the challenge essay

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How to Write the Overcoming Challenges Essay + Example

April 17, 2023

At some point, most college-bound students are tasked with writing an overcoming challenges essay. The prompt crops up in various forms, as a supplemental short essay about overcoming a challenge, and in as the main essay itself.

Some students may feel inclined to write about a dramatic experience (say, spotting a grizzly bear outside the kitchen window), mistaking the drama of the moment for a significant challenge. Others may get to work, only to realize they don’t have much to say about the time they got a C in P.E. (that dreaded frisbee unit). Students who’ve overcome unspeakable difficulties, like a death in the family, may find that reducing the tragedy to 650 words feels insufficient, or worse—as if they’re attempting to profit from suffering. One or two students may stare down the blank computer screen as their entire existence shrinks to the size of a 12-point font. Should they write about the challenge of writing about the challenge of writing an overcoming challenges essay??

Don’t worry. Focusing first on how to tackle the essay will help any student decide what they should write about. In fact, how the essay is written will also prove more influential than the challenge itself in determining the strength of the essay.

Decoding the Prompt

Let’s take a look at the overcoming challenges essay question included among the seven 2023-24 Common App Essay Prompts :

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Notice how the prompt places an immediate emphasis on the “lessons we take,” rather than on the obstacles themselves, or any potential success. This is because the challenge itself often says less about the student than the way the student chose to tackle it, or the way they now reflect on it. In other words, obstacles often come at us randomly; it’s our personal response to the circumstances which reveals something of who we are.

While studying a prompt for clues, it’s helpful to think from the perspective of the admissions officer (the essay reader). What can they glean from an overcoming challenges essay?  A lot, actually. A thoughtfully written essay may tell them about the student’s personality, as well as things like problem-solving techniques, rigor, persistence, creativity, and courage. These insights can work to prove to the admissions officers that the student has what it takes to overcome challenges in college, too. These future challenges may range from the inevitable academic obstacles that occur with heavy courseloads, to social and moral challenges that arise as college students form their adult identities.

Picking Your Topic: A Brainstorming Activity

With the question of identity in mind, let’s now approach the overcoming challenges essay backwards, by brainstorming the final message the student wants it to contain.

For this three-part exercise, the student will first set a five-minute timer. With the clock ticking, they’ll jot down character traits, values, and any descriptive words or terms that say something about who they are. If stumped, change perspective. The student may imagine what their best friends, parents, coaches and siblings would say. (For example, tenacious , logical , scientific , peacemaker .) Even mild criticism can be helpful, as long as it’s not cruel. While a student’s brother may call him a “perfectionist,” perhaps this word will trigger other relevant words, like persistent and detail-oriented.

Next, the student will set the timer for another five minutes, pull out a second sheet of paper, and jot down any challenges, obstacles, setbacks, failures, and achievements that come to mind. Don’t hold back here or overanalyze. (For example: underdog at state swim meet , getting lost on the family hike , petitioning for a school compost system …)

Lastly, the student will place the two pages side by side, and draw lines between the items on the list wherever connections occur. One student may draw lines between persistent , curious , gamer , passionate about electronics , and saved the day during the power outage. Another set of lines might connect caring, observant, creative thinker , and helped sister leave abusive cult . Whatever ideas are sparked here, the goal is to identify which challenges will demonstrate something essential about the student to an admissions officer.

Topics to Avoid

The internet is rife with advice on what not to write when writing an overcoming challenges essay. Yet this advice can be confusing, or downright hypocritical. For instance, some may advise against writing about death. Yet a student who lost their father at an early age may be capable of writing a poignant essay about their search for an alternative father figure, and how they found one in their soccer coach.

I suggest avoiding guides on what not to write until after the student has done a thorough round of brainstorming. Otherwise, they risk censoring themselves too early, and may reject a promising idea. Once they’ve narrowed down their list to three ideas or less, they may want to check our guide on College Application Essay Topics to Avoid .

The reason why certain types of overcoming challenges essays miss the mark is that they emphasize the wrong aspect of the experience, which turns the topic into a cliché. While it’s generally a good idea to avoid trivial topics (again, that C in P.E.), any topic has the potential to be compelling, if it’s animated through personal opinions, insight, and description. Details bring an experience to life. Structure and reflection make an essay convincing. In other words, how the story is told will determine whether or not the topic is worth writing about.

So, rather than avoid specific topics, consider avoiding these scenarios: if you can’t show the essay to your best friend or grandmother, it’s probably not ready to show a college admissions officer. If you must write a clichéd topic, don’t choose a typical structure.

Techniques to Hone

Techniques that animate an overcoming challenges essay are the same ones used in storytelling. Think setting, visuals, sounds, dialogue, physical sensations, and feelings. “Showing” instead of “telling.” Crafting the essay with these inner and external details will bring the challenge to life, and catch the reader’s attention.

Another technique which works well when trying to avoid the trappings of cliché involve subverting the reader’s expectations. In storytelling terms, this is a plot twist. The student who got a C in P.E. may actually have a stellar essay on their hands, if they can break away from the “bad grade” trope (working harder to improve their grade). Perhaps this student’s story is actually about how, while sitting on the bleachers and not participating in the game, they found themselves watching the frisbee spin through the air, and realized they had a deep interest in the movement of astronomical bodies.

Some of the strongest overcoming challenges essays demonstrate what students have learned about themselves, rather than what they’ve learned about the obstacle they confronted. These essays may show how the student has come to see themselves differently, or how they’ve decided to change, thanks to the challenge they faced. These essays work because the reflection is natural and even profound, based on the student’s self-awareness.

Writing the Overcoming Challenges Essay, or Drafts, Drafts, Drafts

Everyone writes differently, some by outlining (never a bad idea), some by free-styling (good for capturing sensations and memories), some by lighting a candle—but don’t procrastinate too much. The only “must” is to revise. After a first draft, the student should begin to look for several things:

1) Clarity and Detail. Is the challenge recounted with precision? Is it personal?

2) Structure. Consider mapping the structure, to visualize it better. Does the structure suit the story? Can it be changed for clarity, or to keep the reader more engaged?

3) Cliché. Identify words, sentences, and ideas that are dull or repetitive. Mark them up, and in the next draft, find ways to rewrite, subvert, condense, and delete.

4) Lesson Learned. Has the student reflected adequately on the lesson they learned from overcoming a challenge? To add more reflection, students might ask themselves what they have felt and thought about the experience since. Would they do something differently, if faced with the same challenge? Has their understanding of the experience evolved over time?

By the final draft, the experience and the reflection should feel equally weighted. To get there, it may take five or six drafts.

Overcoming Challenges Essay Sample

The Happiness Hotline

First there were reports. Then we were told to stop socializing, go inside, wait. Covid struck. Everyone knows what ensued. It probably looked different from where we were all (separately) standing, even though we faced the same thing. Those first weeks, I stood at my bedroom window. It was dark by early evening in Oregon. The weirdest part—after the fact that we were collectively sharing the loneliest experience of our lives—was the silence.

… it was really quiet.

So quiet, I could hear my mom sigh downstairs. (So quiet, I couldn’t remember if I’d hummed aloud, or if I’d just heard myself in my head.) When I looked out the window, I could hear the stoplight at the end of our street. Green to yellow. Click.

Before going on, you should know three things. First, this is not a Covid essay. This is about melancholy, and the “sadness that has taken on lightness,” to quote Italo Calvino. Second, from my bedroom window, I can see down a row of oak trees, past the hospital, to my friend Carlo’s house. Third, Carlo is a jazz singer. Maybe that sounds pretentious, a freshman kid being a jazz singer, but that’s Carlo, and I wouldn’t be me without Carlo being Carlo. He’s someone who appreciates the unhinged rhythm of a Charlie Parker tune. He’s an extrovert who can bring introverts like me out of my shell. He convinced me to learn trombone, and together we riff in the after-school jazz club.

In the first month of the pandemic, we called each other nightly to talk rap albums, school stuff. At Carlo’s house, he could hear a white-crowned sparrow. He could also hear his parents talking numbers behind the bathroom door. The death toll was mounting. The cost of living was going up too. As the month wore on, I began to hear something else in our calls, in the way Carlo paused, or forgot what he was saying. Carlo was scared. He felt sad, isolated, and without his bright energy, I too, felt utterly alone.

Overcoming Challenges Essay Sample (Continued)

After some dark days, I realized that to help ourselves we needed to help others. It was pretty obvious the more I thought about it. People are social creatures, supposedly, even introverts. Maybe our neighbors needed to remember the noisiness of life.

We built a happiness hotline. That sounds fancy, though essentially, we provided three-way calls on my parents’ landline. The harder part involved making flyers and putting them up around town, in places people were still going. Grocery stores, the post office. We made a TikTok account, and then—the phone rang. Our first caller.

For months, if you called in, you could talk to us about your days in lockdown. People went really deep about the meaning of life, and we had to learn on the spot how to respond. I’d become a journalist and a therapist before becoming a sophomore. After chatting, the caller would request a song, and if we knew how to play it, we would. If not, we improvised.

Now we’re seniors in high school. Carlo visits the hospital with band members. As for myself, I’ve been working on a community music book, compiling our callers’ favorite tunes. I don’t want to forget how important it felt to make these connections. Our callers taught me that loneliness is a bit like a virus, a bit like a song. Even when it stops it can come back to haunt you, as a new variant or an old refrain. Still, sadness can take on lightness when voices call through the dark: sparrows, friends, strangers. I learned I’m good at listening into the silence. Listening isn’t only a passive stance, but an open line of receiving.

Analysis of the Overcoming Challenges Essay Sample

This student uses their musical passion to infuse the essay with vivid detail. There’s a focus on sound throughout, from the bird to the stoplight. Then there are the callers, and the clever way the student conceived of breaking through the silence. The narrator’s voice sharpens the piece further, elevating a clichéd Covid essay to a personal story of self-discovery.

In fact, the essay briefly breaks with structure to tell the reader that this is not a Covid essay. Although techniques like this should be used sparingly, it works here by grabbing the reader’s attention. It also allows the student to organize their thoughts on the page, before moving the plot along.

Outwardly, the student is overcoming the challenge of loneliness in a time of quarantine. Yet there seems to be an inner, unspoken challenge as well, that of coming to terms with the student’s introverted personality. The essay’s reflection occurs in the final paragraph, making the essay experience-heavy. However, clues woven throughout point to the reflection that will come. Details like the Italo Calvino quote hint at the later understanding of how to alleviate loneliness. While some readers might prefer more development, the various themes are threaded throughout, which makes for a satisfying ending.

A Last Word on the Short Essay About Overcoming Challenges

The short essay about overcoming a challenge requires the same steps as a longer one. To write it, follow the same brainstorming activity, then focus more on condensing and summarizing the experience. Students who’ve already written a longer overcoming challenges essay can approach the short essay about overcoming a challenge by streamlining. Instead of deleting all the extra bits, keep two interesting details that will flavor the essay with something memorable and unique.

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Kaylen Baker

With a BA in Literary Studies from Middlebury College, an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, and a Master’s in Translation from Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, Kaylen has been working with students on their writing for over five years. Previously, Kaylen taught a fiction course for high school students as part of Columbia Artists/Teachers, and served as an English Language Assistant for the French National Department of Education. Kaylen is an experienced writer/translator whose work has been featured in Los Angeles Review, Hybrid, San Francisco Bay Guardian, France Today, and Honolulu Weekly, among others.

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How to Write a Personal Challenge Essay (with Examples)

A personal challenge essay offers a singular chance for introspection and personal development. It gives you a chance to consider your past, face difficulties, and demonstrate your tenacity. This essay structure enables you to communicate your ideas and experiences with others, regardless of whether you’ve overcome hardship, dealt with a tricky circumstance, or chased an audacious goal. You’ll walk you through the phases of writing an engaging personal challenge essay in this in-depth guide, complete with samples that demonstrate the procedure.

Understanding the Personal Challenge Essay

The Personal challenges in life as a student essay asks you to describe an instance or time in your life when you had to overcome challenges, setbacks, or barriers. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate your resilience, your capacity to face adversity, and the lessons you’ve picked up along the road. This kind of article necessitates reflection, sincerity, and skillful narrative.

Selecting a Meaningful Challenge

It’s important to pick the correct challenge to write about. Think about Personal challenges in life as a student essay that profoundly influenced your development, principles, or attitude on life. It can have been an obstacle you overcame in your studies, relationships, sense of self, or any other area of your life. The task should have personal significance for you and provide information that your audience can relate to.

Structuring Your Personal Challenge Essay

To effectively portray your experiences, feelings, and growth, writing an engaging personal challenge essay involves careful thought and a well-organized format. The following steps will show you how to organize your essay such that it presents a logical and interesting story:

Introduction:

Beginning your essay with an attention-grabbing hook that draws the reader in and highlights the topic of the difficulty you’ll be exploring is a good idea. This might be a provocative inquiry, a moving saying, a detailed account, or a first-hand account associated with your issue.

Background & Context:

Make sure the reader has all the background knowledge they need to comprehend your dilemma. Describe the context, surroundings, and any other pertinent information that establishes the scene for your narrative. Additionally, you have the choice to ask for assistance from PhD thesis writing help if you run into difficulties when writing the background and context of your thesis or dissertation or if you are unsure owing to a lack of experience. They can offer helpful assistance to improve the caliber of your work.

The Challenge:

Describe the challenge in detail in a portion of your essay. When describing the challenges, difficulties, or setbacks you encountered, be descriptive and in-depth.

Your Reaction and Result:

Write about how you responded to the challenge in this part. What steps have you taken? Did you make crucial decisions, prepare a plan, or ask for assistance? Be sure to emphasize your ability to solve problems, tenacity, and any other traits that may have helped you overcome the obstacle.

Growth and Reflection:

Consider the encounter and share what you took away from it. What effects did the challenge have on your emotions, mind, and possibly even body? What new understandings did you get about who you are, your values, or your outlook on life? Describe how you overcame the obstacle to grow personally, discover yourself, or alter your perspective.

Takeaways & Lessons:

The exact lessons you took away from overcoming the obstacle should be highlighted. What priceless knowledge, abilities, or traits did you acquire as a result? Describe how these teachings have shaped your current behavior, choices, or attitude in life.

