College application season is right around the corner, and for rising seniors, that means one thing: essay writing has officially begun! Alongside countless drafts of short responses and supplemental essays, students will also face what is arguably the most important essay in the entire application process — the Common App personal statement.
Unlike grades, test scores, or activity lists, the personal statement is often the only place where admissions officers truly get to hear a student’s voice directly. It’s an opportunity for colleges to understand how a student thinks, reflects, sees the world, and ultimately what kind of person they will be on campus. Yet despite the essay’s importance, many applicants unintentionally weaken their personal statements by falling into a few predictable traps.
After reading more than 500 college essays over the past decade, I’ve noticed the same patterns appear year after year. The good news? Most of these mistakes are avoidable and even if a student now finds themselves heading down one of these 9 paths, there are often ways to spin the essay into something much stronger and more compelling that admissions officers won’t tire of reading.
1. The “Résumé Dump”.
This is one of the most common mistakes students make. Instead of telling a meaningful story or reflecting on an experience, the personal statement becomes a long list of accomplishments, leadership positions, awards, and activities — many of which admissions officers can already see elsewhere in the application.
The purpose of the Common App essay is not to repeat what’s already on the student’s resume or activity list, but to reveal something deeper about the student behind the achievements. Additionally, when an essay becomes too focused on accomplishments, it can unintentionally come across like the student’s most redeeming quality is simply how much they care about building their résumé.
If a student finds themselves falling into this trap, I usually encourage them to zoom in on one specific moment or experience from an activity instead, and then explore how exactly it shaped them. For instance, rather than explaining everything they did in debate club or robotics, their story should focus on one conversation, one challenge, one realization, or one small moment within the activity that genuinely meant something to them.
2. The Essay That Could Belong to Anyone.
It’s not uncommon to see students choose a topic so broad or predictable that their essay could belong to almost anyone. Admissions officers read thousands of essays every year, and while essays about “working hard,” “never giving up,” or “learning teamwork” are not inherently bad, without specific details and personal insight, these generic essays do tend to blur together.
This doesn’t mean students need to have climbed Mount Everest or started a nonprofit at age 14 in order to write a strong essay. Some of the best essays I’ve ever read actually came from very ordinary moments. What matters is specificity and reflection. A simple story told thoughtfully is often far more memorable than a dramatic story told superficially.
3. The “I Struggled in a Hard Class” Essay.
Another topic I’ve seen many students frequently gravitate toward in “challenge” essays is struggling in a difficult class, working extremely hard, and eventually succeeding. While perseverance is admirable, this topic can be difficult to make memorable, especially when applying to highly selective schools where most applicants have already taken rigorous courses and worked incredibly hard academically.
Additionally, the qualities students typically hope to highlight through these essays — resilience, discipline, grit, and determination — are likely already reflected elsewhere in the application through transcripts and recommendation letters. Nevertheless, if students still want to highlight those qualities in their personal statement, I usually encourage them to think about examples outside the classroom instead and maybe consider writing about a creative pursuit, a family responsibility, a personal project, or some unexpected challenge that reveals more about how they think and who they are.
4. The Sports Essay.
For student-athletes, writing about their athletic involvement makes complete sense because sports can genuinely feel like a full-time job alongside academics. Between practices, competitions, training camps, injuries, and years of commitment, athletics often become a huge part of their identity. But this is also exactly why sports essays can be tricky.
Over the years, I’ve read countless essays about winning the big game, losing an important match, recovering from an injury, or learning the value of teamwork and perseverance. These are not necessarily bad topics, but they can quickly start blending together for admissions officers reading dozens of essays a week.
The biggest mistake students make in sports essays is spending far too much of the 650-word limit describing the game or competition itself rather than reflecting on how the experience personally impacted them. If a student still feels strongly drawn to writing about sports, I usually encourage them to connect the sport to something more unexpected or personal. For example, maybe playing soccer sparked an interest in physics, maybe keeping track of basketball statistics led to a fascination with data analysis, or maybe cheerleading taught them not only how to use their voice on the field, but also how to advocate for others off of it. Making these connections will make their essay significantly more memorable. Often, the most compelling part of these essays is not the sport itself, but the perspective the student brings to it.
