Why You Shouldn’t Write an Essay on “Any Topic of Your Choice”
It’s the most popular prompt high school seniors pick for their college essays. According to Common App records, 24.1% of applicants select prompt #7, “Share an essay on any topic of your choice.” The prompt is so popular, in fact, that many applicants have no idea they can pick a more traditional prompt if they want to.
But after reviewing college essays for many years, we strongly believe that prompt #7 is the single worst college essay prompt for most applicants. You may be tempted to think that because the prompt gives you a lot of freedom, it will allow you to express yourself and stand out more - but it usually ends up doing the opposite.
Here are three big reasons we urge you to select one of the other prompts when you write your college essay.
You’re not prepared to write a college essay from scratch without practice
If you’re like most high school seniors, you’ve never written an essay about yourself before. Now you have to write one for the first time, and you’re choosing to write it from scratch, without any guidance whatsoever.
Ask yourself this: Would you take the SAT without preparation? Definitely not. You’d pay for a test prep course, hire an SAT tutor, or at the very least, do a few sample tests.
Writing a personal essay from scratch, when you’ve never written about yourself before, is asking for trouble. You might think you just need to just be open and express yourself, but the college essay requires a certain structure and approach. You’ll need some guidance to get started – and luckily, we can send you to the perfect place.
The other prompts help you work out what admissions officers are looking for
Go to Common App website and read prompts #1 through #6. They give you a sense of not only what admissions officers want you to talk about, but also the structure they expect you to adopt.
For example, consider prompt #2: “The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?” This prompt quickly reveals that admissions officers are interested in 1) an episode from your life, 2) how it affected you, and 3) what you learned from it.
We recommend you go through all six prompts and explore what they’re asking you. Does one spark an idea of what you could write about? If so, use its structure to develop your idea, so you have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You’ll be well on the way to getting started on your college essay.
You don’t demonstrate originality by coming up with a clever trick
Every year, someone responds to prompt #7 by writing an extremely clever college essay that goes viral. This encourages thousands of other students to google “sample college essay” and follow their lead, but unfortunately, their essays aren’t anywhere near as clever. The result? Admissions officers just scratch their heads and groan.
Top college applicants don’t approach the process this way. Instead, they respond to one of the traditional prompts; they do the hard work of thinking through their backgrounds and experiences; and they come up with a personal essay that sounds mature, authentic, and distinctive. This takes a lot of effort if you haven’t done it before.
Prompts #1 through #6 ask you tough questions and force you to get the work started. Prompt #7 can work, but most of the time, it leads college applicants astray. We recommend you avoid it.