What are some good topics to write my college essays about?

Feeling stuck is actually a super common step in the essay process, so you’re definitely not alone. When it comes to picking a college essay topic, the most important thing is that it’s personal to you—it doesn’t have to be something no one else on earth has written about, but rather something only you could tell in your particular voice or perspective. The way you write it and reflect on it tends to matter more than the specific topic itself.

Instead of focusing on broad experiences, try to zoom in on one specific moment, realization, or quirky aspect of yourself. For example, if volunteering at an animal shelter is meaningful, ask yourself: was there a specific dog or cat that taught you something? Maybe a moment you messed up and learned from it? Or perhaps you could connect it to something unexpected, like how cleaning cages made you value small acts of kindness, or inspired your passion for animal welfare technology.

Here are a few brainstorming tricks and less-common ideas:
- Write about a "strangely important object" in your life—a pair of shoes, a favorite mug, your dad’s toolkit—and how it ties to your values or personal history.
- Focus on a small disagreement or conflict: a debate over dinner, convincing your family to recycle, or standing up to a friend when it wasn’t easy.
- Examine one of your quirks: your obsession with organizing playlists, recreating recipes from your grandmother using trial-and-error, or your ritual before every math test.

I’ve seen great essays about shadowing a barber in a neighborhood shop, the secret meanings behind family nicknames, or a student’s “failed” attempt to teach their grandma to text. One memorable example: a student wrote about folding origami cranes as a way to process stress and how that folded paper became a symbol of hope for her community during tough times.

If you start with "Why does this memory/passion/moment matter to me?" you’ll start finding threads you can pull on. Jot down 3-5 very specific memories that make you feel something—even if they seem silly at first. Sometimes the best essays come from the smallest, most ordinary moments, as long as you’re honest and reflective.

You absolutely do not need to have climbed Everest or solved world hunger to write a standout essay. Focus on telling your story, in your style, about something that shaped how you see the world. That’s what colleges are looking for.