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Why Inspiration Matters

• Scott Barry Kaufman

“When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait, and obey.“ — Rudyard Kipling In a culture obsessed with measuring talent and ability, we often overlook the important role of inspiration. Inspiration awakens us to new possibilities by allowing us to transcend our ordinary experiences and limitations. Inspiration propels a person […]

“ When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait, and obey. “ — Rudyard Kipling

• SK Scott Barry Kaufman is scientific director of the Imagination Institute in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He is author of Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined and co-author of the upcoming book Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind (with Carolyn Gregoire). Kaufman is also co-founder of The Creativity Post and he hosts The Psychology Podcast .

Partner Center

The internet can be a dark and, quite often, violent place for women — many of whom are subjected to trolling, harassment, and threats on a daily basis. But it can also be a truly wonderful place, one that provides free access to news, educational resources, entertainment, communication, and wealth of incredible writing — including these empowering essays by women you can read online right now . Written by Cecile Richards, Lindy West, Lady Gaga, and more, these essays are filled with inspiration and wisdom to guide you through your day.

For female readers, the online world can sometimes feel like a minefield, one that is littered with destructive words meant to tear women down or shut them up. But for famous authors and writers, beloved celebrities, and popular athletes, it can also serve as the perfect platform to share their empowering stories, which often include plenty of inspirational anecdotes and practical advice that makes the whole mess of the internet worth it.

Whether you’re looking for a bit of guidance in your own life, or hoping to inspire your friends with some sage advice from more experienced women, here are nine empowering essays you can read for free online right now .

"The Most Daring Women Don’t Always Make Headlines" by Cecile Richards

"Today, women across this country are doing her proud. The earth is shifting under the force of millions of women standing up for themselves, for each other, for their daughters and their mothers and sisters," writes the former president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund Cecile Richards in her inspiring piece about women and activism for Harper's Bazaar . "Women are no longer asking for permission. They’re just diving in and taking risks. They know we can’t afford to sit this one out."

Read the full essay here .

"Rebranding Motherhood" by Diksha Basu

"If anything, so far being a mother feels quite delightfully self-indulgent. I have a daughter in whom I can constantly look for and find little bits of myself or, better yet, improved bits of myself," writes Windfall author Dikashu Basu in a moving essay for The New York Times about redefining motherhood. "Recently a construction worker called out to me on the street in Lower Manhattan and I got my angry anti-catcalling face ready to respond but he very respectfully said, 'You have a beautiful daughter, ma’am.' My vanity now has two bodies within which to reside — the sacrifice looks more like narcissism from certain angles."

Read the full essay here.

"This Is Survival" by Aly Raisman

In a heartbreaking but incredibly powerful essay for The Players' Tribune , American gymnast Aly Raisman opens up about her experience with sexual abuse, and offers some words of encouragement to anyone else who has gone through the same thing. "I am not a victim. I am a survivor. The abuse does not define me, or anyone else who has been abused. This does not define the millions of those who’ve suffered sexual abuse," the two-time Olympian writes. "They are not victims, either. They are survivors. They are strong, they are brave, they are changing things so the next generation never has to go through what they did."

"What I Learned at War" by Tammy Duckworth

Senator Tammy Duckworth has often spoken out about her time serving in the U.S. army, including in this persuasive essay about the price of war and what it can teach us that she wrote for Politico. "That day, I lost both of my legs, but I was given a second chance at life," she writes, recounting her experience fighting in the Iraq War. "It’s a feeling that has helped to drive me in my second chance at service—no one should be left behind, and every American deserves another chance."

"The 'Perfect Body' Is a Lie. I Believed It For a Long Time and Let It Shrink My Life" by Lindy West

If you have read Lindy West's memoir Shrill , you know that she has a lot of incredibly insightful things to say fat acceptance and body positivity. In an essay for The Guardian, she shares some of them, saying "The 'perfect body' is a lie. I believed in it for a long time, and I let it shape my life, and shrink it – my real life, populated by my real body. Don’t let fiction tell you what to do. In the omnidirectional orgy gardens of Vlaxnoid, no one cares about your arm flab."

