personal essay cliches

What this handout is about

This handout discusses clichés and why you should generally avoid them in order to achieve specificity in both your academic writing and your application essays.

Introduction: What’s so bad about clichés?

Let’s say you are on a study abroad applications review committee. You are responsible for making sure a limited amount of money goes to the most qualified applicants…and you have to read through hundreds of application essays! Here are two personal statements:

I’m a people person, so I am certain to get along well with new people in a strange country. I know how to adapt, because I’m a jack-of-all-trades. I am also prepared to deal with adversity and learn from challenges because I know that every cloud has a silver lining.

I will be able to immerse myself in another country because I have experience as an ESL tutor interacting with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Growing up in a military family taught me how to quickly adapt to new people and environments. I won’t let the inevitable challenges of living abroad deter me from my educational goals. As my numerous failed experiments for my chemistry senior project show, challenges are profitable in the long-run. I finally made a contribution to my field after 200 experiments!

Who gets the money? Both applicants made the same basic argument about themselves. But the second did it with more specificity—in other words, by using detailed evidence to reinforce their more general claims about themselves. The first applicant relied on clichés—“I’m a people person,” “jack-of-all-trades,” “every cloud as a silver lining”—that anybody could have used. We didn’t learn anything specific about this person. The second applicant gets the money.

This example shows the problem with clichés—they are general statements that do not add any detailed evidence or unique support to a piece of writing, whether that writing is a personal statement or an academic essay.

What is a cliché?

Clichés are expressions that either have a general meaning or have “lost their meaning” over time. These overused phrases do not provide a specific meaning or image. You are probably familiar with many of them, although you might find it difficult to pinpoint their exact definition. Some are idioms, where the figurative meaning of a group of words is different from the literal definition. For example, “The devil is in the details” should hopefully not be taken literally! Other clichés may once have possessed a precise meaning that made them creative metaphors, but they have now lost their edge because that specific definition has been forgotten or dulled through overuse. “Survival of the fittest” once evoked Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection. Because readers have largely lost this unique context, the phrase has also lost the specificity which may have once made it a potent metaphor. Clichés can also obscure fully-developed ideas by serving as placeholders for a more sophisticated discussion. Clichés lack specificity and complexity; therefore, they do not make distinctive or memorable contributions to your writing.

What are some examples of clichés?

We’ve divided some common clichés into categories based on the genre in which you might encounter them. Follow the links at the end of this handout for much more comprehensive lists of clichés.

Academic Writing – especially in formulaic introductions or conclusions (see our handouts on introductions and conclusions to make sure that you don’t start or end your papers with clichés):

• In modern society
• Throughout history (Be warned: History TAs hate this one!)
• In this day and age
• In the current climate
• From the dawn of man (Historians are also not fond of this one!)

Application Essays – where talking about yourself can lead to getting mushy and using clichés (check out our handout on application essays to make your personal statements specific and effective):

• Good things come to those who wait
• Every cloud has a silver lining
• Little did I know
• I learned more from them than they did from me
• Every rose has its thorn
• The time of my life

Any type of writing:

• In the nick of time
• Opposites attract
• You win some, you lose some
• Easy come, easy go

Why shouldn’t you use clichés?

Clichés are usually not acceptable in academic writing, although some may be effective in daily conversation and less formal writing. Evaluate the context of your writing and be aware that you’re making a choice when you use them.

• Clichés make you seem boring. By using a cliché, you’re telling your reader that you lack originality, making them want to yawn and stop reading your paper.
• Clichés make your writing and argument interchangeable with anybody else’s. Make sure that your argument and writing are specific to you and your writing task.
• Clichés are vague. It is best to use the most precise wording in order to present evidence and support your arguments as clearly as possible. Specific details and explanations make better evidence than generalizations and trite phrases.
• Clichés make you seem lazy. They are a hedge when you don’t want to do creative work.
• Clichés make you lose credibility. Your reader will not trust you as an authoritative source if you can’t come up with a better description than a cliché.
• Clichés are poor substitutes for actual evidence. Because clichés are not specific, they do not offer strong enough commentary to prove your point. Make sure that every sentence of your paper is working toward a goal by eliminating meaningless phrases.

How to tell when you’re using a cliché

• If instructors provide feedback such as “too general,” “vague,” or “be more specific,” what they might really mean is that your writing relies on clichés.
• Ask a friend to listen as you read your writing out loud. If they can finish any sentence before you read the whole thing, you have probably employed a cliché.
• Read through your writing alone. Read it slowly and out loud, stopping often to develop mental pictures that reflect what you have written. If you’re writing a paper that needs to be descriptive, do all of your sentences evoke strong images? If you’re writing about something theoretical or persuasive, are all of your points specific and clear? If something is easy to skip over or you can’t assign a direct meaning to it, go back! You may have a cliché.
• Ask yourself if what you’ve written is a product of your research, an original argument, or a portrayal of your personal experiences. Could what you wrote appear in anyone else’s essay? If so, you may be relying on clichés. No other writer has had exactly the same personal experiences as you, conducted the same research, or formulated the same arguments.
• Look through your introduction and your conclusion. Often writers rely on clichés to power through what many consider to be the most difficult sections of a paper. If you’re using phrases that sound like they could belong in any generic paper, chances are they’re not serving you well. Of course, you may reuse certain transition words or forms of argument in multiple papers, but try to avoid hackneyed phrases like “Throughout history…” or “In conclusion…”

How to get rid of clichés

• Research or brainstorm some more. If you are relying on clichés, you might not have prepared enough for your writing assignment. Check out our brainstorming handout . If you think you may be relying on clichés instead of actual evidence, consult our handout on evidence for clarification.
• Stop and think about what you’re trying to say. What do you really mean? Say your answer out loud and then write it down. List the main ideas that you want to convey in each sentence, and then list synonyms of each idea underneath. Pull out a thesaurus if necessary. This method leaves you with a list of many words, and you can pick the most fitting combination.
• Try to pinpoint exactly what you want to say, and write it! Often, keeping it simple is a good idea.
• Ask yourself questions as you write. Use “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” and “how” questions to spur your thinking. Rather than writing “throughout history” as your introductory line, stop and ask yourself, “When? In what era? Where? Who was in power during the specific historical context I am addressing?” The answers to these questions will give you a more focused opening line. For example, imagine you’re writing a paper about papal history. Rather than saying something generic such as, “Throughout history, only two popes have resigned,” you can write something better with the help of a little research. You could end up with the more precise: “In what represented a nearly unprecedented departure from papal tradition, Pope Benedict XVI became the second pope to resign in 2013.”

Consult these resources for lists of clichés:

Cliché List: Definition, Meaning & Examples. http://www.clichelist.net/

Examples of Clichés. http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-cliches.html

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

• Top Courses
• Online Degrees
• Find your New Career
• Join for Free

How to Write a Personal Statement

A personal statement can be a key part of your college application, and you can really make yours shine by following a few tips.

When you're applying to college—either to an undergraduate or graduate program—you may be asked to submit a personal statement. It's an essay that gives you the chance to share more about who you are and why you'd like to attend the university you're applying to.  

The information you provide in your personal statement can help build on your other application materials, like your transcripts and letters of recommendation, and build a more cohesive picture to help the admissions committee understand your goals.

In this article, we'll go over more about personal statements, including why they're important, what to include in one, and tips for strengthening yours.

What is a personal statement?

A personal statement—sometimes known as a college essay —is a brief written essay you submit with other materials when applying to college or university. Personal statements tend to be most common for undergraduate applications, and they're a great opportunity for an admissions committee to hear your voice directly.

Many colleges and universities in the US, especially those using Common App , provide prompts for you to use. For example, "Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea" or "Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time" [ 1 ]. If the school you're interested in attending doesn't require prompts, you will likely want to craft a response that touches on your story, your values, and your goals if possible.

In grad school, personal statements are sometimes known as letters of intent , and go into more detail about your academic and professional background, while expressing interest in attending the particular program you're applying to.

Why is a personal statement important?

Personal statements are important for a number of reasons. Whereas other materials you submit in an application can address your academic abilities (like your transcripts) or how you perform as a student (like your letters of recommendation), a personal statement is a chance to do exactly that: get more personal.

Personal statements typically:

Permit you to share things that don't fit on your resume, such as personal stories, motivations, and values

Offer schools a chance to see why you're interested in a particular field of study and what you hope to accomplish after you graduate 

Provide an opportunity for you to talk about past employment, volunteer experiences, or skills you have that complement your studies 

Allow colleges to evaluate your writing skills 

Bring life to a college application package otherwise filled with facts and figures 

Build job-ready skills with a Coursera Plus subscription

• Get access to 7,000+ learning programs from world-class universities and companies, including Google, Yale, Salesforce, and more
• Try different courses and find your best fit at no additional cost
• Earn certificates for learning programs you complete
• A subscription price of $59/month, cancel anytime

How to write a personal statement.

As we mentioned earlier, you may have to respond to a prompt when drafting your personal statement—or a college or university may invite you to respond however you'd like. In either case, use the steps below to begin building your response.

Create a solid hook .

To capture the attention of an admissions committee member, start your personal statement with a hook that relates to the topic of your essay. A hook tends to be a colorful sentence or two at the very beginning that compels the reader to continue reading.

To create a captivating hook, try one of these methods:

Pose a rhetorical question. 

Provide an interesting statistic. 

Insert a quote from a well-known person.

Challenge the reader with a common misconception. 

Use an anecdote, which is a short story that can be true or imaginary. 

Credibility is crucial when writing a personal statement as part of your college application process. If you choose a statistic, quote, or misconception for your hook, make sure it comes from a reliable source.

Follow a narrative.

The best personal statements typically read like a story: they have a common theme, as well as a beginning, middle, and end. This type of format also helps keep your thoughts organized and improves the flow of your essay.

Common themes to consider for your personal statement include:

Special role models from your past

Life-altering events you've experienced

Unusual challenges you've faced

Accomplishments you're especially proud of

Service to others and why you enjoy it

What you've learned from traveling to a particular place

Unique ways you stand out from other candidates

Be specific.

Admissions committees read thousands of personal statements every year, which is why being specific on yours is important. Back up your statements with examples or anecdotes.

For instance, avoid vague assertions like, "I'm interested in your school counseling program because I care about children." Instead, point out experiences you've had with children that emphasize how much you care. For instance, you might mention your summer job as a day camp counselor or your volunteer experience mentoring younger children.

Don't forget to include detail and vibrancy to keep your statement interesting. The use of detail shows how your unique voice and experiences can add value to the college or university you're applying to.

Stay on topic.

It's natural to want to impress the members of the admissions committee who will read your personal statement. The best way to do this is to lead your readers through a cohesive, informative, and descriptive essay.

If you feel you might be going astray, ensure each paragraph in your essay's body supports your introduction. Here are a few more strategies that can help keep you on track:

Know what you want to say and do research if needed. 

Create an outline listing the key points you want to share.

Read your outline aloud to confirm it makes logical sense before proceeding. 

Read your essay aloud while you're writing to confirm you're staying on topic.

Ask a trusted friend or family member to read your essay and make suggestions.

Be true to your own voice.

Because of the importance of your personal statement, you could be tempted to be very formal with structure and language. However, using a more relaxed tone is better than you would for a classroom writing assignment. 

Remember: admissions committees really want to hear from you . Writing in your own voice will help accomplish this. To ensure your tone isn't too relaxed, write your statement as if you were speaking to an older relative or trusted teacher. This way, you'll come across as respectful, confident, and honest.

Tips for drafting an effective personal statement.

Now that you've learned a little about personal statements and how to craft them, here are a few more tips you can follow to strengthen your essay:

1. Customize your statement.

You don't have to completely rewrite your personal statement every time you apply to a new college, but you want to make sure you tailor it as much as possible. For instance, if you talk about wanting to take a certain class or study a certain subject, make sure you adjust any specifics for each application.

2. Avoid cliches.

Admissions committees are ultimately looking for students who will fit the school, and who the school can help guide toward their larger goals. In that case, cliches can get in the way of a reviewer understanding what it is you want from a college education. Watch out for cliches like "making a difference," "broadening my horizons," or "the best thing that ever happened to me."

3. Stay focused.

Try to avoid getting off-track or including tangents in your personal statement. Stay focused by writing a first draft and then re-reading what you've written. Does every paragraph flow from one point to the next? Are the ideas you're presenting cohesive?

4. Stick to topics that aren't controversial.

It's best not to discuss political beliefs or inappropriate topics in your essay. These can be controversial; ideally, you want to share something goals- or values-driven with an admissions committee.

Polish your writing skills on Coursera.

A stellar personal statement starts with stellar writing skills. Enhance your writing ability with a writing course from a top university, like Good with Words: Writing and Editing from the University of Michigan or Writing a Personal Essay from Wesleyan University. Get started for free to level up your writing.

Article sources

1. Common App. " 2022-2023 Common App Essay Prompts , https://www.commonapp.org/blog/2022-2023-common-app-essay-prompts." Accessed January 9, 2024.

Keep reading

Coursera staff.

Editorial Team

Coursera’s editorial team is comprised of highly experienced professional editors, writers, and fact...

This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

Campus Leaders is an affiliate for companies including Amazon Associates and earns a commission on qualifying purchases.

17 Common College Essay Cliches To Avoid at All Costs

Applying to college can be stressful, and many high school seniors struggle with the essay portion of their application process. The best college essays interest admissions officers, stick out from the crowd and provide information about who the student is and how they’ll thrive on their new college campus. With that being said, let’s look at some common college essay cliches you’ll want to avoid if you want admissions officers to remember you. 

Here are 17 common college essay cliches to avoid at all costs: 

• Writing an essay about the lessons you’ve learned in sports
• Summarizing your accomplishments
• Focusing on volunteer experiences and/or mission trips 
• Raving about your personal hero
• Writing the “death that changed me” essay
• Telling the admissions team about your epiphany
• Providing way too much information you shouldn’t share
• Starting with a quotation
• Using your immigrant story without making it interesting
• Pointing out that your a child of divorce
• Writing the “challenging class” essay
• Telling your moving story
• Focusing too much on faith
• Writing the “finding yourself through travel” essay
• Including your cute childhood story
• Starting your essay with a dictionary definition
• Including your vague “since childhood” career goals

The rest of this article explains why these topics are cliche and offers suggestions of what to write about instead. Keep reading if you want to feel more confident about your college applications! 

1. Writing an Essay About the Lessons You’ve Learned in Sports

If you’re a serious athlete, this may be tough to hear. Yes, the lessons learned through playing sports are often applicable in real life, but this is also a cliche in movies, tv shows, and, yes, college essays. Admissions officers have read thousands of essays about the camaraderie and teamwork of a sports team, never giving up even when faced with a challenge, and how “it’s not about winning or losing.” 

Sports essays are often predictable, making them boring to read, especially for admissions officers who are reading hundreds of essays a day. Unless you have a particularly unique or incredible story, it’s probably best to avoid writing your college essay about sports ( source ).

2. Summarizing Your Accomplishments

Even if you’ve accomplished a lot, nobody likes a braggart. All your accomplishments can likely be found elsewhere in your application, so there’s no reason to waste your college essay summarizing these. Just listing everything you’ve done without describing what your accomplishments mean to you or what you’ve learned is pointless and will bore the admissions officer reading your essay.

3. Focusing on Volunteer Experiences and/or Mission Trips 

If you’re writing about an experience you had volunteering or on a mission trip, you’re likely to stray into dangerous territory, in which you spend most of your essay talking about how amazing you are and what an angel you are, which may put a bad taste in your admissions officer’s mouth. You may even come off as naive and privileged.   

If you do choose to discuss a volunteer experience, avoid describing what you brought to the table and instead talk about someone you met who changed your life or something unexpected that happened. Or, if your volunteer experience incited a new passion or inspired a new career path, write your essay about that. 

4. Raving About Your Personal Hero

Look, it’s great that you love your mom, and she inspires you. It really is. But many people’s moms inspire them, and they’ve written their college essays about that, too. Swap “mom” out with “dad,” “grandparent,” “sibling,” or even “Albert Einstein” or “Amelia Earhart” or another public figure, and you’ve got some pretty cliche college essays. 

Unless your personal hero is extremely unexpected or someone with a unique life story, try to avoid writing this kind of essay. 

5. Writing the “Death That Changed Me” Essay

Experiences with death inevitably impact us and can even shape our worldview and change our lives. Even though your grief after losing a pet or a loved one is unique to you, the broad lessons learned from grieving are pretty universal. Yes, life is short. Yes, you should live every day like it’s your last. Yes, you should tell the people you love that you love them because you never know what could happen. 

These are important lessons. However, college admissions officers have probably read thousands of essays about these lessons. Even though the death you experienced may have been a formative experience for you, it may not make for a memorable essay unless you can write about it in an intriguing way.

6. Telling the Admissions Team About Your Epiphany

If you find yourself writing the phrase, “Suddenly, I realized…” in your college application essay; it’s time to stop writing and reconsider. 

Usually, the epiphany you’re writing about is a reach from the struggle you went through or experience you had, and admissions officers see right through it. These essays often feel forced or read like a simple “moral of the story” children’s television episode. 

It’s best to avoid “lesson learning” language in your college essay because it cheapens your writing ability. 

7. Providing Way Too Much Information You Shouldn’t Share

Your college essay isn’t a confessional, and it’s not an appropriate place to get too personal. Overly personal topics reveal that you don’t understand boundaries, which isn’t ideal for a college community. 

If your essay topic isn’t something you’d talk about with a stranger you met on a park bench, you shouldn’t be talking about it with your admissions officer. Unfortunately, many students write about these topics in an attempt to stand out, so now not only are they inappropriate, but they’re also cliche. 

What’s too personal? Here are a few examples of topics that may be TMI for your college essay ( source ): 

• Anything about your sex life. Writing about your sexual orientation or your coming out journey may be okay depending on how you write about it, but don’t talk about your sex life in too much detail. 
• Your romantic life. Your relationship may be really important and unique to you, but the stranger reading your college essay isn’t interested in this part of your life.  
• Illegal activity. Discussing your criminal history may help you stand out, but not in a good way. 

8. Starting With a Quotation

You have a word limit when writing your college essay, so don’t waste space using someone else’s words. Chances are if you’re inclined to use this quote, a bunch of other applicants were inclined to use it as well. It’s a cliche and boring way to start your essay, so avoid it at all costs. Instead, spend time making your first sentence so good it reads like a famous quote! 

