How to brainstorm a college essay topic

Four lists, ten minutes each

• Objects: things in your room, bag or phone that you would be sorry to lose, and why each one matters.
• Habits: what you do every week without being asked. The odd ones are often the best material.
• Decisions: times you chose something hard, changed your mind, or said no.
• Arguments: things you disagree with friends, family or teachers about, and what you actually think.

Look for the overlap

Read the four lists together and circle anything that appears twice in different forms: the object connected to a habit, the decision that started an argument. Overlaps usually point to something you care about enough to have thought about from several sides, which is exactly what an essay needs.

Test a topic before you draft it

1. 1Tell the story out loud in two minutes. If it needs ten minutes of background, it is probably too big for 650 words.
2. 2Name the moment: one specific scene where something happened or changed.
3. 3Finish the sentence: "This shows that I ___." If the blank is a virtue anyone could claim, keep digging.
4. 4Ask whether another applicant could write the same essay. If they could, find the detail that makes it yours, or pick another topic.

Signs a topic will work

• You still think about it, or it still annoys, puzzles or delights you.
• You can remember specific details: what people said, what things looked like, what you did next.
• Your view of it has changed over time, so there is real reflection to write about.
• It shows something about you that your grades and activities list do not.

Then pick the prompt

Once you have a topic, read the seven prompts and pick the one that lets you spend the most words on your own thinking. Many topics fit two or three prompts, and prompt 7 accepts anything.

Questions