Conclusion:

Writing a compelling conclusion that connects everything can help you to conclude your essay. Write a summary of your shared journey, highlighting your personal development and new perspectives.

Include a Call to Action (Optional):

Depending on the nature of your issue, you might want to include a call to action that prompts the reader to reflect on their own issues, take action, or adopt a particular attitude.

After you’ve finished writing the essay, take some time to review and make any necessary changes. Check that the grammar, spelling, and punctuation in your writing are correct, as well as the flow.

Maintain You’re Authentic Voice Throughout the Essay:

While it’s crucial to follow a structured methodology, don’t forget to preserve your authentic voice. Remain sincere, honest, and personal in your writing. Your unique perspective and emotions will lend greater authenticity to your writing and make it more compelling. By adhering to the instructions outlined in this comprehensive guide, you’ll effectively organize your personal challenge essay. This approach will skillfully lead your readers through your journey, captivating their attention and leaving a memorable impression. Furthermore, if you find it challenging to maintain a systematic approach, consider seeking assistance from master thesis writing help. Their expertise can aid you in completing your work with precision and coherence.

Don’ts and Dos

Be upfront and honest when discussing your experiences. Do emphasize your development and lessons acquired. To keep the reader’s attention, employ colorful language and descriptions. Don’t make up or embellish details. Instead of blaming others for the difficulty, concentrate on your solution. Choose a challenge that had a significant influence rather than one that was inconsequential.

Examples of Personal Challenge Essays

Following are the Personal challenge essay examples:

Overcoming Academic Challenges:

Navigating the challenges we face in life essay can be a transformative journey that leads to personal growth and self-discovery. A prime example of this is when I confronted a series of academic setbacks. I realized that my ingrained fear of failing was standing in the way of my development. I, however, resisted allowing this fear to direct my course. I started a quest for self-improvement with pure tenacity. I reached out for guidance and support, shedding light on the power of seeking assistance when needed.

Overcoming Fear:

For instance, I had always been terrified of public speaking, but I had to face my phobia to present in front of a large crowd. I overcame my anxiety about public speaking over time with practice and confidence, and I also acquired speaking abilities that I still use today.

Dealing with Personal Loss:

Losing a loved one was a difficult emotional experience that altered my outlook on relationships and life. I learned the value of cherishing moments and helping others in need through my grief and contemplation.

Examples of challenges you have overcome as a student essay

I have encountered a range of challenges as a student, which has pushed my perseverance, adaptability, and resilience to the test. Even though they occasionally proved to be challenging, these obstacles ultimately helped me become a better and more capable individual. Here are a few instances of obstacles I overcame in my academic career:

Time Management Challenges:

Juggling schoolwork, assignments, extracurricular activities, and personal obligations can be difficult. There were times when I struggled to adequately manage my time, which resulted in missed deadlines and frustration. To overcome this difficulty, I started adopting time management strategies like making a thorough calendar, establishing priorities, and breaking work down into smaller, more manageable pieces. I became more organized about my obligations over time, which led to increased productivity and decreased stress. Furthermore, many students pursuing careers in the medical field face similarly demanding schedules that make it challenging to meet deadlines. In such cases, they often turn to nursing research paper writing services to ensure the quality and timeliness of their assignments.

Academic Setbacks:

It was demoralizing to experience academic setbacks, such as earning lower grades than expected. I decided to take advantage of these setbacks as chances for improvement rather than giving in to self-doubt. I requested input from my lecturers, made note of my weaknesses, and put focused study techniques into practice. I was able to improve my academic performance and regain my confidence by persevering and being willing to learn from my failures.

Language Barrier:

Navigating English as a second language introduced a unique set of challenges, especially in terms of effective communication and the completion of writing assignments. In essays and presentations, I often encountered hurdles in articulating my thoughts coherently and concisely. To overcome this hurdle, I actively expanded my vocabulary, engaged in consistent reading and writing exercises, and actively sought input from peers and professors. Furthermore, this drive to enhance my linguistic abilities not only improved my communication skills but also bolstered my confidence in expressing myself in academic and professional settings. My determination to conquer these language-related challenges demonstrates my commitment to growth and adaptability, qualities that I believe would make me a strong candidate for the Harvard Scholarship Essay .

Dynamics of Group Projects:

Due to the various work habits, schedules, and perspectives held by the group members, collaborative projects have occasionally proven to be difficult. I adopted efficient communication techniques, such as active listening and open discussion, to handle these circumstances. By praising each team member’s abilities and accomplishments, I helped to create a more effective and pleasant working atmosphere.

Personal Well-Being and Health:

It can be difficult to maintain a good balance between your personal needs and your academic obligations. I have occasionally overlooked my needs, which has resulted in burnout and a decline in drive. I gave exercise, wholesome eating, and regular breaks top priority since I understood how important self-care was. This all-encompassing strategy not only increased my general well-being but also sharpened my attention and increased my output. These examples collectively constitute my challenges in life as a student essay. They serve as valuable lessons that offer insights on how to navigate and overcome various situations.

How to Revise and Improve Your Essay

For instance, if you are given a topic such as “Essay on Environmental Problems and Their Solutions” and you’re not well-versed in it, it’s advisable to invest time in research. This will enable you to create quality content for your essay. After writing your personal challenge essay, it’s essential to engage in the editing and revision process. Ensure that your essay flows logically and that your ideas are well-organized. Edit for clarity, grammar, and punctuation. If you’re seeking a comprehensive perspective, consider seeking feedback from peers, professors, or mentors.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final thoughts.

Writing a personal challenge essay offers you the chance to share your unique journey and inspire others through your resilience and progress you can create an engaging tale that engrosses your readers by choosing a pertinent challenge, using a solid essay structure, and remaining honest. It’s crucial to remember that your essay about a personal issue demonstrates both your capacity for self-reflection and personal development in addition to your capacity for overcoming challenges. For those who face challenges in managing their academic tasks, there are online homework writing services available that can provide valuable assistance and support.

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How to Answer the Essay Prompt "Describe a Challenge You Overcame"

Late fall is officially college admissions season! Some students have already sent in their early decision applications and are working hard on those regular decision deadlines, which means it may be time to work on your essays.

These essays from the Common App , Coalition App , or your prospective school’s specific format can vary in topic, and you may get to choose what you write about. But no matter the school or set of schools to which you’re applying, you will likely come across a version of the “Describe a Challenge You Overcame” or “Overcoming a Challenge” essay prompt.

For some people, the answer to this could be evident. But if you have no idea what to write about, the first rule is:

Don’t panic

So many students are plagued with questions like: What if I’ve never overcome an obstacle? Is my life boring? What if I have nothing to write about, and the admissions officers hate me? What if they judge me for what I've been through?

Deep breath.

All of these fears are normal, but everyone has overcome some sort of challenge or obstacle, whether small or completely overwhelming. By being authentic to yourself, yours will be compelling to readers and help them get to know the kind of student you are now and will be at their college or university.

You will need more than panicking to help you write an essay. Remember that everyone has something valuable to say, and the obstacle you choose will matter less than your ability to write about it and highlight your resilience.

Brainstorm an authentic but impactful challenge

The first thing you'll need to do is think through some challenges you’ve faced . 

A challenge can be as seemingly simple as learning to trust yourself after a failure in school or an extracurricular activity or as complicated as overcoming significant discrimination and prejudice.

You had to overcome a specific fear to succeed at an activity you love. You may have had to rebuild your life after losing a relative. Maybe your family moved, which shook up your life. Or, receiving one terrible grade or criticism led you to change your outlook on life and motivated you to work harder than ever.

Whatever the obstacle you face (no inventing, please), it should be impactful.

That means thinking of a challenge that changed something about you. As a result of overcoming this obstacle, you should have learned significant lessons about yourself or the world around you and made changes in your life.

Colleges and universities want to know what traits you possess that will help you succeed in college and your future career, so the obstacle you choose to share should have helped you develop one of your defining traits. They will care more about your reaction to this challenge, how it shaped you, and how you articulate it than what the problem was in the first place.

Generally, the obstacle you choose to share should also be pretty recent or have had a current impact on your life, rather than a challenge that happened when you were very young that doesn’t impact you today.

Begin at the end

The opening sentence of your essay about overcoming a challenge should be compelling and make the reader want to continue. It can be tempting to tell the story chronologically, but it can sometimes be adequate to start with the ending or a positive memory.

So, think about when you overcame your challenge or realized that you had improved after facing an obstacle. You might even share a moment when you realized your chosen barrier significantly. Recount this moment as your introductory hook in some way.

You can even preview the lessons you learned in your introduction. That way, readers already know that you will share what you’ve learned rather than just share a story recounting a terrible moment or difficult challenge in your life. This can also make them want to keep reading to see how you got to that place.

Share context about the situation but make it brief

You want the reader to learn about you and your challenges rather than overdoing it in detail. They don't need to know every step of the process or every player in the story.

Of course, you should share the context behind what happened to you that challenged you and changed your life or perspective, but you should not dwell too much on the details. Provide only the ‘need to know’ moments and how they led to changes in your life.

With this kind of essay, readers want to know less about what happened and more about what you learned due to your experience.

Focus on what you learned

Your reflection about what you learned due to your experience should be your primary focus within your essay. This section will help readers understand how you’ve changed after facing your challenge or obstacle to become the stellar student you are today. It can also show the maturity and self-reflection colleges may seek in a student.

By sharing lessons learned in this type of essay, you also share how you will contribute to any college campus with your newly acquired traits and perspectives.

If you had to move from one city to another, perhaps you learned to be flexible or met new friends who helped you discover your fascination with science and technology. If you faced bullying, maybe you learned how to respect yourself without outside validation and gained resilience. Whatever the challenge, the lessons associated with overcoming it are most important.

Share actions you took as a result of overcoming the challenge

To help readers understand how you overcame the challenge and how the lessons you learned tangibly affected your life, you should also consider your actions after overcoming your obstacle.

For example, if you witnessed discrimination at school, you could have founded an anti-bullying campaign or student organization. If you lost a family member to a specific disease, you may have volunteered with an organization to help fund research for a cure.

Remember, all of this information needs to be authentic to your experience. Even the most minor actions can be impactful. So, truth is always best, even if you just learned to treat your family better or significantly improve your grades after facing this obstacle.

Connect the lessons you learned to your future

Finally, you can strengthen your response even more by connecting the lessons you learned and actions you took with your future goals.

Think about how you will show up in college after facing this challenge. And consider how you are better equipped now to achieve your future goals because of the lessons you learned. You can then tie this into how attending each college will help you reach those goals.

Seek support!

Admissions officers should never be the first people to read your essay. Get help from a teacher or college counselor, your parents or guardians, an online college essay writing site like Prompt , or fellow scholars like other NSHSS members   before you hit "submit." 

Have them read your essay and provide you with constructive feedback about content and structure. If you're stuck, you can ask for some "overcoming an obstacle" essay examples or ideas from those who know you well.

Then, submit your essay and enjoy that feeling of accomplishment!

Answering the essay prompt "Describe a Challenge You Overcame" offers a unique opportunity to showcase your resilience, growth, and problem-solving skills. By focusing on the specifics of the challenge, the steps you took to overcome it, and the lessons you learned, you'll answer the prompt effectively and make a lasting impression on the admissions team.

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How to Write a Challenges-Based (i.e., Narrative) College Essay That TBH Wasn’t That Big of a Deal

In this post, I’ll cover: 

A Word to the Wise for Students Who May Be Forcing a Challenges-Based Personal Statement

Three Brainstorming Exercises to Help You Come Up with New Potential Ideas (and Why You Maybe Should)

An Example of an Outstanding Essay Written on a Challenge That TBH Wasn’t That Big of a Deal

Something Called the Trampoline Technique That Will Help You Write Your Essay (If You’re Still 100% Committed to Writing About Your Challenge) 

Many students feel like they should write about a particular challenge they’ve faced. I’ve seen this happen for a few reasons:

Someone told them that challenges-based essays are more likely to get noticed by admission readers.

They read a personal statement they really liked and thought, “Ooh—I want my essay to be like that,” or “I want the reader to feel the way that I felt after reading that essay.” 

This is the first idea they came up with, and they just went with it.

They’ve spent soooooo long on this topic, and it feels painful to consider switching topics at this point.

Any of these sound like you? 

If so, a few quick truth bombs: 

It’s just not true. Many students are accepted into great colleges each year with all kinds of personal statements. In fact, check out this link for essays not about challenges written by students who were accepted to great colleges. 

For those of you who’ve read someone else’s essay and felt like you wanted to do “what they did”—wait, who wants to copy other people? Also, there are many ways to get a reader to feel things (more on that later).

If this is your first idea, I’m curious: How much brainstorming did you do? There are a million stories you could tell; what other ideas could you come up with in just, like, 15 minutes of more brainstorming?

This is called sunk-cost bias. Read more about it here . 

In short, you totally don’t have to write about a challenge in order to get into a great college.

So ask yourself: Am I trying to force this?

A Word to the Wise If You Think You Might Be Forcing a Challenges-Based Personal Statement

College admission readers are interested to know what are the skills, values, qualities, and interests you’re bringing with you to the college campus. 

How do you do that? Try this:

Spend (at least) 20 minutes brainstorming other topics before you commit to (or continue with) this one. Here are three exercises to help you do that: 

Essence Objects Exercise

21 Details Exercise

Everything I Want Colleges to Know About Me List

Each one will take about 20 minutes. I recommend doing all three.

Why brainstorm other ideas? Because if your challenge isn’t that compelling, or if the insights you developed aren’t that surprising, I’m worried you’ll waste a bunch more time trying to either a) make the challenge sound more difficult than it was, b) force insights, or c) (and this is worse) make up lessons that you learned just so the ending sounds nice. 

Once you’ve done these brainstorming exercises, I recommend sharing them with someone you trust, or at least like a little bit (a counselor, mentor, family member, friend), and ask them to spend 15 minutes helping you come up with other ideas.

And, oh, BTW: I recommend doing this even if you have faced significant challenges. Why? Because: 

Your challenges-based essay may not pan out.

You might like your new idea(s) even better.

