should i write my college essay about divorce

• Expert Tips
• Start Your Journey
• Expert Insider Tips

Putting Divorce into Context in Your Applications

October 4, 2019

Applications

After years of working with students, I’ve seen that dealing with divorce as a part of the college process can be challenging for students. While many family separations are amicable or mutually chosen, many others contain feelings of loss, grief, anger and sadness . If you are a student who has faced the challenges presented by divorced parents in any way, this blog is for you!

In my last two blogs ( Part 1 / Part 2 ), I gave advice to divorced families regarding finances and the college search process . Making sure your family understands their financial plan and has a good process in place can help things go much more smoothly. However, when it comes to filling out the application, you – the student – will be faced with clearly explaining how divorce affected you.

For many students, the timing of a parents’ divorce could not be worse – when it happens during high school, it can distract you from activities, destabilize your financial support, impede on your emotional support system, and/or a hamper your studies right when grades are most important . Even if it happened several years ago, you may still be struggling with the reshuffling of your life. In these cases, it is important that you explain this to colleges. Here are three of the best ways to do that.

1) You can write about these circumstances in the additional information section of the Common Application . This section allows you to write up to 650 words “if you wish to provide details of circumstances or qualifications not reflected in the application.” When writing a summary of your parents’ divorce, keep it fairly factual (as opposed to highly emotional), and point clearly to how the circumstances of divorce impacted your application – primarily academic work and extracurricular activities. Typically, you would want an explanation for this section to be shorter than your main essay, so around 150-300 words, but you can use as much space as needed, and should, when appropriate. I recommend doing this when circumstances dictate, as you have little to lose and everything to gain, even if you don’t want to “whine” or “ask for pity” as many of my students say.

  2) Write your main Common Application essay about your parents’ divorce. I am very cautious to recommend this strategy, but it can be effective for some students. The primary problem with writing about a highly emotional or traumatic event in your life is that you haven’t always fully processed the event. This makes it very difficult to gain the needed perspective. Frequently, students end up writing with less skill, more difficulty, and less cohesion, because they are trying to explain an experience that taps deep emotions, particularly negative ones. So, how to decide if this is an appropriate topic for your essay? First, decide if writing about this event gives admissions readers unique insight into who you are. Second, ask yourself if this topic will provide better insights about who you are than all other possible topics. Third, make time to write in a journaling style, and then, get feedback from a trusted adult about whether the thoughts present you well and add to the strength of your application.

3) Finally, your school counselor recommendation is another appropriate place for colleges to learn about family circumstances that might have affected your application to college. If you have experienced challenges related to divorce, be sure to communicate those to your counselor. For example, after your parents split up, you might not have been able to visit a particular college to demonstrate interest. You could need more time for your college search , have less time to devote to extracurricular activities because of your living situation, have gone through a period of time where your academics were affected negatively, or have had to get a job. Regardless of the circumstance, be sure to set a meeting with your counselor to fully explain the circumstances and why you’d like them to be included in the letter. Your counselor can help contextualize your circumstances in the school recommendation letter or forms.

While divorce presents challenges for many students, I’ve also worked with many students who found strengths, hopes, or new opportunities because of the change of circumstance in their lives. Living through a challenge can cause you to become more mature or more flexible. Further, it can introduce more support people – such as stepparents – into your life. Look for those positives and emphasize those in your applications, so colleges will see you gaining self reliance, optimism, and strength.

Divorce Blog Part 1

Divorce Blog Part 2

Nicole has dedicated the entirety of her 20 year career to encouraging higher education opportunities. After graduating from Vanderbilt, she worked in her alma mater’s admissions office. The, she completed her PhD in Counseling so she could bring that expertise into college counseling. Nicole partnered with her former Vanderbilt colleague, Fitz Totten, to form Find The Right College and support their mission to make trustworthy advising more accessible.

Want to be ahead of the College Admission process?

Sign up to get weekly Insider Tips.

You may also like

Crucial shifts: a parent’s guide to college admissions and financial planning, finding the right college: a guide for parents of high achieving teens, navigating the college search maze: strategies for maximizing online resources, hot take: fafsa is the only game in town for making college affordable.

Session expired

Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.

Sign up to get answers and strategies to successfully position your child for the college admissions process…

Essays About Divorce: Top 5 Examples and 7 Prompts

Essays about divorce can be challenging to write; read on to see our top essay examples and writing prompts to help you get started.

Divorce is the legal termination of a marriage. It can be a messy affair, especially if it includes children. Dividing the couple’s assets also often causes chaos when divorce proceedings are in session. 

Divorce also touches and considers religion and tradition. Therefore, laws are formed depending on the country’s history, culture, and belief system.

To help you choose what you want to talk about regarding this topic, here are examples you can read to get an idea of what kind of essay you want to write.

1. Divorce Should Be Legalized in the Philippines by Ernestine Montgomery

2. to divorce or not to divorce by mark ghantous, 3. what if you mess up by manis friedman, 4. divorce: a life-changing experience by writer louie, 5. divorce’s effects on early adult relationships by percy massey, 1. the major reasons for divorce, 2. why i support divorce, 3. my divorce experience, 4. how to avoid divorce, 5. divorce and its effects on my family, 6. the consequences of divorce, 7. divorce laws around the world.

“What we need is a divorce law that defines clearly and unequivocally the grounds and terms for terminating a marriage… Divorce is a choice and we all should have the freedom to make choices… in cases where a union is more harmful than beneficial, a divorce can be benevolent and less hurtful way of severing ties with your partner.”

As the title suggests, Montgomery and his other colleagues discuss why the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country, needs to allow divorce. Then, to strengthen his argument, he mentions that Spain, the root of Christianity, and Italy, where the Vatican City is, administer divorce. 

He also mentions bills, relevant figures, and statistics to make his case in favor of divorce more compelling. Montgomery adds that people who want a divorce don’t necessarily mean they want to marry again, citing other motives such as abuse and marital failure.

“Divorce, being the final step in a detrimental marriage, brings upon the gruesome decision as to whether a married couple wishes to end that once made commitment they had for each other. As opposed to the present, divorce was rare in ancient times…”

Ghantous starts his essay with what divorce means, as not only an end of a commitment but also the termination of legal duties and other obligations of the couple to each other. He then talks about divorce in ancient times, when men had superior control over women and their children. He also mentions Caroline Norton, who fought with English family law that was clearly against women.

“So even though G‑d has rules,… laws,… divine commandments, when you sin, He tells you: ‘You messed up? Try again.’ That’s exactly how you should be married — by treating your spouse the way G‑d treats you. With that much mercy and compassion, that much kindness and consideration.”

Friedman’s essay discusses how the Torah sees marriage and divorce and explains it by recounting a scene with his daughters where they couldn’t follow a recipe. He includes good treatment and forgiveness necessary in spouses. But he also explains that God understands and doesn’t want people in a failed marriage to continue hurting. You might also be interested in these essays about commitment .

“Depending on the reasons that led up to the divorce the effects can vary… I was fourteen years old and the one child that suffered the most emotional damage… My parents did not discuss their reasons for the divorce with me, they didn’t have to, and I knew the reasons.”

The author starts the essay by citing the famous marital promise: “For better or worse, for richer or poorer,” before going in-depth regarding the divorce rate among Americans. He further expounds on how common divorce is, including its legalities. Although divorce has established legal grounds, it doesn’t consider the emotional trauma it will cause, especially for children.

Louie recounts how his life changed when his dad moved out, listing why his parents divorced. He ends the essay by saying society is at fault for commercializing divorce as if it’s the only option.

“With divorce becoming more prevalent, many researchers have taken it upon themselves to explore many aspects of this topic such as evolving attitudes, what causes divorce, and how it effects the outcome of children’s lives.”

Massey examines the causes of divorce and how it impacts children’s well-being by citing many relevant research studies. Some of the things he mentions are the connection between the child’s mental health, behavioral issues, and future relationships. Another is the trauma a child can endure during the divorce proceedings.

He also mentions that some children who had a broken family put marriage on a pedestal. As a result, they do their best to create a better future family and treat their children better.

Top 7 Prompts on Essays About Divorce

After adding to your knowledge about the subject, you’re better prepared to write essays about divorce.

There are many causes of the dissolution of marriage, and many essays have already discussed these reasons. However, you can explain these reasons differently. For example, you can focus on domestic abuse, constant fighting, infidelity, financial issues, etc.

If you want to make your piece stand out, you can include your personal experience, but only if you’re comfortable sharing your story with others. 

If you believe divorce offers a better life for all parties involved, list these benefits and explain them. Then, you can focus on a specific pro of legalizing divorce, such as getting out of an abusive relationship. 

If you want to write an essay to argue against the negative effects of divorce, here’s an excellent guide on how to write an argumentative essay .

This prompt is not only for anyone who has no or sole guardian. If you want to write about the experiences of a child raised by other people or who lives with a single parent, you can interview a friend or anyone willing to talk about their struggles and triumphs even if they didn’t have a set of parents.

Aside from reasons for divorce, you can talk about what makes these reasons more probable. Then, analyze what steps couples can take to avoid it. Such as taking couples’ therapy, weekly family get-together, etc. To make your essay more valuable, weigh in on what makes these tips effective.

Divorce is diverse and has varying effects. There are many elements to its results, and no two sets of factors are precisely the same for two families. 

If you have an intimate experience of how your immediate and extended family dynamic had been affected by divorce, narrate those affairs. Include what it made you and the others around you feel. You might also be interested in these essays about conflict .

This is a broad prompt, but you can narrow it down by focusing on an experience you or a close friend had. You can also interview someone closely related to a divorce case, such as a lawyer, reporter, or researcher. 

If you don’t have any experience with divorce, do not know anyone who had to go through it, or is more interested in its legal aspects, compiles different divorce laws for each country. You can even add a brief history for each law to make the readers understand how they came about.

Are you looking for other topics to write on? Check out our general resource of essay writing topics .

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

View all posts

• Entertainment
• Environment
• Information Science and Technology
• Social Issues

Home Essay Samples Life

Essay Samples on Divorce

Divorce is a complex and deeply personal process that involves the legal dissolution of a marriage. It marks the end of a once-promising union and triggers a range of emotions, from sadness and anger to relief and newfound independence. Understanding the intricacies of divorce and its effects is crucial when writing college essays about divorce.

How to Write College Essays About Divorce

When exploring the subject of divorce, it is important to delve into the factors that contribute to its occurrence and look at college essays about divorce examples. These can include communication issues, incompatibility, domestic abuse, financial strain, or even external factors such as societal expectations or cultural norms. Discussing these causes helps paint a comprehensive picture of the complexities surrounding divorce.

To provide a well-rounded perspective for an example of college essay about divorce, consider including statistics or research findings related to divorce rates, average durations of marriages, or common age groups affected by divorce. This data can help support your arguments and provide a factual foundation for your essay.

Additionally, it is crucial to examine the legal aspects of divorce. Different jurisdictions have specific laws and regulations governing the process, including property division, alimony, child custody, and visitation rights. Incorporating information about these legal frameworks can add depth to your essay and showcase a comprehensive understanding of divorce proceedings.

While divorce can be emotionally challenging, it also offers opportunities for personal growth and self-discovery. Discuss the psychological and emotional impacts divorce can have on individuals, as well as strategies for coping and rebuilding one’s life after the end of a marriage.

Lastly, explore the societal implications of divorce. Analyze how divorce impacts the perception of marriage, family structures, and gender roles. Consider the evolving attitudes towards divorce in different cultures and how society supports or stigmatizes individuals going through this process in the divorce essay example.

Cause and Effect of Broken Family: Exploring the Impact on Individuals and Society

A broken family, characterized by divorce, separation, or strained relationships among family members, can have profound effects on individuals and society as a whole. This essay delves into the cause and effect of broken families, and examines the far-reaching consequences on emotional well-being, academic performance,...

Growing Up with Divorced Parents: Discussing the Topic of Divorce With Your Children

“Kids need parents not part-time visitors with a checkbook” how important it is to have to a male figure and a woman figure In your childhood? Understanding that your child’s growing stages could be affected because the child's parent doesn't want involvement with them. How...

