Selecting the Topic for Your College Application Essay Now that you’ve finished brainstorming, it’s time to pick your topic. Consider the following questions before proceeding:

Have you selected a topic that describes something of personal importance in your life, with which you can use vivid personal experiences as supporting details?

Will your topic only repeat information listed elsewhere on your application? If so, pick a new topic. Don’t mention GPAs or standardized test scores in your essay.

Can you offer vivid supporting paragraphs to your essay topic? If you cannot easily think of supporting paragraphs with concrete examples, you should probably choose a different topic.

Can you address and elaborate on all points within the specified word limit, or will you end up writing a poor summary of something that might be interesting as a report or research paper?

Can you keep the reader's interest from the first word? The entire essay must be interesting, considering admissions officers will probably only spend a few minutes reading each essay.

Will your topic turn-off or alienate a large number of people? To be safe, it is wise to stay away from specific religions, political doctrines, or controversial opinions.

Consider this: If you write on how everyone should practice your religion, how wrong or right abortion is, or how you think the Republican or Democratic Party is evil, you may be offending the reader.

You can not forget that admissions officers are people too, with beliefs, opinions and affiliations that may not match your own. The only thing worse than not writing a memorable essay is writing an essay that will be remembered negatively.

Just a few more points to consider: We’re almost there!  Just a few more points to consider:

Don't mention weaknesses unless you absolutely need to explain them away. Remember, you want to make a positive first impression.

If you do choose to write about a negative event in your life, your goal is to argue that this experience will make you a better business person, doctor, lawyer, scholar etc.

You don't want to be remembered as the pathetic applicant. You want to be remembered as the applicant who showed impressive qualities under difficult circumstances.

If you are still planning on writing an essay on how you survived some sort of hardship, be mindful that your main goal is to address your own personal qualities.

Unless you only use the negative experience as a lens with which to magnify your own personal characteristics, you will not write a good essay.

And finally, ask yourself…

What will the officer remember about my topic? Will an admissions officer remember my topic after a day of reading hundreds of essays? What will the officer remember about my topic? What will the officer remember about me? What will my lasting impression be?