When it comes to writing the personal statement, many students wonder: Is my college essay topic too cliché? Given that the personal statement is intended to help you stand out among thousands of other applicants in a competitive admissions landscape, it’s completely reasonable to worry about choosing a topic that admissions officers will have seen a hundred times already.
But hold on. How many action movies are made in a year? How many fantasy books feature dragons? Between Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, and Chappell Roan, how many times have breakups featured in a popular song?
On the one hand, people claim to dislike clichés; on the other hand, there are stories and themes considered universal and timeless—no matter how many times we’ve seen the topic, we continue to find it entertaining. What gives?
Are clichés bad in college essays?
Let’s save you a bit of a headache: whatever topic you choose to write about, someone else has written about that topic before.
The Common App personal statement has existed for decades; millions of students have written this essay, and as a result of sheer probability, every topic has been written about. The thing to keep in mind is that admissions officers know this. You’re not under any expectation to generate a topic never written about before (thankfully).
So what is the expectation, then? If every topic has been written about, what does it even mean to be “too cliché”?
The emphasis should be placed on the “too” in the phrase “too cliché.”
You won’t be the first to write about your grandmother’s cooking, winning a robotics championship, bouncing back from a bad semester, or going on a religious pilgrimage. And that’s okay. In fact, relatability can be a strength in college essays. If an admissions reader personally connects with your story, that’s a plus.
By contrast, writing about something so obscure that no one can relate wouldn’t be cliché—but it also wouldn’t be a great idea.
The key is balance. The topic might be familiar, but the details should (must!) be uniquely yours. Writing about your grandmother’s cooking can reveal themes of family, culture, or tradition, and it only becomes too cliché when you skip the personal details that make it yours.
Think about the most cliché movie you’ve seen. Just being a romance, a horror, or a comedy doesn’t make it cliché; it’s the lack of distinct characters and depth that does. The same goes for essays.
Don’t worry about what you write about. Focus on how you write it with priority on showing your personality, thinking, and experiences.
Returning to our grandmother example: one student might describe her memorizing hundreds of recipes; another, her teaching style; another, her fusion of cultures in a signature dish. The same topic can produce entirely different essays. The best way to avoid being too cliché isn’t by finding a “new” topic. It’s by choosing something you genuinely care about. Authentic interest brings out your unique perspective, even on a familiar theme.
What are the most cliché college essay topics?
While up to this point we’ve spent some time trying to calm our anxieties around choosing topics that other people choose, I know students nonetheless want to know what the most cliché college essay topics are. In no particular order:
- Sports Injury/Sports Accomplishments
- Missionary Work/Volunteering for marginalized communities
- Vacations
- Mental Health (especially during COVID)
- Familial Death
- Parents’ Divorce
- Professional & Academic Aspirations
“Cliché” has a negative connotation, but we don’t mean to suggest that anything in this list is unimportant or lacking in meaning. These bullets include some of the most impactful and significant events that can happen in any individual’s life. It’s precisely for that reason that so many people choose to write about them. Their inherent importance is how they became common clichés.
But what does that mean if the thing you most want to write about is on this list? Well, you can still write about it, but the bar will be higher. If you fail to brainstorm, outline, and revise multiple drafts, that lack of effort will be more noticeable when dealing with one of the more cliché topics. In effect, you should only choose one of these if you’re committed to giving the personal statement a full effort.
What are some unique essay topics?
As stated already, there aren’t any topics that are completely unique. But there is a spectrum.
If you avoid any of the most cliché topics listed above, you’re already more unique than many personal statements. After those bullets, the most common categories would be something school-related or related to a traumatic experience.
The most unique essay topics tend to be anything related to the life you live outside of school or school extracurriculars. The personal statement exists to tell schools something about you that they cannot learn from GPA, test scores, class rank, or teacher recommendations. In many cases, they’re already going to use supplemental essays to ask you why you’re choosing their school and why you’ve selected your major.
The personal statement is the one place to talk about who you are as a person, outside of all the tasks you’re doing to get into college. How do your friends think of you? How do you think of yourself? When you’re completely free to spend the day however you want, how do you spend it?