Growing Up With Divorced Parents: The Impact of Divorce on the Children

Introduction Evidence suggests that children of divorced or separated parents have a higher tendency of being diagnosed with affective disorders such as depression, in comparison to children with parents who are still together. However, the effect size of this finding is weak. The reasons that...

The Effects Of Divorce On Children

Introduction: Divorces are common; unfortunately, the children are the victims of this decision. One out of every two marriages today end up in a divorce, and many divorced families include children. Parents who are getting divorced every now and then are stressed over the impact...

The Effects Of Divorce On Children In America

Introduction Every year, over a million American youngsters endure the separation of their parents. Separation makes hopeless mischief all included, yet most particularly to the kids. In spite of the fact that it may be appeared to profit a few people in some individual cases,...

Stressed out with your paper?

Consider using writing assistance:

• 100% unique papers
• 3 hrs deadline option

The Effects Of Divorce On Children And Young Adolescents

Introduction The Star Online recorded an alarming figure in 2015 – one divorce every 10 minutes in Malaysia! According to the latest statistics released the Department of Statistics Malaysia in 28 December 2018, there are about 50,000 divorce cases per year in 2016 and 2017....

The Causes Of Divorce That Lead To The Annulment

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the major causes of divorce, psychological effects and how to cope with it. An increase in amount of U.S. couples divorcing is growing. Statistics stated in the paper is proof. The lacks of communication, physical and...

• Marriage and Family

The Causes Of Divorce And The Ruined Marriages

Divorce is becoming more common in today's society. Webster defines divorce as an act of separation. For each marriage, the reasons of divorce vary. The main reasons for divorce are lack of commitment, lack of communication, financial problems and infidelity. A lack of commitment is...

• Divorce Rate

The Causes Of Divorce: The Reason Marriage Fails

Divorce among married couples is more popular than ever in today's day and age. Webster's specified divorce is the formal breakup of a relationship. Statistics show that the major causes of divorces are: infidelity, lack of communication, lack of commitment, and financial problems. A lack...

The Causes And Effects Of Divorce

In today’s world, we are encountering a variety of social problems. From the lack of healthcare, poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, crime, unemployment, and much more. Then, there are the type of social problems that society often faces behind closed doors. For instance, one of...

Main Reasons For Divorce In The United States And How It Impacts Family

Approximately 50 percent of marriages in the United States end in separation or divorce. As many understand, this disunion brings about change, oftentimes negative. The majority of households witness increased conflicts among family members, distance, and health-related issues. The increase in division among so many...

My Personal Opinion On Why Divorce Shouldn't Be Legalized

Healthy marriages are important for couples, mental and physical health. However, based on the 2019 American Psychological Association statistics, Divorce has affected 40 to 50% of the total number of married couples all over the globe and has become one of the most prominent contemporary...

Common Social Problems Encountered In Family Life And How They Affect The Marriage

In this paper I will be addressing some common social problems a family faces. A social problem is an issue that influences a large number of individuals within a society. The social problems I will be discussing in this paper are divorce, violence, financial problems,...

• Infertility

Divorce Rates In Kenya And Means To Reduce Them

Introduction Family is the essential unit of human cooperation, accommodating both generational renewal and individual linkage to the bigger society as it has been for a huge number of years. We can therefore argue that Family is the most fundamental part of society. It is...

Divorce Process And Finances In Hennepin County

The divorce rate in Minnesota is 10% — one of the highest divorce rates in the country, government statistics reveal. Money is the leading cause of stress in relationships and has been found to be responsible for at least 21% of divorces. Married couples considering...

• Child Custody

Comparison of Cohabitation and Marriage: Advantages and Disadvantages

In our modern world, there are so many couples that are adapting to the idea of living together with their partners as an alternative to marriage or just to get a taste of how marriage is. Cohabitation and marriage are quite different in various ways...

• Cohabitation

Report on the Family Structure of the UK and Changes Within It

What are the different types of family in the UK and how common are they? Using statistical evidence discuss to what changes are occurring in the structure of families in Britain. The different types of family in the UK. Single person household It represents 29%...

Issues with Divorce in Roman Catholic Marriage

Divorce refers to putting an end to a matrimonial union, whereby, both couples may go separate ways. Christians use the Bible as a guideline when addressing issues of marriage (religiously recognized marital union) and Christian life, while in the union. In the new testament, the...

• Christian Marriage

Why Divorces Become More Frequent: Research Study

Pothen (2002), studied 200 divorced men and 200 divorced women. She found that husbands and wives had great expectations about their future partners before marriage, which were not fulfilled in marriage. Strains in their marital life started when these expectations did not meet reality. Majority...

Divorce and Its Rate: Literature Review

Brian, (2011) stated “Separation is linked with highly increased risk of so many psychological and social problems throughout the life span of a person. While experiencing the parental separation most of the family members specially children got rough reactions towards divorce during the process but...

• Literature Review

Problem of Divorce Rate in Canada and Its Effect on Children

Sadly, the world we live in today is made up of many problems and sad truths that seem to be growing faster than we can imagine, one in which we see most often in society today that is overlooked. This problem we face today is...

How Divorce Has Affected My Future Relationships

I did not grow up in a stereotypical family home with loving parents and siblings. At five years old, my parents had separated to get divorced. My mother received full custody. We moved to a neighboring city to remain close to my father. Although they...

• Family Relationships

Family and Marriage: The Rate and Percentage of Divorced

Family and marriage is a significant factor in the public arena today. A decent family structure can shape youngsters' lives as they change from youth to adulthood, anyway, a poor family structure could be the defeat of numerous kids in the present society. Numerous components...

A Smart Exit Strategy Before Initiating The Divorce Process

Of all the financially draining and time-consuming legal hassles you can possibly encounter in your lifetime, divorce is among the most difficult. Unfortunately, divorce is a cold reality that many couples must face when their idealistic marriage fantasies go wrong. However, the best thing you...

Divorce and Custody: Sources of Information That Can Support Your Case

Electronically stored Information is increasingly a focus in divorce and child custody cases. Discovered evidence can be used to support or refute legal claims including infidelity, income and spousal/child abuse or neglect. However, this evidence must be handled correctly or you risk having it rejected...

Causes of Divorce Cases in Malaysia and How to Avoid Them Increasing

There are a lot of divorce cases happened in Malaysia. According to Malay Mail. (2014, March 3). The divorce cases have dramatically increased in only eight years from 2004. In 2012, 56,760 separations were recorded, which is equivalent to a marriage separate every 10 minutes....

Parents' Divorce & Its Impact On Children

Divorce is portrayed as the authentic end of a marriage, anyway in its bona fide sense there is fundamentally more to it than essentially the complete of a relationship. Nowadays various social associations end in divorce, and shockingly the lion's share of them end at...

• Parent-Child Relationship

Some Hardships In Human Relations

For a great deal of untouchables who don't know there is a tremendous measure of reason that causes this tormented condition. Infer a 2006 review by DivorceMagazine.com that asked scrutinizes what had caused their parcel or separation, I found that unfaithfulness or extramarital issue is...

• Relationship

Examining Injustice in Alimony Laws on Examples of Divorce Cases in Quebec

In Canada, the first ever official divorce laws were adopted in 1960. Back then, marriage was the norm for couples. However, nowadays, couples tend not to get married and opt for common law unions. Despite this situation, spousal support laws haven’t been changed. This essay...

Best topics on Divorce

1. Cause and Effect of Broken Family: Exploring the Impact on Individuals and Society

2. Growing Up with Divorced Parents: Discussing the Topic of Divorce With Your Children

3. Growing Up With Divorced Parents: The Impact of Divorce on the Children

4. The Effects Of Divorce On Children

5. The Effects Of Divorce On Children In America

6. The Effects Of Divorce On Children And Young Adolescents

7. The Causes Of Divorce That Lead To The Annulment

8. The Causes Of Divorce And The Ruined Marriages

9. The Causes Of Divorce: The Reason Marriage Fails

10. The Causes And Effects Of Divorce

11. Main Reasons For Divorce In The United States And How It Impacts Family

12. My Personal Opinion On Why Divorce Shouldn’t Be Legalized

13. Common Social Problems Encountered In Family Life And How They Affect The Marriage

14. Divorce Rates In Kenya And Means To Reduce Them

15. Divorce Process And Finances In Hennepin County

• Career Goals
• Personal Experience
• Personality
• Affordable Housing
• Actions Speak Louder Than Words
• Student Loan Debt

Need writing help?

You can always rely on us no matter what type of paper you need

*No hidden charges

100% Unique Essays

Absolutely Confidential

Money Back Guarantee

By clicking “Send Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails

You can also get a UNIQUE essay on this or any other topic

Thank you! We’ll contact you as soon as possible.

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, getting college essay help: important do's and don’ts.

College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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!”

152 Brilliant Divorce Essay Topics & Examples

For those who are studying law or social sciences, writing about divorce is a common task. Separation is a complicated issue that can arise from many different situations and lead to adverse outcomes. In this article we gathered an ultimate list of topics about divorce and gathered some tips to when working on the paper.

College Essay 101

Much dreaded and oft misunderstood, the college essay is an essential component of your admissions package – and for good reason. The college essay (or personal statement) is your opportunity to speak directly to the admissions committee in your own voice. It allows you to communicate what is most important and integral to YOU, and in doing so, what makes you different from the other applicants.

This guide provides a broad overview of everything you need to know to write a strong college essay. We will primarily be addressing the Common App Personal Statement, which is the main application essay used by over 800 colleges. However, these same principles apply to all of the essays you may be asked to write for your applications.

How important is the college essay?

The college essay is very important. Some competitive universities now base 50% of admissions on what you write in application essays. Nowadays, many applicants have perfect grades, test scores, and a score of impressive extracurricular activities on their resume, but a great college essay allows you to stand out from the crowd.

College Essay Format

How long should a college essay be.

The general rule of the thumb is that the college essay (common app personal statement) should be around 500 words, and no more than 650. Concise and powerful is always preferable to long and rambling. Remember, admissions officers are reading thousands of essays each application cycle. You don’t want to lose their interest by writing an overly long essay.

How many words is a college essay?

Between 400 and 650 words. Aim for 500.

College Essay Topics

What are good college essay topics.

Here’s the thing: your college essay essay can be about literally anything, providing you present the topic in an engaging and original way. There is a famous college essay about shopping at Costco , of all things.

A good topic for your essay should also be something that is personal to you (It’s called the “personal statement” for a reason). A common mistake students make is to write an essay about something that interests them, which may be very interesting and engaging, but fail to relate it back to themselves and their experience.

What are the most common college essay topics?

If you’re asking this question, you’re not thinking about the essay in the right way. A good essay topic should not be something “common.” Rather, the best essay topic is one that is original and unique to you.

What college essay topics to avoid?

It is commonly said that students should avoid “the 5 Ds” when selecting a college essay topic: Death, Divorce, Disease (including Depression), Drugs, and Dating . This is not to say that these topics are not important or worthy of being written about. The problem is many students fail to realize just how common they are as inevitable, albeit difficult components of the human experience. Your parents’ divorce, the death of your grandfather, or your addiction problem are no doubt important to your personal story, but they are not unique to you. When it comes to any of the 5 D’s, the admissions committee has almost certainly seen it before.

This leads to the larger and more important point. When it comes to the college essay, the main rule is to avoid the cliché . It is paramount that your essay be original and unique to you. So in theory, you could write your essay about any of the 5 Ds, provided you approach it from a new angle that the admissions committee has never seen before. This is easier said than done, but it is nonetheless true that an original voice and perspective can transcend even the most commonplace subject matter.

There are still some topics and themes that should generally be avoided, either because they verge into the realm of cliché or may potentially put off the admissions committee:

• Going on a service trip abroad and “discovering poverty.”
• Illegal activities or anything that shows compromised judgment - you don’t want to be seen as a liability by schools.
• The 5 D’s - Death, Divorce, Disease (including Depression), Drugs, and Dating.
• The word “passion.” You should still write about your passions, but show us it’s your passion instead of telling us.

Check out this artcile for more information on college essay do’s and don’t .

College Essay Writing Tips

What makes a great college essay.

A great college essay should be engaging, personal, concise, and well-written.