You might find a way to incorporate your new idea(s) with your current idea to create a better essay, or

The new ideas you generate might end up working for a supplemental essay, which is an essay you’ll probably need to write if you’re applying to selective colleges.

Have you done this? Will you? Please do.

… Done? Okay. Once you’ve completed all those exercises and have made A REAL AND GENUINE EFFORT to come up with other potential ideas and STILL haven’t found something else you like better and you absolutely must write about this challenge (whichever one you’ve picked), then in order for you to stand out, here’s my best advice …

You have to write the heck out of it. 

What do I mean? 

Take a look below at the example essay, which was written by a student who wrote about a challenge that TBH wasn’t that big of a deal … and notice how well-written it is. (BTW, this was his title—it’s generally rare that you need to or should title a personal statement, but his adds a layer …)

Much Ado About Nothing

Up on stage, under the glowing spotlight, and in front of the glowering judge, I felt as if nothing could get in my way. As would soon be evident, I was absolutely right. The last kid got out on casserole —I eat casseroles for breakfast. But the first round of the Manhattan-wide Spelling Bee was definitely not the right time to learn a new word. Stammering into the microphone, I asked for a definition. The judge recited from the dictionary: “The belief that the actions that one takes in life have no meaning, or will amount to nothing.” The auditorium clock was ticking. Carefully eyeing the disqualification bell, I began to spell because I had no other options: “N—I—A—” ding . The judge had brought her hand down with the unabridged force of the entire English language. It was over. I was out, already beside my parents in the audience. Words, which had always been my infallible asset, had failed me. In desperation for appeal, I looked up the word how I’d intended to spell it— “ Nialism : A term frequently used by adolescents as a misspelling of the word nihilism ” (source: Urban Dictionary). I was stung by the Bee. That day, I met a word that defined who I wasn’t . To me, words are the very embodiment of spinning meaning out of thin air: squiggles into letters into words into stories. Therefore, nihilism betrayed convention—doubting its own importance by claiming that nothing has meaning. How could I possibly have never come across nihilism in my life at all? I found the answer in my family. Name any creative skill and I can point to a relative who is a whiz at it: paint on a blank canvas, musical notes into biding silence, and monologues on an otherwise empty stage are all ways of disrupting the same blank void—turning nothing into something . In that respect, my creativity has been my inheritance. Nihilism just wasn’t part of my world. Encountering the word only gave a name to what I had unwittingly striven towards from the start: creativity against nothing. Growing up, my New York City was filled with wonder. I would race up and down the pavement pointing out my own wondrous alphabet: police barricades were bookended by stoic A ’s, trees were tall, fractal Y ’s, and lampposts were arching lowercase R ’s. I saw kaleidoscopic, lexicographic beauty where others saw nothing out of the ordinary—I recognized the unseen potential of everything around me. Likewise, I always make the most out of any situation—knowing that there is always a way to solve a problem walks hand-in-hand with my optimism. Manifested in Model UN—whether using history as a powerful crisis management tool or making even the smallest of logistical alterations to keep team morale afloat—or in theater, where I wear the hats of playwright, lyricist, and actor simultaneously to help make the production worthwhile for both us and the audience, I have learned to improvise when needed and think ahead well in advance. Across the board, my peers and I put together new ideas from a finite alphabet to make a finished product greater than the sum of its parts. Walking through my city with the Manhattan Borough President during my summer internship, I listened to profound stories from inspiring citizens and engaged in parts of my city often overlooked. I worked with my research partner to fill voids with positive necessities, surveying empty school lots to locate possible future playground sites—I am excited for the new opportunities future children will have. In the ordinary locations where I had once seen my personal alphabet, I now see room for meaningful humanitarian change. Though opposed to nihilism , I am grateful for our encounter—for without the world’s nothing s, there would be no room for new something s. I will never let nothing get in my way again.

Crazy good, huh?

The take-away from this essay: You don’t have to have gone through a war or been born deaf to write an interesting essay on a “challenge.” But if your challenge is more on the meh side (like spelling a word wrong, or not making a sports team, or getting a bad grade), you’d better be able to write the heck out of it.

What do I mean?

This essay is just incredibly well-crafted, from the title right through to the final line.

On a scale of 1-10 in terms of extreme challenges, I’d rate this a 1. 

But on a scale of 1-10 in terms of personal statement craft, I’d rate it a hundred. 

Why so high?

This author makes a spelling bee error seem like a really big deal.

How does he do it? What makes this essay work? 

First, it’s so darn clever. Phrases like “I was stung by the Bee” or the double entendre in the title would make even Shakespeare proud. And that ending? Come on . 

Second, he’s doing something structurally interesting. How? His spelling error, although small in the grand scheme of things, sends him on an epic journey. And to be honest, the essay isn’t really about the error—it’s about the journey he goes on. I call this particular approach the Trampoline Technique … and I recommend you consider it for your essay (if you’re stuck on writing about this challenge). 

Here’s how it works.

The Trampoline Technique

A “trampoline” is something you use in your college essay to springboard to a variety of other areas or topics. This essay, for example, begins by describing a Spelling Bee in which the author makes an error, but that error is actually a trampoline that sends the author on a journey to discover the answer to the question, “How could I possibly have never come across nihilism in my life at all?” 

On that journey, he (and we, the readers) learn:

He “inherited” creativity from his family.

Growing up in NYC taught him to recognize “the unseen potential of everything around [him],” and he shows us this through some beautiful and specific (spelling related!) examples.

He did an internship that ...

Connected him with a variety of people, allowing him to also ...

Engage with “parts of [his] city often overlooked” and...

Work with a partner and ...

Become interested in making “meaningful humanitarian change”

We learn so much in these paragraphs about how he’ll make valuable contributions.

Okay, wait. Am I saying that you, dear reader, should make your challenges essay about a weaker challenge … essentially not about the challenge? I am. And I think you should do it as close to the start of your essay as you can. Notice this author begins with the “challenge,” but pretty quickly trampolines to a whole bunch of different things. And that’s the key to this technique, and what I’m recommending to you: Find a way to segue to other skills, qualities, values, and interests that you’ll bring with you to college. Because, like I said, that’s what readers are interested in. 

And maybe, if you’re funny, include humor in your essay. 

And expect to go through like 15+ drafts. Because that’s what it took the author above to get to his final draft. 

But if you’re not funny …

Or if you feel like you can’t possibly write something that good …

Or, to be honest, you’re feeling at this point like maybe that challenge you were considering writing about maybe isn’t The Very Best Way to demonstrate to colleges all the awesomeness of who you are …

Then, yeah. 

Maybe do some more brainstorming. 

Here are those exercises again: 

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Essays About Life Challenges: Top 5 Examples and 6 Prompts

Essays about life challenges let us share our valuable experiences and lessons in life. See our top examples and prompts to assist you in writing your essay.

Life challenges envelop the obstacles we face to reach where we are now. These personal crises we had to deal with have left us with lessons we can use to grow as people and have better lives. Essays that tackle this subject help us reflect on our experiences so we can remember our failures, celebrate our successes, and appreciate our growth. You can also check out these essays about life .

5 Essay Examples

1. african refugees life challenges by anonymous on ivypanda.com, 2. overcoming challenges in my life: dyslexia by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 3. a self-reflection of my life challenges, motivation, and persistence to achieve my goals by terence hampton, 4. young generation’s challenges in life and career by anonymous on ivypanda.com, 5. role of challenges in identification of purposes in life by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 1. before and after life challenges, 2. extreme life challenges and mental health, 3. the role of family when dealing with life challenges, 4. life challenges at work, 5. the different effects of life challenges, 6. overcoming life challenges.

“The refugees are allowed to live in these camps and receive emergency food and medical care until they feel it is secure enough for them to go back to their domiciles or until they are reunited with their people living out of the campers.” 

This essay gives readers an insight into the everyday challenges of refugees living in a camp. The author describes their situation in detail to let the readers understand their suffering and how difficult it is to be away from their homes. The essay further includes relevant statistics and studies to showcase the astounding number of refugees worldwide, including how they became refugees. 

Refugee camps still exist today, intending to relieve refugees from their challenging situations. Creating a challenging environment for many refugees living in this situation. You might be interested in these essays about cause and effect .

“As a child, I can remember when people were reassuring me that I was such a bright and outgoing kid. But there were times that I didn’t feel that way. I’ve always thought they were wrong about me and just trying to get my self-esteem up… ”

In this essay, the author shares their difficulties with having dyslexia, noting how growing up with this disability put them through overwhelming pressure and unpleasant situations that made them self-conscious. Their disability triggered many emotions that made them constantly embarrassed or panicky. 

However, the writer recognizes how their disability helped them improve their communication skills and reflects on how their challenging time at school molded them into who they are today. You can also check out these essays about conflict and essays about stress .

“I refuse to let adversity crush me because that would mean that my family and I would have done all this suffering for nothing. I do not live in vain, I live for a purpose and that is to inspire people to be more than what they think they are capable of. No day is promised, but the future is always full of possibilities.”

Hampton starts this essay by recognizing how life continuously throws him challenges. Still, he decides to only reflect on the most significant impact on his character, namely, his brother’s arrest, his twin brother Dante’s disability, and his father’s death. Throughout the piece, Hampton narrates these obstacles, letting the readers know what they made him feel and how they affected him as an individual. 

When he thinks back to these difficulties, he realizes what his objectives should be, encouraging him to be a better person. Hampton tells his readers that these challenges inspire him to reach his goals. Check out these essays about life lessons .

“Being the age of twenty-four years, I have encountered and seen the various challenges that many youths in this generation are experiencing. The list of challenges facing the youth in the current generation is endless with most of them having great impacts on the entire globe.”

As a young person, the author lets the audience in on the challenges they face and centers the essay around the hurdles youth are expected to deal with. The writer focuses on the difficulty of gaining employment despite years of formal training. This essay looks at current challenges facing today’s youth and how to overcome them.

“When you are faced with a challenge, especially one that pushes your limits, you sometimes behave differently. I’m not sure how to explain it…but there is occasionally a moment when you feel absolutely drained — like you can’t take one more step or your arms are about to fail you — but if you have the right mindset you can pull the strength you need from a part of you that is not commonly used.”

This essay focuses on how challenges can be used to enhance self-identification. The author explains how difficulties in life are commonly related to experiential learning, which helps people reflect, grow, and change. The author also believes that the most challenging times bring out the bravest in us, and the more we get used to these challenges, the more we develop our “superhero power.” 

6 Prompts for Essays About Life Challenges

Begin your essay by sharing a personal experience about a life-changing challenge you had to endure. Reminisce about your life before this occurred, and delve into how you felt during the challenge, then describe overcoming the challenge and how it shaped you. You can split your essay into three sections to dedicate thought to each part of the process. Make sure to use descriptive language and share your feelings with the reader for an engaging piece of writing.

The effects of life challenges differ for each person. For this prompt, research severe life challenges that can significantly damage an individual and add relevant statistics that prove these cases. These occurrences include childhood abuse, long-term stress, and social isolation. Conduct research and describe how experiencing these challenges can result in mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Tip: Make sure to cite research from credible sources. 

Our upbringing shapes how we confront challenges and find resolutions. These lessons are communicated through events we are exposed to as children and young adults. In this essay, describe the ways that different upbringings can impact our ability to cope with challenges. 

For example, a child who grew up in a family where anger was used to resolve challenges may be more likely to deal with their own challenges in a negative way, resulting in anger and anxiety. Look for studies that support this prompt and identify the importance of a family unit in a child’s reaction to life challenges. Check out our 20 engaging essay topics about family .

To narrow down the subject for your essay, focus on an aspect of an individual’s life they can’t remove, such as livelihood. Use this prompt to open a discussion about the challenges people face in their workplace and find cases that illustrate these difficulties. 

For example, there are 48.6 million Americans who have experienced workplace bullying. Delve into the reasons for these issues and offer possible solutions.

Overcoming tough challenges in life may lead to positive or negative results. Divide your essay into two parts, list the pros and cons of dealing with everyday life challenges, and add relevant factors that lead to those outcomes. 

Here’s an example: After the death of a loved one, an individual will learn how to deal with the pain and continue living their life with a stronger faith. On the other hand, they may succumb to sadness and become depressed.

For this prompt, choose a specific life challenge you had to deal with and how you addressed the situation. Narrate the difficulties you needed to manage during that time and ensure to highlight the qualities or values you used to overcome them.

Following the previous point’s example, if you have experienced losing a close relative, your struggles could include consoling your family and yourself while needing to oversee how the deceased’s funeral and estate are handled. You can describe how you overcame this challenge by remaining composed and wise throughout the ordeal. 

Looking for more? Check out our guide on how to write essays about depression .

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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How to write about your biggest challenge or adversity

Your adversity statement, often called “the challenge essay,” has the potential to be a major contributor to your medical school application. The goal of the essay is not just to explain the adversities you faced or the challenges you experienced, but rather to demonstrate your ability to overcome them and grow from them. The specific challenge or adversity itself is often times the least important part of the essay! Instead, the majority of your limited word count will be dedicated to demonstrating your preparedness for the many challenges and adversities that you will face in medical school and beyond. Looking at the prompt from this angle may help it seem a bit less intimidating. Now, let’s tackle this essay in three simple steps: 

Step One : Reread the prompt, and select the experience you want to talk about 

Before you even begin brainstorming, reread the prompt! In your excitement (or nervousness) to get started, you may have missed a helpful detail that will narrow the scope of your essay. Depending on the school, you may be asked to discuss a professional challenge, a personal challenge, or even an academic one. Make sure that you understand which of these, if any, is being asked for. Once you have a sense of what type of experience is being requested, start to brainstorm the adversities you have faced, no matter how big or small. As you make a list, make sure each example fits the following criteria: 

• You have overcome the obstacle or have made meaningful progress towards the goal of overcoming it
• You have completed the emotional processing of the obstacle/experience and are comfortable talking about it in writing and potentially in an interview 

Once this is done, take a look at your list and see what experiences you are most confident in. Do those align with the narrative of the application you submitted in your primary application/personal statement? Is this an experience that you’ve discussed extensively in your 15 activities or personal statement already? Asking yourself these questions will help you narrow down the list further until you make a final selection that will complement your application and demonstrate your characteristics well. Examples include: losing a loved one, not succeeding in a class, navigating a health concern or diagnosis, overcoming a language barrier, navigating financial hardship, and more. 

