0
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Common College Essay Types & How to Answer Them

Common College Essay Types & How to Answer Them

Common College Essay Types & How to Answer Them

It’s a no-brainer that GPAs and ACT/SAT scores are vital to every college application. However, the college essay prompts are just as–if not more–important. It is the perfect chance for a prospective student to tell admissions officers who they are beyond their transcripts. Often, the college essay can make or break an application. 

If you’re not a writing whiz, crafting the perfect essay may be intimidating. But don’t worry: we’re going to go over common prompts, how to answer them, and college essay writing tips. Keep reading to learn how to write a strong college essay that stands out to admissions committees!

“Why This College” Essay

The “Why This College” essay is arguably one of the most common college essay prompts offered to applicants. And for good reason! With this prompt, admissions officers are able to gauge whether an applicant would be a good fit for their university. 

While this essay may seem like a breeze to write, don’t write it off so quickly! Admissions officers are used to reading the same answers for this specific prompt. This isn’t just a prompt for you to explain what you love about the university. This is your chance to showcase exactly why you’d be a good fit on their campus.

How to Approach the “Why This College” Essay

  • Highlight what you can contribute: Use this essay to explain what you like about the school and what you would bring to their incoming class. How would your presence improve their campus life? Don’t be afraid to brag about yourself!
  • Do your research: Admissions officers seek enthusiastic students, so be sure to make connections between your interests and the university’s offerings in your essay. Highlight specific programs, subjects, and classes that excite you. Discuss what sets the school apart and how you’d leverage opportunities for personal growth. This approach helps admissions officers assess your fit for the university.

“Learning From Obstacles” Essay

Common College Essay Types & How to Answer Them 2

Another common college essay prompt talks about facing challenges, failures, and lessons. This is a great way to highlight what you have learned from these difficult experiences and how it has helped you grow as a student and a person. 

By discussing how you face and navigate challenges, you’re actively showing admissions counselors how you would prosper at their university. Would you bode well? Would you fall short? Would it make you stronger? Would it make you weaker? These are all questions the admissions committee will be asking as they read your essay. 

How to Approach the “Learning From Obstacles” Essay

  • Be honest about the “bad stuff”: Admissions officers appreciate honesty and perseverance. Though it isn’t easy, talking about your struggles or shortcomings shows strength and maturity, especially when you can share how these difficult times have contributed to your self-growth. By sharing your experience and how you’ve overcome it, you’re showing that you are capable of handling tough situations, which can be common while navigating college life. 
  • Emphasize growth: College often marks students’ first taste of independence, and it’s a crucial period for growth. Along with being honest, make sure to highlight your personal development. Share your value for growth, and pinpoint areas you aim to develop. Bonus if you can tie it back to the university! Explain how the school can facilitate your growth, highlighting opportunities for your advancement. This paints a vivid picture of your potential to thrive on campus.

“Topic of Your Choice” Essay

Common College Essay Types & How to Answer Them 3

By writing about a topic of your choice, you are taking advantage of a great opportunity to set yourself apart from other applicants. However, to be successful with this college essay prompt, it is essential to think critically about what–and how–you are going to write.

How to Approach the “Topic of Your Choice” Essay

  • Be unique: This essay prompt encourages you to think outside the box. Avoid common topics and aim for something unexpected to capture admissions officers’ attention amid hundreds of essays. If you’re savvy when it comes to writing, consider telling a story–literally. Discuss a quirk, hobby, or specific experience that sets you apart. Think carefully about how you want to present yourself and don’t hesitate to take a calculated risk!
  • Make it matter: If you’re taking a risk with the “topic of your choice” essay, talk about something that matters to you. Passion makes all the difference, especially in a college essay. Admissions officers want to know what gets you out of bed in the morning. They want to know what motivates you, what drives you, and what you want to do with your life. Once again, it’s a great way to translate what you have to offer at their university. 

Conclusion

While the college essay is a crucial part of a successful college application, it doesn’t have to be scary or stressful. Taking the time to write uniquely, authentically, and honestly makes all the difference. With this mindset, you’ll be able to craft a compelling masterpiece of a college essay in no time!

September 1, 2025

 

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Return to Shop

    UPGRADE TO GET UNLIMITED ACCESS TO ALL COURSES FOR ONLY £49

    ADD OFFER TO CART

    Full access to all courses for 12 months, with unlimited free accredited certificates. This offer is available for a limited time only.

      Apply Coupon
        Training Express Logo Dark

        Why a Privacy Policy?

        The Training Express privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) is all about letting you know as a Training Express customer that we take the protection and management of your personal information very seriously. As a UK based business our handling of your information is controlled by the UK Data Protection Act 2018). We therefore take great care to protect your personal information or anything which might identify you personally such as:

        • Name
        • Email address
        • Organisation information (e.g. Name, Address, Telephone number)

        How do we collect information about you?