College essay expert Justin Taylor sums up the essential component of a successful college essay with the acronym WOW : Want, Originality, and Wisdom.

Want - Colleges are interested in learning about what motivates you. What do you love more than anything? What is the source of your genuine enthusiasm and drive? Your core “want” will be the driving force behind your college essay.

Originality - Colleges want to hear your authentic voice come through in your essay. Write about what genuinely interests you, about genuine experiences you’ve had, and be your genuine self. Don’t try to be someone you aren’t, or try to sound “impressive.” Remember, the admissions committee is trying to get to know YOU. If you stay true to yourself, you can’t help but be original.

Wisdom - All great college essays have an “ah-ha” moment (or multiple!). What have you learned from your experiences, good and bad? What do your interests and passions reveal about your essential self? The personal statement is an exercise in self-reflection. Colleges want to see that you are someone who is continually learning and growing.

For more information on how to write a WOW college essay , check out our article.

How to come up with a college essay topic?

Coming up with the right topic for your essay is probably the most important part of the process, and also the hardest. How can you possibly sum up your entire being in 500 words?

One way to start is to look at the prompts provided by the Common App .

These prompts may trigger some ideas for a topic, but don’t worry too much about answering any of them directly. There is still the last prompt that permits you to write about pretty much anything that’s important to you. If none of the prompts speak to you, try answering these questions for yourself and see what you come up with:

• What are your passions, big and small? What do you (or could you) stay up until 4am (or get out of bed at 4am) to do, nerd out about, perform, study, build, create?
• What daily/weekly/monthly rituals and routines do you enjoy to relax or connect to yourself? Be as specific as possible. “Journaling” is okay. “Journaling in the back of my car in the rain” is much better. “Talk to my friends” doesn’t say enough. “Talking to my friend Susie at the end of the week” is better. (do not put “veg out” activities like play video games, tik tok, watch TV/youtube, eat snacks, and sit on the couch) Get to 10.
• List 10 people who or situations that challenged you. Be honest. Tell me what you learned from the challenge when you answer “because.” Omit siblings, divorces, service trips, and the pandemic.
• List your 10 favorite places and/or objects (that are not your car or phone). Be specific. If it's your friend’s house, what room? If it’s your bedroom, what part of your bedroom? When you answer “because,” include 1 story about that place or object.

If you complete this exercise, you’re bound to come up with something to explore deeper. This is also a great way to brainstorm topics for the many supplemental essays other than the personal statement you will be asked to write for your applications.

How to start a college essay?

We always recommend that students begin writing their essay the summer before senior year. Get the essay done early so there’s one less thing to worry about in the fall, when you’ll also have to juggle normal school, standardized tests, and the rest of your application essays.

Once you’ve landed on a topic, write as much as you can without editing. Aim for 500 + words. This is the initial thought dump that will provide the raw material you can then shape into a finished product. It’s important to remember that it is very normal to write multiple drafts of your college essay, and maybe even change your topic a few times before landing on one that works. Don’t let being a perfectionist prevent you from getting started.

Read our article for more tips on how to start your essay .

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Only you can write your essay, but it’s very common for students to get help from expert advisors who know what the admissions committees are looking for. IVY’s college essay tutors have helped countless students write smash-hit college essays, resulting in multiple offer letters from their top schools. They can help you come up with a great topic and make sure your final draft is hitting all the right notes.

We also offer an intensive College Essay Bootcamp . Work with one our expert essay coaches and complete a polished first draft in just one week!

NEED HELP WITH YOUR ESSAY?

Application essays now make up more than 50% of admissions criteria! Ready to write an outstanding college essay coached by one of our world-class tutors? Get the essay done.

Related Blog Posts

How to Write Your College Essay About Divorced Parents

When you plan to write your college essay about divorced parents, you may be concerned about the practicality and appropriateness of the topic. This essay topic seems to be something that a lot of people ask about. Usually, they ask this:

“Is it okay to write my college essay about divorced parents?”

Here’s our honest opinion: writing your college essay about divorced parents is okay if –and only if– it demonstrates that you are a wise investment to the university ROI-wise.

Okay, so that sounds sort of weird, right? Why not give a straightforward “yes” or “no” answer? What the heck is an “ROI”? What does any of this even mean?

Well, as admissions experts, we’ve seen how the college admissions process can be much more complicated than that. The line between a good essay topic that can sway the admissions decision from rejected to accepted –or accepted to rejected– is very thin. There are no cut-and-dry formulas that can guarantee acceptance or rejection. However, there is a fundamental mindset you should adopt when writing your college essay about divorced parents.

Think of the admissions process from a utilitarian perspective. Remember: at the end of the day, you are sending your applications and transcripts because they are tools to help the university screen you. The admissions office has a duty of screening your value as a candidate to their university. You can choose to write your college essay about divorced parents as long as you show that you are a good return of investment (ROI) to the school. That means the school should have a good reason for reserving a spot for you in their institution, investing money on you, spending professor time on you, and accommodating you.

You need to show that your college essay about divorced parents makes you a great candidate for that.

Therefore, the question should not be “can I write my college essay about divorced parents”. Instead, it should be, “how can I write my college essay about divorced parents in a way that makes me the best asset to the school?”

Sounds difficult, right? “What if they think I’m too whiny?” “What if it doesn’t make me seem strong?”

Trust us. There are some fantastic college essays about divorced parents that we’ve seen and edited. Some of these essays managed to help students get into fantastic schools like Berkeley and USC. We’ll show you how to do exactly that below.

Table of Contents:

The Anatomy of a Good College Essay About Divorced Parents.

How to avoid being cliché., demonstrating value as a candidate in your college essay., the danger of mental instability and unsafe family background..

There are many things that make a good college essay. All college essays must demonstrate some value to the admissions office, and show how you are someone worth investing in. However, the anatomy of a college essay about divorced parents can differ.

We’ve deconstructed the parts that make up a good essay about this topic. Here is a general outline of what you should have.

• A strong hook that stands out from the rest of the sob stories.
• An introduction that reveals some of what happened with the divorce.
• A deeper articulation and description of what exactly that felt like.
• A section covering the insinuation behind what had happened.
• Demonstrating how you have grown or surpassed the obstacles of divorce.
• How does this make you a great candidate for the school.

We understand that the college admissions essays are not always long enough to contain all six of these sections. Sometimes you’ll be limited in your word count, and have to make sacrifices along the way. Or, you’ll have to make things shorter.

One of the things you should definitely have in your college essay, no matter the topic, is at least some insinuation –whether implied or written clearly in a single paragraph– about why your experience makes you a good fit for the school (i.e. why you’re worth investing in).

One of the dangers of talking about family problems in your college essay is writing something that comes across as cliché.

With how competitive college admissions processes are in the past few years –and how they’re getting harder with every passing year– it is critical that you have a method of standing out amongst the crowd more now than ever before. Should you write an essay that sounds cliché, you won’t be able to stand out as well. The college admissions essays are an asset. They are the only section in your whole college application that gives you the chance to talk your way into college outside of measurements like GPAs and test scores. If your essay sounds too much like what others write, you won’t be able to capitalize on the essay section as much as you could have to differentiate yourself from the rest.

So, how does one avoid being cliché when writing their college essay about divorced parents?

The first order of business is to recognize that despite many applicants who also have divorced parents, your experience is different from the rest. You may have gone through a similar event in your life along with others, but your experience and manner of processing the emotions are different. Let’s look at an example.

• Dario: Mother divorced father due to the father’s hot temper. Dario’s big takeaway is his lack of a father figure, and learning to cope with that.
• Anatoly: Mother divorced father due to the father’s hot temper. Anatoly’s big takeaway is his trust issues due to feeling abandoned by both family members.

Notice how both applicants have something similar in their experience? Just because they experienced something similar does not mean they will be affected the same way. Thus, just because someone has a similar topic to your essay does not mean it will immediately be cliché. Your experiences and emotional struggles are unique. Therefore, to avoid being cliché, you need to write in detail about what your experience was like.

If your experience made you feel more lost due to lack of a parental structure, you should be specific about those feelings. Perhaps your experience was different because said feelings made focusing on school difficult for you; however, you managed to learn how to cope and succeed academically despite the familial struggles.

However it is you plan to make your college essay stand out amongst the rest of the applicants writing about family divorce, you should make sure that it is hyper specific about its details. If you do not know whether you’ve written your college essay well enough, consider scheduling a free consultation with us over the phone . We will get back to you within 24 hours.

This is going to be the most important part of writing your college essay about divorced parents.

As we said in the beginning of this article guide, the college admissions process boils down to a calculation of whether you are a good candidate ROI-wise. That means that the essays need to frame you as someone who is a wise investment. Think to yourself: why would the university you’re applying for want to bother investing their time, money, and resources giving you an education?

There are a number of ways you can answer this. I’ve listed a few below.

• Accepting you as a student would give the university good press.
• Accepting you as a student would revivify a part of the school that needs development. (not enough people of color, a stem culture that needs more business acumen, etc)
• Accepting you as a student would greatly contribute to the school’s department which you’re applying for.
• Accepting you as a student would improve the overall sociability of the school, thereby improving the experience of other students and creating a positive ripple effect.

Okay, now let’s take a look at how we’re going to write a college essay while demonstrating our value as a worthy candidate to the university. Think about the topic of being a child of divorced parents. What was your experience like? What did it do to you as a result? In what ways have you grown and developed as a person over time? Is there a way that growth experience can be translated to your future experience at university? In other words, think in this order:

That last step is the crux of your execution. You need to show that the lessons you’ve learned or the experiences you’ve developed from your parent’s divorce reveals some strength or skill applicable to the school.

So, let’s say that you want to write about your relationship with your family turning sour after a messy family divorce. You’e realized your mother had been keeping an affair with your father. This has inexorably ruined your relationship with women as a whole, and you’ve struggled to have a healthy relationship that views women in a positive light without judgment. Thus, you’ve gone on a personal journey with your father to rekindle your relationship with trusting women as a whole. Through this, you’ve discovered critical feminist theory, and had constructive discussions with people who were willing to have uncomfortable conversations with you about rekindling your trust issues with women. Today, you are someone who champions a hybrid of feminist critique as an antidote to negative toxic viewpoints of women. You also hope to use these philosophies to help other struggling men who feel that they have developed a strained relationship with the opposite sex.

This is a red flag that you should be careful about.

When writing your college essay about divorced parents, you should consider the possibility of a Sword of Damocles. Whilst writing this essay topic, the admissions officers may have the idea that a broken family due to divorced parents can lead to mental instability and unsafe conditions at the back of their mind.

With the rise of mental health issues amongst students, the admissions offices at universities must take extra consideration when tackling issues such as mental health. In particular, they have to be more careful now than ever before about letting in students who they believe may be a threat to the community due to mental instability. Therefore, it is imperative that you establish in the essay that despite having a family of divorced parents, you are in no way potentially posing an issue to the school.

That means reassuring that your academic performance is unaffected, and in the future you will be safe and secure with no extraneous issues.

If you are struggling to write a good college essay about divorced parents, you may want to consider speaking with a professional college essay editor and advisor. Contact us for a free consultation. We will get back to you within 24 hours, and can provide you with a free review + advising on your application essay.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

College Essay Editing Services From Professionals

Sign up for a free 30-minute phone consultation. we'll get back to you within 24 hours.

How to Write Your College Essay: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide

Getting ready to start your college essay? Your essay is very important to your application — especially if you’re applying to selective colleges.

Become a stronger writer by reviewing your peers’ essays and get your essay reviewed as well for free.

We have regular livestreams during which we walk you through how to write your college essay and review essays live.

College Essay Basics

Just getting started on college essays? This section will guide you through how you should think about your college essays before you start.

• Why do essays matter in the college application process?
• What is a college application theme and how do you come up with one?
• How to format and structure your college essay

Before you move to the next section, make sure you understand:

How a college essay fits into your application

What a strong essay does for your chances

How to create an application theme

Learn the Types of College Essays

Next, let’s make sure you understand the different types of college essays. You’ll most likely be writing a Common App or Coalition App essay, and you can also be asked to write supplemental essays for each school. Each essay has a prompt asking a specific question. Each of these prompts falls into one of a few different types. Understanding the types will help you better answer the prompt and structure your essay.