"Bring It On" by Ibtihaj Muhammad

The first Muslim American to medal in the Olympics, fencing champion Ibtihaj Muhammad opened up about what it is like to compete in an sport where so few people look like her. "One day, during a fifteen-hour flight to a training camp in Beijing, I arrived at a moment where I said enough is enough — I’d spent years fighting for every win, every opportunity, every ounce of respect on my path to becoming an Olympian, and I was no longer going to allow other people to affect how I perceived myself or restrict what I was capable of," she writes in Lenny Letter. "When people stared me down at a tournament, I didn’t know if it was a race thing or a religious thing or that they weren’t ready for change, but I finally realized: Why was that burden on me to figure out? I didn’t have the time to acquire their baggage or analyze why anyone wanted to make me feel inferior. I had a job to do on that team, and that job was winning a medal."

"Why It's So Important That CEOs Like Me Speak Out Against Trump" by Reshma Saujani

In an essay about corporate responsibility in the age of Trump by Reshma Saujani, the Girls Who Code founder and CEO reminds readers that individuals have a lot of power to enact change. "But if every American has the power to sway a CEO," she argues in a piece for Teen Vogue, "then every American quite literally has a chance to sway public opinion, to shape the way we talk and think and act on our values system — to change the way we treat our fellow Americans and those who come here seeking a better life for their families."

"Ava DuVernay on How to 'Pivot Towards Positivity' in Trying Times" by Ava DuVernay

There are few creatives as wise, or as giving when it comes to advice, as A Wrinkle in Time director Ava DuVernay. "These days I’m a lot less competitive, a lot less concerned about what other people do. I’m much more focused on the things that make me happy," she writes in an inspirational essay for InStyle. "I believe that good comes when you put out good, and so I just try to emanate joyful vibes. Why not? I’m not going to spend my day hating on someone else. I’ve got so many better and more joy-filled things to do."

"Portrait of a Lady" by Lady Gaga

In her 2016 essay on being a woman in the modern world, Lady Gaga opens up and offers a truly refreshing and inspiring perspective. "Being a lady today means being a fighter. It means being a survivor," she writes. "It means letting yourself be vulnerable and acknowledging your shame or that you're sad or you're angry. It takes great strength to do that."

73 Inspiration Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best inspiration topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ good research topics about inspiration, 👍 simple & easy inspiration essay titles.