The most unique essay topics aren’t a small specific group. Rather, it’s anything that fits the aforementioned characteristics. It’s common for excellent students to write an essay about something else that demonstrates their academic excellence: the “A” student who also discusses how they coached peers to the robotics state final. It’s less common to get the “A” student who discusses something that has nothing to do with school but everything to do with who they are as a person.
Is it cliché to start an essay with a quote?
Yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s ineffective.
If it’s a quote that you looked up solely for the purpose of writing this essay, this is probably a bad idea. You haven’t had the quote with you long enough to generate unique insights about it. You haven’t carried the quote with you during multiple life events and reflected on it from different angles. So, unless you’re exceptionally imaginative, you probably won’t be able to elevate the quote above cliché.
But if you just so happen to be that teenager who genuinely has a favorite quote that they have carried for years, reflected on, and have real experience using that quote as a guide, by all means, start your essay with the quote.
Is it bad to write about sports in my college essay?
It’s not bad, but by virtue of it being such a commonly utilized topic, the bar for writing a good sports essay is higher.
A more unique topic might hide some of the other flaws in your writing. When writing about such a cliché topic, you don’t have anything to distract from bad writing. That means you would need to write a good sports essay.
Besides demonstrating college-level grammar and vocabulary, admissions readers prize two things in a personal statement: growth and reflection. You can get away with focusing on just one. The best personal statements usually have both. But if you have neither, that’s a bad personal statement.
The mistake that most students make with sports stories is that they don’t have growth or reflection. For the sake of the personal statement, “growth” means that you were one way and then you grew to be another way. With that in mind, you might have had a really challenging football season—but how did you grow?
In many cases, you started out loving football and finished loving football. You started the season believing you needed to train harder and finished the season believing you needed to keep training harder. It’s very easy for a sports story to lack growth. In terms of reflection, many sports journalists demonstrate on a weekly basis that sports are something we can reflect upon deeply to understand the human condition. But if that’s not a level of reflection you normally bring to the game, it can be hard to suddenly bring it for the personal statement.
If you have a sports story that shows thoughtful reflection or demonstrates meaningful, significant change from one point in time to the next, write it. If not, you might want to choose a different topic.
Is my college essay topic too cliché?
To avoid a cliche topic, first avoid writing about any of the most cliché topics (mentioned above). You can also avoid writing about anything connected to high school or extracurriculars connected to high school. This isn’t mandatory, but if avoiding cliché makes you more comfortable, these would be the first steps.
Next, think about interests or experiences you have that your friends don’t seem to. What makes you unique in comparison to them? Or think about interests you have that you express by following certain social media profiles. Which ones seem to have the smallest or most niche followings? Thinking about either of these can help you isolate some passions or interests you have that not everyone shares. Those are probably the topics you can write about that not everyone will.
Does my college essay have to be completely unique?
If you still don’t know the answer at this point, that’s okay. As an Essay Coach, no matter how many times I have advised students, “No, you do not need a completely unique essay,” it’s a recurring fear that every student has, which is why we’ve refuted it so many times in one blog.
I’m happy to say again: your college essay does not have to be completely unique. And maybe there is one last way to come at this. Have you met anyone else who wants to study your same major? Have you noticed similarities between you and these others? Have you noticed commonalities between STEM students? What about AV club? What about students in theater? Chances are you’ve noticed really strong similarities among all of these groups. The admissions readers also know this. They expect some similarities between students. In fact, they are banking on there being some similarities so that they can create a cohesive campus.
There’s a saying in moviemaking: “Give me the same, but different.” That is what a good personal statement will do. It will have a topic that likely is the same as many other students’, but it will be different in the specific details because you’re unique, and your experience of a cliché topic will nonetheless be different than my experience of a cliché topic.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, what matters most isn’t what you write about but how you write about it. A so-called cliché topic can become powerful when it shows your authentic voice, contains vivid details, and demonstrates personal growth. So instead of stressing over originality, focus on telling your story in a way only you can. That’s what admissions officers really want to see.
Ready to turn your college essay idea into something standout? Schedule a free consultation today, and let a HelloCollege expert help you craft a story that’s anything but cliché.
