By VW Barber

When you consider that a college admission essay is the college admission committee's first impression of who you are on a personal level, it logically follows that you want the topic of your essay to convey the most positive and interesting aspects of yourself. You want them to read your essay and want to get to know you better. They should come away from their reading with the immediate realization that you will not only be an asset to their campus while you attend but will continue to represent them positively once you graduate.

Where To Begin

Before you begin writing, you will need to spend time deciding on the perfect topic for your college admission essay. The best way to start is to free write. Time yourself for 15 minutes and write down every experience you've had that has made an impression upon you, changed you for the better, shown you something about the world that helped you recognize beauty, respect, integrity. Choose any characteristic that you know possess that has informed your decision to attend their school and consider how you came to acquire that characteristic. Consider your accomplishments, times where you struggled the most, things you are most proud of, extracurricular activities, or hobbies.

If it wasn't an event that moved you, perhaps it was a role model. Family members, teachers, and personal heroes are great topics for a college admission essay as long as the admissions committee comes away with a thorough understanding of who you are and not just an image of your role model. Take the lessons you learned from this person and boil it down to the moment you first really understood what that person was about and decided to emulate them. Make a list during your time limit of all the incidents or things they said to you that has stuck with you as you've grown and changed into the person who will be attending their university.

Whittle Your List

In 15 minutes, hopefully you have come up with at least 20 to 25 different ideas, events, people, or combination thereof. If not, try another 15 minutes and see what you come up with. From the list of 20-25, pick about 5 incidents that display any or all of the following qualities:

• emotionally moving
• intimately personal
• exceptionally unique
• profound or philosophical
• ethnically or culturally related

Pick a Theme

When you've chosen the 5 strongest representations of these qualities, rate them from 1 to 5. Go through each one and make a list of as many themes as possible that could be related by telling this anecdote. Consider the following possible themes for your college admission essay:

• Triumph Through Adversity
• A Great Revelation or Epiphany
• The Day You Learned Integrity
• The Person Who Taught You Any of the Above

Choose which of these themes you think represents you best and then start to write on your experience which best exemplifies this. Remember, choosing a topic for your college admission essay should not only be impressive to the admissions committee but interesting for you to write about. Have fun with it!

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