9. Using Your Immigrant Story Without Making It Interesting

The United States is a nation of immigrants. Not every applicant has an immigrant story, but quite a few do, and the themes are the same for most immigrants. Admissions officers have read many essays about the challenges of learning a new language, culture shock, and struggling to fit in. 

Immigrants can still write about their experience in their college essay, but try to avoid these common themes and instead focus on a particularly unique or unusual aspect of your personal story ( source ).

10. Pointing Out That You’re a Child of Divorce

Lots of people have divorced parents. While going through your parents’ divorce may have been a uniquely challenging experience for you in your life, it’s not necessarily a unique experience in general. Ultimately, this topic is just too common, and your admissions officer will likely immediately lose interest. 

11. Writing the “Challenging Class” Essay

Being a hard worker is a great quality in a college applicant. However, many students have worked hard and done well in a challenging class as a result of their struggle. Additionally, the traits illustrated in this type of essay, such as work ethic, diligence, and perseverance, are most likely traits that your recommenders will write about in their letters. 

Furthermore, you may be putting yourself at a disadvantage by admitting that a particular class was hard. If you’re applying to be a math major at a highly ranked institution, writing about how difficult your high school algebra class was may not be the best way to demonstrate your academic capabilities. 

12. Telling Your Moving Story

Moving to a new place is tough, I get it. However, countless students move or have to switch schools mid-year. Not to mention that moving is a fairly common theme in many high school movies and tv shows. You moved, you struggled to fit in initially, but you eventually made new friends . It’s cliche and predictable. 

If moving impacted you significantly, reflect on why that’s beyond the cliche outlined above. In your essay, focus less on the move itself and more on how you changed. 

13. Focusing Too Much on Faith 

Your faith may be extremely important to you, and that’s great. However, religion is a tricky topic, and it’s difficult not to fall into cliche language and themes when writing about faith in a college essay. 

Essays about faith are also a bit of a catch-22 because if you’re applying to a religious school, most applicants writing essays for that school are likely to discuss their faith. If you aren’t applying to a religious institution, and especially if you’re applying to a liberal school, writing about your relatively conservative religious ideas and practices may put you at a disadvantage.

If you truly believe that writing about your faith is the best way to reveal to admissions officers who you are, try to focus more on your relationship and experience with faith and less on broad ideas about faith, as those are universal and cliche themes in college essays.  

14. Writing the “Finding Yourself Through Travel” Essay

Your trip abroad was probably amazing, and there’s a good chance it did change your life. However, these stories are common in college essays, and it’s likely that another applicant went on a similar trip and learned similar lessons and wrote about it. 

Your international travel story would become even more cliche if your travel was cliche or inauthentic. Don’t try to write an essay about how you learned so much about Mexican culture during your stay at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun. 

15. Including Your Cute Childhood Story

Almost everyone has a cute anecdote from their childhood that they can share. Your funny or adorable tale from your childhood may seem unique and special to you. Still, admissions officers are likely to disagree, as they probably read a similar story three essays ago. 

Additionally, is that cute story about something you did when you were six really how you want to present yourself to a college admissions committee? 

16. Starting Your Essay With a Dictionary Definition

It’s a cliche in wedding toasts, and it’s a cliche in college essays – dictionary definitions aren’t fun or interesting to read. In most cases, the admissions officer knows the general definition of the term you’re defining. 

Or, if you’re defining a super obscure word that the officer wouldn’t know, likely, this word doesn’t actually have any personal meaning to you. Once upon a time, this may have been a unique way to start an essay, but it’s overdone now. 

17. Including Your Vague “Since Childhood” Career Goals

“Since the time I was old enough to hold a book, I’ve known that I wanted to be a librarian.” This is a very cliche college essay intro, and it can be applied to any profession. If you’ve known what you wanted to be since you were a child, congratulations! 

Don’t start your college essay with this; and instead, focus more on why you want to be in that profession. Writing vaguely about what you want to be and why is overdone and boring, especially if it’s rooted in some childhood anecdote. 

You can write about your career goals, but make it more meaningful by rooting your goals in current events or your personality now, instead of your personality when you were a child.

Recommended Reading:

• Honors College: 10 Most Common Questions Answered
• Is It Hard To Get Into Grad School? Here’s the Facts
• Do Bad AP Scores Affect Admission? Facts And Misconceptions

Emily is an engineer at a Fortune 100 company. Her degree is in Chemical Engineering with minors in Mathematics and Chemistry. She completed 4 internships in college and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2020. She is from Texas and currently lives in Seattle, WA. Emily loves hiking, traveling, and playing guitar. She is a very proud dog mom to her fur baby, Oliver.

Similar Posts

Why Is My Chemistry Teacher Horrible?

Chemistry is a challenging class and is often hard to understand. Chemistry is almost like learning a foreign language with a lot of math thrown in to make it even more difficult. What’s worse, you may feel that your chemistry teacher is downright mean. Your chemistry teacher may seem horrible because they are overworked and…

8 Obvious Signs That a College Is Interested in You

For most students, planning for college is one of the most stressful parts of the transition from high school to adulthood. There are so many uncertainties and big decisions involved that the process can be overwhelming for some. Luckily, there are some clues to watch for that you’ve caught the attention of someone on the…

How To Keep Track of College Homework (10 Methods)

Talk to several students about college, and one issue will always rise to the top, which is that keeping up with the assignments is a pain. Unfortunately, assignments make up most of your grades, so you have no choice but to do them if you want to pass. But how do you manage all that…

College Weekend Classes: Here’s Everything You Want To Know

The college experience is rapidly changing, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic. College students are demanding more flexibility, and demographics are changing as well. However, with that flexibility, does that mean that you’ll soon have college classes on the weekends? While some college students have weekend classes, not every college allows weekend…

Do Professors Have To Pass a Certain Number of Students?

If you’re a current student or aspiring professor, you may be wondering whether a professor is required to pass a certain number of students. Do they really have to pass you, or do you need to work harder at your studies? Professors don’t have to pass a certain number of students. A student only passes…

What Do College Dorms Come With?

A considerable part of the college experience is dorms and dorm life. Studies show that most students who decide to live on campus for more than one year have higher GPAs and are more likely to graduate than students who live off-campus or only lived in a dorm for one year. However, moving into a…

The Admissions Essay Guru

The Personal Approach to the Personal Statement

This Just In

The latest news, tips, & tricks for surviving the college admissions game

9 Common College Essay Mistakes To Avoid in Your Personal Statement

Over the years, I’ve read and edited hundreds of college application essays. I’ve seen the good and bad countless times. The good news is most of the bad is totally avoidable! To help you during your essay writing stage, I’ve recapped my most useful edits below so you can avoid the common mistakes that pop up most often in college admissions essays.

1) Using Bloated Thesaurus Speak

Most students think a higher vocabulary (read: using a thesaurus) will make their essay sound better. That instinct may work for your more formal academic essays, but it’s wrong in the case of the personal statement: the essay should sound how you speak , not a formal academic letter. "Thenceforward" and “heretofore,” for example, seem way too formal and almost sound funny in this personal context. Would you ever use those words in real life? Didn’t think so.

Other times, students get overly concerned with formal academic writing rules that don’t apply in the more creative personal statement. Yes, contractions are acceptable as the Common App is a form of creative writing so it’s less formal than the academic essays you’re used to writing in class and those rigid rules do not apply here.

2) Fixating on Word Count

During your initial writing stage, I recommend ignoring word count and telling your whole story regardless of how many words it takes at first — editing for word count should come later in the 3rd or 4th revision at least (remember that most students need at least 3 revisions to get to the submission stage). Part of the writing process is to write way more than the word count - that's how you get to your best material. I wouldn't cut anything out in your first few drafts and keep writing and seeing where the story takes you - it will be easier to figure out what to cut once you have your first complete draft. Otherwise, you might cut something that actually ends up really important, but you won't know until you're done writing.

If it feels messy, I recommend creating a “Junkyard” at the bottom of the draft where you put everything you’re unsure about. That way, there’s an archive to reference if you change your mind.

Most students want everything to be perfect from the start, but writing is messy. The podcasts you listen to probably record at least a quadruple of what airs. Usually, you don't know what to cut until you've finished the draft. Don’t try to pigeonhole your outline to the word count from your first draft — that’s too early in the process. Think about the filmmaking experience: it's the same process there. How much ends up on the cutting floor?

Once you’re done writing your fully story, follow my steps for cutting your admissions essay for word count then finish your revision by learning how to edit for a final proofread .

3) Picking the Wrong Prompt

Many seniors agonize over which prompt to choose, thinking that decision will make all the difference. Here’s the thing: You don't need to worry about which question you choose - the last question (#7) is completely open-ended, so it's better to choose that one than have to pigeonhole your story into a prompt that's not right for you.

A common mistake for the Common App essay is picking a prompt that forces you to narrow your narrative into a superficial "lesson learned" story that's not right for you rather than being strategic in choosing your essay topic from the start. I advise all students to go with the last open-ended prompt for this reason. I caution against "lessons learned" prompts in particular since those normally lead to forced, cliche answers.

4) Including a Title (and Other Formatting Quirks)

This is a strange one and I’m not sure where this practice came from. My guess is students are so used to adding titles to their essays for school that they assumed a creative writing essay should need one as well. Spoiler alert: you don’t. In fact, I always cut the title since it usually gives away the major theme of the essay upfront and reveals too much to make the rest of the reading experience compelling.

Another strange formatting quirk I’ve seen is having two spaces between sentences, which is widely considered to be outdated punctuation and could even lead admissions officers to think your parents wrote the essay for you.

Finally, never start your answer by paraphrasing the prompt. This is a common mistake, especially with the supplements which should be treated with the same creative approach as the Common App. Admissions officers know the prompt; repeating it is repetitive and a waste of limited word count. Remember that the personal statement is not a persuasive academic essay you wrote for English class — it’s a creative personal essay.

5) Bragging Too Much

Stuffing all your activities in the admissions essay doesn’t work as compelling storytelling. First, admission officers will see anything impressive elsewhere in your application. Instead of trying to sound triumphant with how busy you are (which makes you sound like bragging ), why don’t you show your passion for one activity and dive deeper into what it means in your life?

I understand you feel pressure to stuff all your accomplishments in the essay, but the admissions officers will see this in your application already. The point of the admissions essay is to show them a side of you they can’t see anywhere else. Speaking about all the ways you’re a leader or improving your community can feel forced and cliche, for example, like you’re telling them what you think they want to hear if it’s not a major part of your life.

You never want to give the sense that you’re trying to pad the essay with achievements. Instead of writing about every activity, I would rather you focus on your passion for piano, for example: why you love it, what it means to you, how it’s changed your life, or shaped you in ways that aren’t solely intended to look good on a college application.

6) Sticking to the Philosophical Rather Than the Personal

I advise all students to avoid the philosophical (which is a common mistake learned from academic essays) and instead to stick with the personal. Speaking abstractly about the world invokes the feeling that you’re hiding behind these theoretical proclamations instead of revealing who you are. Remember that the goal here is to get to know you apart from the numbers. 

Speaking in bloated philosophical language also makes the essay feel abstract and hard for the reader to relate to. Those types of essays rarely make an impression or connection with the reader - they most often lead to a heavy sigh. The philosophical word vomit often happens in those pigeonhole prompts that make you feel like you’re answering an academic essay. Start from a blank canvas to make sure you get to the personal right away. No cliched “inspirational” quotes either, please.

7) Writing a Cliched Conclusion

Another major personal essay mistake is that your closing paragraph feels cliche and just repeats information you’ve already said earlier in the essay. The personal essay is unlike the academic essay you’re taught to write in English class: the conclusion should not be a regurgitation of the essay but rather a compelling note to end on.

I can imagine the frustration most students feel when getting so close to the finish line and fumbling the rest for time. But remember that the closing paragraph leaves the final impression, so it’s important to devote time and creative energy to get it right. One trick is to go back to the creative opener. Need more help? See my tips on writing a compelling closing paragraph .

8) Writing About the Same Topic In Multiple Essays If you decide to write about your love of chess for your Common App essay, I recommend picking a different topic for your supplements. Each personal essay should reveal something new about you and writing about the same thing as you did in your Common App essay is a missed opportunity. Each essay, no matter how small, should teach the admission team something new about you.

I recommend creating a master list of all the essay prompts you have to answer for all your schools and then distilling which topic works best for which prompt, so you’re mindful and strategic in advance instead of scrambling to write something that isn’t meaningful to you at the last minute. Most students have at least 5 ideas they’re choosing between — pick the one closest to your heart for the Common App essay and then try the other 4 for the supplements. If you’re unsure of which to choose, try writing a long essay for each of them and pick the one that flows the easiest for the Common App essay. Then shorten the rest for the supplement essays.

9) Forgetting Crucial Context

Timeline is crucial in a personal essay - you always want to include time markers to ground the reader in your story, so we understand how young you were when your passion started, for example. If you’re writing about something from the past and how it influenced your present (or future), always add your age or grade year throughout so we’re not lost in the reading experience regarding how much time has passed.

The same goes for telling us basic bio details about your life that are so familiar to you that you end up taking them for granted and forgetting to include them. If you write an essay about your immigration, for example, don’t forget to include mentioning where you immigrated from.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on May 2020 and has been updated with new relevant information.

Want to work with me on avoiding these common mistakes in your admissions essay draft? See my affordable college essay classes below! Spots are limited to ensure personalized attention.

Unsure of your personal essay topic or where to even begin? We’ll discuss strategies for choosing your Common App prompt, ideas to get you started, and journaling questions to help you find your story. Plus, students will be able to submit essay ideas anonymously for a rapid live edit on-screen to find your topic and determine the best storytelling approach. The 1-hour live workshop class includes:

60-minute interactive class discussing student-submitted essay topics

Live edit of essay topics on-screen followed by group discussion

5+ brainstorming ideas to help you find your story

Why certain topics work and others don’t — and how to know the difference

Limited to 10 students for personalized support

Every Common App essay needs multiple rounds of edits before it’s ready for submission. You’ll learn the techniques of self-editing including common mistakes to avoid and what to consider when cutting for word count. Plus, students will be able to submit their drafts for an anonymous live edit on-screen. The 1-hour and 15-minute live workshop class includes:

75-minute interactive class discussing student-submitted essay drafts

Live edit of Common App draft on-screen followed by group discussion

Individualized suggestions for improvement

5 most common personal essay mistakes and how to avoid them

Limited to 5 students for personalized support

Powered by Squarespace .

What Not to Write About in a College Essay

Once you get into college, essay writing becomes a way of life. It’s only fitting, then, that getting into your dream college often involves writing one or more college essays as part of your application process. However, many students struggle with one big question: “what should I write my college essay about?”

To maximize your chances of getting accepted, you need to know how to write college essay topics that stand out. And, just as importantly, you need to understand things to avoid in college essays!

If you’re worried about questions like “how should I write my college essay,” don’t worry: we’ve got you covered. Keep reading to discover the best college essay ideas as well as a definitive roundup of things to be wary of.

What do colleges look for in essays?

Overall, colleges are generally trying to get a sense of who you are through your college essays in your perspective, values, and voice. But here’s the paradox of the college essay: the prompts are often intentionally generic. For example, a prompt might ask you to describe a time you overcame a challenge. This makes most students think the admissions committee is interested in the challenge itself. However, what the committee really cares about is who you are, and the prompts are designed to let them know more about you in a dynamic way.

So there are plenty of ways you could answer the prompt , but you need to make sure your responses help to illustrate some of the positive traits a committee might be looking for. For example, an in-depth explanation of a time you solved a complex dilemma can showcase your potential as a scholar and researcher. And an essay about you volunteering in your community shows the admissions committee that you are a leader who is focused on making the world a better place.

Beyond making yourself look good, the primary goal of any college essay is to help you stand out from other applicants. This gives you a chance to really lean into a certain writing style (for example, it’s okay to use a humorous writing voice) that makes your essay more memorable. In fact, it actually helps to humanize you, meaning the admissions committee will see yours as more than just another application in the stack.

And because your goal is to stand out and show who you are, some topics are better than others when it comes to writing a great essay. So let’s take a closer look at some of the common college essay topics you should probably avoid.

Cliche College Essay Topics to Avoid

Below, we’ll break down some of the most cliche essay topics. For each one, we’ll get more into how and why it’s a bad topic (by “bad” we mean it’s really hard to write it well). And if you’re absolutely determined to go with one of these college essay topics to avoid, we’ve got info near the end on how you can make the essay as strong as possible.

Resume/academic achievements

What’s the biggest mistake you can make when writing a college essay? Simple: accidentally thinking that you’re applying for a job instead!

Many students asking “what do colleges look for in essays” decide that the best approach is to list out different kinds of achievements. These may be academic achievements or achievements related to various extracurricular activities (such as sports trophies).

What’s the problem with focusing on your accomplishments like this? The biggest is that it misses the point of the essay—we don’t really get a sense of who you are through these things. Since you have so few words to work with, a long list of accomplishments is going to feel cramped. Plus, there won’t be much room to contextualize the achievements or to humanize yourself. And you have other space for these kinds of things—use the Activities List and Additional Info sections. At the end of the day, you are far better off crafting your essay around a single awesome experience than you are turning the entire essay into a resume .

The mission trip essay

Religious students are often tempted to submit college essays focused around a mission trip they went ont. On paper, this seems like a good idea: it showcases leadership, community service, and the student’s general willingness to help other people. However, submitting the mission trip essay tends to be a bad idea for several different reasons. (The fact that it has a name, “The mission trip essay”, is a sign.)

First, this is one of the most common college essay topics that admissions committees receive. Some committee members may be annoyed at seeing “yet another one” in their stack of essays. And even if the committee is fine with a mission trip essay, so many people write them that it’s going to be hard to not sound like hundreds of other applicants.

Second, there is a real danger in how you describe the communities that you helped. If you’re not careful, you may use the language of exclusion or xenophobia. Instead of making yourself look good, this could make you look judgmental or even bigoted.

Third, and finally, mission trips are all about helping other people (Which is great! Definitely help other people!). But when you write an essay trying to make yourself look good for helping people, you may end up seeming overly self-congratulatory, which defeats the purpose of writing the essay in the first place.

Sports challenge essays

If you’re an athlete, writing a college essay about a sports challenge you faced may seem like a no-brainer. “Sports challenges” include essays about winning the big game, losing the big game, making (or not making) the team, and even getting a nasty sports injury. However interesting the sports challenge itself was, though, these typically make for bad college essays topics. (Again, meaning they’re tough to write well in ways that stand out.)