Step Two: Map out the essay by talking through exactly how you overcame the adversity/challenge 

You have your experience selected, but before writing the essay, you need to be sure of the characteristics you wish to demonstrate. Knowing this before you write will help you frame the story in such a way that these characteristics shine through. Remember, you are only using a small amount of the essay to describe the event itself; most of the essay should focus on your journey overcoming the adversity/challenge, so you need to be direct and clear from the start! You can also use this time to get a sense of how long the essay will be. Do you find yourself taking 5 minutes or more to fully explain your story? You may need to be more succinct in order to condense that into an essay with a limited word count. 

Step Three: Write, write, write 

Dedicate a brief intro of the essay to describing the circumstances of the challenge/adversity you faced. No need to be too detailed, but give the reader enough information to understand what you were up against. Next, explain your feelings throughout the experience, how you were affected, and how you overcame. The key to this step is alluding to the qualities you are demonstrating without actually stating them. Rather than saying, “I was resilient,” simply explain the steps you took to keep pushing through despite the circumstances. Do this, and the key words and characteristics will leap off the page between the lines of your story! Once you’ve described the actions you took to overcome, close out the essay with a brief statement about how the experience changed you or gave you an opportunity to grow. This is a great opportunity to demonstrate your ability to reflect and use any experience as a learning experience. 

When you are finished, be sure to go back to the prompt one last time and make sure that your essay answers it appropriately. Don’t be afraid to make adjustments, and keep in mind that the readers of your essay are looking to recruit their future students, colleagues, and patient care providers. What qualities would you be looking for if you were in their shoes?

Olivia attended the University of Rochester, studying Neuroscience and American Sign Language. She's pursuing her MD at Harvard Medical School, where she’s exploring her interests in pediatrics and neonatology.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Life Experiences — Overcoming Challenges

Essays on Overcoming Challenges

Prompt examples for "overcoming challenges" essays, personal growth through adversity.

Share a personal experience in which you faced a significant challenge or adversity. Describe the impact it had on your personal growth, the lessons you learned, and how it changed your perspective on life.

The Role of Resilience

Discuss the concept of resilience in the face of challenges. How do individuals develop and demonstrate resilience, and what role does it play in overcoming difficult situations?

Overcoming Academic Obstacles

Explore the challenges students often encounter in their academic journeys. Describe a specific academic hurdle you faced, how you addressed it, and the strategies you used to succeed in your studies.

Challenges in the Workplace

Discuss challenges that individuals may encounter in their professional careers. Share a personal or professional experience in which you faced a workplace obstacle and describe how you navigated it to achieve success.

Health and Wellness Journey

Reflect on a health-related challenge, whether it's a physical ailment, mental health issue, or lifestyle change. Describe the steps you took to address this challenge, improve your well-being, and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Overcoming Adversity in Sports

Discuss how athletes often face physical and mental challenges in their sports careers. Share a personal or sports-related story in which you or someone you know overcame adversity in athletics, highlighting the determination and perseverance required.

Challenges in Relationships

Explore the challenges that can arise in personal relationships, such as friendships, family dynamics, or romantic partnerships. Share a personal experience or case study, detailing how communication and resilience played a role in overcoming relationship challenges.

Obstacles in Pursuit of Goals

Describe a specific goal or dream you have pursued and the obstacles you encountered along the way. Explain the strategies you employed to overcome these obstacles and achieve your objectives.

Contributions to Community

Discuss how individuals can overcome challenges to make positive contributions to their communities. Share a personal or community-based initiative you were involved in that addressed a significant challenge or issue.

Lessons from Adversity

Reflect on the life lessons you have learned from overcoming challenges. How have these experiences shaped your values, beliefs, and approach to future obstacles?

My Weaknesses: a Personal and Academic Exploration

Overcoming adversity: the key to personal growth and success, made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.

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Blog > Essay Advice , Supplementals > How to Write a Personal Challenge Essay (with Examples)

How to Write a Personal Challenge Essay (with Examples)

Admissions officer reviewed by Ben Bousquet, M.Ed Former Vanderbilt University

Written by Kylie Kistner, MA Former Willamette University Admissions

Key Takeaway

This post is one in a series of posts about the supplemental essays. You can read our core “how-to” supplemental post here .

What is a Personal Challenge supplemental essay?

Personal Challenge supplemental essays ask you to pick a personal challenge you’ve faced, detail how the problem affected you, and describe the action steps you took to overcome it.

These essays can be challenging for students for two main reasons. First, many students feel like they haven’t faced a problem significant enough to talk about. And second, other students have faced a significant problem but may not feel comfortable discussing it in a college essay.

So why do colleges want to know about a challenge you’ve faced anyway?

Well, admissions offices know that life in college and beyond doesn’t always go as expected. Colleges want to see that you’re resourceful, resilient, and capable of thinking critically to solve problems.

At their core, Personal Challenge essay prompts let you to strategically pick a problem you’ve faced and write about how you worked to solve it.

Before we continue, it’s worth saying explicitly: you do not have to talk about trauma you’ve experienced to get into college. No admissions officer will ever want to read anything you’re not ready to share. In fact, sharing negative experiences before you’re ready can actually work against you. Writing about a situation that you haven’t yet come to terms with can result in an essay that is overall too negative and not forward-looking enough to meet the requirements of Personal Challenge essay prompts.

That caveat out of the way, let’s look at three Personal Challenge supplemental essay prompt examples.

1: Brown University

Brown’s culture fosters a community in which students challenge the ideas of others and have their ideas challenged in return, promoting a deeper and clearer understanding of the complex issues confronting society. This active engagement in dialogue is as present outside the classroom as it is in academic spaces. Tell us about a time you were challenged by a perspective that differed from your own. How did you respond? (200-250 words)

2: Colorado School of Mines

Florence Caldwell was the first woman to graduate from Mines. She enrolled in 1895 and found that her fellow classmates discouraged her attendance. She persevered through that discouragement and graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1898. She was described as a problem-solver, who was loyal, kind, and sympathetic to others and displayed unwavering courage. Describe a time when you overcame an obstacle, persevered through a situation, or displayed characteristics similar to Florence Caldwell. (500 words)

3: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tell us about a significant challenge you’ve faced (that you feel comfortable sharing) or something that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?

Personal Challenge Essay Strategy

When an admissions officer reads your essay among thousands of others , your supplemental essays are one of the main tools you have to stand out. The key to writing a strong Personal Challenge essay is picking the right challenge to talk about.

Personal Challenge essays are all about finding a delicate balance. While your challenge should be a genuine one that you’ve had to wrestle with, it shouldn’t be so challenging that you can’t write about it in a way that is ultimately positive.

While you don’t have to reveal anything you don’t want to, you should choose a genuine challenge.

“Genuine” problems are those that present real challenges to you, your way of thinking, or your overall lived experience.

They are significant. That means that a genuine problem is more than sleeping in late and missing a test. It’s more than losing your big baseball game or forgetting to put gas in the car before a road trip.

Genuine problems don’t necessarily have to be life-changing, but they do have to be deeply meaningful.

Significant challenges might include:

• conflict or disagreements with friends or loved ones
• information or an event that challenged your worldview
• a significant change or loss
• reconciling with differences
• Dealing with a disadvantage that sets you apart from others

Pick a challenge that lets you refer to one of your strengths.

Personal Challenge essay questions are actually questions about your strengths in the face of adversity. Since all college essays should be rooted in strengths, your supplemental essays should be no different.

The challenge you pick shouldn’t be a covert way to brag about yourself, but it should represent one of your personal characteristics that is ultimately positive.

Whether your goal is to show your resilience, problem-solving abilities, compassion, understanding, fortitude, or something else, your Personal Challenge essay should work to showcase one of your strengths.

Take the “more phoenix, less ashes” approach.

This is one of the most difficult parts of writing Personal Challenge essays. By nature, Personal Challenge essays are about a challenge. That means that you’re inevitably going to be writing about something difficult.

But essays that only focus on the negative aren’t ultimately serving your college admissions goals. The ultimate goal of a personal challenge essay is to demonstrate how you’ve grown, developed, and changed through dealing with a problem.

The essay isn’t about the problem itself. It’s about your growth.

“More phoenix, less ashes” is a helpful way to remember to focus on the positivity. The phrase refers to the mythology of the phoenix, which rises from the ashes of a predecessor. By focusing more on the phoenix and less on the ashes, you’re focusing on the life, hope, and resilience that comes in the aftermath of a challenge.

How to Write a Personal Challenge Supplemental Essay

Step 1: Read the prompt.

As you’ve seen from the example Personal Challenge prompts, there are a few ways schools ask these kinds of questions.

Some ask you to focus on a time your perspective was challenged, others ask you to discuss a time you overcame a challenge, and others yet give you the freedom to discuss any personal challenge you want.

You’ll need to know which kind of prompt you’re responding to before you begin brainstorming, so analyzing the prompt closely should always be your first step.

Step 2: Brainstorm some challenges.

Since picking the right kind of challenge is important to writing a good Personal Challenge supplemental essay, it’s probably a good idea to brainstorm a few different options.

This structured brainstorming chart might help you sort through different areas of your life to identify particular challenges.

Step 3: List your action steps, think about what’s at stake, and find a positive focus.

To maintain sight of “more phoenix, less ashes,” it may be helpful to list out a few specific details for each challenge you’re considering writing about.

Specifically, think about three criteria:

• Action Steps: What specific actions did you take to confront the challenge?
• What’s at stake?: Why is this challenge one of genuine concern? What implications did it (or its solution) have to your life?
• Resolution & Lessons: How was the challenge resolved? What were the positive lessons or outcomes that you learned as a result?

Step 4: Pay special attention to your essay structure.

“More phoenix, less ashes” also means structuring your essay in a way that keeps the focus on the positive outcome rather than the challenge.

If the story about your challenge or difficulty takes up 80% of your essay, then there’s a good chance that you haven’t written enough to address the phoenix instead of the ashes. The best way to structure a Personal Challenge essay is to quickly pivot from discussing the challenge to discussing your actions, solutions, and reflections.

Depending on the prompt you’re responding to, your outline may look something like this:

I. Introduce the challenge

II. Describe inciting incident (what caused things to change for the better?)

III. Detail the action steps you took

IV. Expand on your solution

IV. Reflect on the lessons you learned and relate them to the prompt

Personal Challenge Essay Mistakes

Writing about a fake problem.

Since Personal Challenge essays should be about genuine challenges, few things are worse than writing about a fake problem.

“Fake” problems are those that didn’t actually affect you very much. The stakes were relatively low, and your worldview wasn’t significantly altered.

An example of a fake problem would be

Writing about a “convenient” problem.

A “convenient” problem is like a “fake” problem, but it’s one that conveniently allows you to talk about an accomplishment.

Here’s an example:

The biggest obstacle I’ve faced was when my team was down 88-90 in the state basketball finals. There was only one second left on the clock. My team was really starting to get discouraged, so I called everyone together to rally them back up. When the clock started back up, I sunk a three-pointer.

While that obstacle was obviously important in the writer’s life, the story itself comes across as a convenient way to talk about their team leadership and athletic abilities.

Writing an essay that only discusses problems, not solutions.

To return to the phrase we’ve been using, it’s a mistake to write a Personal Challenge essay that is all ashes and no phoenix. If you weigh your reader down with all the heavy details related to your story, it’ll be hard for them to climb out of those details to see your overall message.

To make it easier for them, only include the details that are necessary to understanding your story. Then quickly move on to addressing your action steps, solutions, and reflection.

Personal Challenge Supplemental Essay Example

Example essay: lead pipes.

MIT: Tell us about a significant challenge you’ve faced (that you feel comfortable sharing) or something that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation? (~200 words)

Two times a day, I fill up my Hydroflask at the drinking fountain near Room 124. With over 1,000 Hydroflasks of water total, this daily ritual has sustained me through countless lectures, math tests, and in-class essays. What I didn’t realize until last May was that this ritual was also slowly poisoning me.(( This introduction draws the reader in and states a compelling and significant problem.))

Built in the 1920s, my school contains a network of lead-covered pipes. Recent tests of the drinking fountain by Room 124 found over 5,000 parts per billion (ppb) of lead–4,985 more ppb than is considered safe to drink. I started organizing my schoolmates immediately after learning this news, and I put together a petition to the school board. With my Hydroflask in tow, I stood before the board and made our case.(( The writer focuses on the latter part of the prompt to answer the question: “How did you manage the situation?” By focusing on the efforts rather than the problem, the student maintains a “more phoenix, fewer ashes” approach that highlights their strengths rather than the problem.)) Unsafe water in our schools was unacceptable, and the board needed to prioritize the health of its students and staff members. We needed renovations.

After weeks of deliberation, the school board announced its decision to delay renovations. They were concerned about budget constraints. My entire community felt betrayed and disheartened. Not one to settle, I decided if the current board members wouldn’t prioritize our health, then we would elect board members who would. Since then, I have been volunteering with two board campaigns, canvasing our neighborhood, and continuing to organize my classmates to advocate for our health.(( Even though the problem became worse, the writer continues to focus on their actions instead.))

There’s not much I can do about the lead I’ve already consumed, but I’ll continue fighting to keep future CHS students safe.

Interested in seeing even more supplemental essay examples? We've got some of our favorites in our list of college essay examples .

Liked that? Try this next.

The Incredible Power of a Cohesive College Application

How to Write a College Essay (Exercises + Examples)

How to Write Supplemental Essays that Will Impress Admissions Officers

20 College Essay Examples (Graded by Former Admissions Officers)

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July 18, 2018

How to Write About Overcoming Challenges Without Sounding Like a Whiner

It’s a classic MBA essay question : Write about a time when you overcame a challenge. How did you handle it? What did you learn from the experience?

Let’s start by easing one worry you may have. Not everyone has faced a significant challenge at work by the time they apply for an MBA. If that is your situation, think of another significant challenge you have faced in another realm: a community or volunteer organization, the military, or perhaps even a difficult personal situation . It’s important that the challenge be something in the recent past – preferably within the last two or three years. If the challenge you write about is farther back than that, it will need to have that much greater impact or significance.