• How to Write a Personal Statement That Wows Colleges
• Personal Statement Essay Examples
• How to Write a Stellar Extracurricular Activity Essay
• Extracurricular Essay Examples
• Tips for Writing a Diversity College Essay
• Diversity Essay Examples
• Tips for Writing a Standout Community Service Essay
• How to Write the “Why This Major” Essay
• How to Write a “Why This Major” Essay if You’re Undecided
• How to write the “Why This College” Essay
• How to Research a College to Write the “Why This College” Essay
• Why This College Essay Examples
• How to Write The Overcoming Challenges Essay
• Overcoming Challenges Essay Examples

Identify how each prompt fits into an essay type

What each type of essay is really asking of you

How to write each essay effectively

The Common App essay

Almost every student will write a Common App essay, which is why it’s important you get this right.

• How to Write the Common App Essay
• Successful Common App Essay Examples
• 5 Awesome College Essay Topics + Sample Essays
• 11 Cliché College Essay Topics + How to Fix Them

How to choose which Common App prompts to answer

How to write a successful Common App essay

What to avoid to stand out to admissions officers

Supplemental Essay Guides

Many schools, especially competitive ones, will ask you to write one or more supplemental essays. This allows a school to learn more about you and how you might fit into their culture.

These essays are extremely important in standing out. We’ve written guides for all the top schools. Follow the link below to find your school and read last year’s essay guides to give you a sense of the essay prompts. We’ll update these in August when schools release their prompts.

See last year’s supplemental essay guides to get a sense of the prompts for your schools.

Essay brainstorming and composition

Now that you’re starting to write your essay, let’s dive into the writing process. Below you’ll find our top articles on the craft of writing an amazing college essay.

• Where to Begin? 3 Personal Essay Brainstorming Exercises
• Creating the First Draft of Your College Application Essay
• How to Get the Perfect Hook for Your College Essay
• What If I Don’t Have Anything Interesting To Write About In My College Essay?
• 8 Do’s and Don’t for Crafting Your College Essay
• Stuck on Your College Essay? 8 Tips for Overcoming Writer’s Block

Understand how to write a great hook for your essay

Complete the first drafts of your essay

Editing and polishing your essay

Have a first draft ready? See our top editing tips below. Also, you may want to submit your essay to our free Essay Peer Review to get quick feedback and join a community of other students working on their essays.

• 11 Tips for Proofreading and Editing Your College Essay
• Getting Help with Your College Essay
• 5 DIY Tips for Editing Your College Essay
• How Long Should Your College Essay Be?
• Essential Grammar Rules for Your College Apps
• College Essay Checklist: Are You Ready to Submit?

Proofread and edited your essay.

Had someone else look through your essay — we recommend submitting it for a peer review.

Make sure your essay meets all requirements — consider signing up for a free account to view our per-prompt checklists to help you understand when you’re really ready to submit.

Advanced College Essay Techniques

Let’s take it one step further and see how we can make your college essay really stand out! We recommend reading through these posts when you have a draft to work with.

• 10 Guidelines for Highly Readable College Essays
• How to Use Literary Devices to Enhance Your Essay
• How to Develop a Personalized Metaphor for Your College Applications

7-Week SSP & 2-Week Pre-College Program are still accepting applications until April 10, or earlier if all course waitlists are full. 4-Week SSP Application is closed.

Celebrating 150 years of Harvard Summer School. Learn about our history.

12 Strategies to Writing the Perfect College Essay

College admission committees sift through thousands of college essays each year. Here’s how to make yours stand out.

Pamela Reynolds

When it comes to deciding who they will admit into their programs, colleges consider many criteria, including high school grades, extracurricular activities, and ACT and SAT scores. But in recent years, more colleges are no longer considering test scores.

Instead, many (including Harvard through 2026) are opting for “test-blind” admission policies that give more weight to other elements in a college application. This policy change is seen as fairer to students who don’t have the means or access to testing, or who suffer from test anxiety.

So, what does this mean for you?

Simply that your college essay, traditionally a requirement of any college application, is more important than ever.

A college essay is your unique opportunity to introduce yourself to admissions committees who must comb through thousands of applications each year. It is your chance to stand out as someone worthy of a seat in that classroom.

A well-written and thoughtful essay—reflecting who you are and what you believe—can go a long way to separating your application from the slew of forgettable ones that admissions officers read. Indeed, officers may rely on them even more now that many colleges are not considering test scores.

Below we’ll discuss a few strategies you can use to help your essay stand out from the pack. We’ll touch on how to start your essay, what you should write for your college essay, and elements that make for a great college essay.

Be Authentic

More than any other consideration, you should choose a topic or point of view that is consistent with who you truly are.

Readers can sense when writers are inauthentic.

Inauthenticity could mean the use of overly flowery language that no one would ever use in conversation, or it could mean choosing an inconsequential topic that reveals very little about who you are.

Use your own voice, sense of humor, and a natural way of speaking.

Whatever subject you choose, make sure it’s something that’s genuinely important to you and not a subject you’ve chosen just to impress. You can write about a specific experience, hobby, or personality quirk that illustrates your strengths, but also feel free to write about your weaknesses.

Honesty about traits, situations, or a childhood background that you are working to improve may resonate with the reader more strongly than a glib victory speech.

Grab the Reader From the Start

You’ll be competing with so many other applicants for an admission officer’s attention.

Therefore, start your essay with an opening sentence or paragraph that immediately seizes the imagination. This might be a bold statement, a thoughtful quote, a question you pose, or a descriptive scene.

Starting your essay in a powerful way with a clear thesis statement can often help you along in the writing process. If your task is to tell a good story, a bold beginning can be a natural prelude to getting there, serving as a roadmap, engaging the reader from the start, and presenting the purpose of your writing.

Focus on Deeper Themes

Some essay writers think they will impress committees by loading an essay with facts, figures, and descriptions of activities, like wins in sports or descriptions of volunteer work. But that’s not the point.

College admissions officers are interested in learning more about who you are as a person and what makes you tick.

They want to know what has brought you to this stage in life. They want to read about realizations you may have come to through adversity as well as your successes, not just about how many games you won while on the soccer team or how many people you served at a soup kitchen.

Let the reader know how winning the soccer game helped you develop as a person, friend, family member, or leader. Make a connection with your soup kitchen volunteerism and how it may have inspired your educational journey and future aspirations. What did you discover about yourself?

Show Don’t Tell

As you expand on whatever theme you’ve decided to explore in your essay, remember to show, don’t tell.

The most engaging writing “shows” by setting scenes and providing anecdotes, rather than just providing a list of accomplishments and activities.

Reciting a list of activities is also boring. An admissions officer will want to know about the arc of your emotional journey too.

Try Doing Something Different

If you want your essay to stand out, think about approaching your subject from an entirely new perspective. While many students might choose to write about their wins, for instance, what if you wrote an essay about what you learned from all your losses?

If you are an especially talented writer, you might play with the element of surprise by crafting an essay that leaves the response to a question to the very last sentence.

You may want to stay away from well-worn themes entirely, like a sports-related obstacle or success, volunteer stories, immigration stories, moving, a summary of personal achievements or overcoming obstacles.

However, such themes are popular for a reason. They represent the totality of most people’s lives coming out of high school. Therefore, it may be less important to stay away from these topics than to take a fresh approach.

Explore Harvard Summer School’s College Programs for High School Students

Write With the Reader in Mind

Writing for the reader means building a clear and logical argument in which one thought flows naturally from another.

Use transitions between paragraphs.

Think about any information you may have left out that the reader may need to know. Are there ideas you have included that do not help illustrate your theme?

Be sure you can answer questions such as: Does what you have written make sense? Is the essay organized? Does the opening grab the reader? Is there a strong ending? Have you given enough background information? Is it wordy?

Write Several Drafts

Set your essay aside for a few days and come back to it after you’ve had some time to forget what you’ve written. Often, you’ll discover you have a whole new perspective that enhances your ability to make revisions.

Start writing months before your essay is due to give yourself enough time to write multiple drafts. A good time to start could be as early as the summer before your senior year when homework and extracurricular activities take up less time.

Read It Aloud

Writer’s tip : Reading your essay aloud can instantly uncover passages that sound clumsy, long-winded, or false.

Don’t Repeat

If you’ve mentioned an activity, story, or anecdote in some other part of your application, don’t repeat it again in your essay.

Your essay should tell college admissions officers something new. Whatever you write in your essay should be in philosophical alignment with the rest of your application.

Also, be sure you’ve answered whatever question or prompt may have been posed to you at the outset.

Ask Others to Read Your Essay

Be sure the people you ask to read your essay represent different demographic groups—a teacher, a parent, even a younger sister or brother.

Ask each reader what they took from the essay and listen closely to what they have to say. If anyone expresses confusion, revise until the confusion is cleared up.

Pay Attention to Form

Although there are often no strict word limits for college essays, most essays are shorter rather than longer. Common App, which students can use to submit to multiple colleges, suggests that essays stay at about 650 words.

“While we won’t as a rule stop reading after 650 words, we cannot promise that an overly wordy essay will hold our attention for as long as you’d hoped it would,” the Common App website states.

In reviewing other technical aspects of your essay, be sure that the font is readable, that the margins are properly spaced, that any dialogue is set off properly, and that there is enough spacing at the top. Your essay should look clean and inviting to readers.

End Your Essay With a “Kicker”

In journalism, a kicker is the last punchy line, paragraph, or section that brings everything together.

It provides a lasting impression that leaves the reader satisfied and impressed by the points you have artfully woven throughout your piece.

So, here’s our kicker: Be concise and coherent, engage in honest self-reflection, and include vivid details and anecdotes that deftly illustrate your point.

While writing a fantastic essay may not guarantee you get selected, it can tip the balance in your favor if admissions officers are considering a candidate with a similar GPA and background.

Write, revise, revise again, and good luck!

Experience life on a college campus. Spend your summer at Harvard.

Explore Harvard Summer School’s College Programs for High School Students.

About the Author

Pamela Reynolds is a Boston-area feature writer and editor whose work appears in numerous publications. She is the author of “Revamp: A Memoir of Travel and Obsessive Renovation.”

How Involved Should Parents and Guardians Be in High School Student College Applications and Admissions?

There are several ways parents can lend support to their children during the college application process. Here's how to get the ball rolling.

Harvard Division of Continuing Education

The Division of Continuing Education (DCE) at Harvard University is dedicated to bringing rigorous academics and innovative teaching capabilities to those seeking to improve their lives through education. We make Harvard education accessible to lifelong learners from high school to retirement.

Is it okay to write about divorce in a college essay?

What college essay topics to avoid? It is commonly said that students should avoid “the 5 Ds” when selecting a college essay topic: Death, Divorce, Disease (including Depression), Drugs, and Dating. This is not to say that these topics are not important or worthy of being written about.

Can I write my college essay about my parents divorce?

You can choose to write your college essay about divorced parents as long as you show that you are a good return of investment (ROI) to the school.

What should you avoid in a college essay?

• Inappropriate Topics.
• A Rehash of Your Activities List and Transcripts.
• Relationships, Romance, and Breakups.
• Writing About Your Hero.
• The Sports Story.
• Highly Personal Topics.
• Controversial Topics: Politics, Religion, and More.

Is it okay to write about depression in a college essay?

It is okay to write about mental illness and Depression in your college essay as long as it proves that you’re a suitable student. Thus, you should be asking yourself, “how does my experience with mental illness or Depression make me a strong candidate?”

What are good topics to write about for a college essay?

• Prompt #1: Share your story.
• Prompt #2: Learning from obstacles.
• Prompt #3: Challenging a belief.
• Prompt #4: Solving a problem.
• Prompt #5: Personal growth.
• Prompt #6: What captivates you?
• Prompt #7: Topic of your choice.
• Describe a person you admire.

Can you talk about drugs in a college essay?

Likewise, if a story of addiction and recovery is an essential part of your past, it may be a worthy topic. However, students should never mention casual use of drugs or alcohol. The same goes for any illegal acts. It sounds obvious enough, but you’d be surprised!

What are the most overused college essay topics?