Why is that? Like the mission trip essay, a sports challenge college essay is very common. Since one of the main goals of the essay is to help you stand out, it doesn’t really help to do the same thing that countless other people are doing. For example, almost everyone writing about losing the big game ends up writing the same “lessons learned” about humility, teamwork, overcoming disappointment, etc.

And another big reason to avoid the sports challenge college essay is that you have to use so many words to explain the context of the big game, what the major plays were, the ultimate outcome, and so on. This doesn’t leave much room for personal reflection or even stylistic writing, so you are left with an admission essay that mostly codes you as “generic athlete” in the eyes of the committee.

The Big Performance

A close cousin to “the big game” style of college essay is “the big performance.” These are essays that focus on someone getting ready to take center stage in a play, perform a captivating musical solo, give a major speech, and so on.

As with sports challenge essays, these essays are very common, and tend to have very similar plot points, so it’s tough to make your own stand out. For example, the big performance always goes well or goes poorly. Performers almost always learn either the value of preparation or the inner strength to overcome a major disappointment. With these kinds of essays, you may be unable to do what you did with an actual big performance: stand out in a big way.

Another thing these essays have in common with sports essays is that you will inevitably spend much of your essay word count describing what the performance is, how you actually performed, what made the performance great (or not so great), and so on. This gives you less room to humanize yourself and emphasize how and why the skills you used to face this challenge make you an ideal college student.

Cliche immigration story

Sometimes, what makes a topic a bad college essay is that it doesn’t really do anything new. And that’s the case when it comes to the cliche immigration essay.

We say “cliche” because the vast majority of college essays focusing on immigration emphasize the same things: moving to a new home, feeling out of place, and eventually learning to accept both one’s cultural heritage and one’s new surroundings. There are more of these college essays than there are Lifetime movies about falling in love with a handsome stranger.

Does this mean there’s no way to write a good immigration-focused college essay? Of course not! But try to pick a more unique story related to your immigration experience. Not only will this help your application stand out, but a more unique topic can also help to humanize you as you describe the unexpected situations that you had to ultimately overcome.

Why X person is your hero  

Sometimes, it’s tempting to write about someone who is your personal hero. After all, these are the kinds of people who have influenced the trajectory of your life in a major way, and it’s easier to write passionately about the people who have inspired your own passions. 

However, there is one chief reason you should be wary of writing about your personal heroes: if you’re not careful, the essay ends up being more about the other person than yourself, which can lead to a reader feeling like “Your grandma sounds awesome. Too bad she’s not applying to college.”!

The tough grade you got

Many college essay prompts ask you to write about a time that you overcame a major challenge. There are many challenges students could potentially write about, and many choose to write about what they did after they received a bad grade.

It’s generally never a good idea to use this as an essay topic, though. 

First, other students will write about some serious challenges, even things like escaping war . Framing getting a bad grade as a serious challenge next to something like that … may not go so well.

And while everyone has gotten a bad grade from time to time, you don’t want to make poor academic performance the first thing an admissions committee hears about you.

Try to focus on a topic that emphasizes your strengths more than your weaknesses.

And if you feel like you don’t have many challenges to write about, check out this guide on how to write well about a challenge that wasn’t really a big deal .

Your first heartbreak

There is nothing quite like the rush of young love … and nothing quite as painful as a young breakup. And due to the raw intensity of the emotions involved, many would-be college students focus on their first heartbreak as their college essay topic.

But this is generally a bad idea for several reasons. First, to be blunt, epic teen romance is usually far less important to those outside the relationship. It’s a bit of an uphill climb to even get the admissions committee to see this as an important topic.

Second, as with writing about your heroes, writing about a heartbreak means you’ll spend plenty of time writing about the other person. And the more you talk about your ex, the less room you have to talk about yourself.

Third, many people have multiple relationships over the course of their college education. If you spend hundreds of words talking about how much a single breakup nearly disrupted your life, it may make the committee worry about how easily you could get distracted by romance and start losing focus on your actual studies. 

Illegal/unethical activities

In a perfect world, this would go without saying, but here goes: whatever you do, make sure your college essay doesn’t talk about you participating in illegal or unethical activities. For example, if you casually mention illegal drug use in your essay, it will make the college worry about you partaking in illegal drugs while at the college. They may even worry about you getting others (such as frat brothers or sorority sisters) using illegal drugs as well. Not a great look.

And even when it’s not an outright crime, you should refrain from writing about unethical activities that make you look bad. For example, some students have actually written college essays about how they were caught cheating on a test and ultimately learned from the experience. Learning from mistakes is fine and all, but the only outcome of such an essay is making the admissions committee question how long it will take you to start cheating on various college tests and essays.

The ideal essay topic is one that makes the committee trust you and believe that you’ll add value to the college. That’s going to be tough to do when you write about illegal or unethical activities.

If you really, really want to try to make a cliche topic work

So far, we have focused on very specific essay topics you should steer clear of. However, there are many students who gain admission to their dream colleges every year by using these topics. What’s their secret? Simply put, they have found a way to make cliche topics feel a bit less cliche.

For example, if you decide to do a “resume” style essay, don’t try to dazzle them with all of your different accomplishments. Instead, zero in on one very specific accomplishment, and dive into layers of reflection and meaning. This gives you much more room to detail how the experience shaped you into the kind of person who will add real value to the college. The same wisdom holds true for writing about your mission trip: if you must write about it, try to focus on values that we’re not expecting. Like, did it teach you about healthy boundaries and autonomy and balance, instead of the cliche version. .

Same thing applies if you must write about overcoming a sports challenge: try to avoid common topics such as, grit, resilience, determination (which are basically all the same thing), learning to trust teammates, how you were thrilled at winning the big game, or how heartbroken you were to lose. Instead, try more unconventional topics like how a sports injury forced you to learn new skills or how it helped you discover a new passion. One of the best we’ve seen was how playing cornerback helped a student read Dostoevsky better. In addition to being more unique, such a topic shows you are adaptable.

If you decide to write about a big performance, it helps if the performance itself is unusual. No matter the performance, though, try not to spend too much time describing that performance. Instead, you should use the outcome of the performance as a springboard to discuss the new skills and life lessons you have learned. Ultimately, it will be what you know now that gets you into the college of your choice rather than how you performed then .

As we detailed before, an issue with most immigration college essays is that they focus on worn topics such as adjusting to a new place, learning new languages and cultures, and so on. If you’re going to write this essay, you’ll be better off focusing on something like a single specific moment (like what you did the first time you encountered racism or xenophobia) or a much less conventional challenge you faced (for example, asking someone out on a date when you are still struggling with a new language).

When writing college essays about your personal hero, be sure to actually focus more on yourself than on them. Help us see what you learned from them, how you’ve applied those lessons, and how they’ve shaped you into the thinker and scholar you are today.

Finally, we generally recommend against trying any variation of the “bad grade” essay—it’s crazy hard to make work. You should similarly avoid writing about your first heartbreak because it is nearly impossible to write a brief essay about young love gone wrong the committee hasn’t seen a thousand times before. 

And at all costs, avoid writing about illegal or unethical activities unless you want your application sent to the “circular file” (the nearest trashcan).

Start writing your college essay today

Now you know what to do when it comes to college essays. And, perhaps more importantly, you know what not to do. Now comes the hard part, though: sitting down and doing it!

Fortunately, this is not a challenge you have to tackle on your own. We offer a full set of resources to help you craft a great essay and get help with other college admission questions . We’re here to help you do one very important thing: to turn the college of your dreams into reality for the next school year.

Special thanks to Chris Snellgrove for writing this blog post.

Chris Snellgrove is an English Professor at Northwest Florida State College who specializes in literature, rhetoric, and business writing. As a freelance writer, Chris specializes in sales, marketing, pop culture, and video games. He has a B.A. in English from Troy University and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Auburn University. When he’s not writing or talking to others about writing, Chris loves reading books, playing video games, watching horror movies, and disappearing into a comic book. He currently lives in Northwest Florida and would probably rather be at the beach right now.

Top values: Diversity / Equality / Social Justice

Dealing with Clichés in Your Personal Statement

Ideas become cliché for a reason. They’re universally shared and remembered because they have some fundamental truth or formative power in almost everyone’s lives.

And that can be a good thing–a source of commonality or relatability between people.

But clichés are usually a bad thing in personal statements, mainly because the admissions committees have seen them so often that they no longer stand out or resonate.

This can be hard to process or even frustrating for students: “you’re saying that my story about my grandma passing away is cliché?” It might sound callous, but the answer is yes.

So, what do you do with these stories and ideas that are foundational to your identity but have become old-hat in the admissions world?

This is one of the topics covered in my recent conversation with Janet Snoyer.

You essentially have two choices: bury your clichés deeper into your essay, or give them a glow-up (makeover) to provide a personalized touch in your own authentic voice.

Choice #1 - Bury Your Clichés

Rather than opening your personal statement with a cliché, move it down to the second or third paragraph. Putting it in the middle will make it more forgivable and avoid the problem of your first or final impressions falling flat.

Choice #2 - Give Your Clichés a Glow-Up    

This option requires a lot more work and creativity. To use a cliché to illustrate my point (haha) - rather than reinventing the wheel, you’re making the wheel uniquely yours. Using your authentic voice, phraseology, and style to ensure that the readers learn something meaningful and memorable about YOU that transcends the cliché.    

‍ I recommend watching highlights of my conversation with Janet, where we discuss more admissions strategies on YouTube or TikTok . - Rob

Upcoming Online Classes

SUBSCRIBE AND GET YOUR FREE ADMISSIONS TIMELINE

Learn to be Savvy! Get creative pre-med strategies delivered right to your inbox. FREE Medical School Application Timeline when you subscribe.

We follow the email Golden Rule: we will never send you anything without your permission.

All work on this site is our own. The content for the Savvy med school search was found on the webpages of the respective medical schools.

I hope this isn’t unoriginal, but reading clichés in writing make me feel like I’ve woke up on the wrong side of the bed . Really, clichés in writing are  a dime a dozen.  It’s language that, quite frankly, is dead as a doornail.  I hope I’m not  beating a dead horse .

Clichés are everywhere. They’re common parts of the English vernacular, and we use them all the time in everyday speech. They’re useful as expressions and idioms, because they convey commonly understood ideas in colloquial language. In writing, however, clichés only serve to dampen the effect of your writing.

While no story is truly original, something all unoriginal stories share is the use of clichés. Countless clichés in writing exist, but the savviest writers know how to snuff out trite sentences and overused character tropes.

Let’s explore how to avoid clichés in writing. This article examines both common writing clichés to avoid and the signs that something is tritely written. We identify examples of clichés in writing, offer prompts to make clichés original, and help point out character clichés to avoid as well.

To begin, what is a cliché in writing?

What is a Cliché in Writing?

Cliché [klee • shay], noun:

• An idea expressed in already-written terms that gets a writer’s knickers in a twist .
• A way to get rejected by publishers that read between the lines.
• The turns of phrase found in stories that are simply diamonds in the rough .
• Ways of thinking and writing that are old as the hills .

If any of those definitions made you groan or roll your eyes, then you’ve just expressed why clichés don’t work. A cliché is something that most of us have heard. We use clichés in everyday speech, rough first drafts, and yes, in classic literature—when those sayings were fresh and new. In other words, clichés are already-written phrases that have lost their impact and originality.

What is a cliché? Clichés are already-written phrases that have lost their impact and originality.

Ignorance is bliss. An uphill battle. Judging a book by its cover. Because we’ve heard these clichés so many times, the images have lost their novelty, forcing readers to begrudgingly accept the information communicated. If you need to express something quick in an email, perhaps a cliché will do, but throw too many overused phrases in a poem or a story, and your reader will not turn the page.

Examples of clichés in writing abound in the English language. Sometimes we use them without even realizing they’re clichés. However, if you learn the most common clichés and how they’re structured, you’ll learn how to avoid clichés in writing.

Here’s some fun trivia: the word cliché is French, as you may have already guessed—it’s an onomatopoeia that means “click.” When French book publishers used printing presses, they formed words by pushing a stereotype, or pre-set type, into the page. The sound of the casting plate in the printing press made a clicking noise when it reproduced words and images—thus, it produced a cliché!

Examples of Clichés in Writing

There are three types of clichés in writing: the figurative cliché, the character cliché, and the plot cliché. Each is insidious to both prose writers and poets, so take note of the similarities you see in these examples of clichés in writing.

Figurative Clichés to Avoid

The figurative cliché is the most common cliché. It refers to any turn-of-phrase or figure of speech that, though maybe once poetic, nowadays rings false and overdone. They are poetic trifles that have invaded everyday speech.

Some of these clichés have become colloquialisms. In fact, they’re so common as turns-of-phrase that we hardly register them as clichés; nonetheless, they don’t belong in scholarly or literary writing. Here is a list of clichés that you’re better off eschewing:

• Fit the bill
• Just the ticket
• Better late than never
• Down in the dumps
• End of the world
• The grass is always greener
• Weeding things out
• A loose cannon
• Putting your eggs in one basket
• Back to the drawing board
• Every rose has its thorn
• Rubbing salt in the wound
• Adding insult to injury
• An axe to grind
• Barking up the wrong tree
• At wit’s end
• Beating a dead horse
• Sharp as a tack

<li”>An uphill battle

• Loose cannon
• Think outside the box

You can find many more examples of clichés in writing at this list of clichés.

What do all of these examples of clichés have in common? They lack specificity. By speaking in generalized terms, these clichés paint broad statements about the nature of reality. Because of this vagueness, clichés cannot evoke strong images , emotional experiences, or new thoughts. Simply put: these are lazy turns of phrase.

Because they speak in generalized terms, figurative clichés cannot evoke strong images, emotional experiences, or new thoughts.

Character Clichés to Avoid in Writing

Fresh, evocative writing is often the cure for a cliché story. However, some clichés infect a story’s characters, not the words themselves.

The cliché character relies on tropes and stereotypes to function, as though every decision were filtered through a singular concept of humanness. This character lacks depth and reasoning; they don’t contribute a unique perspective or set of circumstances.

These are some common clichés to avoid in writing characters:

• Damsel in Distress: The character who needs someone to save them.
• Boy/Girl Next Door: The nice, boring, average, unobtrusive side character.
• Bad Boy: The character who’s hard on the outside but soft on the inside.
• Femme Fatale: The attractive, lethal lady.
• Tough Cop: The (usually male) detective or sleuth. He often works in The Force for the purpose of vengeance or for healing personal trauma.
• The Rebel: He hates society and doesn’t talk much, but he’s a lover at heart.
• The Gold-Hearted Street Walker: She sells her body to survive, but at her core, she’s pure and sinless.
• The Partier: He’s rich, loose-lipped, and loves anything involving sex or substances. But who does he want to be?
• The Plain Jane: She doesn’t know she’s beautiful, but he sees everything inside her.
• The Nice Guy: He’s soft-spoken, amiable, affable, always holds the door open for others, etc. If he wants something, it’s the one girl who isn’t in love with him.
• The Unlucky Hero(ine): Just to be clear, they hate being the protagonist .
• The Airy Professor: A brilliant mind behind a cluttered desk.

What’s wrong with these characters? We already know who they are before they tell us. A good character is multifaceted—with various motives, conflicts, interests, ideas, strengths, and weaknesses.

What’s wrong with these characters? We already know who they are before they tell us.

Additionally, most of these tropes are unnecessarily gendered. While gender-related struggles form a facet of a character’s inner life, it shouldn’t constitute the majority of their person. These gendered, underwritten, overdone characters are, universally, clichés to avoid in writing.

For more on character development, as well as tips for crafting unique and complex characters, check out our article:

Character Development Definition: A Look at 40 Character Traits

Plot Clichés to Avoid

A cliché character often accompanies a cliché plot. Plot clichés are plots with inevitable or expected conclusions—in other words, stories that we have already heard and learned from.

Nonetheless, these are writing clichés to avoid for good, so keep your plots from looking like one of these:

• Happily Ever After: Two people fight to be together, then go on to lead a life free of misery.
• Mad Science: An experiment goes awry, and science becomes a weapon of mass destruction.
• Love of Passion: A torrid romance ends in a spectacular display of love and death.
• Little Genius: A child prodigy struggles to find love because they’re fighting for destiny.
• The Chosen One: A resentful hero triumphs over a threat to humankind.
• Counting Sheep: Whatever happens, it was all a dream.
• Once Upon A Time: In a land far, far too fantastical, a story about magic and monsters.
• Monster House: The people who enter probably won’t exit.

Why avoid writing cliché plotlines? To be blunt, they’re lazy writing schematics. Every important detail has been pre-selected in these stories, preventing the story from saying anything new, useful, or interesting. Many of these clichés are starting points for stories: they might lead the writer towards a certain genre or focus, but they can’t stand as fully-fledged plots themselves, making them clichés to avoid in writing.

To be clear: a cliché plot is different from a plot structure. Many plots rely on tropes and structures, but they do interesting things with those tropes and structures, rather than simply relying on them to tell a story. You can learn more about good plotting here:

What is the Plot of a Story?

Luckily, cliché plots can be made original—as can cliché characters and other clichés in writing.

How to Make Clichés in Writing Original

Clichés might plague you, but they certainly shouldn’t keep you from writing. It’s important to remember that clichés became cliché for a reason: when first written, they described something novel and beautiful to the audience. For the modern day, clichés simply need to be reconceptualized.

Most clichés can be made original, you just need to contextualize the cliché and give it new life. Here are some ideas for making clichés in writing original.

Most clichés can be made original, you just need to contextualize the cliché and give it new life.

1. Avoiding Clichés in Writing: Turn Vagueness into Specificity

Many clichés have become trite and overwritten because they fail to say anything specific. Specificity is a writer’s lifeblood—the more precise one’s language, the clearer an image one paints with words. If a cliché can be rewritten for the context of your own writing, you can create something new and interesting altogether.

Specificity is a writer’s lifeblood—the more precise one’s language, the clearer an image one paints with words.

For example, let’s take the cliché “at wit’s end.” These three words are rather nondescript. Where does a wit end, and in any case, where does a wit begin? How does a wit tire out, and how does it replenish? It’s a vague, empty phrase—and one that can be reinvigorated.

Additionally, the emotion this cliché evokes is overdone. “At wit’s end” feels rather weary and desperate, but what if it was humorous or lively or curious or confident?

Here are some different ways to rewrite the cliché, each with a different tone or message. Instead of saying “they were at wit’s end,” try:

• Humorous: a couple chimes short of being a cuckoo clock.
• Hopeful: turning failed ideas into new dreams.
• Adventurous: mining for ideas where boulders had formed.
• Suspicious: searching for ideas beneath old ideas, wondering where the solution disappeared.
• Annoyed: ready to stick dynamite between their ears if it meant moving on.

