools versus um, colleges and in other parts of the world, is sometimes students are expected to be more academic in, in a personal statement, um, in the rest of the world than they are in the us.

Um, you don’t need to be overly formal in their US college essays, and you can talk more about personal experiences, um, and holistic versions of yourself than you can maybe at a, at a school in other countries. Um, that’s not to say that you should be sloppy or use slang or, or anything like that, but it just doesn’t have to be like the most elevated version of your writing.

It’s not a research paper. It’s not, um, overly academic. So that’s the one thing I sometimes see, um, from international students is maybe, maybe not quite, um, knowing that difference yet. Um. But otherwise I agree mostly the, the advice would be the same.

Aya: Yeah, that’s actually a great point. Uh, thank you for saying that.

’cause I, I’ve read applications on the graduate level and we actually see, we do see extreme formality from our international students. Um, dear your grace, like even formal, um, kind of signatures and et cetera. And, and, and, uh, that is not necessary for the, for the personal statement. So thank you for saying that Julia.

Totally.

Anna: We have just a few minutes left. I’d like to give you both an opportunity to answer this question. Um, we have shared some resources today, like ESAI and CollegeAdvisor. In addition to those, uh, do you know of any overlooked resources that can help students simplify their writing process and build up their essay writing skills?

And Julia, can we go to you first?

Julia: Yeah, it’s, it’s a great question. Um, obviously, uh, have plugged my own platform, but the other thing I would just say is, is read read successful college essays? Um, I think in a lot of cases, especially when we’re talking about something like a misconception that it needs to be overly formal or it needs to be overly tragic, when you start reading through successful college essays, um, you wanna make sure it’s from a source that that is, uh, confirmed.

This was the essay of an admitted student. And, um, there’s, there’s a lot of them. But, um, you’ll start to see that, that it, it’s often more conversational. It shows the humanity in the person, and it just makes you be like, wow, I, I wanna be their friend. Um, I would want them on my campus if I was starting a college.

And, um, that’s, that’s kind of the, the one commonality and a wide range of themes that college essays can be about and writing styles you might have at the end of the day, if you’re like, I think I like that person, then that’s probably like the common thread, uh, when reading a good college essay. So, um, yeah, read, read some admitted students essays.

Anna: Yeah. Great advice. Aya, any thoughts?

Aya: No, I mean, I think that’s fantastic advice. I was gonna say something similar, but I was gonna say, I just, students just read more period. I think the more you read, uh, I think some of the best writers, um, and across genres and the college admissions process, high school students, educators, thought leaders, they are avid readers.

They read a lot, they read diverse types of writing. And I think that just helps you become a better writer generally. Um, and I think writing often, um, I think. Some students have, like, they panic because they start writing and, and working on app essays so, so late in the game. So they’ll start in, in September or October, November, December, you know, when I think start earlier, um, starting earlier gives you time to practice and that’s how you, you get better at it.

So start early, start in the summer of your senior year if you can. Um, writing that personal statement. So reading often, reading everything, reading as much as you can across genres, but also starting to write, start your writing process earlier could really help.

Anna: I didn’t agree more. And you’re all starting early by being here.

So kudos to you. Thank you for coming out. Thank you Aya and Julia. Uh, we were really lucky to have. Two experts with us tonight. Uh, there have been some questions about it. This was recorded. It will be posted to CollegeAdvisor website. Just give us some time to get it processed and uploaded. Thank you everyone for your time.

This is the end of the webinar and we had a really great time talking about college essay topics. Take good care. Thank you all.

Aya: Bye.