What are the most overused college essay topics?

Hey y'all, I'm preparing to start writing my college application essays, and I want to avoid cliche topics. What are seen as the most overused or common topics that I should try to steer away from?

A very thoughtful question, understanding what sounds cliche to admissions officers can indeed help make your essay stand out. Here are a few commonly overused topics that may not add much uniqueness to an applicant's profile:

1. Sports Victories or Injuries: Stories about how a loss in a sports match led to fortitude, or how a sports injury led to resilience, appear quite often. Unless you have a truly unique angle, it's better to avoid such topics.

2. Big Moves or Adjusting to a New Environment: This might be moving to a new state, a new country, or even just switching schools. Admissions officers read many essays about this experience, so unless your story is very unique, it will not stand out.

3. Trips to Exotic Locations or Service Trips: Writing about a transformative summer trip where you helped build houses can feel superficial and overdone. It's difficult for admissions officers to understand whether such trips genuinely affected you or were just a privileged experience.

4. An Immigrant's Story: The stage of transitioning from one culture to another is something that many students write about, making it one of the more common tropes in college essays. Avoid cliches in this category like adjusting to a new place, learning a new language, food clashes, and more.

5. Winning or losing a competition: These topics often do not provide deep enough insight into your personality beyond the surface level of success or failure.

While these are common topics, it doesn't necessarily mean you should totally avoid them. If you feel strongly about a topic and believe you have a unique angle or personal insight, by all means go ahead. The key is to show who you are, your growth, and how you think.