You could even try to reframe this cliché into an entire story. One story that feels “at wit’s end” is the novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. Though not an explicit re-imagining of the phrase “at wit’s end,” Murakami writes his protagonist’s brain as a dying town—and it turns out to be a metaphor for the protagonist’s numbered days.

Or, just keep it simple, and say your character was out of ideas.

2. Avoiding Clichés in Writing: Give an Old Phrase New Context

Generally, it’s hard to repurpose the meaning or impact of a cliché. But it is possible. If you put a cliché in a new or interesting context, one that changes or adds to the meaning of the cliché, you can get away with using it—as long as the writing still feels fresh and engaging.

Let’s take the phrase “rubbing salt in the wound.” How can we make this trite phrase interesting?

Here are a few ideas:

• Make a pun . Let’s say you’re writing a murder mystery in Salt Lake. You might get a laugh out of the reader if, after the body is dumped in the lake with a gash in its neck, the detective says “they really rubbed salt in that wound.”
• Change the meaning. We all know that “rubbing salt in the wound” means “adding insult to injury” (which is also a cliché). What if it meant something else? For example, salt actually helps a wound heal, as it prevents the wound from being infected. If you have a character who needs to learn hard lessons in order to heal from their wounds, perhaps you can repurpose “salt” in the cliché, or even use “salt” as a symbol for “painful healing.”
• Pull a “Pearls Before Swine.” You know, the comic? You don’t have to be funny, necessarily, but literal interpretations of clichés can make them surprising and new again. Take these strips, which breathe new life into dead language:

What could we do with “rubbing salt in the wound?” The word “wound” has a lot of meanings, including “wrapped around something,” “sensing something by scent,” and “sounding a horn.” Find a way to put salt in any of those situations, and you’ll certainly play with cliché.

3. Avoiding Character Clichés: Build an Archetype

Inside all the character clichés to avoid, there’s an archetype waiting to develop. Archetypes are kind of like clichés, but with more substance: they’re a set of traits that a character needs for a certain story—a platform from which a fully-developed character springs.

Let’s take, for example, the cliché “Damsel in Distress.” What does she require? Most damsels are:

• Fair and lovely
• Caged (and desperate to escape)
• Waiting to be rescued by, presumably, true love
• Stereotypically feminine
• In line for the throne

These simple descriptions give us the damsel’s 1) physical traits, 2) personal motivations, and 3) fatal flaws. Those details are enough to start forming a character—though we’ll need much more information than this.

Moving towards a full archetype, our damsel in distress needs a plot. Yes, she’s not just the victim: the goal is to make her a full-fledged protagonist.

Traditionally, the damsel’s story begins and ends in the tower where she’s imprisoned. Rapunzel, Snow White, and Fiona all wait for a man’s heroism to rescue them. Let’s imagine something different: what if the damsel was the heroine of her own story?

In fact, what if she’s seeking revenge, like the Tough Cop, on her former captors? Or perhaps she grows up, leaves the crown, and becomes a brilliant Airy Professor? This is where clichés can actually improve your story: by mixing and matching different ideas and motives, the author is taking control of the story and its character, creating something original in the process.

Now, we can fully move away from the clichéd damsel and construct a new, previously-unwritten identity. This includes breaking down the original stereotypes: with a new plot, our damsel might benefit from being athletic, being skeptical of love, or having fraught relations with her father (the King). Finally, it involves giving her a name—what would you name her?

It’s safe to say that our character is no longer a Damsel, and that’s because we experiment with different plots and character traits to make her interesting and unique. By turning stereotypes into archetypes, writers can table their cliché characters for good.

4. Avoiding Plot Clichés: Contextualize the Story

Throughout this article, we’ve argued that clichés lack wisdom and originality. Yet, most clichés were wise and original at one point, which is why many colloquialisms and adages in English are examples of clichés in writing.

Now, the English language evolves a lot. This is especially true for the past couple of centuries, as advancements in technology and literacy have allowed us to share ideas at accelerating speeds. As a result, certain clichés represent certain eras, and writers of historical fiction can use those clichés to contextualize the story.

Harper Lee does this in To Kill a Mockingbird . While Scout reflects on the state of Maycomb County during the Depression, she doesn’t state that she grew up in the 1930s; rather, Maycomb was recently told they had “nothing to fear but fear itself”—referring to the quote from F.D.R. By Lee’s time, that phrase had become heavily clichéd, but by invoking the spirit of an America just 30 years prior to TKAM’s publication, Lee gives the cliché new life. For the reader, it’s just as fresh as when America heard it during F.D.R.’s inauguration.

Funnily enough, the Harry Potter series does something similar with F.D.R.’s famous saying. Dumbledore says “fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself” to Harry, with strong historical weight. After all, F.D.R. is that same president who guided the U.S. through most of World War II, whereas Voldemort represents the discriminatory death machine of Nazi Germany. Although not a word-for-word use of the cliché, this moment brings fresh gravitas to F.D.R.’s sentiment.

5. Avoiding Clichés in Writing: Create a Writing Prompt

Clichés make for great writing prompts. Because clichés are vague and nondescript, there’s ample creative space to write a story or poem in place of a trite idea.

Because clichés are vague and nondescript, there’s ample creative space to write a story or poem in place of a trite idea.

To turn a cliché into a writing prompt, all you need is a sense of curiosity. Asking questions and exploring the limits of a cliché will help turn it into something original.

For example, let’s turn the cliché “beating a dead horse” into some writing prompts. It’s such an odd phrase, I can’t help but ask questions, like:

• Is this just really heavy CPR?
• Can you make a dead horse speak?
• What would a dead horse say, if it could?
• Do dead horses bruise?
• Do dead horses draw the carriages to Hell, or to Heaven?
• Does beating a dead horse make it resurrect faster?

These questions are prompts in their own way. Stories and poems often respond to abstract questions, so we’re simply hijacking the cliché to create new question prompts.

With this in mind, an old cliché can be given new blood simply by asking the right questions, so if you’re stuck searching for writing ideas , try starting from cliché phrases.

Or, Avoid Clichés in Writing Altogether

Of course, the best advice we can give you is to avoid clichés altogether. Even in your characters’ dialogue, use them very sparingly—they can also make your characters seem less interesting or worth caring about.

What should you use instead? In place of a cliché, try:

• Being direct. The reader will get annoyed if you say your character was beating a dead horse. Just say they were wasting their energy, and they knew it.
• Better yet, show, don’t tell . Why do you need to tell us that the character was beating a dead horse? Show us how they were wasting their energy in their words, thoughts, actions, etc.
• Employ metaphor or symbolism. When a cliché was interesting, it captured the reader because it used metaphor and symbolism in striking ways. Now, because the phrase is so overused, it has lost its freshness and originality. But, the same mechanics that made one cliché interesting can make your writing interesting too. Employing metaphor, symbolism, imagery, and other literary devices can keep your writing interesting.

Cut out the Clichés at Writers.com

Lastly, the expert eye of a writing instructor can help ensure you don’t riddle your writing with clichés. Our instructors are experts in slicing, revising, and revitalizing clichés, so if you’re looking for additional guidance or quality instruction, take a look at our upcoming courses .

Sean Glatch

I love, love, love the materials you share! I’m inspired by you to present the best me I can be!!

Such kind words, Marcia, thank you! I’m happy to hear we’ve helped you on your writing journey 🙂

great, clear article! Thanks!

My protagonist is an introvert who doesn’t like to talk to people outside of his extroverted friend. Not because he’s a “Rebel”, but because talking to people makes him tired. Also, it’s located in a semi-apocalyptic present time, where fantasy and reality are blended in a blurry swirl. My protagonist isn’t a “Chosen One”–he woke up the Hero’s Guide while snooping in something he never should have. Essentially, it’s entirely his fault. Does this sound good?

My protagonist is in a group and I’m wondering if splitting them from said group is a cliche. I’ve seen it done a lot, but im not sure if that entirely warrants it being a cliche

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the 13 best college essay tips to craft a stellar application.

College Essays

In many ways, the most labor-intensive part of your college application process is the essay. It’s not just about forwarding transcripts or entering a list of extracurricular activities—you have to craft something personal and compelling to show the admissions committee who you are beyond your resume.

In this article, we’ll go over our 13 best tips for writing college essays. We’ll give tips for every step of the process including planning, writing, and editing your essay, as well as some quick and easy tips to boost any essays you already have written! With these college essay tips, you’ll be that much closer to the best admissions essay ever!

5 Tips for College Essay Planning

Doing a good job planning makes the college essay process that much easier. These five college essay tips will help you get started and pave the way for a great final product.

#1: Make a Plan of Attack for Your Essays

The first thing you’ll need to do is identify all the essays you’ll need to write and their deadlines. It may help you to make a spreadsheet with the essay guidelines for each school, the word count, the prompts, the due date, and any special instructions. This will help you figure out:

How many essays you’ll need to write, and how long those essays need to be.

Whether you can reuse any essays: In general, you can reuse essays for prompts that are about your life, broadly similar in theme, and have a similar word count. You probably can’t reuse essays that are very specific to the college, like “Why This College” essays .

Which essay you should write first: You’ll probably want to start first on the essay with the earliest application deadline. Alternatively, if you have plenty of time or the deadlines are close together, you could start with the longest essay (which will take the most time) or the essay that will be used for the most schools (like a Common Application essay). Do what you feel most comfortable with.

With all this information gathered, you’ll be able to make a plan of attack for your essays and make sure nothing gets lost in the application shuffle. (In fact, I actually advise keeping track of all necessary components of your application in a spreadsheet for the same reason).

#2: Start Early

You want to start writing way before the deadline. If possible, give yourself at least two months, and maybe even more time if you can. This will make sure that you have enough time to adequately plan your essay, draft it, and edit it.  

And, of course, the more essays you have to write, the earlier you should start!

#3: Choose the Right Topic

Choosing the right topic has two facets: first, choosing the right prompt (if there’s a choice) and second, choosing the right topic to write about for that prompt.

The Right Prompt

If there’s a choice of prompts, you may want to actually start by brainstorming the specific topic or thing in your life that you want to write about, and then reverse-engineer back to the most appropriate prompt. Most college essay prompts are pretty vague, so a broad range of topics and issues can be applied.

You can also use prompts to help you brainstorm if you’re having a hard time figuring out what to write about. Think about the prompt that seems most appealing to you at first. What intrigues you about it? What do you think you could communicate about yourself through that question?

Here’s some tailored guidance on some of the most common college essay prompt types . And if you’re writing a Common Application essay, here’s advice on how to choose the right Common App prompt for you .

The Right Topic

When you’re trying to choose something about your life to write about, consider the following:

What are you excited to write about? A good college essay can be about a wide variety of topics, but it should show that you’re passionate about something. This could be anything from a hobby you have to your favorite book or even your most beloved stuffed animal, just so long as you can make it memorable and positive. Also, your writing will be a lot better if you are writing about something you care about and are interested in!

Whatever you write about should be primarily about you. You should be the focal point. Even if you’re writing about someone who has influenced you, for example, you need to relate it back to yourself. What does this tell admission officers about you?

What makes you stand out? This should be something that goes beyond what’s in the rest of your application. Your test scores and GPA are already there. What really shows something unique about you?

Choose a topic you can be honest about . If you’re not being genuine, it will end up coming through in your writing. So don’t write about how much your membership in Youth Group meant to you if you only went to make your mom happy and you actually didn’t care that much.

In general, you should avoid topics that are overly controversial, like things that are politically charged, doing things that are illegal, or anything involving graphic descriptions of any bodily function. So if you’re going to write about recovering from hip surgery, probably leave out the gory details of you being constipated and your oozy scars.

Check out our 35 brainstorming techniques for college essays for even more help coming up with a topic!

If you’re really stumped, consider asking your friends and family what they think could be good topics. They may help you figure out something memorable and interesting. But also, don’t feel like you have to write about a topic just because someone else thinks it would be great. You need to be genuinely interested in what you’re writing about to write an engaging essay!

#4: Decide on Your Approach

In general, there are two main approaches you might take to write your essay. It might primarily take a narrative format, or it might take a thematic format.

In a narrative format, you’ll be relating a particular anecdote or experience and what it means to you. In a thematic format, you’ll present a particular theme—say, your love of parakeets or your secret talent for balancing books on your head—and expound on that theme in a descriptive way to reveal more about you and your personality.

Sometimes your approach will be determined by the prompt or topic that you choose. For example, if a prompt says to relate a particular event or anecdote, you’ll probably use a narrative approach. By contrast, if you want to write about how your favorite book changed your life, that will probably be a thematic essay.

#5: Write an Outline

Doing a little bit of outlining before you put fingertips to keyboard to write your essay is always a good idea. You don’t necessarily need to make a super-detailed plan before you starting writing, but a general idea of where you are going and the points you want to make will be very helpful when you start drafting. Otherwise, you may find yourself spending a lot of time staring at a blank Word document.

Yes, good, very detailed essay plan. 

4 Top College Essay Writing Tips

Here are four tips for writing college essays and making sure your work  stands out in a good way:

#6: Use Specific Details

The more details you use, the more your writing will come alive. Try to use words that are vivid and specific, instead of ones that are vague like “nice,” “good,” and so on. This will really flesh out the scene and help the reader picture what’s going on.

So take something like this:

One of my biggest accomplishments in life was teaching my little brother to ride a bicycle. I encouraged him to keep going when he fell down. Now he’s a great cyclist!

To something more like this:

One of my biggest accomplishments in life was teaching my eight-year-old brother to ride the racy red bicycle he got for his birthday. He wanted to give up when he took a tumble and skidded across the sidewalk. But while I bandaged up his knees with Batman band-aids, I convinced him to give it another try. I told him to think about how he would be able to bike all around the neighborhood exploring. Now I smile whenever I see him zooming down our street—wearing his helmet, of course!

See the difference? Wouldn’t you rather read the second one?

#7: Be Genuine

It’s important to get beyond the superficial in your personal statement. You should be writing about something that’s genuinely important or significant to you, so try to get beyond the surface. Instead of writing vague platitudes about how you really like the violin but it’s hard, really get at the meat: did you ever think about quitting? What’s frustrated you the most? What really keeps you going?

This means you shouldn’t try to write about things where it’s too painful to be honest. So if your parents got a divorce last year, it may be too raw to write about, which is perfectly fine. If, however, they got divorced when you were 5 and you can honestly reflect on how it changed your life, go for it.

Of course, you want to be honest in a reasonable and appropriate way. If you overshare, it will make it seem like you have bad judgment or don’t understand social norms—not good impressions to give the admissions committee. So probably don’t write about how much you despise your mother and think she is evil since she had an affair with your school librarian. It’s fine to feel how you feel, but there are some things that are a little too charged to write in your college essay.

#8: Be Unique, but Not Bizarre

You definitely want your writing to set you apart—but you want it to set you apart in a good way. This means you want high-quality writing about unique experiences and qualities you bring to the table that aren’t covered elsewhere in your application.

This does not mean you should get really avant-garde with your essay formatting. Don’t send in a piece of art instead of an essay, or make a video, or write a poem instead of an essay, unless those things are explicitly allowed.

Similarly, while your essay doesn’t have to be 100% deadly serious in tone, you should be careful with humor. This doesn’t mean absolutely no jokes or tongue-in-cheek moments or that your essay should read like an 18th-century book of sermons. But if your essay relies too much on humor, you’ve got a lot riding on whether or not the person reading your essay “gets” it. They may well be annoyed. So deploy humor carefully and selectively.

#9: Avoid Cliches and Platitudes

The more cliches you use in your writing, the more boring and less insightful your essay will be. Cliches are phrases that are so overused that they are essentially meaningless, and they are likely to make any reader roll their eyes. Phrases like “a dime a dozen,” “outside the box,” “cold as ice,” “dirt cheap,” “flash in the pan,” and so on are frequently deployed in conversation because they convey a common idea quickly. But you don’t want your essay to be common, so avoid cliches. Try to think about how you can communicate the same idea in a more specific and interesting way.

Here’s a list of over 600 cliches . But for the most part, you won’t need a list; you’ll know something is a cliche because you will have heard it a million times already.

You should also avoid platitudes or sweeping generalizations about life. These are statements that are so broad and far-reaching as to be both obvious and completely uninsightful.

So avoid making statements like “And that’s how I learned that hard work pays off,” or “There’s no ‘I’ in team.” You may think you sound sage or wise, but the truth is, platitudes are going to sound immature and poorly-formed to the reader. Similarly, don’t say things that sound like they could come from an inspirational quote account on Instagram. (See, ahem, “You miss 100% of the shots you never take,” “Shoot for the moon,” and so on.)

How do you avoid the platitude problem? Try to keep what you’re saying specific to you. So instead of saying “And that’s how I learned that hard work pays off,” try, “This experience helped me to realize that when I put concentrated effort into something that’s important to me, I can accomplish it even when there are roadblocks.” Keep the focus on what you can and will do in your own life.

Avoid  trite sayings like this one.

2 Tips for Editing Your College Essay

You may think that once you’ve gotten a draft done that you’re good to go. Not so! Editing is one of the most important parts of writing the best college essay possible, and here are two essential college essay tips for editing.

Tip #10: Ask for Help

It’s always wise to get another set of eyes on your college essays. In fact, several sets of eyes is even better! Other people can help you make sure your essay flows, you have enough detail, that everything is relevant, and that you sound as engaging and interesting as you really are! They can also help you catch typos and other minor errors—although you’ll want to double and triple-check for that yourself before submitting.

Here’s advice on how to ask for help with all parts of the college essay process , including editing.

Tip #11: Be Prepared to Cut a Lot

Brace yourself for cutting up your initial draft into tiny little ribbons and rearranging the remaining pieces Frankenstein-style. A first draft is really just a starting place to get your ideas down before you revamp the entire thing into a more streamlined, better organized, highly polished version. So you have to be ready to let go of pieces of your essay, no matter how much you love a particular turn of phrase or analogy. The ultimate goal is to turn the rough stone of your first draft into a polished and clear piece of writing—and that’s going to take a lot of chipping and sanding!

2 Final Tips for College Essay Success

Here are two quick but essential college essay tips you can implement easily.

Tip #12: Have a Standout First Sentence

One thing you can do to give any essay a boost is to make sure that your first sentence is attention-grabbing. If you can pique the interest of the admissions counselor right away, you’ll help keep their attention throughout your essay.

Here’s our guide to getting that perfect first sentence!