What makes a good “challenge” for the purpose of this essay? The possibilities are almost limitless, but here are a few strong examples:

•  “Joe’s” boss informed him he was going to fire “Freddy,” a new-hire Joe had been mentoring, for poor performance. Joe believed in Freddy’s technical skills, and felt Freddy’s shyness and lack of English fluency had hurt him. Joe took it upon himself to try to help save Freddy’s job. He convinced his boss to give Freddy another chance, and coached him after-hours, directed him to a language fluency program, and engaged in role playing to help Freddy gain confidence. Freddy began to thrive, kept his job, and became the go-to guy in his department for certain technical knowledge.

At no time did Joe complain about his boss or call him unreasonable or insensitive. At no time did Joe play the martyr, patting himself on the back about the extra steps he was taking to work with Freddy. He just stated the facts about what he did , which spoke for themselves.

•  Here’s another example. “Lori” joined a community service organization whose membership was plummeting. Lori believed in the organization’s goals, volunteered to spearhead a membership drive, which was successful, and then ran for president of the organization and won. Then, she worked to create more dynamic programming, a social media presence, and added appealing incentives for people joining or renewing membership.

Joe made a huge impact on one man, and by extension, an impact on his organization. Lori also was able to show direct and tangible impact on her group. Neither Joe nor Lori made themselves out to be heroes by describing their exhaustion because of long hours spent on their respective “projects.” They didn’t pat themselves on the back for the contributions they made. They simply stated the circumstances, why they believed in their mission, and related what they did to fix what was wrong around them. Presenting their stories in a “just the facts, Ma’m” manner make Lori and Joe sound like exciting management material: filled with vision, creativity, incentive, and energy. And it is succinct.

•  Let’s look at one final example. “Gary” had written a marketing plan to boost awareness and fundraising at the non-profit where he worked. His CEO at first approved his plan, then suddenly nixed it, replacing it with his own plan. Gary was sure the CEO’s plan was not viable. It lacked a marketing budget yet had lofty target goals for fundraising. The CEO gave Gary six months to achieve these goals.

Now that’s a challenge.

When Gary couldn’t get the CEO to reconsider, he appealed to others in the organization who had the CEO’s ear. Fortunately, they were willing to speak to the CEO, who then agreed to Gary’s original plan. Now, based on the first few examples we’ve seen, you will already have guessed that in this case, Gary did not complain about the CEO, call him short-sighted or stingy. He did offer some explanations for why the CEO might have seen the situation as he did, but nothing pejorative was written.

Gary’s workaround to his challenging situation showed boldness, initiative, and perseverance. At no time did he complain about the added workload of having to unravel this situation, or make himself sound like he had saved the day.

Let’s recap: A strong “challenge” example will allow you to show direct impact on either your organization or another individual. Ideally, it will be something that happened in the last two or three years, unless it was a monumental achievement. Finally, do not cast blame on others who may have helped create the problem/challenge in the first place, and do not sound like a martyr in describing the efforts (no matter how great) you made to get the job done. Simple, direct writing about the challenge will make it abundantly clear that you have the initiative, problem solving, communications, and organizational skills a good MBA program looks for.

By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book,  MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools .  Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

•  The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes •  Writing About Overcoming Obstacles in Your Application Essays •  3 Tips for Showing Strengths in Your Application Essays

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The Importance and Challenges of a Speedy and Public Trial

This essay about the right to a speedy and public trial explains its importance in democratic justice systems. It highlights how a speedy trial prevents prolonged detention, protects defendants’ rights, and maintains the legal system’s integrity. Public trials ensure transparency and accountability, fostering trust in the judiciary. The essay discusses challenges in implementing these rights, such as balancing speed with quality of justice and managing privacy concerns. Technological advancements and international human rights law are suggested as potential solutions. Overall, the essay underscores the significance of upholding these rights to ensure fairness and transparency in the judicial process.

How it works

The right to a speedy and public trial is a cornerstone of democratic justice systems worldwide, enshrined in various constitutions and human rights documents. This principle aims to protect individuals from prolonged detention without trial and ensures transparency in the legal process. Its significance lies in balancing the scales of justice, preventing abuses of power, and maintaining public confidence in the judicial system.

The concept of a speedy trial ensures that a person accused of a crime is brought to trial within a reasonable timeframe.

This right prevents defendants from languishing in jail for extended periods, which can lead to loss of employment, disruption of family life, and deterioration of mental health. A delayed trial can also compromise the ability to mount an effective defense, as memories fade, evidence may be lost, and witnesses can become unavailable. Timeliness in the judicial process is crucial in maintaining the integrity of the legal system and upholding the rights of the accused.

A public trial, on the other hand, serves as a safeguard against judicial abuse and corruption. By allowing the public and media to observe the proceedings, transparency is promoted, which helps ensure that the trial is conducted fairly and according to the law. Public scrutiny acts as a check on the legal system, holding it accountable and fostering trust within the community. It also provides an educational function, informing the public about legal processes and the functioning of the judiciary.

However, implementing the right to a speedy and public trial presents several challenges. Ensuring speediness without compromising the quality of justice is a delicate balance. The judicial system must handle a large volume of cases, and resources such as judges, courtrooms, and legal personnel are often limited. This scarcity can lead to backlogs and delays, undermining the right to a speedy trial. Efforts to expedite proceedings must not come at the expense of thorough and fair consideration of each case.

Moreover, the requirement for public trials can sometimes clash with the need to protect the privacy and safety of those involved, particularly in cases involving sensitive issues such as sexual assault or national security. In some situations, extensive media coverage and public interest can create a circus-like atmosphere, which can influence the jury and affect the defendant’s right to a fair trial. Courts must find a balance between openness and the protection of the participants’ rights and safety.

Technological advancements offer potential solutions to some of these challenges. For instance, digital case management systems can help streamline court processes and reduce delays. Virtual courtrooms, which became more common during the COVID-19 pandemic, provide a way to conduct trials promptly while maintaining public access. These innovations can enhance the efficiency and transparency of the judicial system if implemented thoughtfully and with attention to the rights of all parties involved.

International human rights law also plays a significant role in upholding the right to a speedy and public trial. Documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights outline these rights and serve as a benchmark for national legal systems. However, the extent to which these rights are realized can vary significantly between countries, influenced by legal traditions, resources, and political will.

In some jurisdictions, there are statutory limits on the time a defendant can be held before trial, which helps enforce the right to a speedy trial. For example, in the United States, the Speedy Trial Act sets specific time frames for the various stages of a criminal prosecution. While such measures provide a framework, the actual implementation can be affected by numerous factors, including the complexity of the case, the availability of legal counsel, and procedural issues.

In conclusion, the right to a speedy and public trial is fundamental to the administration of justice, protecting the rights of the accused and ensuring transparency in the judicial process. While there are significant challenges in balancing speed, fairness, and public access, continued efforts and innovations can help address these issues. Upholding these rights requires vigilance, resources, and a commitment to the principles of justice and human rights. As legal systems evolve, maintaining the delicate balance between expedience and thoroughness, openness and privacy, will remain a central concern in the pursuit of justice.

Remember, this essay is a starting point for inspiration and further research. For more personalized assistance and to ensure your essay meets all academic standards, consider reaching out to professionals at EduBirdie .

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NeurIPS 2024

Conference Dates: (In person) 9 December - 15 December, 2024

Homepage: https://neurips.cc/Conferences/2024/

Call For Papers 

Abstract submission deadline: May 15, 2024

Full paper submission deadline, including technical appendices and supplemental material (all authors must have an OpenReview profile when submitting): May 22, 2024

Author notification: Sep 25, 2024

Camera-ready, poster, and video submission: Oct 30, 2024 AOE

Submit at: https://openreview.net/group?id=NeurIPS.cc/2024/Conference  

The site will start accepting submissions on Apr 22, 2024 

Subscribe to these and other dates on the 2024 dates page .

The Thirty-Eighth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2024) is an interdisciplinary conference that brings together researchers in machine learning, neuroscience, statistics, optimization, computer vision, natural language processing, life sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, and other adjacent fields. We invite submissions presenting new and original research on topics including but not limited to the following:

• Applications (e.g., vision, language, speech and audio, Creative AI)
• Deep learning (e.g., architectures, generative models, optimization for deep networks, foundation models, LLMs)
• Evaluation (e.g., methodology, meta studies, replicability and validity, human-in-the-loop)
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• Optimization (e.g., convex and non-convex, stochastic, robust)
• Probabilistic methods (e.g., variational inference, causal inference, Gaussian processes)
• Reinforcement learning (e.g., decision and control, planning, hierarchical RL, robotics)
• Social and economic aspects of machine learning (e.g., fairness, interpretability, human-AI interaction, privacy, safety, strategic behavior)
• Theory (e.g., control theory, learning theory, algorithmic game theory)

Machine learning is a rapidly evolving field, and so we welcome interdisciplinary submissions that do not fit neatly into existing categories.

Authors are asked to confirm that their submissions accord with the NeurIPS code of conduct .

Formatting instructions:   All submissions must be in PDF format, and in a single PDF file include, in this order:

• The submitted paper
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The main text of a submitted paper is limited to nine content pages , including all figures and tables. Additional pages containing references don’t count as content pages. If your submission is accepted, you will be allowed an additional content page for the camera-ready version.

The main text and references may be followed by technical appendices, for which there is no page limit.

The maximum file size for a full submission, which includes technical appendices, is 50MB.

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You must format your submission using the NeurIPS 2024 LaTeX style file which includes a “preprint” option for non-anonymous preprints posted online. Submissions that violate the NeurIPS style (e.g., by decreasing margins or font sizes) or page limits may be rejected without further review. Papers may be rejected without consideration of their merits if they fail to meet the submission requirements, as described in this document. 

Paper checklist: In order to improve the rigor and transparency of research submitted to and published at NeurIPS, authors are required to complete a paper checklist . The paper checklist is intended to help authors reflect on a wide variety of issues relating to responsible machine learning research, including reproducibility, transparency, research ethics, and societal impact. The checklist forms part of the paper submission, but does not count towards the page limit.

Please join the NeurIPS 2024 Checklist Assistant Study that will provide you with free verification of your checklist performed by an LLM here . Please see details in our  blog

Supplementary material: While all technical appendices should be included as part of the main paper submission PDF, authors may submit up to 100MB of supplementary material, such as data, or source code in a ZIP format. Supplementary material should be material created by the authors that directly supports the submission content. Like submissions, supplementary material must be anonymized. Looking at supplementary material is at the discretion of the reviewers.

We encourage authors to upload their code and data as part of their supplementary material in order to help reviewers assess the quality of the work. Check the policy as well as code submission guidelines and templates for further details.

Use of Large Language Models (LLMs): We welcome authors to use any tool that is suitable for preparing high-quality papers and research. However, we ask authors to keep in mind two important criteria. First, we expect papers to fully describe their methodology, and any tool that is important to that methodology, including the use of LLMs, should be described also. For example, authors should mention tools (including LLMs) that were used for data processing or filtering, visualization, facilitating or running experiments, and proving theorems. It may also be advisable to describe the use of LLMs in implementing the method (if this corresponds to an important, original, or non-standard component of the approach). Second, authors are responsible for the entire content of the paper, including all text and figures, so while authors are welcome to use any tool they wish for writing the paper, they must ensure that all text is correct and original.

Double-blind reviewing:   All submissions must be anonymized and may not contain any identifying information that may violate the double-blind reviewing policy.  This policy applies to any supplementary or linked material as well, including code.  If you are including links to any external material, it is your responsibility to guarantee anonymous browsing.  Please do not include acknowledgements at submission time. If you need to cite one of your own papers, you should do so with adequate anonymization to preserve double-blind reviewing.  For instance, write “In the previous work of Smith et al. [1]…” rather than “In our previous work [1]...”). If you need to cite one of your own papers that is in submission to NeurIPS and not available as a non-anonymous preprint, then include a copy of the cited anonymized submission in the supplementary material and write “Anonymous et al. [1] concurrently show...”). Any papers found to be violating this policy will be rejected.

OpenReview: We are using OpenReview to manage submissions. The reviews and author responses will not be public initially (but may be made public later, see below). As in previous years, submissions under review will be visible only to their assigned program committee. We will not be soliciting comments from the general public during the reviewing process. Anyone who plans to submit a paper as an author or a co-author will need to create (or update) their OpenReview profile by the full paper submission deadline. Your OpenReview profile can be edited by logging in and clicking on your name in https://openreview.net/ . This takes you to a URL "https://openreview.net/profile?id=~[Firstname]_[Lastname][n]" where the last part is your profile name, e.g., ~Wei_Zhang1. The OpenReview profiles must be up to date, with all publications by the authors, and their current affiliations. The easiest way to import publications is through DBLP but it is not required, see FAQ . Submissions without updated OpenReview profiles will be desk rejected. The information entered in the profile is critical for ensuring that conflicts of interest and reviewer matching are handled properly. Because of the rapid growth of NeurIPS, we request that all authors help with reviewing papers, if asked to do so. We need everyone’s help in maintaining the high scientific quality of NeurIPS.  

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Contemporaneous Work: For the purpose of the reviewing process, papers that appeared online within two months of a submission will generally be considered "contemporaneous" in the sense that the submission will not be rejected on the basis of the comparison to contemporaneous work. Authors are still expected to cite and discuss contemporaneous work and perform empirical comparisons to the degree feasible. Any paper that influenced the submission is considered prior work and must be cited and discussed as such. Submissions that are very similar to contemporaneous work will undergo additional scrutiny to prevent cases of plagiarism and missing credit to prior work.

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Wisconsin candidates hit filing deadline, setting stage for competitive November races

Monday was the deadline for prospective candidate to submit paperwork to appear on the November election ballot

Following a Monday deadline, Wisconsin candidates for the November general election are one step closer to getting on the ballot, setting the stage for competitive races in a year when new legislative maps have shifted the landscape for statewide elections.

In total, 424 candidates submitted paperwork for state races including the Assembly and state Senate, U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate, and county District Attorneys, according to documents from the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

In the Legislature, 310 candidates filed to run for the state’s 99 Assembly districts — all of which are up for grabs under the new maps — and in 16 of the Senate districts.

