Backpage Advice: Last minute college essay ideas

Many high school seniors procrastinate on writing their college application essays. It can be stressful thinking of the perfect topic to write about. But don’t worry! The Backpage has put together a list of the best last-minute college essay ideas which are sure to get you into any school!

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
College admission counselors are tired of reading about a torn ACL or other sports related injury; those recovery stories are boring and overdone. If you really want to stand out as an applicant, write about how you broke a different body part or suffered a terrible accident, then explain the struggles you faced through it. For example, write about the awful paper cut that left you on the bench for the remainder of the paper football season. Or, when you survived an entire day with a phone charged to only 97%. If you don’t have any spectacular stories like this, no worries: just make one up!

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
Colleges take pride in having students of all different ethnicities, religions, political beliefs, and backgrounds. This is why you should come out as a communist. Being communist is a pretty uncommon political belief in the U.S., so you’ll definitely be memorable. Discuss how communism promotes sharing, communal leadership, and working together as one community. For colleges, communism could be a successful form of government while students live together and share many aspects of their lives. To show your full devotion to the Communist party, wear red clothes to the interview. We understand this is a risky essay topic, but the benefits outweigh the risks when it comes to being a diverse applicant.

Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma—anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
If it’s the night your applications are due and you’ve procrastinated on writing your essay, write the essay on writing the essay. This will show the admission counselors how sharp your problem-solving skills are. Use descriptive language to show your thought process and if you need to, grab a thesaurus to look for big, fancy words in order to sound as impressive as possible. If time is running out and you’re struggling with analyzing the essay-writing process, remember analysis is just repeating one thing over and over again with different words. And as long as you talk about society and/or humanity somewhere in there, you’ll be fine!