• My Inspiration for Reading She has since revealed to me that I was her first audience and my opinions mattered a lot. There was a time I wanted to write children’s books like my aunt.
• Inspiration Theories in the Bible The dynamic theory holds the view that inspiration is a supernatural act or fact and it is the work of the Lord God not the work of man or any other thing.
• Special Places to Relax & Find Inspiration Museums are places where you get to feel and experience our cultural wealth in a manner that is hard to copy in the physical world.
• 3D Animation: Main Inspirations and Personal Experience I have read that an understanding of the underlying story and a keen interest in storytelling is essential to build a good animation. This I have found that a number of institutes in the country […]
• Inspirational Speech: The Last Lecture by Randolph Pausch The Last Lecture by Randolph Pausch is a good example of an inspirational speech that prompts the listeners to reevaluate their views on life, death and relations between people. The introduction of his speech contained […]
• “Rust Red Hills” by Georgia O’Keeffe Used for Inspiration The aesthetics and experience of art inspire modern artists and impact the emergence of new works created under the influence of past works.
• The Italian Town Siena: Continued Inspiration for Urban Designers In the area of urban planning, Siena is the medieval of a medieval city and constantly rivalled Florence in urban structures.
• Inspiration of “Diamonds” Song by Rihanna Sia wrote the song for Rihanna, who holds the song’s copyrights and worked on it a year prior; therefore, the song is owned by an independent contractor.
• Engineer Career and Inspirations Leonardo was the first to design a glider in the history of humanity and that glider, designed in the fifteenth century, has much in common with a glider of the twenty-first century.
• Inspiration and Hope in the “Gone with the Wind” Gone with the Wind is a captivating love story that is set in the civil war era in America, which is a re-enactment of a literal work by the same name.
• Fashion Source of Inspiration It needs to be said that experimentation is a critical part of the process, and some colors may have to be slightly changed.
• Robert Kiyosaki as an Inspirational Leader He worked as the third mate on a tanker for half a year but decided that the job was not for him and returned to the army.
• Why Is Samsung Considered a Design Inspiration? The reimagined camera is one of the key features of the Samsung smartphone that reflects the inspirational design. Samsung employs the horizontal integration strategy in the production of its smartphones and other products.
• Searching for the Source of Inspiration: The Image of a True Leader Indeed, as a spiritual leader, Jesus can be considered the epitome of inspiration and an eternal, perpetual source of wisdom due to His compassion and empathy for each and every one of the members of […]
• The Catholic Doctrine of the Inspiration of Sacred Scripture For example, there is the doctrine of the Bible, the doctrine of God, the principle of man, the doctrine of salvation, the doctrine of the Church, etc.
• Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa as a Source of Inspiration In both Mona Lisa and Instafamous, Lisa del Gioconda is at the center of the composition. However, in Mona Lisa, it is Da Vinci’s gaze that determines how she is depicted and perceived, while in […]
• Art Inspiration and Production The memes of the recent times increasingly use their platform to lambast and make fun of existing properties and the culture of the past.
• Inspiration From Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Sox) That is beside the requirements outlined in the act on how organizations should implement and comply with each section of the act to adhere to the law.
• Inspiration From Sarbanes-Oxley Act The benefits of adopting the act form the specific area of study, leading to the question of, what benefits inspired corporate entities to adopt the Sarbanes-Oxley Act?
• A Genius and His Muse: The Essence of Inspiration The incredible diversity of the relationship “schemes” between a genius and his muse leads to a following idea: in the image of his woman an artist finds what he needs himself.
• Art Appreciation. Inspiration of an Artwork The inspiration from the works of the Italian Renaissance artist such as Leonardo and Botticelli brought the idea of works that can fit within the same context.
• Renaissance as an Inspirational Era in Europe The development of crafts and trade, the rise of the role of cities, as well as political events in Western Europe in the XII and XIII centuries entailed significant changes in the whole way of […]
• Anatomy of Leadership and Inspiration This is instrumental in ensuring that there are development and improvement in the lives of people. Division of labor will ensure the change in the organization is sustained.
• Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Through Motivation and Inspiration Leadership, on the contrary, demands that a leader should be able to make positive changes in the society and seek positive solutions to problems in the society.
• Edvard Munch’s Inspirations and Approach His art bears a distinctive imprint of psychological anguish and often resorts to the controversial themes related to sexuality, illness, and the origins of the supernatural.
• Leadership: Providing Purpose, Motivation and Inspiration Purpose refers to the goals that the leader and the organization in general seek to fulfill. As such, a leader must understand and assist the subordinates to meet their personal goals.
• Stylistics: Poetry’s Spirit and Inspiration However, this process is impossible without inspiration, some kind of an insight which helps to understand the idea which comes in the head of a poet and to put it into words. The name of […]
• Charismatic vs. Inspirational Leadership The other characteristic of the followers of charismatic leaders is the willingness to be subordinates. Showing concern for followers is important in inspirational and charismatic leadership since it helps the leaders to win the trust […]
• Inspiration and Inerrancy of the Bible The evidences of the fact that the Bible is the authoritative source of the Word of God are given in the biblical text itself.
• Where Creativity and Inspiration Originate The different disciplines of art can also be used to define humanity with religion and history being a factor, with science and technology embracing the entirety of the human nature and hindering its raw creativity […]
• Thomas Jefferson as the Greatest Teacher and Source of Inspiration In his notes on the state of Virginia he attacked slavery and thought that it was duty of the state and society to release slaves.
• For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
• Inspiration, Innovation, and Invention: Three Impossible Paradigms
• Difference Between Motivation Satisfaction Inspiration and Manipulation
• The Most Effective Source of Inspiration
• Beowulf and Jesus: Sacrifice and Inspiration
• Intense Personal Memories and Reflections as an Inspiration to Poets
• Inspiration and Influence: What’s the Difference
• Food Sensitivities: Inspiration, Not Deprivation
• Inspiration: How to Discover What Inspires You in Life
• The Contrast Between Individual Inspiration and the Influences of Age
• Inspiration and Trust: The Moral Catalysts for True Loyalty
• Modeling Inspiration for Innovative NPD: Lessons From Biomimetics
• Inspiration vs. Perspiration: How to Overcome Creative Block
• Different Ways of Inspirations: Passive and Active Inspiration
• The Problems and Assess the Validity of the Concept of Inspiration in Scripture
• Dante Alighieri and the Love for Beatrice Portinari as His Inspiration
• Inspiration and Perspiration Factors in Economic Growth: The Former Soviet Union Area Versus China
• Passion and Motivation as Parts of Inspiration
• Culture and Motivation: Business, Employee Inspiration
• Inspiration Throughout Life: Energized, Hopeful, and Engaged
• Leadership, Creativity and the Arts as a Source of Inspiration
• Design-Thinking, Inspiration, and Ideation
• Inspiration From the Biggest Loser: Social Interactions in a Weight Loss Program
• Answering the Call: Inspiration for Teachers
• Inspiration and Education Achieved Through Poetry
• Three Kinds of Inspiration: Rational, Emotive, and Serendipitous
• Inspiration: The Most Important Leadership Trait, Fueled by Passion and Purpose
• Getting Inspiration From Historical Sources of Fashion
• Art: How Key Historical Events Serve as the Inspiration
• Inspiration From Games and Entertainment Artifacts: A Rising Paradigm for Designing Mechanisms and Algorithms in Robotics
• Leadership, Inspiration, and Motivation
• Inspiration, Inerrancy, and Authority of the New Testament
• Psychology: Ideas, Inspiration, and Attitudes to Change
• Inspiration for Integration: Labor Market Policies for Refugees
• Biblical Authority, Inspiration, and Inerrancy of the Bible and the Pote
• Inspiration: Creativity and Context
• Live Now: In-The-Moment Inspiration
• Inspiration: Art Forms Increasing Culture
• Entrepreneurial Drive Beyond the Need for Achievement: A Point of Difference Entrepreneurial Drive, Inspiration, and Motivation
• Inspiration Prompts, Motivation Drives Professionalism
• Goals Questions
• Motivation Research Ideas
• Personality Development Ideas
• Optimism Essay Topics
• Personal Ethics Titles
• Music Therapy Ideas
• Human Development Research Ideas
• Leadership Essay Ideas
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 53 stellar college essay topics to inspire you.