5. The “Voluntourism” Trap.
Another increasingly common topic is the international volunteer or “service trip abroad” essay. Many high school students genuinely gain meaningful perspective from their experiences traveling abroad and volunteering in unfamiliar communities. However, students should be careful with how they frame these essays.
Admissions officers are increasingly aware of the privilege embedded in many expensive “pay-to-volunteer” programs, and essays that focus too heavily on “helping” less privileged communities can sometimes come across the wrong way. The concern here is that the essay unintentionally positions disadvantaged communities as vehicles for the student’s own self-discovery.
This doesn’t mean students should never write about these experiences, but they do need to approach them thoughtfully. The strongest essays within this category tend to focus less on “saving” others and more on humility, listening, discomfort, perspective shifts, and self-awareness. Again, what matters most is not the volunteering itself, but the reflection and personal growth that follows.
6. The “Trauma Dump” Essay.
One of the trickiest essay topics to navigate is personal trauma. Every year, more students write heart-wrenching essays about topics like grief, mental health struggles, family conflict, illness, abuse, eating disorders, or loss. And to be clear, counselors should never minimize experiences that have genuinely shaped who a student is.
However, these essays can miss the point of the personal statement when they focus so heavily on the traumatic event itself that there is very little room left for reflection or insight. Instead of learning about the student and how they grew from the experience, the reader might simply be left worried about them.
One guideline I often share with my students is this: if the experience still feels like an open wound, it may be too soon to write about it in a college essay. If it feels more like a fading scar — something that has been processed and reflected upon — then it may be possible to write about it meaningfully.
Also, as always, when writing about any event or circumstance, students should spend far less time describing the event itself and far more time exploring how it changed them, what they learned, how they responded, and what perspective they gained.
7. The Clichéd Ending That Falls Flat.
Another common pitfall is ending the essay with broad, overused conclusions like “failure made me stronger,” “everything happens for a reason,” or “life is short.” The issue is not that these sentiments are wrong, but that they often stop at surface-level reflection and don’t actually tell the admissions officer anything specific or memorable about the student. Colleges are not just interested in what happened — they want to understand how the experience genuinely changed the student’s perspective, interests, values, or actions moving forward. For instance, did their parent’s divorce spark an interest in psychology or counseling? Did helping care for a grandparent with Alzheimer’s lead them to advocacy work or curiosity about neuroscience? It’s these deeper, more personal reflections that ultimately make essays feel authentic and memorable.
8. The “My Mom Is My Hero” Essay.
Students sometimes make the mistake of focusing too heavily on other people in the essay — a parent, grandparent, coach, mentor, or friend — without bringing the spotlight back to themselves.
Relationships can absolutely be part of their story, but they should serve as a window into the student’s own values, growth, and perspective. If the most memorable person in the essay is someone other than the student, the essay may not be accomplishing its purpose.
9. The Polished but Personality-Free Essay.
Finally, a major red flag I’ve seen in recent years is the overly polished or AI-generated essay. With the rise of AI tools and essay editing services, many Common App essays today sound technically strong but emotionally empty.
AI can certainly help students brainstorm ideas or organize thoughts, but students should be careful not to let technology flatten their individuality. Admissions officers are remarkably good at spotting essays that feel manufactured or inauthentic, and when they read dozens of AI-assisted essays in a week, the similarities become even more obvious.
There is a major difference between an essay that is well-written and one that has a strong voice. Today, more than ever, the essays that truly stand out are the ones that feel unmistakably human and real.
As students now begin brainstorming their Common App essay, they should focus less on finding the “perfect” topic and more on identifying moments that have genuinely shaped them. Reflect on the experiences that changed the way you think, challenged an assumption you held, sparked a new interest, or taught you something about yourself. The event itself does not need to be impressive or inordinary, as what matters is the insight that it provides into who you are today.
A useful test when deciding what to write about is to ask yourself: What would someone learn about me from this story that they couldn’t learn from my grades or activities list? The strongest Common App essays will always reveal the person behind the achievements, showing how they think, what they value, what has shaped their perspective, or how they have grown over time.