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One Senate district in Milwaukee County, which will have a special election on July 30, has a separate filing deadline of Tuesday.

These almost-final numbers indicate potential for a shakeup in the state Legislature , after last year’s redistricting battle culminated in a new set of legislative maps that could shift power away from Republicans. Republicans have held outsized majorities in both chambers for years, and Democrats celebrated the arrival of new maps in February as an opportunity to challenge that makeup.

In total, voters are likely to see competitive races in all but four Senate races. Those noncompetitive districts have only Democratic candidates on the slate. And 84 Assembly races will be competitive. Four have just a Democratic candidate running unopposed, nine have a slate of only Democrats and three have a slate of only Republicans.

Candidates faced a 5 p.m. filing deadline Monday, with papers required to be dropped off in person at the commission’s Madison offices. An atomic clock sat on the desk where candidates delivered their paperwork to signify the exact deadline — a nod to a past fight over the timing of the nomination papers of rapper Kanye West during the 2020 presidential election. One person who ran through the rain and reached the doors at 5:03 p.m. on Monday was turned away.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission will meet next Monday to formally finalize the names that will appear on voters’ November ballots. In the meantime, the agency will review candidates’ paperwork to determine eligibility and any pending challenges.

Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2024, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.

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USC National Laboratories Office RFP: 2025 Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates programs

The National Laboratories Office (NLO), a division of the USC Office of the Vice President for Research, is seeking faculty proposals to fund Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs to be held at USC beginning in the summer of 2025. This funding program will support REU programs related to national security, science and energy. Research themes must be broadly relevant to the mission of the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL).

The NLO will support two kinds of REU programs:

• The NLO will fund up to two new, stand-alone REU summer programs.
• Active National Science Foundation-funded REU sites may apply for co-funding of up to three additional summer participants.

Tenured and tenure-track faculty working on the USC Columbia campus are eligible to apply as the principal investigator (PI) on a new, stand-alone REU summer site. Investigators from USC System campuses are eligible to serve as co-PIs or senior personnel on stand-alone site proposals. Directors of active National Science Foundation (NSF) REU sites may apply to the NLO for co-funding for up to three additional summer participants.

This program has four primary goals:

• Increase enrollment of US citizens in STEM graduate programs at USC Columbia.
• Grow the university’s collaborations with key federal agencies, including the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD) and national laboratories and other federally funded research and development centers.
• Enhance USC faculty participation in the NSF REU program and other DOE/DOD workforce development programs.
• Emphasize recruitment of South Carolina students to participate in the program. (Out-of-state students are also eligible to participate.)

Complete details about applying for this opportunity are available in the Request for Proposals: National Security, Science and Energy Research Experience for Undergraduates (pdf).   Concept papers are due via USCeRA on Friday, June 28, 2024. Initial concept papers will be evaluated by a review panel, and PIs on the highest scoring concept papers will be invited to submit full proposals.

22 May 2024

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How to Write the MIT “Significant Challenge” Essay

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Hale Jaeger in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered:

Choosing a challenge, topics to avoid, example #1: a significant challenge, example #2: when preparation is not enough.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is known for its rigorous STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), business, and entrepreneurship programs. It uses its own application system called MyMIT instead of the Common Application, and applicants are required to submit five essays. The fifth essay prompt reads:

“Tell us about the most significant challenge you’ve faced or something important that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation? (225 words)”

In this article, we discuss how to approach the prompt and a few tips for writing your essay. For an overview of the five essay prompts, and guidance on how to approach them, check out our post on how to write the MIT application essays for 2022-2023 .

Contrary to what the prompt says, you do not—and should not—always write about the most significant challenge that you’ve faced, especially if that challenge is deeply personal, inappropriate, illegal, or not your story to share. At no time should you feel pressured to write about any trauma that you or someone else has experienced. Ideally, you want to strike a balance between writing about something that has weight and gravity but is still appropriate for public consumption.  

MIT admissions officers will use your response to this essay to try to understand how you handle difficult situations at the moment and what you learn from them during and after they occur. Knowing this, make sure to speak to the significance of the challenge that you choose and not trivialize it.

As you brainstorm and begin drafting your response to this prompt, here are a few questions to consider: 

• What happened exactly? 
• What did you do? What did others do?
• What were the main outcomes or consequences of this challenge?
• Who was involved?
• Who was not present that should have been?
• Where did this take place?
• When did this happen in your life?
• How did you approach finding a solution or resolution?
• How did your reaction at the moment compare to your reaction later on?
• How have you grown, and what have you learned as a result of this challenge?
• Why was this challenge particularly significant to you?

You are free to choose almost any topic you wish. However, you should avoid anything that is too trivial (like receiving a bad test grade), clichéd (a sports injury), or personal (romantic relationships and breakups). If you choose a topic that borders on the cliché, you need to put a unique spin on the story.

The conventional sports injury narrative reads like a Hollywood film. The applicant is severely injured and cannot play in the biggest game of the season. They have to go through months of rehabilitation and physical therapy. Finally, they return to the field the next season, and they lead the team to win the state championship. 

The conventional narrative would not yield a particularly unique or compelling essay. However, a unique twist on this exhausted narrative would be an essay that talks about how the applicant was injured and struggled with feeling socially isolated and disconnected from their teammates, whom they considered to be their closest friends. During their time away from the sport, the applicant became obsessed with political organizing in their town, and they met new friends with whom they had more substantive interactions and shared values. In this essay, the semi-cliché sports injury challenge has a unique unexpected twist.

Consider this example of something important that did not go according to plan. An applicant spent months preparing for a 90-minute solo classical piano recital for an audience of more than 2,000 people, but during the performance, they have multiple memory slips. Sometimes, they can recover their place in the music, but other times, they find themselves having to start all over again or finish the piece abruptly. 

At first, the applicant panics and berates themselves, but as the recital progresses, they become more comfortable with adapting to the memory challenges as they arise and using their musical instincts to improvise their way out of each memory slip. When describing this situation, the applicant could reflect on the importance of preparation while being flexible and adapting to new situations and changing conditions.

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Essays articulate a specific perspective on a topic of broad interest to scientists.

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Understanding glioblastoma at the single-cell level: Recent advances and future challenges

Roles Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Translational Neurosurgery, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany, Microenvironment and Immunology Research Laboratory, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

Roles Conceptualization, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliations Translational Neurosurgery, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany, Microenvironment and Immunology Research Laboratory, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany, Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany, Department of Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, Medical Center University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, Department of Neurological Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) partner site, Freiburg, Germany

• Yahaya A Yabo, 
• Dieter Henrik Heiland

Published: May 30, 2024

• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002640
• Reader Comments

Glioblastoma, the most aggressive and prevalent form of primary brain tumor, is characterized by rapid growth, diffuse infiltration, and resistance to therapies. Intrinsic heterogeneity and cellular plasticity contribute to its rapid progression under therapy; therefore, there is a need to fully understand these tumors at a single-cell level. Over the past decade, single-cell transcriptomics has enabled the molecular characterization of individual cells within glioblastomas, providing previously unattainable insights into the genetic and molecular features that drive tumorigenesis, disease progression, and therapy resistance. However, despite advances in single-cell technologies, challenges such as high costs, complex data analysis and interpretation, and difficulties in translating findings into clinical practice persist. As single-cell technologies are developed further, more insights into the cellular and molecular heterogeneity of glioblastomas are expected, which will help guide the development of personalized and effective therapies, thereby improving prognosis and quality of life for patients.

Citation: Yabo YA, Heiland DH (2024) Understanding glioblastoma at the single-cell level: Recent advances and future challenges. PLoS Biol 22(5): e3002640. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002640

Copyright: © 2024 Yabo, Heiland. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Abbreviations: AC, astrocyte; AI, artificial intelligence; ATAC-seq, assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing; BDM, bone marrow-derived macrophage; CAF, cancer-associated fibroblast; CITE-seq, cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes sequencing; CNS, central nervous system; DL, deep learning; GAN, generative adversarial network; GRN, gene regulatory network; GSC, glioma stem cell; HFC, high functionally connected; IL-10, interleukin 10; LFC, low functionally connected; MES, mesenchymal; ML, machine learning; NPC, neural progenitor cell; OPC, oligodendrocyte progenitor cell; scRNA-seq, single-cell RNA sequencing; snRNA-seq, single-nucleus RNA sequencing; TAM, tumor-associated macrophage; TCR, T cell receptor; TME, tumor microenvironment

Introduction

Therapy of central nervous system (CNS) tumors, which include various malignancies affecting the brain and spinal cord, poses a remarkable challenge in the field of neuro-oncology [ 1 ]. Within this group, glioblastoma, the most aggressive and prevalent form of primary brain tumor, represents an as yet incurable disease [ 2 ]. This malignancy is known for its rapid growth and diffuse infiltration, making it highly resistant to most adjuvant therapeutic strategies. Moreover, despite the strides made in surgical and medical treatment modalities, the prognosis for patients with glioblastoma remains poor, with a modest median survival time of approximately 15 months [ 3 ].

Glioblastoma is characterized by extensive inter- and intratumoral heterogeneity that was initially thought to be established by glioma stem cells (GSCs) or tumor-initiating cells. GSCs with self-renewal and differentiation capacity have traditionally been associated with tumor initiation, progression, and recurrence [ 4 – 6 ]. However, recent advances in the field have challenged the GSC model and instead highlighted the concept of cellular plasticity [ 7 – 11 ]. Glioblastoma cells exhibit a gradient of transcriptomic states and possess the ability to dynamically transit between GSC-like and differentiated states in response to microenvironmental cues and therapeutic pressure [ 12 ]. The plasticity theory therefore challenges the traditional hierarchical model of GSCs by suggesting a more adaptable and reversible tumor ecosystem [ 13 ]. This paradigm shift towards understanding the interactions between GSCs and cellular plasticity opens new avenues for targeting the elusive and dynamic nature of glioblastoma.

The complexity and heterogeneity of glioblastomas has long been an obstacle to therapeutic advances, but novel technologies are offering a new way to understand these complex malignancies [ 2 ]. Among these, single-cell and spatially resolved transcriptomics have emerged as the most promising tools. These innovative approaches allow for the molecular characterization of individual cells within complex tissues, offering a level of detail previously unattainable in cancer research. Single-cell genomic studies are providing unprecedented insights into the molecular underpinnings of tumor heterogeneity and complexity to aid the development of more precisely targeted and effective therapeutic strategies. Recent studies have revealed the cellular heterogeneity and plasticity of cancer cells, their developmental trajectories, and complex interaction within the tumor ecosystem [ 8 , 12 , 14 – 16 ]. By examining individual cells, researchers can discern specific genetic and molecular features driving tumorigenesis, disease progression, and therapy resistance. These technologies have shed light on the diverse cellular landscapes within glioblastomas, illuminating the presence of distinct cellular subpopulations that contribute to tumor heterogeneity and evolution. Furthermore, novel techniques and algorithms are continually being developed to enhance the quality and interpretability of single-cell genomics data [ 17 , 18 ].

The benefits of single-cell genomics technologies are numerous, but major challenges hinder their use in glioblastoma research [ 18 , 19 ]. The high cost of these technologies and complexity of data analyses and interpretation, as well as the difficulty in translating findings to improve the decision-making process in clinical practice are among the hurdles researchers in this field continue to face. Up to now, only a limited number of breakthroughs in neuro-oncology and oncology research at large have been driven by single-cell genomics, leading to a somewhat critical perspective on this technology. While the potential value and opportunities presented by single-cell genomics are significant, there is an urgent need for improvements in integrating these technologies with functional validation processes to advance the field.

As these technologies evolve and mature, they will likely offer more insights into the cellular and molecular heterogeneity of glioblastoma that are needed for modern personalized treatment strategies. The goal is that these advances will eventually translate into improved prognosis and quality of life for patients with glioblastoma. In this Essay, we therefore delve into recent advances, emerging technologies, and novel algorithms in the realm of single-cell genomics for glioblastoma. We focus on the paradigm shift from traditional single-cell transcriptomics to the use of integrated multiomics datasets in predictive modeling that will ultimately help to improve clinical decision processes. Our aim is to discuss the evolving landscape of single-cell genomics in glioblastoma research and provide a comprehensive overview, while highlighting the potential of these cutting-edge technologies to reshape our understanding and accelerate drug discovery and treatment success in glioblastoma, and CNS tumors in general.

Understanding CNS tumors at a single-cell level

Tumor cell heterogeneity and plasticity.

Malignant brain tumors of the CNS are known for their intratumoral heterogeneity, which contributes to therapy resistance and disease recurrence [ 13 ]. Single-cell transcriptomics has emerged as a powerful tool for studying tumor heterogeneity, enabling the identification of cellular states, trajectories, and plasticity, spanning from cancer stem-like cells to differentiated tumor cells. In the early phase of the single-cell era, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) was used to map the heterogeneity of glioblastoma, revealing a degree of complexity and variation within these tumors that had not been fully appreciated before [ 14 ]. The previously described transcriptional phenotypes from bulk transcriptome analysis, namely, “classical,” “mesenchymal,” and “proneural,” were shown to be highly heterogeneously distributed within the tumors [ 20 ].

These investigations opened the doors for a deeper exploration of other CNS malignancies, including oligodendroglioma, where research revealed a distinct developmental hierarchy [ 21 ] that highlighted the potential for tumors to evolve and progress over time in a manner reminiscent of normal brain development. In isocitrate dehydrogenase-mutated gliomas, the influences of genetic alterations, cell lineage, and the tumor ecosystem were explored [ 22 ]. The results of this study suggest that the evolution of gliomas is not only shaped by their genetic anomalies, but also importantly stems from their cellular origins and microenvironmental interplay. Further emphasizing the role of development in glioma, an investigation into H3K27M-gliomas revealed both developmental and oncogenic processes to be important within the tumor [ 23 ]. Further research has revealed that glioblastomas mirror a normal neurodevelopmental hierarchy, suggesting that the tumor may hijack developmental pathways for its proliferation [ 8 ].