College Essays

Most colleges and universities in the United States require applicants to submit at least one essay as part of their application. But trying to figure out what college essay topics you should choose is a tricky process. There are so many potential things you could write about!

In this guide, we go over the essential qualities that make for a great college essay topic and give you 50+ college essay topics you can use for your own statement . In addition, we provide you with helpful tips for turning your college essay topic into a stellar college essay.

What Qualities Make for a Good College Essay Topic?

Regardless of what you write about in your personal statement for college , there are key features that will always make for a stand-out college essay topic.

#1: It’s Specific

First off, good college essay topics are extremely specific : you should know all the pertinent facts that have to do with the topic and be able to see how the entire essay comes together.

Specificity is essential because it’ll not only make your essay stand out from other statements, but it'll also recreate the experience for admissions officers through its realism, detail, and raw power. You want to tell a story after all, and specificity is the way to do so. Nobody wants to read a vague, bland, or boring story — not even admissions officers!

For example, an OK topic would be your experience volunteering at a cat shelter over the summer. But a better, more specific college essay topic would be how you deeply connected with an elderly cat there named Marty, and how your bond with him made you realize that you want to work with animals in the future.

Remember that specificity in your topic is what will make your essay unique and memorable . It truly is the key to making a strong statement (pun intended)!

#2: It Shows Who You Are

In addition to being specific, good college essay topics reveal to admissions officers who you are: your passions and interests, what is important to you, your best (or possibly even worst) qualities, what drives you, and so on.

The personal statement is critical because it gives schools more insight into who you are as a person and not just who you are as a student in terms of grades and classes.

By coming up with a real, honest topic, you’ll leave an unforgettable mark on admissions officers.