• Résumé of your life and achievements.
• Sports injury, challenge, or success.
• Immigrant story.
• Tragedy – death, divorce, abuse.
• Working hard in a challenging class.
• Someone you admire (a person you know or historical figure)
• Volunteer trip.

How do I make my college essay stand out?

• Write about something that’s important to you.
• Don’t just recount—reflect!
• Being funny is tough.
• Start early and write several drafts.
• No repeats.
• Answer the question being asked.
• Have at least one other person edit your essay.
• Test Your College Knowledge.

Can you talk about mental health in college essay?

Vinik says that mental health problems should only be shared in the essay if the college would not be able to understand the applicant without knowing about this part of her. Generally, he discourages selecting this as a primary topic.

Should I write about trauma in my college essay?

Traumatic or otherwise difficult experiences do NOT have to be off the table for your college application essays. They are legitimate subjects (depending on the essay prompt, of course; it has to make sense as a response to the particular question).

Should you talk about ADHD in college essay?

Declare Your Teen’s ADHD “Students should describe, in their application essay or letter to the admissions office, how they overcame their academic woes and achieved better grades, once their ADHD was properly treated,” Quinn says.

Is writing about anxiety a good college essay?

Recently, I’ve noticed a concerning uptick in the number of students asking whether it’s appropriate for them to write about mental health issues, most frequently ADD and/or anxiety, in their college applications. So the short answer: don’t do it.

What should I not write about in my college essay 2021?

• A Litany of Your Academic and/or Extracurricular Achievements.
• Experimental or Creative Writing.
• A Sports-Related Challenge or Success.
• Service Trips.
• Controversial or Polarizing Subjects.

What are colleges looking for in essays?

As part of the college application process, colleges ask prospective students for a personal essay in order to learn more about them. They want to see context on each student’s background, positive traits that the student could bring to campus, and examples of the student demonstrating those qualities.

How many paragraphs is a 650 word essay?

How Many Paragraphs Is 650 Words? 650 words is about 3.25-6.5 paragraphs for essays or 6-13 for easier reading (to allow skimming). A paragraph length typically has 100-200 words and 5-6 sentences.

Do college essays really matter?

While students may ask themselves, “How important are college essays?” the answer is simple: important enough for college admissions that they should invest the time and effort to do their best and make the topic their own – even if it’s common. Searching for a college? Get our complete rankings of Best Colleges.

How personal should a college essay be?

Most admission professionals agree: your essay needs to be a reflection of yourself. When I read applications, I had access to students’ academic credentials and extracurricular activities. If you use your essay to regurgitate your resume or transcript, then you’ll be wasting both of our time.

Can you include pictures in a college essay?

All images, photos, graphs, etc. that you use in your essays should be directly relevant to your argument. Don’t just insert pretty pictures for the sake of it; select images that will: • Help your readers understand your point. Illustrate your ideas.

What to write your college essay about if you’re boring?

Even a topic that seems clichéd — for instance, a book you read, a friendship you made, or a memorable moment with your family — can make for an excellent essay topic that shows off your communication skills as well as the personal qualities that colleges like to see.

How long should a college essay be?

The primary essay for your college application, often called a personal statement, is typically around 400-600 words. The Common App personal statement — which is used as the primary application essay by more than 800 colleges — must be 250-650 words.

What is a good topic for an argumentative essay?

Argumentative Essay Topics (General) Do you think that abortion should be made illegal? Do you think that animal testing should be banned? Is the #metoo movement a great thing? Do you think that manufacturers are responsible for the effects of the chemicals used in creating their products?

How many paragraphs should a college essay be?

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.

What makes you a strong candidate for college essay?

A reader should be able to learn about at least some of the following: your passions, feelings, perspectives, values, your defeats and/or accomplishments. College essays should also demonstrate your ability to think and organize your thoughts. Above all… make sure you choose a topic you care about.

Can you start your college essay with a quote?

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.

Should I write about OCD in my college essay?

Your essay should lay out your difficulties with OCD, but then also show how you’ve learned to manage it and become a highly effective person. It could then also move on to you deciding to study medicinal chemistry.

Privacy Overview

What Should I Write My College Essay About? How to Brainstorm + Examples

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What should i write my college essay about.

First things first  …  congratulations! If you’re asking the question “what should I write my college essay about?” this likely means you’ve weathered months and months (and months and months) of researching schools, asking your teachers and counselors for advice, and politely smiling when your well-meaning relatives/dentist/mail carrier tell you why you absolutely must go to the University of Wherever-They-Went for the best college experience. 

And while you may have whittled your list of potential schools down to just a few or are still deciding which of your top 50 schools (but hopefully not nearly that many) deserve to learn more about you, the fact that you are looking for help with college essay ideas means you’ve started to take some concrete steps forward in the application process. 

This is a big deal!

Let’s be honest … the written part of the application process can be daunting. How do you possibly share everything that is awesome about you while also figuring out effective college essay topics and remembering what not to write about in a college essay ? 

It’s a lot, but we are here to help. You’ve got this!

In a word, you! Your college essay is your chance to show the admission officers the things they only get a glimpse of, or can’t see at all, in the rest of your application. Here’s a useful way to understand and reframe college essay topics: Essentially, your “topic” (e.g. Home or Light ) is just an excuse— your topic is always you . Who you are, what you value, what you bring to a campus and community.  So this is the place to fill in the gaps by being personal and specific. Because it’s so important, we’ll emphasize those again. Personal. Specific.

It can be hard to get into the mindset of writing about yourself. This probably feels vulnerable and maybe a little scary. Just remember that you have control of your own story. You only have to share what you want to share, and the flip side is that you GET to share what you want to share! You might be thinking, “no kidding, but how do I do this?” Never fear! We have some tips:

What “topic” allows you to show your values, insights, skills, qualities, and/or interests?

Sharing these qualities with the people reading your essay will help them learn all they need to know about how you will contribute to their school and why they want you to be part of their community. Think about these characteristics this way:

What makes you tick?

What makes you get out of bed each morning?

What are the things you absolutely need someone to believe in if they’re going to be your friend?

What tells your story?

Often, students (mistakenly) think this means, “what has been your greatest challenge?” While this can be a way to focus your essay, there are a lot of other (potentially more interesting) college essay ideas that still let you tell your story. 

Remember there is beauty and value in your everyday experiences, so consider a personal statement topic that lets you share the parts of you that extend beyond your most significant challenge. 

Maybe learning to ride your bike is something that’s stuck with you since you were a kid, or maybe there’s a book you read over and over again because it reminds you of a particular moment in your life. Do you eat the same meal every Wednesday? There’s a story in there somewhere. It could be that your greatest challenge IS your story, but it definitely doesn’t have to be the story you tell in your application if you don’t want it to be.

How to brainstorm topics for a college essay

There are many ways to find your college essay topic, and that makes this part maybe the toughest, but also incredibly useful, because this is the first step in gathering your personal statement ideas. And let’s face it, getting started isn’t easy. But here are some brainstorming activities we love and that we know will help you identify what you value most about yourself and about the world around you. Let’s dive in!

As you look at these brainstorming exercises, we suggest you do this without worrying about any specific prompt yet, since that can actually hold you back. This phase of the writing process is meant to get your thoughts flowing, so let’s put aside any constraints that might prevent that.

The Values Exercise: Take a few minutes to work through this one first—again, one great way to think about the purpose of a college essay is that it helps a reader to understand who you are, and one of the easiest ways to help someone get a sense of who you are is through sharing what you value .

The Essence Object Exercise is an awesome way for you to think about the physical objects that have meaning for you and that reflect your values. Maybe you have a pair of socks you wear anytime you give a class presentation. Maybe it’s a stuffed animal you’ve had since you were a kid. Many of us have things that bring us comfort, remind us of important memories, or make us think of important people, and this exercise helps you get those objects down on paper (or on your screen). Click here for more about how to complete this exercise.

The Forked Path Exercise: Thinking about important transitional moments is a great way to generate personal statement topics since it can start you on a path of reflection about things you’ve learned, and all this exercise really asks of you is to create a list (we’re big on lists here) of times in your life when you were one way before something happened and somehow different after the thing happened. Again, this doesn’t have to be a moment in which your entire life changed  …  moments of growth happen in big AND little ways. Spend 10 minutes listing as many of these moments as you can think of and then another 10 minutes writing a single word next to each item about HOW you changed.

The 21 Details Exercise is a straightforward and effective activity that allows you to just list random facts about yourself without having to worry about organization. Don’t overthink this one! Just list the first 21 things that come to mind. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll reveal about yourself with this list. Click here for more about this brainstorming activity.

The “Non-negotiables” Exercise is another one that lets you just get something down on paper without worrying about structure, grammar, or even writing in complete sentences (which are things you shouldn’t worry about until much later in the writing process). This one is also pretty short (just 5 minutes). At the top of your screen, type the question, “what could I not live without?” Then spend the next five minutes listing these non-negotiables, and reflecting a bit on why (hint: How do they connect to your core values?). Remember that this is different from the Essence Object Exercise as this one asks you to focus on intangible things like comfort, adventure, security.

How to draft a college essay aka personal statement

Now that you’ve done some brainstorming, look back through those lists you created and circle/underline/highlight 3 bullet points from each list that strike you as the most elastic—as in, things that can stretch to connect to a bunch of sides of who you are. And by “sides of who you are” think in terms of core values. For example, maybe “auto repair” connects to family, culture, curiosity, and personal growth.

Once you’ve done that we’d highly recommend outlining before you start drafting. At this stage, your focus should be on overall content and structure. Don’t get bogged down in sticking to the word count or making sure each semicolon is properly placed. That time will come later!

So how do you outline? When it comes to structure, there are a few ways you can organize your essay. The essay prompt might help determine this, but it also comes down to personal preference about how you want your story to unfold (for the Common App personal statement, you’re always fine writing about anything—they have a few prompts that are wide open).

We’ll explain two basic structures for you here and then give you some examples below:

Montage structure is arranged thematically, so each paragraph might focus on a new idea, feeling, or thought as opposed to the next step in a story. The paragraphs are connected by a theme/thread (like “auto repair” or “ translating ”).

Narrative structure follows a clear chronology with a beginning, middle, and end. This type of structure is probably best if you are describing a challenge (the first third of the essay) and what you did about the challenge and what you learned from your actions and experiences (the other two thirds of your word count).

Creating an outline is a good idea before you start drafting since it can give you a plan for your essay. You can explore some example outlines here , but here are the basics: 

For a montage, bullet point 4-7 ways your thread connects to different values, illustrated by different experiences.

For a narrative, use the Feelings and Needs Exercise to bullet point your challenge, what you did about it, and what you learned.

Once you’ve crafted your outline, it’s time to start writing! When creating a draft, remember that no matter what the essay prompt asks, every personal statement topic is about you . Your readers want to learn what your transcripts and resumes don’t tell them, so make sure you are always at the center of your essay.

You’ve probably heard “show, don’t tell” from an English teacher at some point in your many years of English classes ( check this out for more about this sometimes frustrating comment), but for your college essays, you want to show AND tell. You have limited space in which to tell your story, and your reader may be reading quickly, so it is important to make use of that space by using great showing detail and then also telling your reader what it is you showed them.

Don’t worry about word count yet! Just write your draft first and then do the editing later.

Once you’ve written a draft, we suggest you put it aside for at least a day so you can come back to it with fresh eyes. You will most definitely need to revise (this is an important part of the process), so when you look at your essay a second or third time, do so with the idea of refining , clarifying , and specifying .

What not to write about in a college essay

Don’t be shocking just for the sake of being shocking. Admission officers have read thousands of essays and they can see right through that ploy to grab their attention.

 Humor can be great, but if you aren’t used to injecting humor in your writing, this is not the place to try for the first time. Using humor effectively can be hard, and if this isn’t something you’ve had some practice with it can easily detract from the message you’re trying to convey.

Avoid writing essays in which you spend the entire time complaining. It is surprisingly easy to lapse into this if you’re discussing an obstacle or challenge, but what these essay topics are really trying to get at is what you’ve learned from these obstacles or challenges .

It should probably go without saying, but we’re going to say it anyway because we’ve actually read a number of these essays from students: Don’t write essays about crimes you’ve committed! If you shoplifted a pen when you were in 7th grade or scraped a car in a parking lot and didn’t leave a note, this is not the place to work through your guilt about that!