Investigating the disease from a spatial perspective, scRNA-seq has been used to study infiltrating neoplastic cells at the migrating front of human glioblastoma [ 24 ]. These data added to our understanding of how these tumors infiltrate into surrounding brain tissue. The most comprehensive single-cell study to date has suggested that glioblastoma cells exist in 4 distinct cellular states, namely, astrocyte-like (AC-like), mesenchymal-like (MES-like), oligodendrocyte progenitor cell-like (OPC-like), and neural progenitor cell-like (NPC-like), each of which mirrors a different developmental lineage [ 12 ]. Using mouse models, the authors show that these cellular states demonstrate a high degree of plasticity and are shaped by the tumor microenvironment (TME). The relative frequency of these cellular states in a glioblastoma tissue sample can be influenced by specific genetic amplifications and mutations, underlining the genetic complexity of the disease [ 12 ] ( Fig 1 ). Through the technological advantage of spatially resolved transcriptomics, a recent study demonstrated that these 4 states are heterogeneously distributed across spatial niches and are linked to loco-regional inflammation and metabolic stress [ 16 ].

• PPT PowerPoint slide
• PNG larger image
• TIFF original image

Illustration of cellular differentiation and dynamic adaptation, as well as interactions in the complex microenvironment of glioblastomas. AC, astrocyte; CAF, cancer-associated fibroblast; HGF, hepatocyte growth factor; IL-10, interleukin 10; JAK, Janus kinase; MES, mesenchymal; NPC, neural progenitor cell; OPC, oligodendrocyte progenitor cell; PDGF, platelet-derived growth factor; PD-L1, programmed death-ligand 1; STAT, signal transducer and activator of transcription; TAM, tumor-associated macrophage; TGFβ, transforming growth factor β.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002640.g001

In addition to the investigation of primary tumors, recent research has focused on the evolution of glioblastoma and alterations during tumor progression and resistance. A single-cell atlas of glioblastoma evolution under therapy has been constructed, which revealed both cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic therapeutic vulnerabilities [ 25 ]. This study, along with another report [ 26 ], elegantly demonstrated the enhanced abundance of MES-like glioblastoma cells and increased inflammation within the TME. These results further elucidate the dynamic nature of glioblastoma and underscore the critical role of the TME, especially the immune system and neural stem cells, in modulating the response to therapy.

The tumor microenvironment in glioblastoma

The TME, comprising a complex network of nontumor cells such as endothelial cells, immune cells, and astrocytes, as well as extracellular matrix components, has a crucial role in the progression of glioblastoma. It actively interacts with glioblastoma cells, influencing tumor growth, infiltration, and resistance to therapy ( Fig 1 ). Single-cell genomics has emerged as a transformative tool in studying the TME, enabling a granular view of cellular heterogeneity. Recent studies in both tissue samples from patients with glioblastoma and in mouse models of the disease have started to unravel the composition of the glioblastoma TME [ 27 , 28 ].

The immune microenvironment in glioblastoma is characterized by a state of immunosuppression, often marked by the presence of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells, which promote tumor progression [ 27 , 28 ]. Similarly, the contribution of the vascular microenvironment is also noteworthy, as glioblastomas exhibit robust angiogenesis. Several studies have provided insights into the dynamic and complex interactions within the TME of glioblastoma, focusing specifically on the role of myeloid and other immune cells [ 29 – 31 ]. These studies have demonstrated that myeloid cells drive the transformation towards MES-like states in glioblastoma [ 31 ], highlighting the phenotypic plasticity of cancer cells and furthering our understanding of the complex heterogeneity that is characteristic of glioblastoma. Expanding on this, tumor cells were shown to acquire myeloid-affiliated transcriptional programs through a process known as epigenetic immunoediting to elicit immune evasion [ 29 ]. By adopting this strategy, glioblastoma can evade detection and subsequent destruction by the immune system. Furthermore, myeloid cells in glioblastoma were profiled at the single-cell level showing a remarkable degree of macrophage competition and specialization, illuminating the diversity and adaptability of myeloid cells in response to tumor evolution [ 28 ]. These findings contribute to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the TME is a dynamic and adaptive system in which macrophages, for example, might adjust their behavior based on signals from their surroundings.

Further broadening our understanding of the glioblastoma microenvironment, an in-depth investigation into the states of microglia, the resident immune cells of the brain, was performed through the integration of multiple high-dimensional techniques [ 30 ]. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the functional diversity of microglia in both health and disease, further emphasizing the importance of immune elements in glioblastoma pathophysiology. scRNA-seq and cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes sequencing (CITE-seq) profiling of tissue samples from patients with glioblastoma and from mouse models of glioma revealed significant compositional and expression differences between myeloid cells from males and females [ 27 ]. In the patient samples, the proportion of various cellular populations varied between men and women, with men having a higher proportion of bone marrow-derived macrophages (BDMs) and women having a higher number of microglia. Microglia and a subset of BDMs from men differentially expressed MHC class II genes in comparison to those from women. Further analysis confirmed a higher enrichment of tumor-supportive genes, in addition to MHC class II and costimulatory molecule PD-L1 expression, in men, while the myeloid cells from women were enriched for interferon gene expression. These results suggest that the difference in survival between men and women with glioblastoma may be linked to the identified differences in myeloid cell composition and gene expression. This indicates that sex difference is an important variable that should be properly accounted for in the analysis of transcriptomic data to rule out any potential bias that may be introduced by the sex of the patients.

A study investigated glioma-infiltrating T cells using single-cell transcriptomics and T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing, leading to the identification of CD161 as an inhibitory receptor [ 32 ]. This receptor represents a previously unrecognized aspect of the immunosuppressive TME in glioblastomas. The presence of this inhibitory receptor explains some of the challenges encountered in stimulating effective antitumor immune responses and suggests that therapeutic approaches may need to consider methods for blocking or circumventing this inhibitory signal. Another study examined the factors contributing to T cell dysfunction in the glioblastoma TME [ 33 ]. The authors demonstrated that a defined subpopulation of heme oxygenase 1-expressing myeloid cells release the cytokine interleukin 10 (IL-10), which, in turn, mediates T cell dysfunction. The precise elucidation of immune suppression mechanisms at play within the glioblastoma TME underscores the importance of understanding cellular communication and interaction within the tumor ecosystem.

Single-cell sequencing has also been instrumental to our current understanding of the complexity of neuron–glioma interactions by helping researchers to identify and describe the role of the different subpopulations involved in glioblastoma infiltration and colonization of the brain. A subpopulation of glioma cells with neuronal and neural progenitor-like cell states were found to integrate into neuronal circuits and co-opt neuronal mechanisms to fuel tumor progression and invasion in xenograft models [ 34 ]. scRNA-seq was also used to delineate glioblastoma tumors into high functionally connected (HFC) and low functionally connected (LFC) regions [ 35 ]. HFC regions had a higher expression of THBS1 , which facilitates the formation of neuron–glioma connectivity, higher tumor growth, and lower survival, compared to tumors in LFC regions in glioblastoma xenografted mouse models. Interestingly, THBS1 was expressed in a compensatory manner by astrocytes and myeloid cells within the TME in the LFC tumors. These findings shed further light on the earlier findings that glioma cells physically form neuron–glioma synapses to drive tumor growth [ 34 , 36 ].

In glioblastoma, the influence of structural cells such as fibroblasts, pericytes, and glial cells on the growth and differentiation of tumor cells and signaling towards other cells in the tumor ecosystem is of increasing interest. Recent studies have demonstrated that tumor-associated reactive astrocytes have a key role in the evolution of an immunosuppressive environment in glioblastoma. This suggests the potential for targeting these astrocytes to alleviate immunosuppression and enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapies for treatment [ 37 ]. Immunometabolic regulation also influences the TME and drives glioblastoma pathogenicity in genetically engineered glioblastoma mouse models, emphasizing the crucial role of metabolic interactions between astrocytes and glioblastoma cells during tumor progression [ 38 ]. By integrating scRNA-seq and spatially resolved transcriptomics data, the role of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in promoting glioblastoma has been explored. The results of this study underscore the protumoral effects of CAFs, suggesting that these cells may be a viable target for therapeutic intervention [ 39 ]. An additional interesting angle is provided by a study that illustrated the association between tumor-associated hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells and glioblastoma progression [ 40 ]. Taken together, these studies highlight the importance of the various nonmalignant cells in the TME and the need for investigating the intricate interplay between glioblastoma cells and various immune components within the TME, and their role in influencing disease progression and treatment response.

The spatial architecture of the glioblastoma ecosystem

Single-cell genomics data, without spatial context, are limited due to their lack of information regarding the natural embedding of cells within the complex tumor ecosystem. Spatially resolved transcriptomics data, on the other hand, are either restricted in resolution (array-based methods) or biased by a predefined gene panel (in situ sequencing). Both limitations make it currently inevitable to integrate both technologies to infer the spatial architecture of glioblastomas. Most recent studies have used array-based spatial transcriptomics or multiomics to investigate recurrent regional expression patterns across samples from patients with glioblastoma. All studies confirmed that the tumor landscape is shaped by either “reactive” niches, in which the cancer cells respond to inflammatory signals or metabolic stress, or “nonreactive” niches, which mainly contain tumor cells in developmental stages such as NPC-like or OPC-like cells that more frequently interact with the neuronal environment of the brain [ 16 , 41 , 42 ]. Each of these distinct niches consists of a defined cellular neighborhood, which can be used to predict clinical behavior [ 43 ] or response to therapy [ 44 ]. A recent spatial transcriptomics study profiled the TCR repertoires of patients with glioblastoma to further our understanding of the limited presence of T cells in glioblastomas [ 45 ]. By adding histopathological characterization and signatures of tumor regions from bulk RNA-seq profiling of glioblastoma, the authors found that T cell functional diversity was associated with different tumor niches. The addition of metabolomic information further helped in segregating different T cell phenotypes. This study demonstrates that the current resolution of spatial transcriptomics can be augmented with scRNA-seq, bulk transcriptomics, metabolomics, or imaging data to deconvolute individual cells and identify their interacting partners within tumor niches.

Experimental models of glioblastoma

The quest to find an ideal experimental model that will advance our understanding of glioblastoma has been gradual, with incremental benefits over the years. Human glioblastoma-derived cell lines are the most popular because of their low cost, accessibility, and ease of handling; in comparison to patient material, they can be easily genetically manipulated [ 46 ]. However, these cell lines evolve and develop genetic alterations that distance them from the original patient tumor. Three-dimensional stem-like cultures are better able to recapitulate human glioblastomas and are being used to study inter- and intratumoral heterogeneity and cellular plasticity [ 7 ]. Single-cell transcriptomics analysis of glioblastoma 2D cell culture systems and organoid models have demonstrated that inter- and intrapatient heterogeneity [ 47 ] is partly maintained in these models. However, the lack of the TME forces the model system towards MES-like cell states [ 48 ]. A novel ex vivo model approach, namely, “patient-derived explants,” preserves cellular heterogeneity compared to the original tumor tissue [ 48 ]. Further characterization of these glioblastoma organoid models using scRNA-seq analysis revealed the presence of some TME cell types, as well as tumor cells with features of the different cellular states previously identified in glioblastoma [ 47 , 49 ].

Human neocortical slices offer another alternative for ex vivo model systems. In this model, human glioblastoma cells are inoculated into human cortical brain slices [ 50 , 51 ]. Unlike organoids, this approach simulates tumor infiltration into healthy brain tissue. Evidence from single-cell sequencing analysis shows that tumor cells can adapt to the host environment and that their behavior is influenced by external factors such as patient age [ 16 ]. For ex vivo models, it is imperative to note that they cannot simulate the effects of therapies based on overall survival or interactions with the blood-derived cell compartment. This limitation underscores the importance of animal models, primarily rodents, as a pivotal system for glioblastoma research.

Single-cell profiling of patient-derived orthotopic xenograft models revealed that these models recapitulate the physiologically relevant glioblastoma ecosystem, with an intact blood–brain barrier and varying tumor niches within the TME [ 52 , 53 ]. However, these models are immunodeficient, missing the T cell component of the TME. To address this, genetically engineered mouse models have been developed [ 54 ]. These models provide insights into the relationship between genetic drivers and transcriptional plasticity, as well as interactions with various bone-derived and brain-resident cell compartments. Through scRNA-seq analysis, the impact of genetic drivers ( PDGFB -driven or NF1 -silenced) on glioblastoma development in genetically engineered mice has been explored; some of the results obtained so far demonstrated that the turnover of monocytes and neutrophils within the TME was dependent on the genotype of the mice [ 55 ]. Collectively, the treatment of these experimental models with different therapeutic regimens followed by the characterization of the tumor cells using single-cell transcriptomics has so far advanced our understanding of various mechanisms of tumor cell proliferation, invasion, plasticity, and treatment resistance [ 44 , 47 ].

Advances in single-cell technologies in glioblastoma research

As discussed in the previous section, single-cell transcriptomics has been instrumental to recent advances in the understanding of glioblastoma biology. Fig 2 provides an overview of the design of a typical single-cell transcriptomic study in glioblastoma.

(A) Illustration of the steps in study design of single-cell experiments. ( B ) Illustration of the steps in single-cell analysis. DE, differential expression; ICA, independent component analysis; MNN, mutual nearest neighbor; PCA, principal component analysis; sc, single-cell; SNN, shared nearest neighbor; TSNE, t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding; UMAP, uniform manifold approximation and projection.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002640.g002

State-of-the-art single-cell genomics

In recent years, there have been significant leaps forward in single-cell genomics technologies [ 56 ]. These advances have opened up new possibilities for exploring biological systems with scalable resolution. Today, it is possible to analyze thousands of individual cells simultaneously, which has been instrumental in uncovering the complex cellular heterogeneity of glioblastoma and for revealing novel biological insights. At the forefront of these technological developments are droplet-based microfluidics and nanowell-based platforms [ 57 ]. The Chromium System from 10X Genomics is an example of an enhanced droplet-based microfluidics platform that has significantly scaled-up the throughput of single-cell transcriptomics experiments [ 58 ]. This system facilitates the encapsulation of individual cells in microdroplets, each of which is embedded with a uniquely barcoded bead, allowing simultaneous transcriptomic analysis of thousands of cells. However, single-cell transcriptomics is prone to bias due to the dissociation protocol or gating strategy used, which can lead to the loss of specific cell types, including neurons [ 59 ]. To address this, recent research has turned to single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq), which offers a more comprehensive view of cellular distribution in glioblastoma [ 25 ]. Although snRNA-seq has been mainly used to profile frozen specimens [ 60 ], an additional benefit is its compatibility with paraffin-embedded tissue, which grants researchers access to expansive biobanks. This access, in turn, enables the study of a more substantial number of samples, promising a broader understanding based on larger cohort sizes in future research [ 61 ].