Tip #13: Triple-check for Typos and Errors

The most important quick thing you can do for your essay is to make sure there are no typos or grammatical errors. It will make your essay look sloppy and unfinished, and that’s the last thing you want! College admissions officers expect a polished product, and there’s nothing less polished than misspelled words and comma splices.

13 College Essay Tips: Key Takeaways for a Great College Essay

To recap, here’s our 13 tips for the best college essay ever:

College Essay Planning Tips:

• Create a plan of attack for all of your essays so you can keep track of everything.
• Start early—at least two months before the due date, if not more.
• Choose the right prompt and topic for you.
• Decide between a narrative or a thematic approach to the topic.
• Outline before you start writing!

College Essay Writing Tips:

• Use vivid, specific details.
• Be genuine—get beyond the superficial.
• Be unique, but not bizarre.
• Avoid cliches and platitudes; they are boring and unimaginative.

College Essay Editing Tips:

• Get other people to look at your essay.
• Be prepared to change, cut, and rearrange a lot!

Final Tips for College Essays:

• Make sure your first sentence is stellar.
• Triple check for typos and grammatical errors!

What’s Next?

You’ve read our tips for success—now see 10 college essay mistakes to avoid .

Looking for some college essay examples? See 133 essay examples and expert analysis here , along with 11 more places to find great college essay examples .  

Check out our complete guides to ApplyTexas essays , UC Personal Insight questions , and the Common Application essay !

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?  We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Ellen has extensive education mentorship experience and is deeply committed to helping students succeed in all areas of life. She received a BA from Harvard in Folklore and Mythology and is currently pursuing graduate studies at Columbia University.

Student and Parent Forum

Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub.PrepScholar.com , allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. Ask questions; get answers.

Ask a Question Below

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

Improve With Our Famous Guides

• For All Students

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points

How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 800 on Each SAT Section:

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading

Score 800 on SAT Writing

Series: How to Get to 600 on Each SAT Section:

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading

Score 600 on SAT Writing

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For?

15 Strategies to Improve Your SAT Essay

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points

How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 36 on Each ACT Section:

36 on ACT English

36 on ACT Math

36 on ACT Reading

36 on ACT Science

Series: How to Get to 24 on Each ACT Section:

24 on ACT English

24 on ACT Math

24 on ACT Reading

24 on ACT Science

What ACT target score should you be aiming for?

ACT Vocabulary You Must Know

ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

Is the ACT easier than the SAT? A Comprehensive Guide

Should you retake your SAT or ACT?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Looking for Graduate School Test Prep?

Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here:

GRE Online Prep Blog

GMAT Online Prep Blog

TOEFL Online Prep Blog

Holly R. "I am absolutely overjoyed and cannot thank you enough for helping me!”

Frequently asked questions

What are cliché college essay topics.

Here’s a brief list of college essay topics that may be considered cliché:

• Extracurriculars, especially sports
• Role models
• Dealing with a personal tragedy or death in the family
• Struggling with new life situations (immigrant stories, moving homes, parents’ divorce)
• Becoming a better person after community service, traveling, or summer camp
• Overcoming a difficult class
• Using a common object as an extended metaphor

It’s easier to write a standout essay with a unique topic. However, it’s possible to make a common topic compelling with interesting story arcs, uncommon connections, and an advanced writing style.

Frequently asked questions: College admissions essays

When writing your Common App essay , choose a prompt that sparks your interest and that you can connect to a unique personal story.

No matter which prompt you choose, admissions officers are more interested in your ability to demonstrate personal development , insight, or motivation for a certain area of study.

The Common App essay is your primary writing sample within the Common Application, a college application portal accepted by more than 900 schools. All your prospective schools that accept the Common App will read this essay to understand your character, background, and value as a potential student.

Since this essay is read by many colleges, avoid mentioning any college names or programs; instead, save tailored answers for the supplementary school-specific essays within the Common App.

Most importantly, your essay should be about you , not another person or thing. An insightful college admissions essay requires deep self-reflection, authenticity, and a balance between confidence and vulnerability.

Your essay shouldn’t be a résumé of your experiences but instead should tell a story that demonstrates your most important values and qualities.

When revising your college essay , first check for big-picture issues regarding your message and content. Then, check for flow, tone, style , and clarity. Finally, focus on eliminating grammar and punctuation errors .

If your college essay goes over the word count limit , cut any sentences with tangents or irrelevant details. Delete unnecessary words that clutter your essay.

If you’re struggling to reach the word count for your college essay, add vivid personal stories or share your feelings and insight to give your essay more depth and authenticity.

If you’ve got to write your college essay fast , don’t panic. First, set yourself deadlines: you should spend about 10% of your remaining time on brainstorming, 10% on outlining, 40% writing, 30% revising, and 10% taking breaks in between stages.

Second, brainstorm stories and values based on your essay prompt.

Third, outline your essay based on the montage or narrative essay structure .

Fourth, write specific, personal, and unique stories that would be hard for other students to replicate.

Fifth, revise your essay and make sure it’s clearly written.

Last, if possible, get feedback from an essay coach . Scribbr essay editors can help you revise your essay in 12 hours or less.

Avoid swearing in a college essay , since admissions officers’ opinions of profanity will vary. In some cases, it might be okay to use a vulgar word, such as in dialogue or quotes that make an important point in your essay. However, it’s safest to try to make the same point without swearing.

If you have bad grades on your transcript, you may want to use your college admissions essay to explain the challenging circumstances that led to them. Make sure to avoid dwelling on the negative aspects and highlight how you overcame the situation or learned an important lesson.

However, some college applications offer an additional information section where you can explain your bad grades, allowing you to choose another meaningful topic for your college essay.

Yes. The college application essay is less formal than other academic writing —though of course it’s not mandatory to use contractions in your essay.

In a college essay , you can be creative with your language . When writing about the past, you can use the present tense to make the reader feel as if they were there in the moment with you. But make sure to maintain consistency and when in doubt, default to the correct verb tense according to the time you’re writing about.

The college admissions essay gives admissions officers a different perspective on you beyond your academic achievements, test scores, and extracurriculars. It’s your chance to stand out from other applicants with similar academic profiles by telling a unique, personal, and specific story.

Use a standard font such as Times New Roman or Arial to avoid distracting the reader from your college essay’s content.

A college application essay is less formal than most academic writing . Instead of citing sources formally with in-text citations and a reference list, you can cite them informally in your text.

For example, “In her research paper on genetics, Quinn Roberts explores …”

There is no set number of paragraphs in a college admissions essay . College admissions essays can diverge from the traditional five-paragraph essay structure that you learned in English class. Just make sure to stay under the specified word count .

Most topics are acceptable for college essays if you can use them to demonstrate personal growth or a lesson learned. However, there are a few difficult topics for college essays that should be avoided. Avoid topics that are:

• Overly personal (e.g. graphic details of illness or injury, romantic or sexual relationships)
• Not personal enough (e.g. broad solutions to world problems, inspiring people or things)
• Too negative (e.g. an in-depth look at your flaws, put-downs of others, criticizing the need for a college essay)
• Too boring (e.g. a resume of your academic achievements and extracurriculars)
• Inappropriate for a college essay (e.g. illegal activities, offensive humor, false accounts of yourself, bragging about privilege)

To write an effective diversity essay , include vulnerable, authentic stories about your unique identity, background, or perspective. Provide insight into how your lived experience has influenced your outlook, activities, and goals. If relevant, you should also mention how your background has led you to apply for this university and why you’re a good fit.

Many universities believe a student body composed of different perspectives, beliefs, identities, and backgrounds will enhance the campus learning and community experience.

Admissions officers are interested in hearing about how your unique background, identity, beliefs, culture, or characteristics will enrich the campus community, which is why they assign a diversity essay .

In addition to your main college essay , some schools and scholarships may ask for a supplementary essay focused on an aspect of your identity or background. This is sometimes called a diversity essay .

You can use humor in a college essay , but carefully consider its purpose and use it wisely. An effective use of humor involves unexpected, keen observations of the everyday, or speaks to a deeper theme. Humor shouldn’t be the main focus of the essay, but rather a tool to improve your storytelling.

Get a second opinion from a teacher, counselor, or essay coach on whether your essay’s humor is appropriate.

Though admissions officers are interested in hearing your story, they’re also interested in how you tell it. An exceptionally written essay will differentiate you from other applicants, meaning that admissions officers will spend more time reading it.

You can use literary devices to catch your reader’s attention and enrich your storytelling; however, focus on using just a few devices well, rather than trying to use as many as possible.

To decide on a good college essay topic , spend time thoughtfully answering brainstorming questions. If you still have trouble identifying topics, try the following two strategies:

• Identify your qualities → Brainstorm stories that demonstrate these qualities
• Identify memorable stories → Connect your qualities to these stories

You can also ask family, friends, or mentors to help you brainstorm topics, give feedback on your potential essay topics, or recall key stories that showcase your qualities.

Yes—admissions officers don’t expect everyone to have a totally unique college essay topic . But you must differentiate your essay from others by having a surprising story arc, an interesting insight, and/or an advanced writing style .

There are no foolproof college essay topics —whatever your topic, the key is to write about it effectively. However, a good topic

• Is meaningful, specific, and personal to you
• Focuses on you and your experiences
• Reveals something beyond your test scores, grades, and extracurriculars
• Is creative and original

Unlike a five-paragraph essay, your admissions essay should not end by summarizing the points you’ve already made. It’s better to be creative and aim for a strong final impression.

You should also avoid stating the obvious (for example, saying that you hope to be accepted).

There are a few strategies you can use for a memorable ending to your college essay :

• Return to the beginning with a “full circle” structure
• Reveal the main point or insight in your story
• Look to the future
• End on an action

The best technique will depend on your topic choice, essay outline, and writing style. You can write several endings using different techniques to see which works best.

College deadlines vary depending on the schools you’re applying to and your application plan:

• For early action applications and the first round of early decision applications, the deadline is on November 1 or 15. Decisions are released by mid-December.
• For the second round of early decision applications, the deadline is January 1 or 15. Decisions are released in January or February.
• Regular decision deadlines usually fall between late November and mid-March, and decisions are released in March or April.
• Rolling admission deadlines run from July to April, and decisions are released around four to eight weeks after submission.

Depending on your prospective schools’ requirements, you may need to submit scores for the SAT or ACT as part of your college application .

Some schools now no longer require students to submit test scores; however, you should still take the SAT or ACT and aim to get a high score to strengthen your application package.

Aim to take the SAT or ACT in the spring of your junior year to give yourself enough time to retake it in the fall of your senior year if necessary.

Apply early for federal student aid and application fee waivers. You can also look for scholarships from schools, corporations, and charitable foundations.

To maximize your options, you should aim to apply to about eight schools:

• Two reach schools that might be difficult to get into
• Four match schools that you have a good chance of getting into
• Two safety schools that you feel confident you’ll get into

The college admissions essay accounts for roughly 25% of the weight of your application .

At highly selective schools, there are four qualified candidates for every spot. While your academic achievements are important, your college admissions essay can help you stand out from other applicants with similar profiles.

In general, for your college application you will need to submit all of the following:

• Your personal information
• List of extracurriculars and awards
• College application essays
• Transcripts
• Standardized test scores
• Recommendation letters.

Different colleges may have specific requirements, so make sure you check exactly what’s expected in the application guidance.

You should start thinking about your college applications the summer before your junior year to give you sufficient time for college visits, taking standardized tests, applying for financial aid , writing essays, and collecting application material.

Yes, but make sure your essay directly addresses the prompt, respects the word count , and demonstrates the organization’s values.

If you plan ahead, you can save time by writing one scholarship essay for multiple prompts with similar questions. In a scholarship tracker spreadsheet, you can group or color-code overlapping essay prompts; then, write a single essay for multiple scholarships. Sometimes, you can even reuse or adapt your main college essay .

You can start applying for scholarships as early as your junior year. Continue applying throughout your senior year.

Invest time in applying for various scholarships , especially local ones with small dollar amounts, which are likely easier to win and more reflective of your background and interests. It will be easier for you to write an authentic and compelling essay if the scholarship topic is meaningful to you.

You can find scholarships through your school counselor, community network, or an internet search.

A scholarship essay requires you to demonstrate your values and qualities while answering the prompt’s specific question.

After researching the scholarship organization, identify a personal experience that embodies its values and exemplifies how you will be a successful student.

A standout college essay has several key ingredients:

• A unique, personally meaningful topic
• A memorable introduction with vivid imagery or an intriguing hook
• Specific stories and language that show instead of telling
• Vulnerability that’s authentic but not aimed at soliciting sympathy
• Clear writing in an appropriate style and tone
• A conclusion that offers deep insight or a creative ending

While timelines will differ depending on the student, plan on spending at least 1–3 weeks brainstorming and writing the first draft of your college admissions essay , and at least 2–4 weeks revising across multiple drafts. Don’t forget to save enough time for breaks between each writing and editing stage.

You should already begin thinking about your essay the summer before your senior year so that you have plenty of time to try out different topics and get feedback on what works.

Your college essay accounts for about 25% of your application’s weight. It may be the deciding factor in whether you’re accepted, especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurricular track records.

In most cases, quoting other people isn’t a good way to start your college essay . Admissions officers want to hear your thoughts about yourself, and quotes often don’t achieve that. Unless a quote truly adds something important to your essay that it otherwise wouldn’t have, you probably shouldn’t include it.

Cliché openers in a college essay introduction are usually general and applicable to many students and situations. Most successful introductions are specific: they only work for the unique essay that follows.

The key to a strong college essay introduction is not to give too much away. Try to start with a surprising statement or image that raises questions and compels the reader to find out more.

The introduction of your college essay is the first thing admissions officers will read and therefore your most important opportunity to stand out. An excellent introduction will keep admissions officers reading, allowing you to tell them what you want them to know.

You can speed up this process by shortening and smoothing your writing with a paraphrasing tool . After that, you can use the summarizer to shorten it even more.

If you’re struggling to reach the word count for your college essay, add vivid personal stories or share your feelings and insight to give your essay more depth and authenticity.

Most college application portals specify a word count range for your essay, and you should stay within 10% of the upper limit to write a developed and thoughtful essay.

You should aim to stay under the specified word count limit to show you can follow directions and write concisely. However, don’t write too little, as it may seem like you are unwilling or unable to write a detailed and insightful narrative about yourself.

If no word count is specified, we advise keeping your essay between 400 and 600 words.

In your application essay , admissions officers are looking for particular features : they want to see context on your background, positive traits that you could bring to campus, and examples of you demonstrating those qualities.

Colleges want to be able to differentiate students who seem similar on paper. In the college application essay , they’re looking for a way to understand each applicant’s unique personality and experiences.

You don’t need a title for your college admissions essay , but you can include one if you think it adds something important.

Your college essay’s format should be as simple as possible:

• Use a standard, readable font
• Use 1.5 or double spacing
• If attaching a file, save it as a PDF
• Stick to the word count
• Avoid unusual formatting and unnecessary decorative touches

There are no set rules for how to structure a college application essay , but these are two common structures that work:

• A montage structure, a series of vignettes with a common theme.
• A narrative structure, a single story that shows your personal growth or how you overcame a challenge.

Avoid the five-paragraph essay structure that you learned in high school.

Campus visits are always helpful, but if you can’t make it in person, the college website will have plenty of information for you to explore. You should look through the course catalog and even reach out to current faculty with any questions about the school.

Colleges set a “Why this college?” essay because they want to see that you’ve done your research. You must prove that you know what makes the school unique and can connect that to your own personal goals and academic interests.

Depending on your writing, you may go through several rounds of revision . Make sure to put aside your essay for a little while after each editing stage to return with a fresh perspective.

Teachers and guidance counselors can help you check your language, tone, and content . Ask for their help at least one to two months before the submission deadline, as many other students will also want their help.

Friends and family are a good resource to check for authenticity. It’s best to seek help from family members with a strong writing or English educational background, or from older siblings and cousins who have been through the college admissions process.

If possible, get help from an essay coach or editor ; they’ll have specialized knowledge of college admissions essays and be able to give objective expert feedback.

When revising your college essay , first check for big-picture issues regarding message, flow, tone, style , and clarity. Then, focus on eliminating grammar and punctuation errors.

Include specific, personal details and use your authentic voice to shed a new perspective on a common human experience.

Through specific stories, you can weave your achievements and qualities into your essay so that it doesn’t seem like you’re bragging from a resume.

When writing about yourself , including difficult experiences or failures can be a great way to show vulnerability and authenticity, but be careful not to overshare, and focus on showing how you matured from the experience.

First, spend time reflecting on your core values and character . You can start with these questions:

• What are three words your friends or family would use to describe you, and why would they choose them?
• Whom do you admire most and why?
• What are you most proud of? Ashamed of?

However, you should do a comprehensive brainstorming session to fully understand your values. Also consider how your values and goals match your prospective university’s program and culture. Then, brainstorm stories that illustrate the fit between the two.

In a college application essay , you can occasionally bend grammatical rules if doing so adds value to the storytelling process and the essay maintains clarity.

However, use standard language rules if your stylistic choices would otherwise distract the reader from your overall narrative or could be easily interpreted as unintentional errors.

Write concisely and use the active voice to maintain a quick pace throughout your essay and make sure it’s the right length . Avoid adding definitions unless they provide necessary explanation.

Use first-person “I” statements to speak from your perspective . Use appropriate word choices that show off your vocabulary but don’t sound like you used a thesaurus. Avoid using idioms or cliché expressions by rewriting them in a creative, original way.

If you’re an international student applying to a US college and you’re comfortable using American idioms or cultural references , you can. But instead of potentially using them incorrectly, don’t be afraid to write in detail about yourself within your own culture.

Provide context for any words, customs, or places that an American admissions officer might be unfamiliar with.

College application essays are less formal than other kinds of academic writing . Use a conversational yet respectful tone , as if speaking with a teacher or mentor. Be vulnerable about your feelings, thoughts, and experiences to connect with the reader.

Aim to write in your authentic voice , with a style that sounds natural and genuine. You can be creative with your word choice, but don’t use elaborate vocabulary to impress admissions officers.

Admissions officers use college admissions essays to evaluate your character, writing skills , and ability to self-reflect . The essay is your chance to show what you will add to the academic community.

The college essay may be the deciding factor in your application , especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurriculars.

Some colleges also require supplemental essays about specific topics, such as why you chose that specific college . Scholarship essays are often required to obtain financial aid .

Ask our team

Want to contact us directly? No problem.  We  are always here for you.