#3: It’s Meaningful to You

The very best college essay topics are those that hold deep meaning to their writers and have truly influenced them in some significant way.

For instance, maybe you plan to write about the first time you played Skyrim to explain how this video game revealed to you the potentially limitless worlds you could create, thereby furthering your interest in game design.

Even if the topic seems trivial, it’s OK to use it — just as long as you can effectively go into detail about why this experience or idea had such an impact on you .

Don’t give in to the temptation to choose a topic that sounds impressive but doesn’t actually hold any deep meaning for you. Admissions officers will see right through this!

Similarly, don’t try to exaggerate some event or experience from your life if it’s not all that important to you or didn’t have a substantial influence on your sense of self.

#4: It’s Unique

College essay topics that are unique are also typically the most memorable, and if there’s anything you want to be during the college application process, it’s that! Admissions officers have to sift through thousands of applications, and the essay is one of the only parts that allows them to really get a sense of who you are and what you value in life.

If your essay is trite or boring, it won’t leave much of an impression , and your application will likely get immediately tossed to the side with little chance of seeing admission.

But if your essay topic is very original and different, you’re more likely to earn that coveted second glance at your application.

What does being unique mean exactly, though? Many students assume that they must choose an extremely rare or crazy experience to talk about in their essays —but that's not necessarily what I mean by "unique." Good college essay topics can be unusual and different, yes, but they can also be unique takes on more mundane or common activities and experiences .

For instance, say you want to write an essay about the first time you went snowboarding. Instead of just describing the details of the experience and how you felt during it, you could juxtapose your emotions with a creative and humorous perspective from the snowboard itself. Or you could compare your first attempt at snowboarding with your most recent experience in a snowboarding competition. The possibilities are endless!

#5: It Clearly Answers the Question

Finally, good college essay topics will clearly and fully answer the question(s) in the prompt.

You might fail to directly answer a prompt by misinterpreting what it’s asking you to do, or by answering only part of it (e.g., answering just one out of three questions).

Therefore, make sure you take the time to come up with an essay topic that is in direct response to every question in the prompt .

Take this Coalition Application prompt as an example:

What is the hardest part of being a teenager now? What's the best part? What advice would you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)?

For this prompt, you’d need to answer all three questions (though it’s totally fine to focus more on one or two of them) to write a compelling and appropriate essay.

This is why we recommend reading and rereading the essay prompt ; you should know exactly what it’s asking you to do, well before you start brainstorming possible college application essay topics.

53 College Essay Topics to Get Your Brain Moving

In this section, we give you a list of 53 examples of college essay topics. Use these as jumping-off points to help you get started on your college essay and to ensure that you’re on track to coming up with a relevant and effective topic.

All college application essay topics below are categorized by essay prompt type. We’ve identified six general types of college essay prompts:

Why This College?

Change and personal growth, passions, interests, and goals, overcoming a challenge, diversity and community, solving a problem.

Note that these prompt types could overlap with one another, so you’re not necessarily limited to just one college essay topic in a single personal statement.