Remember your college essay is all about you, so avoid writing about “society” or “humankind.” As we said above (and we’ll say again because it’s so important), be personal and specific!

How do I know if my college essay is good?

Does it contain at least 4-5 core values, include a moment (or several) of vulnerability, illustrate insight through a few “so what” moments of reflection, and demonstrate writing craft? If so, yes, it’s probably good. For more detail, click here for our Great College Essay Test!

Sample college essays + Analysis

  Here are a few sample personal statements, along with our feedback, but remember that these are just some ways to approach your personal statement, not the only ways. Instead of thinking of these essays as formulas for you to copy (how hard would that be to fit your own experience into someone else’s college essay?), think of them as inspiration and as examples of effective writing. Look at the voice and structure and think about how you might draw some ideas from them.

“Essence Jar” (essence objects montage)

Ribbons, glitter, and some popsicle sticks in a mason jar, that’s all it took to create the best gift I've ever given. A combination of all of the small snippets of my life from memories, to jokes, and limericks. As I travel towards new adventures and go off to college, I reflect on what I would have in my own jar. It would most likely include these: I pull out the first stick, written on it is, “Not a Masshole”: Massachusetts is often characterized by its arrogance and terrible driving skills. But I love where I’m from and it’s played a huge role in who I am today, from being an avid fan with the utmost pride for my sports teams: the Bruins, Celtics, and Patriots, to Dunkin Donuts iced coffee running through my veins, and being “Wicked Smaht”.  I was raised on frequent weekend trips into Boston to walk through Boston Common and make way for ducklings or rides on the duck boats. It’s also given me a sense of community: from the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk and Making Strides walk to other large-scale community service activities, we stand together in times of need to support one another.  “Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies”: The day after Thanksgiving, after an excessive amount of family time with cousins and relatives, my family dedicates a night to decorating our Christmas tree. Holidays marked by competitive game nights that include lots of trash talking and my sweet, sweet victories. Inevitably, someone yells, “one more round!” after a painful loss. The smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies wafting through the air and the annual watching Jimmy Stewart help Clarence get his wings. “ Bulls and Bullet Holes”: Roman columns, volcanic ruins, bulls running through the streets, and amazing international cuisine. Traveling to Rome and seeing where Caesar was killed in the Roman forum, or where people were burned by flowing lava in Pompeii, I experienced history firsthand. Traveling to Germany and seeing bullet holes in buildings and half blown up cathedrals still standing as a reminder to its citizens showed me how important it is to embrace our history and not run from it.  “Dirty Knee Pads”: A persistent championship mindset. Countless hours of practice every week, loving every second of it. But what we learned from Coach Cawley during our season was far more than dive, dig, sprawl. Coach taught us the importance of social justice, the magnificence of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and how girls can do anything boys can do.  “Enzymes and Eloquence”: This represents my scientific proposal and in-progress  research, an alternative treatment for patients with Type 1 diabetes. From cream alternatives with buffer-like qualities, to insulin pills that could evade decomposition by stomach acid during digestion, in the future I plan to aid those with Type 1 Diabetes by creating a solution to end finger pricks and insulin pumps.   “Butterfly Wings”:  Fifteen years of dance has given me a place to be vulnerable and develop new skills. Through improvisation I’ve learned to let loose and be spontaneous following the musical cues. No preconceived ideas, just feeling the music. Tap has taught me diligence and technique, while ballet has taught me how grace and strength compliment each other. The work ethic and focus I have learned at the studio has guided me to new heights in my everyday life, from schoolwork, to the volleyball court.  In the future I am eager to add to my own “jar”, creating new memories and personality traits. From new friends, new organizations I partake in, and my future career in the medical field, going to college will be the basis for my growth as a student, as a friend, and as a member of a greater community. — — —

Tips + Analysis

This essay is awesome for so many reasons. From a structure perspective, the writer breaks the essay up into small, easily read chunks of text, which is a great way to keep your reader’s interest. The essay is also so good at showing AND telling (here are my objects + strong, clear, interesting images about them AND this is why they are important to me). The written voice is personal and conversational, and the writer manages to share some of their accomplishments without this reading like a resume. Do you feel like you know this person better after reading the essay? We do, and that’s the whole point.

I Swear I’m Hispanic (Identities montage)

I swear I’m Hispanic.  I made a playlist with this title featuring reggaeton artists like Bad Bunny, Ozuna, and Daddy Yankee after years of seeing people’s shock when they heard me speak fluent Spanish. For some reason, most people associate “Hispanic” or “Latina” with thick-accent-bearing, huge-family-having, fiery bombshells. With English that easily passes as American and an aversion to anything Spandex, I am the opposite. I am an introvert in a family of three who was born and raised in Argentina. The pressure of the expectations for how I should behave, think, and look used to make me feel like I had to prove myself and my identity. While I cherish opening gifts on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day and look forward to the World Cup more than Thanksgiving, I’ll only ever dance while alone in my room—and to anything except tango.  I swear I’ll eat anything. Born into a diverse family of self-proclaimed chefs without any accolades, I’m a sucker for all kinds of homestyle cooking and long meals. To sample as many dishes as I possibly can, I annoy my friends with a constant “Can I try what you got?” My Lebanese great-grandmother cursed me with my inability to tan, but she fueled my quest to create my own twist on her famous hummus recipe. My Italian grandma created my love for pasta and formaggio and gifted me my Italian citizenship. My Spanish grandparents taught me to appreciate a classic tortilla de papa and condemned me with a last name that gets misspelled everywhere I go. And my 10 years in Buenos Aires made me realize that there’s never enough asado on a Sunday afternoon.  I believe the kitchen is a place where home cooks across the globe use their superpowers to slow down time, helping friends and family craft lasting memories. I swear I have a superpower.  I don’t know if it’s innate or if I acquired it from watching hours of behavioral analysis and true crime shows, but I am a mini psychological profiler.  As a gelato shop cashier, I can predict with near flawless accuracy what flavors customers will order, what type of milk they’ll want in their coffee, or whether they’ll use blue or black pens to sign their receipts. I associate myself with mostly blue pen users, who I’ve noticed tend to be creative, intuitive, and perceptive. However, I deeply respect black pen users, who seem to be structured, methodical, goal-oriented, and objective. I annotate the margins of novels, write essays, and take history notes in blue, but take math notes, schedule planner appointments, and complete lab reports in black. The balance I find in my pen ink personalities is what attracts me to behavioral psychology’s blend of the social and natural sciences.  I swear I’m 18, but I can’t vote (yet).  As a Latina immigrant who’s watched her 12-year-old sister deal with the repercussions of her open bisexuality and witnessed her cousin’s challenges with Asperger Syndrome, I’ve realized that the fight for equality is far from over. Although I’m still on my path to acquiring a US citizenship, I think it’s time to take the historical deconstruction that is currently occurring a step further, and I wish I could include myself in this narrative. I’ve become more aware of my own role in systemic homophobia and racism, and even though I can’t vote in 2020, I actively look for ways to be an ally in the fight for Black liberation and LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent rights.   I don’t need to swear anymore. Although I don’t fit the stereotypes of what most people think Latinas should do, eat, love, or believe in, I know and embrace that I'm Hispanic. You can find me in the kitchen making my signature “no-tahini” hummus, buried in an FBI profiling book, or at a protest. My name is Lara Abril Afonso Martinez: an Argentinian, food-loving, equality-seeking profiler.  — — —

Oh, how we love this essay. What this writer does so well is to discuss the influence of the people in their life while still staying focused on themselves (Heads up: It’s really easy for students to end up focusing too much on other people. Those people sound great, but they aren’t the ones applying to college). We hear about great-grandparents, grandparents, and sisters, but this essay is still entirely about the writer. The essay structure is also effective in that those short, concise sentences peppered throughout give the reader clues about what’s coming next. While your college application essays are ABOUT you, they are FOR your reader, and giving them a head’s up about the essay’s progression is a good way to keep their focus.

Witness protection in Egypt (Narrative)

How does a person change the witness protection program in Egypt? Let me tell you. I recently discovered that in Egypt girls who had faced any sexual violence and wanted to file a legal complaint did not have the right to witness protection. Their names had to be made public, ruining any future prospects of marriage, education, or a professional life. This deeply upset me, for how could the legal system put this type of pressure on a victim of sexual assault? Recognizing this oppressive structure, I started using my voice on social media to raise awareness about the failure of witness protection in cases of sexual violence. I wanted to make people aware of the irony of the injustices that the legal system was placing on women. Raising awareness was my aim, but I never imagined that I could use social media to make quantifiable change.  My journey towards advocating for a just legal system started with the struggle over my own body. My relationship with my body has always been complex, and my attachment to food has been a long struggle. My journey with the scale began at the age of twelve. If the number on the scale was more than what society told me it should be, I would spiral into a cycle of self-loathing. I had let the scale become my entire being. Looking in the mirror, I saw someone unhappy and lonely, but not me.  I realised I needed to make a change. What started as a weight loss journey soon became a process of discovering self-worth. Through this growth and my journey to self acceptance, I learned that society should not be able to dictate who I am and what I’m worth. Only I can set the standards for my body, and that’s a responsibility that I now take charge of, and share with other young girls struggling with their body image and self-confidence.  My excitement about my new mindset wore off quickly as I noticed a different norm that I, and other women, were subjected to. Sexualised and objectified by men of all ages, I knew that my body and the bodies of other women were intimately connected in our experience of gender mistreatment. I knew we didn’t deserve to live like this. We deserved to feel safe and free in our existence. I began shifting the scales in the fight for gender equality, especially for the cause of sexual violence.  And here we return to the problem of witness protection and the case that rocked my country. In a case that captured the attention of the media, involving the serial rape of over 150 girls and women, I knew I had to fight for their safety. This case was not only structural but personal, as I had been one of this man’s prospective targets. Addressing this case head-on, I took action and contacted a lawyer, volunteering to reach out to victims and offer my help to the girls in any way possible. They started reaching out to me anonymously, but still didn’t feel safe making their case public. This is where my social media campaign came in. Highlighting the failure of witness protection, my campaign went viral. Multiple other campaigns followed suit, attacking the government for their stance against these girls. We all agreed on one thing: women should not have to bear the weight of these violations.  We made our opinions clear and the government finally listened. They implemented a witness protection program for Egyptian women!  The victims I fought alongside were able to come forward safely and anonymously, finding comfort in the fact that as a society we came together, making a commitment to ourselves and to them.  At first, the scale was my biggest fear. Now it is my biggest motivator. I am motivated to continue advocating for gender justice, and I’m willing to put up a fight.  — — —

This narrative essay is a strong example of how a writer can share the challenges they’ve faced without getting stuck just talking about the challenges. While this writer does tell us about their hardships, the essay quickly shifts to what they learned from these hardships and how they used them to gain self-understanding . Even better, this writer tells us how they turned outward to help those around them, and in the process they clearly share their values with the reader. An admission officer could read this essay and get a clear sense of what this student could bring to their new school.

Special thanks to Jessica for writing this blog post

Jessica has a Ph.D in English from the University of Southern California and teaches English at a Los Angeles-area independent school, where she has also been English department chair and a class dean.  Sandra Cisneros is her hero, and she loves books, her awesomely-sarcastic family, the beach, cozy sweaters, and more books. Oh, and her sweet pitbull/lab mix named Ruby. 

Top values: Curiosity, equity, wonder

Persuasive & Argumentative Essays about Divorce: Free Tips

A divorce is a life-changing experience that affects spouses and their children (if there are any). Since divorce rates are relatively high in modern society, more and more people face this problem nowadays.

Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you!

When you are assigned to compose an argumentative essay about divorce, you should be as careful as possible. Remember that the split-up of marriage can be a painful experience for everyone involved.

The article will give you useful advice on how to write an outstanding paper on the topic. Learn the essential features of the following types:

• persuasive essay about divorce,
• for and against essay,
• causes and effects of divorce essay,

Check tips from Custom-writing.org below and write the best paper!

• 💍 How to Write It
• 📂 Essays by Type
• ✒ Causes and Effects

✍️ Divorce Essay Topics

💍 how to write a divorce essay.