        Training Express offers services which can be purchased via the website and application and can be paid for online or offline. During the purchase process we will require personal and organisation information. Training Express also offers a free trial via the website which require the same personal and organisation information.

        How do we use your information?

        Information we obtain from you is used to:

        • Improve and extend our services
        • Respond to your requests for specific services
        • Analyse user/purchaser/visitor interactions
        • Market additional Training Express services

        Legal requests for information

        Training Express may be required under court order to provide personally identifiable information to government authorities. Providing such government departments/agencies have legal right to access our records and such enquiries are correctly made, we will supply such authorities with the information they require.

        With whom do we share your information?

        We would only share personally identifiable information with third parties if:

        • you agree to us sharing this information.
        • we are forced to bring legal actions against a subscriber who has breached our user agreement.
        • we sell, assign or transfer all or part of Training Express and the services it provides, providing your personal information is sold, assigned or transferred only to the acquirer as part of such a transaction.
        • they are providing services to Training Express. Such third parties are limited in their rights to use such information only for the provision of these services to Training Express.
        • they are affiliates subject to privacy policies that protect your personally identifiable information from disclosure are comparable to this privacy policy.

        How long do we retain your information?

        We retain your information so long as you remain a subscriber and by default for 12 months subsequent to termination of your subscription. You can request earlier permanent deletion of your data if you wish but your data will reside in backups for a period of 3 months thereafter.

        Information Security

        The Training Express website and application have various security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Although no security measure is fool proof, we believe that these measures are consistent with good practice as 2 of 5 Privacy Policy modern technology permits. For more information on information security please see our Information Security Statement.

        Email Privacy

        We follow email marketing best practices at all time. A key aspect of these best practices is the operation of permission based emailing. If you receive emails from Training Express or a partner it will be because you have elected to receive such emails or they are communications related specifically to services requested.

        Call Privacy

        We record all incoming and outgoing calls for contractual and training purposes. Call recordings are retained for a period of 24 months and are never shared with third parties.

        Outbound links

        The Training Express website and application contain links to other websites. While links are reviewed at the time of publishing we are not responsible for the content of external links as they can be changed without our knowledge.

        Your rights

        You have various rights in respect of the personal information Training Express holds about you – these are set out in more detail below. If you wish to exercise any of these rights, you can do so by contacting Training Express at www.Training Express.co.uk/contact-us. Please note that you will need to provide Training Express with evidence of your identity.

        Request access to your personal information: You can ask Training Express to give you a copy of the personal information that Training Express holds about you.

        Request correction: You can ask Training Express to change or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal information held about you.

        Request erasure: You can ask Training Express to delete your personal information where it is no longer necessary for Training Express to use it, you have withdrawn consent, or where Training Express has no lawful basis for keeping it. 

        Right to object: You can object to Training Express processing of your personal information where Training Express is relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where Training Express is processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

        Request restriction: You can ask Training Express to restrict our use of your personal information in the following circumstances: a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where Training Express’s use of the data is unlawful but you do not want Training Express to erase it; (c) where you need Training Express to hold the data even if Training Express no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) if you have objected to our use of your data but Training Express needs to verify whether Training Express has overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

        Request transfer: You can ask us to provide you or a third party with some of the personal information that Training Express holds about you in a structured, commonly used, electronic form, so it can be easily transferred.

        Withdraw consent: If you have given Training Express your consent to use personal information (for example, for marketing), you can withdraw your consent at any time. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, Training Express may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Training Express tries to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take Training Express longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, Training Express will notify you and keep you updated.

        Use of Cookies

        Cookies are small files which many websites transfer to your hard disk. They can inform the website what pages you visit, and your preferences, which enable websites to provide you with a more personalised service. You can set your browser to refuse cookies or to warn you before accepting them.


        We use cookies, but most parts of our site can be accessed even if your cookies are turned off. But you may find there are parts of the site which you cannot access if your cookies are turned off.

        We work with several third-party services that use cookies, including:

        **Rakuten Advertising Cookies:**

        – **rmStoreGateway**: Used for affiliate marketing tracking (expires after 180 days)

        – Stores: Merchant ID, Encrypted Affiliate ID, Click ID, and timestamps

        – Purpose: Ensures proper commission attribution for our affiliate partners

        – **rmuid**: Used by Rakuten Advertising Affiliate Network for targeting (expires within 365 days)

        These cookies help us track referrals from our marketing partners. For more information, please see:

        Rakuten Advertising’s Privacy Policy

        Contact information

        If you have any issues with correcting this information in our database or queries concerning this policy please email support@trainingexpress.org.uk or call us on +44 (0) 2081583412

        We endeavour to respond to all support requests within 24 hrs.

        Policy changes

        Training Express reserves the right to change its privacy policies at any time. Up to date policies are always available on our website. 4 of 5 Privacy Policy Legal Agreement This Privacy Policy forms part of a legal agreement between you and Training Express.