• How a particular major or program will help you achieve your academic or professional goals
• A memorable and positive interaction you had with a professor or student at the school
• Something good that happened to you while visiting the campus or while on a campus tour
• A certain class you want to take or a certain professor you’re excited to work with
• Some piece of on-campus equipment or facility that you’re looking forward to using
• Your plans to start a club at the school, possibly to raise awareness of a major issue
• A study abroad or other unique program that you can’t wait to participate in
• How and where you plan to volunteer in the community around the school
• An incredible teacher you studied under and the positive impact they had on you
• How you went from really liking something, such as a particular movie star or TV show, to not liking it at all (or vice versa)
• How yours or someone else’s (change in) socioeconomic status made you more aware of poverty
• A time someone said something to you that made you realize you were wrong
• How your opinion on a controversial topic, such as gay marriage or DACA, has shifted over time
• A documentary that made you aware of a particular social, economic, or political issue going on in the country or world
• Advice you would give to your younger self about friendship, motivation, school, etc.
• The steps you took in order to kick a bad or self-sabotaging habit
• A juxtaposition of the first and most recent time you did something, such as dance onstage
• A book you read that you credit with sparking your love of literature and/or writing
• A school assignment or project that introduced you to your chosen major
• A glimpse of your everyday routine and how your biggest hobby or interest fits into it
• The career and (positive) impact you envision yourself having as a college graduate
• A teacher or mentor who encouraged you to pursue a specific interest you had
• How moving around a lot helped you develop a love of international exchange or learning languages
• A special skill or talent you’ve had since you were young and that relates to your chosen major in some way, such as designing buildings with LEGO bricks
• Where you see yourself in 10 or 20 years
• Your biggest accomplishment so far relating to your passion (e.g., winning a gold medal for your invention at a national science competition)
• A time you lost a game or competition that was really important to you
• How you dealt with the loss or death of someone close to you
• A time you did poorly in a class that you expected to do well in
• How moving to a new school impacted your self-esteem and social life
• A chronic illness you battled or are still battling
• Your healing process after having your heart broken for the first time
• A time you caved under peer pressure and the steps you took so that it won't happen again
• How you almost gave up on learning a foreign language but stuck with it
• Why you decided to become a vegetarian or vegan, and how you navigate living with a meat-eating family
• What you did to overcome a particular anxiety or phobia you had (e.g., stage fright)
• A history of a failed experiment you did over and over, and how you finally found a way to make it work successfully
• Someone within your community whom you aspire to emulate
• A family tradition you used to be embarrassed about but are now proud of
• Your experience with learning English upon moving to the United States
• A close friend in the LGBTQ+ community who supported you when you came out
• A time you were discriminated against, how you reacted, and what you would do differently if faced with the same situation again
• How you navigate your identity as a multiracial, multiethnic, and/or multilingual person
• A project or volunteer effort you led to help or improve your community
• A particular celebrity or role model who inspired you to come out as LGBTQ+
• Your biggest challenge (and how you plan to tackle it) as a female in a male-dominated field
• How you used to discriminate against your own community, and what made you change your mind and eventually take pride in who you are and/or where you come from
• A program you implemented at your school in response to a known problem, such as a lack of recycling cans in the cafeteria
• A time you stepped in to mediate an argument or fight between two people
• An app or other tool you developed to make people’s lives easier in some way
• A time you proposed a solution that worked to an ongoing problem at school, an internship, or a part-time job
• The steps you took to identify and fix an error in coding for a website or program
• An important social or political issue that you would fix if you had the means

How to Build a College Essay in 6 Easy Steps

Once you’ve decided on a college essay topic you want to use, it’s time to buckle down and start fleshing out your essay. These six steps will help you transform a simple college essay topic into a full-fledged personal statement.

Step 1: Write Down All the Details

Once you’ve chosen a general topic to write about, get out a piece of paper and get to work on creating a list of all the key details you could include in your essay . These could be things such as the following:

• Emotions you felt at the time
• Names, places, and/or numbers
• Dialogue, or what you or someone else said
• A specific anecdote, example, or experience
• Descriptions of how things looked, felt, or seemed

If you can only come up with a few details, then it’s probably best to revisit the list of college essay topics above and choose a different one that you can write more extensively on.

Good college essay topics are typically those that:

• You remember well (so nothing that happened when you were really young)
• You're excited to write about
• You're not embarrassed or uncomfortable to share with others
• You believe will make you positively stand out from other applicants

Step 2: Figure Out Your Focus and Approach

Once you have all your major details laid out, start to figure out how you could arrange them in a way that makes sense and will be most effective.

It’s important here to really narrow your focus: you don’t need to (and shouldn’t!) discuss every single aspect of your trip to visit family in Indonesia when you were 16. Rather, zero in on a particular anecdote or experience and explain why and how it impacted you.

Alternatively, you could write about multiple experiences while weaving them together with a clear, meaningful theme or concept , such as how your math teacher helped you overcome your struggle with geometry over the course of an entire school year. In this case, you could mention a few specific times she tutored you and most strongly supported you in your studies.

There’s no one right way to approach your college essay, so play around to see what approaches might work well for the topic you’ve chosen.

If you’re really unsure about how to approach your essay, think about what part of your topic was or is most meaningful and memorable to you, and go from there.