• Email [email protected]
• Start live chat
• Call +1 (510) 822-8066
• WhatsApp +31 20 261 6040

Our team helps students graduate by offering:

• A world-class citation generator
• Plagiarism Checker software powered by Turnitin
• Innovative Citation Checker software
• Professional proofreading services
• Over 300 helpful articles about academic writing, citing sources, plagiarism, and more

Scribbr specializes in editing study-related documents . We proofread:

• PhD dissertations
• Research proposals
• Personal statements
• Admission essays
• Motivation letters
• Reflection papers
• Journal articles
• Capstone projects

Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker is powered by elements of Turnitin’s Similarity Checker , namely the plagiarism detection software and the Internet Archive and Premium Scholarly Publications content databases .

The add-on AI detector is powered by Scribbr’s proprietary software.

The Scribbr Citation Generator is developed using the open-source Citation Style Language (CSL) project and Frank Bennett’s citeproc-js . It’s the same technology used by dozens of other popular citation tools, including Mendeley and Zotero.

You can find all the citation styles and locales used in the Scribbr Citation Generator in our publicly accessible repository on Github .

How to Avoid Clichés on the College Essay

Crafting a college essay can be challenging as we often grapple with numerous notions of what constitutes a good essay, making it difficult to generate our own unique ideas.

However, the task of avoiding clichés, fortunately, tends to be a more straightforward endeavor.

We have curated a list of the six most frequently encountered clichés that frequently appear in our students’ essays. Read them and ask yourself, “Does my essay contain any of these Clichés?”

1. The Dictionary Opening

You might think that using intelligent-sounding words will show how intellectually capable you are, but the reality is that admission officers can tell that it’s not authentic. An example of this is:

“Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘passion’ as…”

Avoid this at all costs.

2. The Deep Quotes

If you must use a quote, pick one from someone important in your life instead of some random dead person, nobody knows.

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” ~ Confucius

Don’t integrate quotes in your essay as a way to sound deep and sophisticated. Again, the Admission Officers can tell.

3. The Vague Goal

This cliché is a classic one.

“I’ve always known, from the time I saw a keyboard, that I wanted to be a programmer.”

The tactic to strengthen our ambitions by linking them to a deep history, usually located in some far-away childhood or “ever since I can remember.” does not impress admission officers.

Try to create a story about why you chose to pursue the goal rather than resorting to the vague goal tactic. This will result in a far more profound piece.

4. “Going Meta” & Taking Wild Swings

Sometimes students believe so much in their writing ability that they become “too creative for their own good” and ultimately belly-flop. An example of this is:

“Was your childhood home destroyed by a dormant WW2 bomb? Yeah, neither was mine. I know that intro might have given the impression that this college essay will be about withstanding disasters, but the truth is that it isn’t about that at all. In fact, I am going to talk about X…”

The idea is, usually, that by calling attention to the convention of the college essay, one can speak more directly to the admissions committee on the other end. The vast majority of attempts will come off as condescending, rude, or flippant – and admission officers HATE it.

It’s better to focus on telling a real story. Don’t neglect the task by trying to be clever; lean into the opportunity to tell a committee about yourself.

5. Broad Conclusions

This one is very popular.

“So, in the end, it’s clear that we should settle our differences with our opponents and listen with open hearts.”

The college essay is about specificity as it relates to you and your life, not about big conjectures and broad realizations.

Don’t make your essay into a plan to solve the world’s problems – make it about how an experience taught you something specific.

For example, if you’re planning on writing about the trip you took to some country, write about a difficult or challenging experience, and explain its significance in terms of how it changed your thinking about community, culture, etc.

6. The “Aha!” Moments

The idea of a single moment of revelation is in itself a cliché.

“I realized in that moment that just as the shabbiest objects can become the most exquisite paintings, true insight can come from the most unexpected of places.”

Did you really realize what would alter your life in a split second, or was it the digestion of an experience over time that helped you “realize” something?

Talk about the process of coming to a belief, not merely about the belief itself.

Crafting a unique and engaging college essay requires the avoidance of common clichés that can undermine your efforts.

Focus on providing personal insights, sharing meaningful experiences, and conveying the narrative that defines who you are. Embrace the opportunity to express yourself authentically and leave a lasting impression on the admissions committee.

Related Posts

Best Brainstorming Questions For Your Personal College Essays

Unique College Essay Ideas and Insights

How to Write the Best Personal Essay for College Applications

Trending now.

• Featured Writing Courses
• Online Writing Courses
• Free Writing Courses
• Screenwriting
• Creative Nonfiction
• Writing Tips

TOP CREATIVE WRITING COURSES

The 3 Most Common College Essay Topic Clichés and How to Cure Them

1. The “Person I Admire” Essay

Is your dad the most important person in your life? Have you recently been coping with the death of a loved one? Do you plan on following in the footsteps of your high school mentor? Believe it or not, more than one person reading this article answered “yes” to at least one of those questions. Although we all have different relationships with the people we admire, essays on this subject often veer off the narrative cliff into an ocean of similar sob stories. These stories also run the risk of focusing too much on the influential figure or family member and not enough on the student writing the essay.

Remember, this is YOUR college application – not your grandpa’s, not Abraham Lincoln’s. Admissions wants to know about YOU, and what makes you a uniquely good fit for their school. If a person has had a significant impact on your life – sad or happy, negative or positive – focus on one important moment in that relationship. If you want to be just like your dad, when did you realize this? If your mother was sick, how did you help her manage her illness, and what did you learn about your own abilities to face life’s greatest challenges? Is there an unexpected way you can find joy or hope in a moment of sadness? Telling a simple story that is specific to your own life and experience will make all the difference here.

2. The Sports Essay

The crowd goes wild as you score the winning touchdown and are carried off the backs of your teammates….in a cast! Because you did the whole thing with a broken leg! Victories, injuries, and teamwork are the most common themes sloshing around the bucket of vague sports essays. This topic presents an opportunity for students to describe how they surmount different kinds of obstacles – an opportunity almost everyone takes. Surprisingly, the challenges of playing soccer in Ohio are quite similar to those of playing baseball in Montana. And serious athletes with sports-heavy resumes who also write about sports run the risk of boring admissions to tears with their one-note applications.

The sports essay is actually a huge arena in which a student can showcase his or her creativity. It’s time to abandon the simple narratives of bones broken and medals won. Put your unique perspective on display by describing how the skills you gained from athletics transfer to other areas of your life (or vice versa). Turn your favorite sport into a metaphor to describe another aspect of who you are. Or, if you still can’t resist telling one of the more common kinds of sports stories, dig into the details of that story. Try to isolate a small moment within the larger story that was significant or surprising. A victory isn’t just about winning or teamwork – maybe it’s also about the way your friend made you laugh on the bus before you even set foot on the field.

3. The Volunteering Essay

“…but it turns out that, when I thought I was helping them, all along they were really helping me.” Stop! Pull at our heartstrings no longer! If you, too, have been changed by your community service, you are not alone. That is an amazing side effect of doing good deeds that affect others. Millions of students across the country and around the globe donate their time to worthy causes (something that makes us very happy), but the mere act of volunteering is no longer enough to distinguish you from your competitors. Common pitfalls of the volunteering essay include saccharine storytelling, repeating your resume, and parroting the Wikipedia page of your organization of choice.

Ideally, you should donate your time to a cause that is truly significant to you. Thousands of people do the Breast Cancer walk every year. They all follow the same route and see the same sights, but what about the story that led up to you taking that first step? Ideally, the service itself should be the reward – not the “lessons learned” from the people who benefit from your service. Or, if you truly experienced personal growth through volunteering, try to isolate a particular moment or relationship that can illustrate the change you observed in yourself. Showing, not telling, is the key to writing a unique and engaging volunteering essay.

About Thea Hogarth

View all posts by Thea Hogarth »

Give College Essay Academy a Try.

Written by Thea Hogarth

Category: College Admissions , Essay Tips

Tags: cliches , college application , college applications , college essay topic , common app , editing , writing

Want free stuff?

We thought so. Sign up for free instructional videos, guides, worksheets and more!

One-On-One Advising

Common App Essay Prompt Guide

Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

• YouTube Tutorials
• Our Approach & Team
• Undergraduate Testimonials
• Postgraduate Testimonials
• Where Our Students Get In
• CEA Gives Back
• Undergraduate Admissions
• Graduate Admissions
• Private School Admissions
• International Student Admissions
• Common App Essay Guide
• Supplemental Essay Guides
• Coalition App Guide
• The CEA Podcast
• Admissions Stats
• Notification Trackers
• Deadline Databases
• College Essay Examples
• Academy and Worksheets
• Waitlist Guides
• Get Started

• Special Sections

Cliches to avoid when writing your college admissions essay

Teachers know it, guidance counselors know it, even colleges know it: High school students dread writing the personal college essay. The pressure is high, the word count is low, and it can be next to impossible to know where to start. While there are dozens of resources online telling you what you should include, knowing what you shouldn’t include can be just as helpful.

College admissions counselors are always on the lookout for unique, memorable essays to give them a better picture of the applicant’s personality. It’s extremely important for them to feel they know applicants beyond their GPA and SAT scores. With thousands of qualified applicants vying for the same slots at major universities, an exceptional college essay can be the difference between being accepted or rejected.

So how can you set yourself apart from thousands of other high school seniors? Find a unique subject, a story only you can tell, and consider avoiding the following overdone personal essay cliches:

How seeing other people’s suffering made you appreciate your own privilege. This is perhaps the most egregious of all college essay topics. Admissions counselors cringe when these essays come across their desks, and with good reason. While your mission trip or high school volunteer work may have indeed changed your perspective, framing another’s suffering as a way to propel yourself to greater happiness comes across as out of touch and condescending. Universities are leery of accepting students who lack the empathy to realize the issue with this perspective. Be careful not to use the less fortunate to highlight your relative privilege.

Special Section

Your first experience with death. Dealing with death, especially the death of a loved one, is certainly a formative experience. While admissions counselors understand and appreciate the impact death can have on a student’s life, this topic rarely sheds new light on an applicant. The purpose of the personal essay is to provide a more nuanced picture of the student in question. While writing about dealing with the death of a loved one may be touching, grief is typically too universal a topic to set an applicant apart. (Typically, stories about divorce fall under this same umbrella.)

A story in which you’re the triumphant hero. In college admissions essays (and in life), there is nothing less flattering than someone droning on about their own virtue. Universities are much more interested in accepting humble, hardworking students than self-aggrandizing egomaniacs. There’s a reason why we root for the underdog in movies, or why superheroes have personal challenges despite their physical advantages. Perfection is boring, and it makes for painfully dull essays. Instead of the story of how you made the game-winning shot, tell the story of how you went from ball hog to team player and how it positively impacted your life.

What you learned from your sports win/loss. Almost every young athlete has a story of a sports loss or victory that helped define them. Unfortunately, that’s precisely the problem with picking this topic for your college essay. Admissions counselors read several variations of the same sports story several times a day. Sure, there are moral lessons to be learned from victory and failure, but these lessons are familiar and predictable. Unless you’re confident that your experience with high school sports was so unique that no one else could possibly write a similar essay, try to find a different topic.

What you learned from failure … when you didn’t really fail. When people are asked to discuss a personal weakness in a job interview, they’ll often provide a weakness that can also be interpreted as a strength. They might say they take on too many responsibilities or struggle with perfectionism, for fear of appearing too flawed to earn the position. In the same way, students are often wary of admitting their faults and failures to admissions counselors. However, counselors know their prospective students are human and prone to error. Honesty and humility are far more important than perfection. Don’t be afraid to discuss how true failure shaped you.

If this list contained a college essay topic you planned to write about, don’t despair. Admissions counselors are quick to mention that the right “angle” can make many of these topics acceptable. If you have a truly one-of-a-kind perspective on any of these issues that no one else could write, feel free to use it. The key to composing the best college essay possible is to tell a unique story that reveals something important about who you are as an individual.

• Admission Essay
• Statement of Purpose Editing
• Personal Statement Editing
• Recommendation Letter
• Motivation Letter
• Cover Letter
• Supplemental Essay
• Letter of Continued Interest
• Scholarship Essay
• Role Model Essay
• Our Editors
• College Admission Essay Examples
• College Cover Letter Examples
• College Personal Statement Examples
• Graduate Personal Statement Examples
• Graduate Statement of Purpose Examples
• MBA Essay Examples
• MBA Personal Statement Examples
• MBA Resume Examples
• MBA Recommendation Letter Examples
• Medical School Personal Statement Examples
• Medical School Recommendation Letter Examples
• Pricing Plans
• Public Health
• Dissertation
• Research Paper
• Thesis Editing
• Academic Editing
• Motivation letter
• Letter of Recommendation
• Personal Statement
• Statement of Purpose

Top Essay Cliches To Avoid When Writing

EssayEdge > Blog > Top Essay Cliches To Avoid When Writing

In everyday language, clichés are simply common expressions that are an easy way to get one’s point across. For example, saying, “He really put his foot in his mouth” is a convenient way to make the point that “He said something that he should now regret saying.”

What is acceptable in spoken language can be offensively bad in writing. Good writing must be original: You should instead always aim to state your ideas in engaging language and from a fresh perspective.

In addition to the general clichés of the English language, you have to watch out for those that are more specific to the application essay. The challenge here is that these themes have become clichés precisely because they are valuable and significant, so you do not want to ignore them. You simply have to find fresh ways to convey hackneyed ideas. The best advice is to be as specific and personal as possible, thereby emphasizing your uniqueness. The following is a list of some of the most egregious clichés, within the context of a bland statement:

• As I finished the race, I realized I had learned  the value of hard work  and appreciated the fact that I could accomplish anything  if I set my mind to it.
• Working in this atmosphere made me appreciate  the value of diversity.
• With each member contributing something valuable to our purpose, I soon recognized the  importance of teamwork.
• As the young child embraced me in gratitude, I discovered the  true value of making a difference in people’s lives.
• That summer in New York truly  broadened my horizons.

There is no way to reword the above sentences to make them significantly stronger. The problem lies in the very approach the hypothetical writer of those statements has taken. A reliance on clichés is usually indicative of superficial ideas and  telling  instead of  showing . The only way to improve upon the above sentiments would be to enrich them with concrete details and add depth using a more personal perspective.

Need help? Check out EssayEdge editing services:

We don’t even notice how many cliches we use in our everyday speech. They won’t harm our communication, but the same can’t be said of writing. Students use cliches to sound more confident and professional but achieve the reverse effect. If you plan to turn the paper in, text us a message like, “Edit my essay for me.” We’ll proofread your paper, remove all cliches and let you enjoy the work you’ve done.

Next:   Lesson Five: Intros and Conclusions

Popular Posts

June 2, 2022 How To Start a Scholarship Essay: Catch Reader’s Attention Fast

May 16, 2022 My Role Model Essay: A Few Ways to Elaborate on The Subject

May 3, 2022 How To Start a Personal Statement? | Writing Tips and Samples

Related Posts

March 1, 2023 Questions to Ask In a College Interview

June 10, 2022 How to Overcome Writer’s Block and Craft a Perfect College Essay

©2024 Student Media LLC. All rights reserved.

EssayEdge: Essay Editing & Proofreading Service.

Our mission is to prepare you for academic and career success.

•   Log In  
•   Sign Up  
• Forgot password

Unable to log in? Please clear your browser's cache and then refresh this page and try again

Reset password Please enter your email address to request a password reset.

Check your email We’ve just sent a password reset link to your email.

This information is used to create your account

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

How to Write a Non-Cliche College Essay About Sports + Examples

What’s covered:, what makes a sports essay cliche.

• How To Make Your Sports Essay Unique

Great Examples of College Essays About Sports

Where to get your college essay edited for free, or by an expert.

You’ve been brainstorming essay topics for your college applications, and you think you’ve finally found the right one: an extended metaphor likening your experience on the field with overcoming personal struggles. The problem: many other students have this same thought. 

The purpose of a college essay is to make yourself stand out as a unique individual, but when students write about sports, they often blend in. Because of that, students are usually advised to pick a different topic.

That being said, it is possible to write a non-cliche college essay about sports if you put in a little extra effort. Read along to learn how to make your sports essay different from all the other sports essays.

Sports essays are cliche when they follow a standard trajectory. Some of these trajectories include writing a story about:

• An agonizing defeat
• Forging bonds with teammates
• Overcoming adversity
• Overcoming an injury
• Refusing to quit
• Victory during a big game

Because sports essays have very similar themes and “lessons learned,” it can be difficult to make your story stand out. These trajectories also often focus too much on the sport or storyline, and not enough on the writer’s reflections and personality.

As you write your essay, try to think about what your experience says about you rather than what you learned from your experience. You are more than just one lesson you learned!

(Keep in mind that the sports essay is not the only college essay cliche. Learn about other essay cliches and how to fix them in our complete guide).

How to Make Your Sports Essay Unique

1. focus on a specific moment or reflection..

The college essay is a way for students to humanize themselves to admissions officers. You do not feel human if you are describing yourself as just another player on the field!

One important way to make your essay about you (not just about sports) is by focusing on a specific moment in time and inviting the reader to join you in that moment. Explain to the reader what it would be like to be sitting in that locker room as you questioned the values of the other players on your team. Ask your reader to sit with you on the cot in the trainer’s room as your identity was stripped away from you when they said “your body can’t take this anymore.” Bring your reader to the dinner table and involve them in your family’s conversation about how sports were affecting your mental health and your treatment of those around you.

Intense descriptions of a specific experience will evoke emotions in your reader and allow them to connect with you and feel for you.

When in doubt, avoid anything that can be covered by ESPN. On ESPN, we see the games, we see the benches, we even see the locker rooms and training rooms. Take your reader somewhere different and show them something unique.

2. Use sports to point out broader themes in your life.

The main risk when writing about sports is neglecting to write about yourself. Before you get started, think about the main values that you want to express in your sports essay. Sports are simply your avenue for telling the reader what makes you unique. 

As a test, imagine if you were a pianist. Would you be able to talk about these same values? What if you were a writer? Or a chemist? Articulating your values is the end, and sports should simply be your means.

Some values that you might want to focus on:

• Autonomy (you want to be able to set your mind to anything and achieve it on your own)
• Growth (you seek improvement constantly)
• Curiosity (you are willing to try anything once)
• Vulnerability (you aren’t afraid to fail, as long as you give it your all)
• Community (you value the feedback of others and need camaraderie to succeed)
• Craft (you think that with deliberate care, anything can be perfected)
• Responsibility (you believe that you owe something to those around you and perhaps they also owe something to you)

You can use the ESPN check again to make sure that you are using sports as an avenue to show your depth.

