How to Brainstorm a Great College Essay Topic

In this video, I share a few tips on how to brainstorm a great personal statement topic. We'll talk about what makes a great topic in the first place, as well as how to figure out whether your college essay topic is likely to work or not. Oh, and I talk a bit about you should ignore the Common App prompts when just starting out.

Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction
00:56 – Why you should ignore Common App prompts
01:40 – What makes a great topic?
01:54 – How to figure out if your topic stands out
02:29 – Types of structure (Narrative vs Montage)
02:51 – Montage essay structure & qualities
04:32 – Narrative essay structure & qualities
05:50 – Common topics you might want to avoid
06:49 – How to find a great personal statement topic
07:03 – The "Five Things" exercise
08:45 – The "21 Details" exercise
11:20 – The "I Love" exercise
13:13 – Don't overthink this (too much)

✌️WHO AM I? ✌️
I’m Ethan (College Essay Guy) and my goal is to bring more ease, joy, purpose, and access to the college admission process. I wrote two Amazon bestsellers on college essays and each year my team and I reach more than 1MM students and counselors via www.collegeessayguy.com.

🧠 MY UPCOMING + ONDEMAND *PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN COURSES 🧠
Student Courses: https://www.collegeessayguy.com/colle...
Counselor Courses: https://www.collegeessayguy.com/colle...
*All my courses are pay-what-you-can.

💯 WORK WITH ME & MY TEAM 💯
One-on-one: https://www.collegeessayguy.com/colle...
Free 1-on-1 for low income students: https://www.collegeessayguy.com/match...

✍ RESOURCES ✍
📖 Free Personal Statement Guide: https://bit.ly/ps-free-guide
🎙 Podcast: https://bit.ly/CEGPodcast

📘 College Admission Essentials: https://bit.ly/3qdEklN
📙 College Essay Essentials: https://bit.ly/3vIjtbs

🌍 SOCIAL 🌍
📸 Instagram:   / collegeessayguy  
🐦 Twitter:   / collegeessayguy  
👍 Facebook:   / collegeessayguy  

✋ QUESTIONS? ✋
Leave a comment on one of my YouTube videos or follow me on Instagram.

👍🏻 Your likes & comments tell YouTube this is quality content and help me grow the channel. Clicking the notification bell 🔔will ping you when a new video comes out. And please feel free to share with friends. Thanks, y’all. Stay curious.