Step 3: Structure Your Narrative

• Beginning: Don’t just spout off a ton of background information here—you want to hook your reader, so try to start in the middle of the action , such as with a meaningful conversation you had or a strong emotion you felt. It could also be a single anecdote if you plan to center your essay around a specific theme or idea.
• Middle: Here’s where you start to flesh out what you’ve established in the opening. Provide more details about the experience (if a single anecdote) or delve into the various times your theme or idea became most important to you. Use imagery and sensory details to put the reader in your shoes.
• End: It’s time to bring it all together. Finish describing the anecdote or theme your essay centers around and explain how it relates to you now , what you’ve learned or gained from it, and how it has influenced your goals.

Step 4: Write a Rough Draft

By now you should have all your major details and an outline for your essay written down; these two things will make it easy for you to convert your notes into a rough draft.

At this stage of the writing process, don’t worry too much about vocabulary or grammar and just focus on getting out all your ideas so that they form the general shape of an essay . It’s OK if you’re a little over the essay's word limit — as you edit, you’ll most likely make some cuts to irrelevant and ineffective parts anyway.

If at any point you get stuck and have no idea what to write, revisit steps 1-3 to see whether there are any important details or ideas you might be omitting or not elaborating on enough to get your overall point across to admissions officers.

Step 5: Edit, Revise, and Proofread

• Sections that are too wordy and don’t say anything important
• Irrelevant details that don’t enhance your essay or the point you're trying to make
• Parts that seem to drag or that feel incredibly boring or redundant
• Areas that are vague and unclear and would benefit from more detail
• Phrases or sections that are awkwardly placed and should be moved around
• Areas that feel unconvincing, inauthentic, or exaggerated

Start paying closer attention to your word choice/vocabulary and grammar at this time, too. It’s perfectly normal to edit and revise your college essay several times before asking for feedback, so keep working with it until you feel it’s pretty close to its final iteration.

This step will likely take the longest amount of time — at least several weeks, if not months — so really put effort into fixing up your essay. Once you’re satisfied, do a final proofread to ensure that it’s technically correct.

Step 6: Get Feedback and Tweak as Needed

After you’ve overhauled your rough draft and made it into a near-final draft, give your essay to somebody you trust , such as a teacher or parent, and have them look it over for technical errors and offer you feedback on its content and overall structure.

Use this feedback to make any last-minute changes or edits. If necessary, repeat steps 5 and 6. You want to be extra sure that your essay is perfect before you submit it to colleges!

Recap: From College Essay Topics to Great College Essays

Many different kinds of college application essay topics can get you into a great college. But this doesn’t make it any easier to choose the best topic for you .

In general, the best college essay topics have the following qualities :

• They’re specific
• They show who you are
• They’re meaningful to you
• They’re unique
• They clearly answer the question

If you ever need help coming up with an idea of what to write for your essay, just refer to the list of 53 examples of college essay topics above to get your brain juices flowing.

Once you’ve got an essay topic picked out, follow these six steps for turning your topic into an unforgettable personal statement :

• Write down all the details
• Figure out your focus and approach
• Structure your narrative
• Write a rough draft
• Edit, revise, and proofread
• Get feedback and tweak as needed

And with that, I wish you the best of luck on your college essays!

What’s Next?

Writing a college essay is no simple task. Get expert college essay tips with our guides on how to come up with great college essay ideas and how to write a college essay, step by step .

You can also check out this huge list of college essay prompts  to get a feel for what types of questions you'll be expected to answer on your applications.

Want to see examples of college essays that absolutely rocked? You're in luck because we've got a collection of 100+ real college essay examples right here on our blog!

Hannah received her MA in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California. From 2013 to 2015, she taught English in Japan via the JET Program. She is passionate about education, writing, and travel.

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Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

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Home / Essay Samples / Life / Emotion / Inspiration

Inspiration Essay Examples

The person who inspired me the most: my mother.

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As a female student, I have always received endless criticism on why I want to pursue a career in engineering. My response is that I want to use innovation and management to resolve societal challenges, improving environmental quality regardless of my gender. The range of...

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My Inspiration to Take a Course on Climate Change, Management & Finance

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