Multiomics platforms

The landscape of sequencing technologies has seen a rapid evolution, with enhancements in scRNA-seq techniques and the advent of multiomics methodologies that enable simultaneous examination of the transcriptome, epigenome, and proteome within individual cells. These technological advances have unveiled a more detailed and holistic understanding of the cellular states and molecular activities in conditions such as glioblastoma. A recent study combining these multiomics methodologies and cellular tracing provided a more comprehensive insight into the evolution of glioblastoma under therapy [ 25 ]. However, the use of these stand-alone methodologies is cumbersome due to the limited amount of tumor specimen that gets to the bench. Recently, commercially available solutions for multiomics analyses have been gaining popularity. Platforms such as 10X Genomics’ multiomics systems, which integrate assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing (ATAC-seq), CITE-seq, and RNA-seq, provide the research community with a comprehensive toolkit to explore single-cell genomics in an in-depth and integrated manner [ 62 ]. The integration of epigenetic layers such as via ATAC-seq [ 25 ] or DNA methylation analysis [ 15 , 63 ] has revealed dysregulated epigenetic mechanisms underlying gliomagenesis. However, the multiomics landscape extends beyond these platforms, with a range of technologies available that are tailored to address diverse scientific questions. Tools for multiomics identification of TCRs and B cell receptors [ 45 ], mitochondrial DNA (via PHAGE-ATAC) [ 64 ], and single nucleotide variations or copy number variations (using G&T-seq or scGET-seq) are now readily available [ 65 , 66 ]. Additional methods are designed to examine methylation patterns (via scMT-seq and scNOMe-seq) [ 67 , 68 ], study dynamic RNA turnover (through scEU-seq) [ 69 ], or carry out perturbation experiments (via Perturb-seq, CROP-seq, or sci-Plex) [ 70 – 72 ]. Furthermore, the sphere of multiomics applications has been expanding into the realm of spatial resolution. This progress in the field enables researchers to investigate not only the multiomics signature of individual cells but also their spatial organization and interactions within the tissue environment.

Challenges in implementing single-cell transcriptomics for glioblastoma research

Study design.

As in any biological or clinical research, proper study design is fundamental for obtaining reliable and valuable results in glioblastoma research [ 73 ] ( Fig 2 ). The predetermined objectives of the study guide the definition of the cohort, sample sizes, and sampling strategies [ 74 ]. This is particularly crucial in glioblastoma research, where precise neurosurgical sampling (including MRI-guided neuronavigation and validation of tumor content in the sample) is necessary to minimize batch effects and facilitate comparison across patients. Given the diverse spatial architecture of brain tumors, the cellular composition of the sample can vary greatly depending on the sampling region and could affect the outcome of the single-cell study. Following sample acquisition, careful consideration must be given to strategies for sample dissociation, which will depend on the chosen technology (e.g., snRNA-seq, scRNA-seq, or multiomics) [ 75 ]. After dissociation, cells are typically enriched or sorted to remove dead cells, quantify the cells, and enhance the presence of specific cell types [ 51 ]. As most single-cell technologies may not sufficiently capture all cell types, strategies must be adapted to the scientific objectives initially defined, such as using barcoding techniques to track and capture rare and transient cell populations [ 76 ]. The final stage of study design involves selecting the most appropriate method (scRNA-seq or snRNA-seq; transcriptomics, epigenetics, or proteomics) that aligns with the set objectives. Predefining the steps of the analysis can also help to avoid unjustified data dredging or “fishing for significance.”

In glioblastoma, estimating the sample size for single-cell studies is not straightforward and largely depends on the objectives, effector size, and complexity of the study [ 77 ]. Unlike in bulk sequencing studies, where power calculations are commonly employed, single-cell studies have additional layers of complexity including cellular heterogeneity and technical noise [ 78 ]. The number of cells to sequence and the sequencing depth required per sample is a critical decision that balances cost with the need to capture sufficient biological variation and rare cell types in glioblastoma. Generally, pilot studies or existing literature can inform the expected distribution of cell types and variability, aiding in sample size calculation. Larger sample sizes can increase the chance of capturing rare cell types and reduce the influence of dropout events (i.e., failure to detect an expressed gene). For studies comparing conditions or groups of patients, considerations should include not only the number of cells sequenced per condition but also the number of biological replicates (e.g., individual patients or time points). Adequate biological replicates are key to generalizing findings beyond individual-specific effect [ 79 ]. Researchers should also consider the downstream computational analyses, as some methods may require more cells or greater sequencing depth. Despite these complexities, recent methodological advances are beginning to provide more concrete guidelines for glioblastoma sample size estimation in the context of specific experimental designs and analytical goals [ 73 ].

Computational biology

With the rising accessibility of single-cell technologies, the major hurdles to progress are shifting towards computational biology. Initial single-cell transcriptome data, containing only a limited number of cells, relied on computational tools developed for bulk RNA-seq analysis. However, as the technology advanced, traditional computational approaches proved insufficient for handling high cell numbers, multiple batch factors, and complex data integration [ 80 ]. Therefore, many fields, particularly single-cell genomics, are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions, including deep learning (DL) technologies [ 81 ].

In the routine downstream analysis of single-cell transcriptomic studies, quality control and appropriate data filtering processes are followed by data integration, which can be horizontal or vertical. This step is further supplemented by dimensionality reduction and clustering [ 73 , 79 , 82 , 83 ]. Identification of cell types and/or states is then performed using defined markers or reference datasets [ 84 – 86 ]. After these routine analyses, there is an opportunity for data exploration and profiling of the single-cell landscape, or to perform a tailored analysis to answer predefined questions. Aspects such as experimental parameters and cohort size must be determined in advance to ensure the quality and relevance of the analysis.

The field is progressing toward the use of AI-based algorithms. A clear advantage of these algorithms is their ability to efficiently integrate and interpret large datasets. Notably, the application of transfer learning strategies (scArches or scJoint) [ 86 , 87 ], transformer architectures (scGPT [ 88 ] or scBERT [ 89 ]), and cycle generative adversarial networks (GANs; such as scGAN [ 90 ]) enable impressive integration of datasets from diverse platforms or diseases. Still, comprehensive benchmarking of these algorithms has remained elusive. A drawback of all DL solutions is the lack of “explainable AI,” especially in highly complex DL architectures. Further benchmark studies are necessary [ 91 ] to broaden the acceptance of DL applications in single-cell genomic analysis.

Unraveling complex signaling in glioblastoma

Despite advances in spatial and single-cell technologies, interrogation of direct cell–cell communication has remained challenging, both experimentally and computationally. As spatial transcriptomics moves closer to single-cell resolution, it will allow the investigation of cellular signaling in different glioblastoma niches in situ. Similarly, scRNA-seq methodologies that will allow the capture and sequencing of doublets could reveal cells in direct communication [ 33 ]. Although many tools have been developed to identify cell–cell communication from scRNA-seq data, they only infer ligand–receptor interactions based on the expression of known genes that translate into ligands and receptors from existing databases. This implies that novel ligand–receptor interactions, particularly in pathologic situations such as glioblastoma, may be missed or excluded. A computational modality that integrates spatial location data at single-cell resolution with protein expression data in situ will provide more insights on cellular signaling in glioblastoma.

Future directions for single-cell genomic studies

From descriptive to predictive analysis.

While single-cell transcriptomics has traditionally been used for descriptive analysis in glioblastoma research, the future lies in shifting toward predictive models. Rather than just describing the heterogeneity and dynamics of cellular populations, the goal is to predict cellular behaviors, responses to perturbations, or disease progression based on the single-cell data ( Fig 3 ). Currently, there is a consensus in the field on the need to integrate single-cell transcriptomic measurements with other multiomics recordings from individual cells, such as proteomics, epigenetics, and spatial information, using machine learning (ML) algorithms to fully understand cellular patterns and predict cellular transitions in the complex biological system of glioblastoma [ 92 , 93 ].

The objective of modern multiomic single-cell analysis is to build predictive models to predict outcome and optimize tumor diagnostics; model genetic or environmental perturbations; or predict the response to drug treatments or screen for target therapies. This illustration provides an overview of the possibilities in AI-based modeling of cellular responses and clinical data integration. AI, artificial intelligence; CITE-seq, cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes sequencing; scATAC-seq, single-cell assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing; scRNA-seq, single-cell RNA sequencing.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002640.g003

The development of novel computational models and tools, possibly leveraging ML and AI, is required to comprehensively integrate single-cell data with other data types and accurately predict future cellular states or clinical parameters from a given patient sample. Early efforts to predict cellular types/states and behavior using scRNA-seq data started with stand-alone tools such as SCENIC [ 94 ], which integrates several algorithms that allow the quantification of transcription factor activity in individual cells. The further development of SCENIC+ enabled scATAC-seq and scRNA-seq data to be combined to predict genomic enhancers upstream of transcription factors and link these enhancers to target genes. This multiomics approach improves gene regulatory network (GRN) inference and increases its applicability to studying dynamic cell-state changes by predicting transcription factor perturbation effects and GRN velocity.

Another algorithm based on GRNs, CellOracle, integrates several algorithms including ML to provide a better understanding of cellular dynamics by in silico perturbation modeling. These predictive models were used to predict the impact of IL-10 signaling in the TME of glioblastoma, demonstrating a stabilization of cytotoxic T cells after IL-10 signaling inhibition [ 33 ]. To look beyond cell fate predictions along their regular trajectories, Compositional Perturbation Autoencoder, a deep generative model trained on large datasets from high-throughput single-cell perturbation experiments, was developed to predict how cells respond to perturbations [ 95 ]. This model can predict the effects of different drug dosages given at varying time points in various cell types and decode normal changes in gene expression profiles [ 95 ], as well as in multiomics datasets [ 96 ]. The rapid advancement and optimization of such computational pipelines for single-cell perturbation has the potential to accelerate drug development with a higher specificity.

Following the success of large language models, scGPT has been developed to enable multiomics and multibatch data integration. It facilitates cell type annotation, prediction of gene perturbation, and GRN inference and is based on the construction of a foundation model pretrained using over 33 million cells and a transfer learning approach [ 88 ]. Taking advantage of such advances in multiomics measurements, computational power, and methodologies such as AI, ML, and DL to decrypt the integrated multidimensional single-cell data and accurately predict the transition of cells and possible clinical outcome(s) of such transitions opens an exciting prospect for the use of single-cell technologies to elucidate the complex networks that allow glioblastoma to evade treatment. These tools and computational power can also be harnessed to speed up tumor diagnoses intraoperatively with unprecedented speed and resolution [ 97 ].

Translation to the clinic

As single-cell genomics technologies continue to progress, their translation into clinical neuro-oncology is becoming a vital but challenging goal. There is a need to refine these techniques not only for the analysis of patient samples but also for predicting treatment and disease-related outcomes in patients with glioblastoma. For example, inference and prediction tools can aid personalized medicine by accurately predicting the effects of drug treatments or genetic modifications at the single-cell level. scRNA-seq analysis has been used to stratify patients with glioblastoma on the basis of the dominant gene expression profile in their tumors [ 12 , 20 ]. However, the presence of intratumoral heterogeneity implies that different tumor regions may respond differently to treatment. In addition, differences in the spatial location of tumor cells may also indicate varying clonal architecture and tumor invasion patterns that could lead to spatially distinct resistance mechanisms, as hypothesized by the spatial glioblastoma cell atlas [ 16 ].

Treatment resistance and recurrence is a major bottleneck in the clinical management of glioblastoma. Integrated single-cell transcriptomics will help in monitoring treatment responses in various tumor regions and in identifying potential resistance mechanisms at an early stage, enabling clinicians to optimize treatment protocols and monitor therapeutic effectiveness. Early detection of treatment-resistant clones or subpopulations within a tumor could help in eliminating residual disease and prevent recurrence [ 25 ]. The presence of certain TME subpopulations of cells and their interactions with glioblastoma cells dictates the transition to a specific cellular state [ 31 ]. Thus, it is important to delineate and understand critical TME factors, such as immune cell infiltrates and structural components, and how they communicate and influence tumor evolution and plasticity during therapy. When different single-cell transcriptomics modalities are integrated, with the help of advanced computational methods, they can be used to identify specific cell-to-cell interactions and signaling pathways. In addition, simulating and predicting cellular dynamics and appropriate therapeutic strategies to arrest cellular transitions during tumor evolution will aid in the understanding of glioblastoma pathogenesis and guide the development of targeted therapies.

Conclusions

Single-cell transcriptomics has revolutionized our understanding of glioblastoma by providing an unprecedented level of detail about its molecular complexity and cellular heterogeneity. Recent advances in technologies and algorithms have further propelled this field forward, enabling the elucidation of previously unclear complex phenomena, such as dynamic tumor cell plasticity and the characterization of TME components, as well as disentangling the complex interactions between tumor and nontumor cells underpinning glioblastoma progression, therapy resistance, and recurrence. However, challenges remain, including the need for improved sensitivity and accuracy, better integration of multiomics data, and the translation of research findings into clinical applications. The high cost of single-cell technologies may also hinder its integration into routine clinical practice. Addressing these challenges and continuing to explore the intricacies of glioblastoma biology should pave the way for more effective therapies and improved patient outcomes.

In the future, glioblastoma research should focus on overcoming these hurdles through the integration of single-cell data with other omics and the development of novel computational tools that leverage advances in AI and ML. The full potential of single-cell transcriptomics will only be realized by transiting from descriptive analyses of glioblastoma biology to models that can predict cellular behaviors, disease progression, and treatment responses. As we move forward, the promise of single-cell genomics in glioblastoma lies in its potential to accelerate tumor diagnosis [ 97 ], drug discovery, and personalized treatment strategies for patients.

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