The general structure of essays on divorce is quite common:

• introduction;
• conclusion.

Yet, there are some variations of what info to include in the body, depending on the essay type. The following structure is applicable for divorce argumentative essay. To learn about the features of other types, keep on reading our article.

Just in 1 hour! We will write you a plagiarism-free paper in hardly more than 1 hour

Argumentative divorce essays are composed according to the standard structure:

1. Thesis Statement about Divorce

A divorce essay introduction isn’t anything extraordinary as you have to introduce your topic and position.

• You should always give broad information about the issue and state the main problems you will discuss in your writing.
• Make a general statement about the consequences of divorce or the common divorce effects on people.
• Then write your thesis statement on divorce. Clearly explain to the audience the topic you’re going to discuss and your position on that topic. In case you find this task difficult, try using a thesis generator for argumentative essay . This will save you some time.

That’s it! Now your divorce essay introduction is ready.

What’s next?

2. Main Body

This section presents all of your ideas and arguments related to the topic of divorce.

Receive a plagiarism-free paper tailored to your instructions. Cut 20% off your first order!

• Here you can write about the adverse effects of divorce on children or the most common reasons people divorce.
• Use compelling arguments and support your ideas with examples.

There are tons of surveys and statistics about divorce on the internet, so it won’t be too challenging to gather the information you need.

3. Conclusion

In the last paragraph, you have to sum up your paper and leave a final expression.

• Summarize every idea presented in your divorce essay.
• Restate your thesis statement on divorce, relying on your reasoning.
• Then list your concluding thoughts on this topic.

Make your sentences clear and easy to follow. Use synonyms to improve your writing style. Such an approach will help you convince the readers and express your thoughts better.

📂 Divorce Essays by Type

The content and reasoning of each paper on divorce depend primarily on the type of essay . See the following sections to understand how to write each of them.

Here are a few types you can consider:

Get an originally-written paper according to your instructions!

Argumentative Essay about Divorce

When it comes to divorce, there are many disputable topics—for example, the reasons people separate or its impact on children. It’s easy to find support and statistics for both issues. And you’ll need them as facts are a crucial part of a divorce argumentative essay.

As a starting point:

Research your idea and choose a side to support. Make sure that among all argumentative essay topics about divorce, you selected the most interesting for yourself. In your thesis statement, concisely express your position, so the reader can quickly get it.

Then, start writing the entire essay. Regardless of what type of paper you are writing—anti or pro divorce argumentative essay—your writing should meet these requirements:

• Base your points on logic;
• Present both sides of the arguments, but support only one;
• Take into consideration counterclaims;
• Support all the arguments by valid evidence;
• Use a calm, informative tone.

Don’t forget to incorporate quotes and figures to convince your readers.

Persuasive Essay about Divorce

What is the goal of writing persuasive essays ? It’s to convince your reader that your position on a particular problem is true.

Therefore, writing this paper means that you should identify an individual problem related to the topic. In the introduction of your persuasive essay about divorce, you should choose your side and deliver it to the reader.

Crucial note:

Similarly to an argumentative essay, you have to provide credible facts to support your position. Yet here, you use them to back up your opinion and persuade your reader.

While composing your persuasive essay about the legalization of divorce, remember its distinctive features:

• Based on emotions;
• Presents only one side of the argument;
• Ignores counterclaims;
• The tone is dynamic, emotionally-charged, and aggressive to some extent.

Cause and Effect Essay on Divorce

Whether it concerns old parents or a young couple, divorce typically has the same causes and effects. You can often see them clearly, even in books or movies.

The essay outline for the causes and effects of divorce essay is quite common:

• Introduction.

In your divorce essay introduction, provide a general background and compose a clear thesis statement. For example, your thesis might look like this:

A divorce, caused by the spouses’ expectations mismatch, results in a lack of communication between children and one of the parents.

In this part of your essay, investigate the cause and effect of divorce, you stated before.

For the given thesis, the main points would be the following:

The primary cause of divorce is the mismatch in the spouses’ expectations from the marriage.

The divorce often results in a lack of children’s interactions with one of the parents.

• Conclusion.

Synthesize all of your arguments and give your audience a space for a further investigation of your issue.

Narrative Essay about Divorce

If your assignment is to write a family essay, you can choose from a wide range of topics. For this purpose, a marriage essay or a divorce essay would be perfect.

In a short paper about your family, it isn’t easy to cover many topics. So choose only one.

Look through some narrative essay topics and select the one you like:

• The story of my divorce: how did I decide to break up with my spouse?
• My life completely changed after my parents divorced.
• How my life looked like before the divorce with my wife/husband and how it looks now.
• The way divorce destroys healthy communication between children and parents in my family.

For and Against Divorce Essay

As you know, both the negative and positive effects of divorce are disputable, making them appealing to discuss. There are many recent studies and relevant statistical data on the topic to help you write such an essay.

This topic would also be great for a speech on divorce.

Wondering what are the for and against divorce arguments? Take a look at the following:

✒ Divorce: Causes and Effects

We have a pleasant bonus for you! Below, you can find useful arguments and insightful ideas that you can use in your papers on divorce. Apply our concepts in any type of essay, adjusting them to your topic.

Divorce essays can cover the following issues:

Generally Known Facts on Divorces

When covering this issue in your persuasive essay on divorce, you will have to cover the problem altogether. Include the common marriage problems that psychologists all over the world study. Use their statistical data on divorces when crafting your argument.

Divorce is quite a broad topic, and you may want to narrow it down. With so much information available, you could write a research paper on divorce without any difficulty.

Statistical Data on Divorces

Good divorce essays should include enough statistical data. It will add more scientific value and reveal your research abilities. Besides, facts and figures present many exciting topics to comment on.

For example:

You can do significant research concerning divorce causes and consequences. Draw a contrast between divorce in several countries, or examine the age and education of people who officially separate more often.

Reasons for Divorces

What does an essay on divorce mean without discussion of its reasons?

Find out different sociologists’ viewpoints on the reasons for divorces. Then underline the cause you consider to be the most truthful one.

You can also provide your own theory on the grounds for divorces in your persuasive essay on divorce. The key point is to prove the accuracy of your statement.

Divorce Prevention Ideas

If there is a problem, there must be some solution. So, think of the possible ways to make a marriage work.

Investigate divorce causes from a scientific point of view. Examine the primary studies that reveal why people actually break up. Also, discuss the precautions that can help married couples avoid significant conflicts.

Effects of Divorce on Children

Parents sometimes forget that their divorce isn’t only about them but also about their children. It causes psychological problems for kids, which you can classify in your paper. Don’t forget to add some statistical data on divorce to support your arguments.

Every child reacts differently to their parents’ breakup. It’s a rare case when divorce consequences are positive, making the effects on kids an urgent topic to discuss.

Positive Effects of Divorce

Sometimes divorce isn’t a catastrophe but rather the only way to heal wounds and begin a new life. Often, people don’t recognize that they need to change their lives for the better. This situation is primarily related to abusive marriages or those with regular cheating.

In these cases, the positive effects of divorce may seem easy to understand. However, psychologists have to make great efforts to persuade people to end their relationships. Write a paper making this same argument.

• Negative outcomes of divorce on children .  
• Connection between divorce and antisocial behavior of children.  
• Family crises and the issue it causes: divorce, remarriage, stepparents, adoption. 
• Effect of divorce on teenagers ’ academic performance.  
• Causes and consequences of divorce . 
• What can be done to decrease divorce rates in America ?  
• Does parental divorce affect the rates of juvenile delinquency ? 
• The most widespread reasons for divorce .  
• Analyze marital success factors and Gottman’s predictors of divorce.  
• Impact of divorce on child’s mental health .  
• Change of divorce law throughout history.  
• Positive and negative changes in children’s behavior after divorce.  
• Divorce : a disaster or a benefit?  
• Is cheating one of the main reasons of divorce?  
• Gender stratification impact on divorce trends.  
• Effect of divorce on family relationship .  
• Do divorced parents change their child-rearing styles ?  
• List of factors typically associated with higher divorce rates .  
• The support required for all the members of divorced and single-parent families . 
• Analyze the reasons for high divorce rates . 
• Does divorce only impact adolescent in a bad way?  
• Effect of poverty on divorce rates.  
• Specifics of divorce in the UAE . 
• Does divorce lead to depression ?  
• Family therapy and its role in decreasing divorce rates.  
• The impact of divorce on children-parents relationship.  
• Evaluation of child custody in divorce proceedings.  
• How to manage the stress of divorce.   
• Effect of divorce on children’s self-esteem.  
• How to minimize the devastating consequences of divorce .  
• Addiction as the reason for divorce.  
• Effective communication in marriage and its role in preventing divorce.  
• Divorce as the only way out of an abusive relationship .  
• Financial issues of divorce and how to overcome them.  
• Parental support is the best way to help children to go through divorce .  
• How do adolescents adjust to parental divorce?  
• Do boys and girls react to the parental divorce the same way?  
• Social media can destroy relationship and lead to divorce. 
• Can Christian counseling help couples to resolve their issues and avoid divorce?  
• Poverty among divorced women.  
• Young marriage has more chances to break-up.  
• Respect is the best way to get marriage satisfaction and avoid divorce.  
• Is interfaith marriage doomed to divorce? 
• Why a successful marriage may end in divorce?  
• Marriage contract will help to facilitate the legal side of divorce process.  
• Reduction of the number of divorces . 
• Personal development after divorce.  
• How family relationships influence future marriage and divorce chances of children. 
•   Child support in case of marriage divorce.  
• Will lack of family and work balance definitely result in divorce?  

If you are stuck on writing, you can always ask us for help! Whether you need a persuasive essay on divorce or any other paper, we are here and ready to assist.

Thanks for reading the article! Share it with friends who may need our tips or assistance.

Further reading:

• Top Ideas for Argumentative or Persuasive Essay Topics
• Best Argumentative Research Paper Topics
• 197 Inspirational & Motivational Argumentative Essay Topics
• Gun Control Essay: How-to Guide + Argumentative Topics
• Proposal Essay Topics and Ideas – Easy and Interesting
• Free Exemplification Essay Examples

🔗 References

• Essay Introductions
• Transitional Words and Phrases
• Argumentative Paper Format
• The Writing Process
• Divorce Argument Essay: Bartleby
• Cause and Effect Essay: The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Roane State Community College and UNC at Chapel Hill Writing Center
• Counterargument: Gordon Harvey, the Writing Center at Harvard University
• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to LinkedIn
• Share to email

Corruption is an abuse of power that was entrusted to a person or group of people for personal gain. It can appear in various settings and affect different social classes, leading to unemployment and other economic issues. This is why writing an essay on corruption can become a challenge. One...

Do you have to write an essay for the first time? Or maybe you’ve only written essays with less than 1000 words? Someone might think that writing a 1000-word essay is a rather complicated and time-consuming assignment. Others have no idea how difficult thousand-word essays can be. Well, we have...

To write an engaging “If I Could Change the World” essay, you have to get a few crucial elements: The questions that define this paper type: What? How? Whom? When? Where? The essay structure that determines where each answer should be; Some tips that can make your writing unique and original. Let us...

Why do you want to be a pharmacist? An essay on this topic can be challenging, even when you know the answer. The most popular reasons to pursue this profession are the following:

How to write a film critique essay? To answer this question, you should clearly understand what a movie critique is. It can be easily confused with a movie review. Both paper types can become your school or college assignments. However, they are different. A movie review reveals a personal impression...

Are you getting ready to write your Language Proficiency Index Exam essay? Well, your mission is rather difficult, and you will have to work hard. One of the main secrets of successful LPI essays is perfect writing skills. So, if you practice writing, you have a chance to get the...

Dengue fever is a quite dangerous febrile disease that can even cause death. Nowadays, this disease can be found in the tropics and Africa. Brazil, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, and India are also vulnerable to this disease.

An outline is the main form of organization in academic writing. It implies listing all of the research ideas and components before the writing process starts. To many of you, an outline may seem like just another piece of extra work to do, but trust us, it will end up...

Even though a personal essay seems like something you might need to write only for your college application, people who graduated a while ago are asked to write it. Therefore, if you are a student, you might even want to save this article for later!

