How to Come Up with Winning College Essay Ideas

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Part I. Preparation

Are you struggling and straining trying to come up with college essay ideas that will make you stand out to college admissions officers at the university or college of your choice? You need to be clear on your objectives. The following steps will help you come up with essay topics that will get you into the college of your choice by moving you from immediate to long term goals (dare I say “lifetime goals”?).

 

For purposes of your college application, you can focus on these short-term goals:

1. Writing a good college essay ->

2. Getting into college, and more strategically ->

3. Understanding how college is a step toward achieving your bigger, deeper goals ->

4. Knowing what difference you want to make in the world (i.e., your deepest goals) ->

 

Here’s one way to come up with a good idea for an essay topic and jumpstart your writing. Become, for the moment, a journalist—and interview the person you know best: yourself. Any good journalist makes sure that s/he answers the following in any article s/he publishes: WHAT? WHY? WHERE? WHO? WHEN? HOW?

 

This exercise will help you create a plan for each goal based on your responses to the following questions. Since this report focuses on how to write a good college essay, we will walk through the steps to achieve this goal:

 

1. What do you want to happen?

 

2. Why do you want this to happen?

 

3. Where do you want to be? What is your desired outcome?

 

4. Who do you want to call your peers?

 

5. When do you want this to happen?

 

6. How will you measure your progress and stay on schedule?

 

Not only do you need to break down your goal into small achievable steps that will add up to the realization of achieving your goal, but you have to make sure that you do all the steps, in order, and to the best of your ability. In other words, you need to be accountable. I’m guessing that if you purchased and are reading this report, that you are self-motivated, at least to some degree. That is good!

 

However, being in touch with someone who has been there and done that AND who is objective is even better. That someone could be a coach or a college advisor or any other mentor you trust. If you were a member of the Keys to the CASTLE Program, not only would you have detailed steps laid out for you, but you would also have access to a coach who could provide you the perspective and encouragement that you need to get through the college application process with less stress and more success.

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