Things ESPN covers: how a player reacts to defeat, how injuries affect a player’s gameplay/attitude, how players who don’t normally work well together are working together on their new team.

Things ESPN doesn’t cover: the conversation that a player had with their mother about fear of death before going into a big surgery (value: family and connection), the ways that the intense pressure to succeed consumed a player to the point they couldn’t be there for the people in their life (value: supporting others and community), the body image issues that weigh on a player’s mind when playing their sport and how they overcame those (value: health and growth).

3. Turn a cliche storyline on its head.

There’s no getting around the fact that sports essays are often cliche. But there is a way to confront the cliche head-on. For example, lots of people write essays about the lessons they learned from an injury, victory, and so on, but fewer students explain how they are embracing those lessons. 

Perhaps you learned that competition is overwhelming for you and you prefer teamwork, so you switched from playing basketball to playing Dungeons & Dragons. Maybe, when your softball career ended abruptly, you had to find a new identity and that’s when you became obsessed with your flower garden and decided to pursue botany. Or maybe, you have stuck with football through it all, but your junior-year mental health struggle showed you that football should be fun and you have since started a nonprofit for local children to healthily engage with sports.

If your story itself is more cliche, try bringing readers to the present moment with you and show why the cliche matters and what it did for you. This requires a fair amount of creativity. Ensure you’re not parroting a frequently used topic by really thinking deeply to find your own unique spin.

Night had robbed the academy of its daytime colors, yet there was comfort in the dim lights that cast shadows of our advances against the bare studio walls. Silhouettes of roundhouse kicks, spin crescent kicks, uppercuts and the occasional butterfly kick danced while we sparred. She approached me, eyes narrowed with the trace of a smirk challenging me. “Ready spar!” Her arm began an upward trajectory targeting my shoulder, a common first move. I sidestepped — only to almost collide with another flying fist. Pivoting my right foot, I snapped my left leg, aiming my heel at her midsection. The center judge raised one finger. 

There was no time to celebrate, not in the traditional sense at least. Master Pollard gave a brief command greeted with a unanimous “Yes, sir” and the thud of 20 hands dropping-down-and-giving-him-30, while the “winners” celebrated their victory with laps as usual. 

Three years ago, seven-thirty in the evening meant I was a warrior. It meant standing up straighter, pushing a little harder, “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am”, celebrating birthdays by breaking boards, never pointing your toes, and familiarity. Three years later, seven-thirty in the morning meant I was nervous. 

The room is uncomfortably large. The sprung floor soaks up the checkerboard of sunlight piercing through the colonial windows. The mirrored walls further illuminate the studio and I feel the light scrutinizing my sorry attempts at a pas de bourrée, while capturing the organic fluidity of the dancers around me. “Chassé en croix, grand battement, pique, pirouette.” I follow the graceful limbs of the woman in front of me, her legs floating ribbons, as she executes what seems to be a perfect ronds de jambes. Each movement remains a negotiation. With admirable patience, Ms. Tan casts me a sympathetic glance.   

There is no time to wallow in the misery that is my right foot. Taekwondo calls for dorsiflexion; pointed toes are synonymous with broken toes. My thoughts drag me into a flashback of the usual response to this painful mistake: “You might as well grab a tutu and head to the ballet studio next door.” Well, here I am Master Pollard, unfortunately still following your orders to never point my toes, but no longer feeling the satisfaction that comes with being a third degree black belt with 5 years of experience quite literally under her belt. It’s like being a white belt again — just in a leotard and ballet slippers. 

But the appetite for new beginnings that brought me here doesn’t falter. It is only reinforced by the classical rendition of “Dancing Queen” that floods the room and the ghost of familiarity that reassures me that this new beginning does not and will not erase the past. After years spent at the top, it’s hard to start over. But surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become. In Taekwondo, we started each class reciting the tenets: honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet. 

The thing about change is that it eventually stops making things so different. After nine different schools, four different countries, three different continents, fluency in Tamil, Norwegian, and English, there are more blurred lines than there are clear fragments. My life has not been a tactfully executed, gold medal-worthy Taekwondo form with each movement defined, nor has it been a series of frappés performed by a prima ballerina with each extension identical and precise, but thankfully it has been like the dynamics of a spinning back kick, fluid, and like my chances of landing a pirouette, unpredictable. 

Why it works:

What’s especially powerful about this essay is that the author uses detailed imagery to convey a picture of what they’re experiencing, so much so that the reader is along for the ride. This works as a sports essay not only because of the language and sensory details, but also because the writer focuses on a specific moment in time, while at the same time exploring why Taekwondo is such an important part of their life.

After the emotional image is created, the student finishes their essay with valuable reflection. With the reflection, they show admissions officers that they are mature and self-aware. Self-awareness comes through with statements like “surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become” and maturity can be seen through the student’s discussion of values “honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet.” These are the kinds of comments that should find their way into a sports essay!

“Advanced females ages 13 to 14 please proceed to staging with your coaches at this time.” Skittering around the room, eyes wide and pleading, I frantically explained my situation to nearby coaches. The seconds ticked away in my head; every polite refusal increased my desperation.

Despair weighed me down. I sank to my knees as a stream of competitors, coaches, and officials flowed around me. My dojang had no coach, and the tournament rules prohibited me from competing without one.

Although I wanted to remain strong, doubts began to cloud my mind. I could not help wondering: what was the point of perfecting my skills if I would never even compete? The other members of my team, who had found coaches minutes earlier, attempted to comfort me, but I barely heard their words. They couldn’t understand my despair at being left on the outside, and I never wanted them to understand.

Since my first lesson 12 years ago, the members of my dojang have become family. I have watched them grow up, finding my own happiness in theirs. Together, we have honed our kicks, blocks, and strikes. We have pushed one another to aim higher and become better martial artists. Although my dojang had searched for a reliable coach for years, we had not found one. When we attended competitions in the past, my teammates and I had always gotten lucky and found a sympathetic coach. Now, I knew this practice was unsustainable. It would devastate me to see the other members of my dojang in my situation, unable to compete and losing hope as a result. My dojang needed a coach, and I decided it was up to me to find one. 

I first approached the adults in the dojang – both instructors and members’ parents. However, these attempts only reacquainted me with polite refusals. Everyone I asked told me they couldn’t devote multiple weekends per year to competitions. I soon realized that I would have become the coach myself.

At first, the inner workings of tournaments were a mystery to me. To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side. I learned everything from motivational strategies to technical, behind-the-scenes components of Taekwondo competitions. Though I emerged with new knowledge and confidence in my capabilities, others did not share this faith.

Parents threw me disbelieving looks when they learned that their children’s coach was only a child herself. My self-confidence was my armor, deflecting their surly glances. Every armor is penetrable, however, and as the relentless barrage of doubts pounded my resilience, it began to wear down. I grew unsure of my own abilities.

Despite the attack, I refused to give up. When I saw the shining eyes of the youngest students preparing for their first competition, I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was. The knowledge that I could solve my dojang’s longtime problem motivated me to overcome my apprehension.

Now that my dojang flourishes at competitions, the attacks on me have weakened, but not ended. I may never win the approval of every parent; at times, I am still tormented by doubts, but I find solace in the fact that members of my dojang now only worry about competing to the best of their abilities.

Now, as I arrive at a tournament with my students, I close my eyes and remember the past. I visualize the frantic search for a coach and the chaos amongst my teammates as we compete with one another to find coaches before the staging calls for our respective divisions. I open my eyes to the exact opposite scene. Lacking a coach hurt my ability to compete, but I am proud to know that no member of my dojang will have to face that problem again.

In the beginning, you might think this is another cliche sports essay about overcoming adversity. But instead, it becomes a unique statement and coming-of-age tale that reads as a suspenseful narrative. 

The author connects their experience with martial arts to larger themes in their life but manages to do so without riffing off of tried-and-true themes. Through statements like “I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was” we learn about the students values and their desire to be there for those who depend on them. 

The student also brings it full circle, demonstrating their true transformation. By using the “Same, but Different” ending technique , the student places themself in the same environment that we saw in the intro, but experiences it differently due to their actions throughout the narrative. This is very compelling!

“1…2…3…4 pirouettes! New record!” My friends cheered as I landed my turns. Pleased with my progress, I gazed down at my worn-out pointe shoes. The sweltering blisters, numbing ice-baths, and draining late-night practices did not seem so bad after all. Next goal: five turns.

For as long as I can remember, ballet, in all its finesse and glamor, had kept me driven day to day. As a child, the lithe ballerinas, donning ethereal costumes as they floated across the stage, were my motivation. While others admired Messi and Adele, I idolized Carlos Acosta, principal dancer of the Royal Ballet. 

As I devoted more time and energy towards my craft, I became obsessed with improving my technique. I would stretch for hours after class, forcing my leg one inch higher in an effort to mirror the Dance Magazine cover girls. I injured my feet and ruined pair after pair of pointe shoes, turning on wood, cement, and even grass to improve my balance as I spun. At competitions, the dancers with the 180-degree leg extensions, endless turns, and soaring leaps—the ones who received “Bravos!” from the roaring audience—further pushed me to refine my skills and perfect my form. I believed that, with enough determination, I would one day attain their level of perfection. Reaching the quadruple-pirouette milestone only intensified my desire to accomplish even more. 

My efforts seemed to have come to fruition two summers ago when I was accepted to dance with Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet at their renowned New York City summer intensive. I walked into my first session eager to learn from distinguished ballet masters and worldly dancers, already anticipating my improvement. Yet, as I danced alongside the accomplished ballerinas, I felt out of place. Despite their clean technique and professional training, they did not aim for glorious leg extensions or prodigious leaps. When they performed their turn combinations, most of them only executed two turns as I attempted four. 

“Dancers, double-pirouettes only.” 

Taken aback and confused, I wondered why our teacher expected so little from us. The other ballerinas seemed content, gracing the studio with their simple movements. 

As I grew closer with my Moscow roommates, I gradually learned that their training emphasized the history of the art form instead of stylistic tricks. Rather than show off their physical ability, their performances aimed to convey a story, one that embodied the rich culture of ballet and captured both the legacy of the dancers before them and their own artistry. As I observed my friends more intently in repertoire class, I felt the pain of the grief-stricken white swan from Swan Lake, the sass of the flirtatious Kitri from Don Quijote, and I gradually saw what I had overlooked before. My definition of talent had been molded by crowd-pleasing elements—whirring pirouettes, gravity-defying leaps, and mind-blowing leg extensions. This mindset slowly stripped me from the roots of my passion and my personal connection with ballet. 

With the Bolshoi, I learned to step back and explore the meaning behind each step and the people behind the scenes. Ballet carries history in its movements, from the societal values of the era to each choreographer’s unique flair. As I uncovered the messages behind each pirouette, kick, and jump, my appreciation for ballet grew beyond my obsession with raw athleticism and developed into a love for the art form’s emotive abilities in bridging the dancers with the audience. My journey as an artist has allowed me to see how technical execution is only the means to a greater understanding between dancer and spectator, between storyteller and listener. The elegance and complexity of ballet does not revolve around astonishing stunts but rather the evocative strength and artistry manifested in the dancer, in me. It is the combination of sentiments, history, tradition, and passion that has allowed ballet and its lessons of human connection to become my lifestyle both on and off stage.

This essay is about lessons. While the author is a dancer, this narrative isn’t really about ballet, per se — it’s about the author’s personal growth. It is purposefully reflective as the student shows a nice character arc that begins with an eager young ballerina and ends with a reflection on their past. The primary strength of this essay is the honesty and authenticity that the student approaches it with.

In the end, the student turns a cliche on its head as they embrace the idea of overcoming adversity and demonstrate how the adversity, in this case, was their own stereotypes about their art. It’s beautiful!

“Getting beat is one thing – it’s part of competing – but I want no part in losing.” Coach Rob Stark’s motto never fails to remind me of his encouragement on early-morning bus rides to track meets around the state. I’ve always appreciated the phrase, but an experience last June helped me understand its more profound, universal meaning.

Stark, as we affectionately call him, has coached track at my high school for 25 years. His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running. When I learned a neighboring high school had dedicated their track to a longtime coach, I felt that Stark deserved similar honors.

Our school district’s board of education indicated they would only dedicate our track to Stark if I could demonstrate that he was extraordinary. I took charge and mobilized my teammates to distribute petitions, reach out to alumni, and compile statistics on the many team and individual champions Stark had coached over the years. We received astounding support, collecting almost 3,000 signatures and pages of endorsements from across the community. With help from my teammates, I presented this evidence to the board.

They didn’t bite. 

Most members argued that dedicating the track was a low priority. Knowing that we had to act quickly to convince them of its importance, I called a team meeting where we drafted a rebuttal for the next board meeting. To my surprise, they chose me to deliver it. I was far from the best public speaker in the group, and I felt nervous about going before the unsympathetic board again. However, at that second meeting, I discovered that I enjoy articulating and arguing for something that I’m passionate about.

Public speaking resembles a cross country race. Walking to the starting line, you have to trust your training and quell your last minute doubts. When the gun fires, you can’t think too hard about anything; your performance has to be instinctual, natural, even relaxed. At the next board meeting, the podium was my starting line. As I walked up to it, familiar butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Instead of the track stretching out in front of me, I faced the vast audience of teachers, board members, and my teammates. I felt my adrenaline build, and reassured myself: I’ve put in the work, my argument is powerful and sound. As the board president told me to introduce myself, I heard, “runners set” in the back of my mind. She finished speaking, and Bang! The brief silence was the gunshot for me to begin. 

The next few minutes blurred together, but when the dust settled, I knew from the board members’ expressions and the audience’s thunderous approval that I had run quite a race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough; the board voted down our proposal. I was disappointed, but proud of myself, my team, and our collaboration off the track. We stood up for a cause we believed in, and I overcame my worries about being a leader. Although I discovered that changing the status quo through an elected body can be a painstakingly difficult process and requires perseverance, I learned that I enjoy the challenges this effort offers. Last month, one of the school board members joked that I had become a “regular” – I now often show up to meetings to advocate for a variety of causes, including better environmental practices in cafeterias and safer equipment for athletes.

Just as Stark taught me, I worked passionately to achieve my goal. I may have been beaten when I appealed to the board, but I certainly didn’t lose, and that would have made Stark proud.

This essay uses the idea of sports to explore a more profound topic—growing through relationships. They really embrace using sports as an avenue to tell the reader about a specific experience that changed the way they approach the world. 

The emphasis on relationships is why this essay works well and doesn’t fall into a cliche. The narrator grows not because of their experience with track but because of their relationship with their coach, who inspired them to evolve and become a leader.

Have a draft of your college essay? We’re here to help you polish it. Students can participate in a free Peer Review, or they can sign up for a paid review by CollegeVine’s experts. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to start improving your essay and your chances of acceptance!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

Which program are you applying to?

Accepted Admissions Blog

Everything you need to know to get Accepted

December 24, 2020

‘Twas the Night Before Deadlines: A Cautionary Tale of Cliches

‘Twas the night before deadlines, and all through the world,

Our consultants sat cramming, coffee brewing, brows furrowed;

Though the essays were written with effort and care,

There were still a few things that were cause for despair!

The clichés! Oh, forsake! Terrible, were they –

That all our consultants could think was “oy vey!”

The bloopers! The follies! The overused phrases –

Oh, what would the adcom say? Imagine the look on their faces!

So we cleaned and we scrubbed and we checked all the words;

We made sure that nothing sounded clichéd or absurd.

Then swift as a mouse looking for plum pie crumbs,

We sent those essays back with the click of our thumbs.

And oh, the good cheer, and ah, the delight,

To see a perfect essay with no clichés in sight!

Then with boundless cheer and some joy and some tears;

The applicants submitted their unique, shining essays!

Phew – they were in the clear!

Moral of the story: phrases and idioms come and go in waves. While it’s okay to use some popular phrasing, you want to make sure that your essay is original and not chock-full of clichés.

Take your clichés to the next level

The first time someone used “take it to the next level” in their essay, the reader probably stopped and thought – wow, that’s a great way to put it. They probably thought the same thing the second and third and even tenth time they heard it. But the hundredth time? The thousandth? It’s just not as impressive. In fact, after original phrases get used to death, they become boring, even silly, and lose their meaning.

We recently polled Accepted’s consultants and asked: “What are the most abused and misused clichés used by applicants?” When we dug out from under the flood of responses, we found the following to be the ultimate winners/losers:

• Take it to the next level
• Lend a helping hand
• Been there for me
• Want to give back
• Any phrase with “honored” in it, like, “I was honored to…”
• I was blessed with the opportunity to…
• Outside my comfort zone
• Making a difference
• Disruptive-anything
• Global-anything
• Diverse-anything
• Thinking outside the box
• Circle back
• Hit the ground running
• Rolling up my sleeves
• Finding my path / journey
• Made me the man/woman I am today
• (School and program) attracts me because it provides a strong foundation in….
• The experiential component will allow me to work on real-world problems.

When writing your essays, try to move outside your comfort zone and take your writing to the next level. You want to really make a difference and get on board with this global thinking and diverse wordification.

Yeah, we thought that would help make our point.

Does your application essay need a good, solid edit?

Take advantage of Accepted’s expert admissions consulting and editing services , whether you’re just getting started with your essays or are ready for that final cliché-abolishing polish. Our advisors are ready to help you create the most impressive essays possible!

Related Resources:

• From Example to Exemplary , a free guide to writing outstanding essays
• How to Stay Within Essay Word Limits by Reducing Verbal Verbosity
• Review Your Essays Like an Admissions Consultant: Use the Editing Funnel

About Us Press Room Contact Us Podcast Accepted Blog Privacy Policy Website Terms of Use Disclaimer Client Terms of Service

Accepted 1171 S. Robertson Blvd. #140 Los Angeles CA 90035 +1 (310) 815-9553 © 2022 Accepted

Is this too cliche of a topic for commonapp personal essay?

I’ve heard that admissions officials hate hearing the “sports injury” essay topic. But this is exactly what I want to write about.

I recently suffered a gruesome knee injury- I tore my patellar tendon, acl, and meniscus. I’ve been playing soccer my whole life and prior to the injury, I had hopes of getting a college soccer scholarship and my senior year was my final year to prove my self to college coaches. However, I realized that the injury allowed me to focus on academics and also opened the door to find a new calling, and I eventually fell in love with biology.

Would this essay bore admissions officials to death? Or would they be intrigued about how I overcame an obstacle?

I’m not sure you can shoot for “intrigued.” They’ve read this essay before.

