Set Aside The Conventional Wisdom

Many students struggle with identifying a good topic for their essay. Conventional wisdom says to start by brainstorming a list of potential topics, and chances are, you have already started a mental list of ideas. You might think you only have a few choices for topics, based on your activities or experiences, based on what someone may have told you, or based on the rough drafts you've attempted. I advise, however, that you put down your list of topics and back away from it. Forget that exists for a moment. Seriously - thinking about this initial list tethers you to certain ideas that might not actually be your best options.

Now you can begin brainstorming with a clean slate.

Showcase Yourself

Start with thinking about what you want to show in your entire application, not just one essay. Every single component in your app has one purpose – to tell more about YOU. Filling out the rest of the application by rote and focusing solely on the essay is short-sighted and will leave so much potential untapped in your application. Don't think of your application like it's presenting you on paper or painting a picture of you. It's more like multiple pictures of you, taken from different angles. Use the various sections of your application to showcase different facets of who you are, specifically your core values, personal strengths, motivations, aspirations, foundational beliefs, and passions. (Note - these things are what people mean when they say your essay should be about YOU.)

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An admissions officer’s goal is to understand you fully, in the context of your background and the rest of the applicant pool. They will begin this with assessing your academic abilities and potential. Then they will evaluate how you will fit into the student body they’re trying to curate. All of this can be somewhat broad and diverse and touch on several institutional goals. But they will dig deep to find out what each applicant is like, what your core values and motivations are, what kind of student you will be, how you will contribute to the vibrant and intellectual campus community they’re building, etc.

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Your goal with essay brainstorming is to ascertain how to powerfully tell your story in a manner that will fit these criteria. The entirety of your application (again, not just one essay) aims to showcase your abilities, qualifications, and uncommon attributes as a person in a positive way. Before you begin outlining or writing your application, you must determine what is unique about you that will stand out to an admissions panel. All students are truly unique. Not one other student has the same combination of life experiences, personality, passions, or goals as you do. Your job in your application is to frame your unique personal attributes in a positive and compelling way. How will you fit on campus? What personal qualities, strengths, core values, talents, or different perspectives do you bring to the table? What stories, deeper motivations/beliefs, or formative experiences can you use to illustrate all of this?

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It is always helpful to start with some soul-searching or self-examination. You might not immediately know what you want to share about yourself. It’s not a simple task to decide how to summarize your whole life and be in a powerful and eloquent way on your application. Introspection prior to starting your application takes additional time and effort rather than jumping straight into your first draft. But it is also a valuable method to start writing a winning application that stands out from the stack.

Introspection Questions

It’s often easiest to start thinking in terms of superlatives -- what are the most meaningful things about you? Here is a list of questions to help you brainstorm broadly before you narrow down your focus for writing:

 

• What are your interests?

• What sparks your curiosity?

• What topics do you enjoy reading?

• With whom do you enjoy spending time? Who has impacted your life the most?

• Reflect upon “superlatives” in your life. What moments were most memorable, formative, enlightening, enjoyable, or valuable? What physical possessions, experiences, dreams, or lessons could make your superlatives list?

• Stop and think about what things, people, or circumstances in your life are really unique, fascinating, or outlandish. Are there any that really have a lot of "cultural flavor" (whatever your culture is)?

Connecting Introspection To Your Essay

Once you have finished your soul searching, sit down and make three lists:

 

• A list of stories, examples, anecdotes, relationships, etc that you think might make for good essay material. This can include anything from the introspection worksheet, ideas you already have, or whatever else you want to add.

• A list of things you want to say about yourself in your essay/application. This could be related to your application theme/narrative or whatever else you feel is important. Focus on core values, motivations, personal strengths, foundational beliefs, personality traits, passions, aspirations, etc. Again, the introspection worksheet will ask about some of these. You can also do a Google search for each of those words with "list of" and you'll see tons of ideas and examples, e.g. search "list of core values".

• A list of potential essay topics or outlines. Aim to have two to three ideas for different approaches you might want to take. It can help to envision how items from lists 1 and 2 will fit into each outline. Once you start a rough draft, you will aim to express the things from list 2 and use the things from list 1 to show and demonstrate them.