If you wish a skill that would be helpful not just for middle school or high school, but also for college and university, it would be the skill of a five-paragraph essay. Despite its simple format, many students struggle with such assignments.

Reading books is pleasurable and entertaining; writing about those books isn’t. Reading books is pleasurable, easy, and entertaining; writing about those books isn’t. However, learning how to write a book report is something that is commonly required in university. Fortunately, it isn’t as difficult as you might think. You’ll only...

A descriptive essay is an academic paper that challenges a school or college student to describe something. It can be a person, a place, an object, a situation—anything an individual can depict in writing. The task is to show your abilities to communicate an experience in an essay format using...

Wow! Thanks for this! This will help me on my speech topic a lot! Thank you Jack‼️

Hi, Caresse! Thank you for the feedback. Glad you found the post helpful! Come back for more 🙂

Glad you enjoyed reading the post!

Can I write my personal essay about a divorce that affected me throughout my life?

Highschool sophomore preparing for college,hey Mr/Mrs I was born and raised in Africa and I've been brought up by my father all through my life the question of not having a mother at home has always affected me do you think I should write it for my college essay

Earn karma by helping others:

[Avoiding my personal opinion, but a universal statement]: You can write your personal essay topic on anything!! From as little as an epiphanic moment where you watched leaves fall from an oak and related it you life in someway TO something as complex and serious as losing your home, experiencing the passing of a loved one, or, in your case, a divorce. Most people who don’t have those “life-defining” type moments use the former; meanwhile, those who do have some significant impact on their life they’d like to explain use the latter.

With that being said, it absolutely doesn’t matter what an essay topic is about...but the greater question implanted within the personal essay prompts (and presumably in your admissions readers’ minds) is: “Does this exemplify personal growth? Does it present your personality in a good light? Does it show the ‘adcoms’ something extraordinary or unique about you? And intuitively, can your write?”

These questions are considered to be “essential elements” of your personal statement. As long as you input them into the essay in any poetic, fluent, literary-like way, then any topic can be a good topic. If you were to read some examples of personal essays, you’ll notice that the best are the most “memorable”. Now consider this for a moment—what constitutes something as memorable?—Did you learn something from the essay, is the essay well structured and written personally, does it express emotion and is it “touching”, and lastly does it show growth in a unique way? Any of these would make for a good essay.

For further guidance of where to direct your writing, I suggest the following sources:

Guides and Outlines: ( https://www.princetonreview.com/college-advice/college-essay) , ( https://www.princetonreview.com/college-advice/application-essay-topics) , ( https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/how-to-write-a-personal-statement)

Examples: ( https://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/personal-statement-examples) , ( https://blog.collegevine.com/common-app-essay-examples/)

Errors and Mistakes to avoid: ( https://ingeniusprep.com/blog/worst-personal-statement-topics/) Don’t fall into these traps!!

Bottom-line: as long as the essay is personal, emotional, and shows growth, you can write anything!

Calculate for all schools

Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, community guidelines.

To keep this community safe and supportive:

• Be kind and respectful!
• Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
• Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!

How karma works

Watch CBS News

10 topics to avoid in a college admission essay

By Lynn O'Shaughnessy

June 21, 2013 / 8:12 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

(MoneyWatch) For students who are applying for college, one of the scariest parts of the admission process is writing the dreaded essay.

A common mistake that students make when tackling their college essays is to pick the wrong topics. It's a huge turn off, for instance, when applicants write about their sports exploits or their pets. I asked Janine Robinson, who is the creator of a wonderful website called Essay Hell and the author of an excellent ebook entitled " Escape Essay Hell ," to identify those essay topics that teenagers should absolutely avoid.

• 5 tips for writing a winning college essay
• 5 myths about getting in and paying for college
• 10 great opening lines from Stanford admission essays

Here are Robinson's college essay no-no's:

1. Listing accomplishments. You might be the most amazing person on the planet, but nobody wants a recitation of the wonderful things you've done, the people you've encountered and the places you've visited.

2. Sports. Do you know how many millions of teens have written about scoring the winning goal, basket or run? You definitely don't want to write about your winning team. And nobody wants to read about your losing team, either.

3. Sharing how lucky you are. If you are one of the lucky teenagers who has grown up in an affluent household, with all the perks that goes with it, no need to share that with college admission officials. "The last thing anyone wants to read about is your ski trip to Aspen or your hot oil massage at a fancy resort," Robinson observed.

4. Writing an "un-essay." Many students, particularly some of the brightest ones, have a negative reaction to the strictures of the admission essay. In response, Robinson says, "They want to write in stream-of-consciousness or be sarcastic, and I totally understand this reaction. However, you must remember your goal with these essays -- to get accepted! Save the radical expression for after you get into college."

5. Inflammatory topics. It's unwise to write about politics or religion, two of the most polarizing topics. Avoid any topics that make people angry.

6. Illegal activity. Do not write about drug use, drinking and driving, arrests or jail time. Also leave your sexual activities out of the frame. Even if you have abandoned your reckless ways, don't bring it up.

7. Do-good experiences. Schools do not want to hear about your church or school trip to another country or region to help the disadvantaged. You may be able to write about a trip like this only if you focus on a specific experience within the broader trip.

8. The most important thing or person in my life. This topic is too broad and too loaded, whether you want to write about God, your mom or best friend. These essays are usually painfully boring. 

9. Death, divorce, tragedies. The problem with these topics is not that they are depressing, but that such powerful topics can be challenging to write about. Absolutely no pet stories -- admission officers hate them.

10. Humor. A story within a college essay can be amusing, but don't try to make the entire essay funny.

View all articles by Lynn O'Shaughnessy on CBS MoneyWatch» Lynn O'Shaughnessy is a best-selling author, consultant and speaker on issues that parents with college-bound teenagers face. She explains how families can make college more affordable through her website TheCollegeSolution.com ; her financial workbook, Shrinking the Cost of College ; and the new second edition of her Amazon best-selling book, The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price .

More from CBS News

Have a language expert improve your writing

Check your paper for plagiarism in 10 minutes, generate your apa citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• College essay
• Choosing Your College Essay Topic | Ideas & Examples

Choosing Your College Essay Topic | Ideas & Examples

Published on October 25, 2021 by Kirsten Courault . Revised on July 3, 2023.

A strong essay topic sets you up to write a unique, memorable college application essay . Your topic should be personal, original, and specific. Take time to brainstorm the right topic for you.

Table of contents

What makes a good topic, brainstorming questions to get started, discover the best topic for you, how to make a common topic compelling, frequently asked questions about college application essays, other interesting articles.

Here are some guidelines for a good essay topic:

• It’s focused on you and your experience
• It shares something different from the rest of your application
• It’s specific and original (not many students could write a similar essay)
• It affords the opportunity to share your positive stories and qualities

In most cases, avoid topics that

• Reflect poorly on your character and behavior
• Deal with a challenge or traumatic experience without a lesson learned or positive outlook

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Spend time reflecting on and writing out answers to the following questions. After doing this exercise, you should be able to identify a few strong topics for your college essay.

Writing about yourself can be difficult. If you’re struggling to identify your topic, try these two strategies.

Start with your qualities

After identifying your positive qualities or values, brainstorm stories that demonstrate these qualities.

Start with a story

If you already have some memorable stories in mind that you’d like to write about, think about which qualities and values you can demonstrate with those stories.

Talk it through

To make sure you choose the right topic, ask for advice from trusted friends or family members who know you well. They can help you brainstorm ideas and remember stories, and they can give you feedback on your potential essay topics.

You can also work with a guidance counselor, teacher, or other mentor to discuss which ideas are most promising. If you plan ahead , you can even workshop multiple draft essays to see which topic works best.

If you do choose a common topic, ensure you have the following to craft a unique essay:

• Surprising or unexpected story arcs
• Interesting insight or connections
• An advanced writing style

Here are a few examples of how to craft strong essays from cliché topics.

Here’s a checklist you can use to confirm that your college essay topic is right for you.

College essay topic checklist

My topic is focused on me, not on someone else.

My topic shares something different from the rest of my application.

My topic is specific and original (not many students could write a similar essay).

My topic reflects positively on my character and behavior.

If I chose to write about a traumatic or challenging experience, my essay will focus on how I overcame it or gained insight.

If I chose a common topic, my essay will have a surprising story arc, interesting insight, and/or an advanced writing style.

Good topic!

It looks like your topic is a good choice. It's specific, it avoids clichés, and it reflects positively on you.

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

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 .

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.

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)

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.

If you want to know more about academic writing , effective communication , or parts of speech , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Academic writing

• Writing process
• Transition words
• Passive voice
• Paraphrasing

 Communication

• How to end an email
• Ms, mrs, miss
• How to start an email
• I hope this email finds you well
• Hope you are doing well

 Parts of speech

• Personal pronouns
• Conjunctions

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Courault, K. (2023, July 03). Choosing Your College Essay Topic | Ideas & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/college-essay/essay-topic/

Is this article helpful?

Kirsten Courault

Other students also liked, college essay format & structure | example outlines, what do colleges look for in an essay | examples & tips, how to make your college essay stand out | tips & examples, "i thought ai proofreading was useless but..".

I've been using Scribbr for years now and I know it's a service that won't disappoint. It does a good job spotting mistakes”

Home — Essay Samples — Life — Divorce — My Experience of Growing Up with Divorced Parents

My Experience of Growing Up with Divorced Parents

• Categories: Divorce Parents

About this sample

Words: 407 |

Updated: 8 November, 2023

Words: 407 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Works Cited

• Amato, P. R., & Kane, J. B. (2011). Life-course pathways and the psychosocial adjustment of children of divorce. Journal of Family Issues, 32(2), 153-171.
• Emery, R. E. (2019). Two homes, one childhood: A parenting plan to last a lifetime. Penguin.
• Fabricius, W. V., & Luecken, L. J. (2007). Postdivorce living arrangements, parent conflict, and long-term physical health correlates for children of divorce. Journal of Family Psychology, 21(2), 195-205.
• Fine, M. A., & Fine, G. A. (2014). Handbook of divorce and relationship dissolution. Routledge.
• Gottman, J. M., & Silver, N. (1999). The seven principles for making marriage work: A practical guide from the country's foremost relationship expert. Three Rivers Press.
• Hetherington, E. M., & Kelly, J. (2002). For better or for worse: Divorce reconsidered. W. W. Norton & Company.
• Irwin, R. L., & Ryan, J. M. (2013). Counseling and divorce. Springer Science & Business Media.
• Kelly, J. B., & Emery, R. E. (2003). Children's adjustment following divorce: Risk and resilience perspectives. Family Relations, 52(4), 352-362.
• Wallerstein, J. S., Lewis, J. M., & Blakeslee, S. (2000). The unexpected legacy of divorce: The 25 year landmark study. Hachette UK.
• Walsh, F. (2016). Normal family processes: Growing diversity and complexity. Guilford Publications.

Video Version

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr Jacklynne

Verified writer

• Expert in: Life

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

1 pages / 469 words

5 pages / 2090 words

2 pages / 994 words

3 pages / 1329 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Divorce

Financial problems cause divorce—this is a statement that captures the intricate connection between financial stress and the breakdown of marital relationships. Marriage is a union built on shared dreams, responsibilities, and [...]

What is infidelity? This is having an affair outside marriage. Most people call it cheating or better still adultery. Cases of cheating are rampant nowadays. There are so many cases of spouses killing each other simply because [...]

Divorce is a complex and emotionally charged topic that affects many individuals and families. By understanding the causes, effects, and solutions related to divorce, we can better support and empathize with those going through [...]

The purpose of this essay is to elaborate on the major causes of divorce, psychological effects and how to cope with it. An increase in amount of U.S. couples divorcing is growing. Statistics stated in the essay is proof. The [...]

Divorce is a serious issue that most married couples are facing today or in other words it is the outcome that we are seeing couples that are married go through due to several reasons. Therefore, This paper will be elaborating [...]

A child's life can be destroyed just because of certain decisions that parents take. When I was 12 years old, I used to spend a lot of time with my best friend, Daniel. Daniel was always happy and enjoyed very moment of his [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free