But if it’s the essay that best portrays what you want to write, then go for it.

I think that sometimes there’s an unrealistic emphasis on “unique” essay topics. The reality is that, as a 17 year old kid, you’ve shared a lot of the same experiences as a lot of your peers. What will make your essay unique isn’t the topic you start with, but the spin you put on it.

It’s late November. I say you get at least a rough draft down on paper, then start to consider whether there are other topics that better showcase what you want to say. But get this essay written, time’s a wasting.

Most essays hinge on the quality of the writing. A gifted writer can take the most “boring” or cliche of subjects, on the surface, and make them interesting.

Look at how often the search for love has been written about in movies and in books. We never get tired of that subject if the situations and the “voice” is different, if the writing is good.

Your take on this subject may be unique and with enough polish, this essay could stand out from the rest.

One thing that may make it unique is your personal voice. Another is the internal journey that you had to make. A third might be other details that others haven’t considered that surrounded this injury.

Humor is always appreciated, including self-deprecating humor. Since humor is the hardest thing to write, run your essay past others to see if they also find it funny, if the joke comes across.

One essayist that turned “boring” subjects into fascinating essays is John McPhee–he’s written about oranges. Yep. just oranges. And tires. again, sound boring? not the way he did it. He wrote about the marble threading beneath a highway he was on. Snoooore, right? Not when he writes about it.

Another essayist that managed to capture people’s hearts and minds was E.B. White. You probably know him as the author of children’s books Stuart LIttle and Charlotte’s Web. He’s also wrote the book on HOW two write, know as Strunk and White informally. He also was an essayist for The New Yorker Magazine, probably the magazine with the best writing of any. One essay of his was called Death of a Pig. Again–doesn’t sound that interesting, right? But the way he wrote it, it’s hard not to find it compelling. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1948/01/death-pig/309203/

These authors used more space than you’re allowed in your essay, but the techniques they used might be helpful for you. They used fiction techniques to tell these true stories. 1) establish in your reader love/empathy for your main character; 2) give that character a goal; 3) and a struggle to achieve that goal; 4) either the character does or does not achieve that goal; 5) genuine emotional change from beginning status quo to end, because of the struggle.

Best of luck to you.

The advice above is good. But be careful in the way that you write and don’t try to follow the style of a literary essay. I have to say that many of the above essays, wonderful as they are, contain a quality that I believe a college essay should not contain: they ask the reader to do some of the work. In other words to be a thoughtful and engaged reader. For most writing that is fine. With masterfully written pieces like this a reader who doesn’t want to pull his/her own weight doesn’t deserve the beauty of the writing.

But I am a believer that with respect to college essays ( excerpt those written specifically to show writing skills… for a creative writing major say) the reader should not have to ANY work. It’s the writers job to do ALL the work.

I think it is a serviceable topic, and will be fine for most colleges. But it will be hard to make it stand out. It tells them how you picked your major – but it doesn’t say much about what is unique about you.

POPULAR STATES

Search sat scores, search act scores, search gpa’s, subscribe to our newsletter.

Stay informed with the latest from the CC community, delivered to you, for free.

CONNECT WITH US

© 2023 College Confidential, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

Elite College Admissions Have Turned Students Into Brands

By Sarah Bernstein

Ms. Bernstein is a playwright, a writing coach and an essayist in Brooklyn.

“I just can’t think of anything,” my student said.

After 10 years of teaching college essay writing, I was familiar with this reply. For some reason, when you’re asked to recount an important experience from your life, it is common to forget everything that has ever happened to you. It’s a long-form version of the anxiety that takes hold at a corporate retreat when you’re invited to say “one interesting thing about yourself,” and you suddenly believe that you are the most boring person in the entire world. Once during a version of this icebreaker, a man volunteered that he had only one kidney, and I remember feeling incredibly jealous of him.

I tried to jog this student’s memory. What about his love of music? Or his experience learning English? Or that time on a summer camping trip when he and his friends had nearly drowned? “I don’t know,” he said with a sigh. “That all seems kind of cliché.”

Applying to college has always been about standing out. When I teach college essay workshops and coach applicants one on one, I see my role as helping students to capture their voice and their way of processing the world, things that are, by definition, unique to each individual. Still, many of my students (and their parents) worry that as getting into college becomes increasingly competitive, this won’t be enough to set them apart.

Their anxiety is understandable. On Thursday, in a tradition known as “Ivy Day,” all eight Ivy League schools released their regular admission decisions. Top colleges often issue statements about how impressive (and competitive) their applicant pools were this cycle. The intention is to flatter accepted students and assuage rejected ones, but for those who have not yet applied to college, these statements reinforce the fear that there is an ever-expanding cohort of applicants with straight A’s and perfect SATs and harrowing camping trip stories all competing with one another for a vanishingly small number of spots.

This scarcity has led to a boom in the college consulting industry, now estimated to be a $2.9 billion business. In recent years, many of these advisers and companies have begun to promote the idea of personal branding — a way for teenagers to distinguish themselves by becoming as clear and memorable as a good tagline.

While this approach often leads to a strong application, students who brand themselves too early or too definitively risk missing out on the kind of exploration that will prepare them for adult life.

Like a corporate brand, the personal brand is meant to distill everything you stand for (honesty, integrity, high quality, low prices) into a cohesive identity that can be grasped at a glance. On its website, a college prep and advising company called Dallas Admissions explains the benefits of branding this way: “Each person is complex, yet admissions officers only have a small amount of time to spend learning about each prospective student. The smart student boils down key aspects of himself or herself into their personal ‘brand’ and sells that to the college admissions officer.”

Identifying the key aspects of yourself may seem like a lifelong project, but unfortunately, college applicants don’t have that kind of time. Online, there are dozens of lesson plans and seminars promising to walk students through the process of branding themselves in five to 10 easy steps. The majority begin with questions I would have found panic-inducing as a teenager, such as, “What is the story you want people to tell about you when you’re not in the room?”

Where I hoped others would describe me as “normal” or, in my wildest dreams, “cool,” today’s teenagers are expected to leave this exercise with labels like, Committed Athlete and Compassionate Leader or Environmentally Conscious Musician. Once students have a draft of their ideal self, they’re offered instructions for manifesting it (or at least, the appearance of it) in person and online. These range from common-sense tips (not posting illegal activity on social media) to more drastic recommendations (getting different friends).

It’s not just that these courses cut corners on self-discovery; it’s that they get the process backward. A personal brand is effective only if you can support it with action, so instead of finding their passion and values through experience, students are encouraged to select a passion as early as possible and then rack up the experience to substantiate it. Many college consultants suggest beginning to align your activities with your college ambitions by ninth grade, while the National Institute of Certified College Planners recommends students “talk with parents, guardians, and/or an academic adviser to create a clear plan for your education and career-related goals” in junior high.

The idea of a group of middle schoolers soberly mapping out their careers is both comical and depressing, but when I read student essays today, I can see that this advice is getting through. Over the past few years, I have been struck by how many high school seniors already have defined career goals as well as a C.V. of relevant extracurriculars to go with them. This widens the gap between wealthy students and those who lack the resources to secure a fancy research gig or start their own small business. (A shocking number of college applicants claim to have started a small business.) It also puts pressure on all students to define themselves at a moment when they are anxious to fit in and yet changing all the time.

In the world of branding, a word that appears again and again is “consistency.” If you are Charmin, that makes sense. People opening a roll of toilet paper do not want to be surprised. If you are a teenage human being, however, that is an unreasonable expectation. Changing one’s interests, opinions and presentation is a natural part of adolescence and an instructive one. I find that my students with scattershot résumés are often the most confident. They’re not afraid to push back against suggestions that ring false and will insist on revising their essay until it actually “feels like me.” On the other hand, many of my most accomplished students are so quick to accept feedback that I am wary of offering it, lest I become one more adult trying to shape them into an admission-worthy ideal.

I understand that for parents, prioritizing exploration can feel like a risky bet. Self-insight is hard to quantify and to communicate in a college application. When it comes to building a life, however, this kind of knowledge has more value than any accolade, and it cannot be generated through a brainstorming exercise in a six-step personal branding course online. To equip kids for the world, we need to provide them not just with opportunities for achievement, but with opportunities to fail, to learn, to wander and to change their minds.

In some ways, the college essay is a microcosm of modern adolescence. Depending on how you look at it, it’s either a forum for self-discovery or a high-stakes test you need to ace. I try to assure my students that it is the former. I tell them that it’s a chance to take stock of everything you’ve experienced and learned over the past 18 years and everything you have to offer as a result.

That can be a profound process. But to embark on it, students have to believe that colleges really want to see the person behind the brand. And they have to have the chance to know who that person is.

Sarah Bernstein is a playwright, a writing coach and an essayist.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Credit card rates
• Balance transfer credit cards
• Business credit cards
• Cash back credit cards
• Rewards credit cards
• Travel credit cards
• Checking accounts
• Online checking accounts
• High-yield savings accounts
• Money market accounts
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Car insurance
• Home buying
• Options pit
• Investment ideas
• Research reports
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• CA Privacy Notice

NPR Editor’s Critical Op-Ed Ignites Debate Over Political Bias in Journalism: ‘This Essay Has It Backwards’

• Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

A scathing op-ed from NPR veteran and current senior business editor Uri Berliner published in The Free Press on Tuesday has intensified debates over whether the publicly funded news organization has adopted a partisan lean in recent years.

In the piece , Berliner details a culture shift at the organization, in which “An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America.”

Berliner argued that NPR is plagued with an “absence of viewpoint diversity,” which he considers to be a result of leadership’s emphasis on promoting diversity and inclusion on the basis of race and sexual orientation. He also claims that he found “87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans.”

NPR editor-in-chief Edith Chapin defended the organization in response to the piece, saying she the leadership team “strongly disagree with Uri’s assessment of the quality of our journalism.”

While Chapin backed the “exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories,” she added that “None of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole.”

According to NPR media reporter David Folkenflik , several journalists inside the organization question how they can proceed with Berliner as a colleague, with concerns about whether he can be a trusted member of NPR in the aftermath of the op-ed. Additionally, Berliner did not seek NPR’s approval to publish the piece, nor did he seek comment from the organization ahead of time; though he does say in his piece that he sought to raise his concerns with leadership on several occasions.

Meanwhile, outside of the organization, debates regarding the content of Berliner’s piece have sprouted up across social media, with many coming to the defense of the storied NPR institution.

NPR editor complains abt NPR’s lack of “viewpoint diversity,” then reduces millions of listeners to a cliche: “Berliner writes that as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence Collg graduate ‘raised by a lesbian peace activist mother,’ he fits mold of an NPR fan.” https://t.co/WOXShKvYGu — Paul Farhi (@farhip) April 10, 2024

This is quite a read from a longtime NPR editor. I disagree with pretty much all of it. The network, like all news orgs, has its faults. But most of this is just arguing for more conservative-friendly coverage and lamenting progressive internal policies https://t.co/VxflKU4ohi — Steve Mullis (@stevemullis) April 9, 2024

Some argued that the shift that occurred in political coverage across the media industry was forced on institutions due to the changing nature of the Republican Party since the election of Donald Trump in 2016.

This essay has it backwards: you can't blame NPR for conservatives not listening. You have to ask why conservatives have gone down conspiracy holes (climate change, 2020 election, vaccines) & how on earth mainstream media is supposed to cater to them now? https://t.co/OU1p8QyK8H — Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 10, 2024

Is it possible — just *possible* — that the highly educated who overindex in NPR's audience might have shifted their ideological identity between 2011 and 2023? Did anything happen between those years that might cause some sort of shift in college-educated people? https://t.co/k5V7F5EQ2O — Joshua Benton (@jbenton) April 9, 2024

The core premise of Uri Berliner’s NPR piece in @TheFP is that NPR lost centrist and conservative listeners because it changed its journalism and went woke. What it doesn’t examine is the change that happened among conservatives in the same time frame. https://t.co/6mklvatwcM pic.twitter.com/ccpEQwACgh — Ben Goggin (@BenjaminGoggin) April 10, 2024

Yep. I wondered if NPR actually misreported *any* of those stories. Hindsight is always easy—we know more now than we did then. But at the time? You can only report what you know/can verify at the time. Journalists aren’t fortune tellers. — Paul Farhi (@farhip) April 10, 2024

. @davidfolkenflik is so good, especially when reporting on NPR itself. Also Berliner didn't seek comment from NPR, relied totally on straw men for his arguments, did not engage basic counterfactuals. And ~calls his coworkers affirmative action hires. https://t.co/4RfGikZeMa — Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) April 10, 2024

Some came to Berliner’s defense, including former NPR vice president for news Jeffrey Dvorkin who vouched for the changes to the organization.

I know Uri. He’s not wrong. https://t.co/9hc8XrNwNi — Jeffrey Dvorkin (@jdvorkin) April 9, 2024

This amply documented indictment of the bias at NPR could apply with equal force to countless other news organizations. https://t.co/zN4IaF0ycZ — Brit Hume (@brithume) April 9, 2024

This is really a must-read piece from NPR senior editor Uri Berliner discussing how NPR morphed from a liberal newsroom with some bias to an organization dominated by activists set on telling readers what to think and refusing to account for mistakes. https://t.co/I5a10uf9v0 — AG (@AGHamilton29) April 9, 2024

Wait wait so you're telling me that NPR's mission to become more diverse made it more homogenous and brittle and narrow? Who could have possibly foreseen this. — Sam Haselby (@samhaselby) April 9, 2024

The post NPR Editor’s Critical Op-Ed Ignites Debate Over Political Bias in Journalism: ‘This Essay Has It Backwards’ appeared first on TheWrap .

Recommended Stories

Nikola jokić, nuggets fend of timberwolves late in critical battle for no. 1 seed in western conference playoffs.

The Nuggets are now looking at a clear path for the top seed in the West for a second straight season.

Ross meets with Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer, Coach Prime’s team building & is Kentucky locking in on Scott Drew?

Dan Wetzel, Ross Dellenger & SI’s Pat Forde discuss Scott Drew being a top candidate at Kentucky, the possibility of a college football super league, the Kalen DeBoer era for Alabama football, and Deion Sanders recruiting methods

Jrue Holiday, Celtics reportedly reach agreement on 4-year, $135 million extension

Holiday is declining his $37.3 million player option for 2024-2025.

Police reportedly issue warrant for Chiefs WR Rashee Rice after multi-vehicle crash in Dallas

Rashee Rice is facing eight charges in connection with the hit-and-run crash in Texas late last month.

Hundreds of creators sign letter slamming Meta's limit on political content

If you haven't been seeing much political content on Instagram lately, there's a reason for that. Since March, Instagram and Threads have instituted a new default setting that limits political content you see from people you're not following. Hundreds of creators, convened by GLAAD and Accountable Tech, have signed an open letter demanding that Instagram make the political content limit an opt-in feature, rather than on-by-default.

Get this cordless Dyson vacuum for $130 off during Target Circle Week — the price goes up tomorrow

The lightweight V8 Origin 'picks up every single tiny piece of dust,' one fan says.

Federal funds rate: What it is and how it affects you

The federal funds rate is a rate set by the government that banks charge each other for short-term loans. Learn how the federal funds rate affects your money.

Space diversity initiative builds steam with new leadership and K-12 focused National Space Day

A growing effort to attract more women and people of color into the space industry has shared some of its first results and a new occasion to rally around: National Space Day, May 3, when thousands of students will learn that not only can they do space stuff, but they really should start now. Space Workforce 2030 is a joint effort by the Space Foundation and Aerospace Corporation, amounting to basically a promise that they — and all their 29 company partners as of now — will transparently report the demographics of their workplaces, hiring and recruitment, and work together to identify ways to bring a more diverse crowd to the notoriously homogeneous space industry. The effort also now has an executive director in Melanie Stricklan, formerly of Slingshot Space (and the Air Force), who is now leading the organization full time.

Google brings AI-powered editing tools, like Magic Editor, to all Google Photos users for free

Google Photos is getting an AI upgrade. On Wednesday, the tech giant announced that a handful of enhanced editing features previously limited to Pixel devices and paid subscribers -- including its AI-powered Magic Editor -- will now make their way to all Google Photos users for free. This expansion also includes Google's Magic Eraser, which removes unwanted items from photos; Photo Unblur, which uses machine learning to sharpen blurry photos; Portrait Light, which lets you change the light source on photos after the fact, and others.

'Better in every regard': Fans compare the Tozo HT2s to Sony headphones — they're 50% off with Amazon Prime

These headphones can cancel everything from office noise to the rumble of a subway and have a bonkers 60 hours of playback time.

Oil will top out at $95 a barrel going into summer months, says BofA analyst

Analysts believe OPEC will step in with spare capacity if prices get too high.

These states have the best and worst roads in America

An injury law firm studied government road quality data, and found almost half of the roads in some Northeast states are of unacceptable quality.

Google Photos' enhanced editing tools will no longer require a subscription

Google is opening up its enhanced editing photo tools to unpaid users.

Housing inflation still sticky in March: 'Little progress over the past nine months'

Housing costs remained elevated in March, raising concerns over when a recent easing of apartment rents will show up in the US government's inflation data —and if the softening will hold.

2024 NFL Draft: Top 10 WRs showcase deep class led by Marvin Harrison Jr.

The former Ohio State star is easily No. 1 for Yahoo Sports' Nate Tice, but that doesn't mean teams won't be happy with a bunch of these guys come draft day.

Physicist Peter Higgs, who predicted 'the God particle', has died at 94

Peter Higgs, the famous physicist who predicted the Higgs boson particle, has passed away at the age of 94. He won the Nobel Prize in 2013 for his research.

Apple's 10th-gen iPad returns to a record low of $349

Amazon is running a sale on Apple's 10th-generation iPad that cuts its price by $100.

Delta beats Q1 earnings expectations, CEO sees 'quite healthy' travel demand this spring and summer

Delta Air Lines’ first quarter results soared over expectations as demand remained resilient, driven by a steady resurgence in corporate travel.

Ugly shoes are here to stay: Ugg, Crocs thriving as consumers turn to comfort

The pandemic provided a catalyst for consumers to increasingly don casual wear to all occasions.

Collaborative Robotics is prioritizing ‘human problem solving’ over humanoid forms

It is, after all, a lot easier to generate press for robots that look and move like humans. For a while now, Collaborative Robotics founder Brad Porter has eschewed robots that look like people. As the two-year-old startup’s name implies, Collaborative Robotics (Cobot for short) is interested in the ways in which humans and robots will collaborate, moving forward.