How to Help Students Stand Out with Common Personal Statement Topics
A Mini-Course for Counselors and Educators
Led by Ethan Sawyer (College Essay Guy) and
Tom Campbell (former Admission Officer at Holy Cross & Pomona College)
For counselors who wonder:
- What’s the difference between a “common” and an “overused” personal statement topic (and why does that matter)?
- What are some of the most common essay topics admission officers see?
- How can students stand out with essays that are about someone else (i.e., the “inspiring grandparent” story)
- How can students stand out even when they’ve faced similar challenges as other students?
- Is there such a thing as a stellar “sports” essay? (Spoiler: There is—we’ll show you one!)
- What are some practical strategies for guiding students away from more common topics—while still preserving the student’s agency and voice?
- How can I best support a student who is “set” on their topic (even if the topic isn’t great)
- How do I help the student who wants to write the “extracurricular activity” essay?
- What’s the difference between a common topic and a cliché topic—and how can understanding that difference help my students?
- What’s the secret to standing out with a common topic?
How to Help Students Stand Out With Overused Personal Statement Topics
A Mini-Course for College Counselors & Educators
The “soccer” essay. The “family challenges” essay. And, of course, the “inspiring grandfather/grandmother/person who is totally not the student” essay.
How can counselors and essay coaches help college applicants think beyond these common essay ideas?
In this pay-what-you-can mini-course, Ethan Sawyer (College Essay Guy) and Tom Campbell (former admission officer) will share practical techniques counselors can use with students to help them uplevel a personal statement in as little as twenty minutes, using a range of real essay examples from recent students.
What we're covering:
- Important factors to consider when helping students select a topic
- Why not all common topics are created equal
- How to know when it’s probably best to encourage a student to start from scratch with a new essay topic
- Tips for managing parent involvement (and how to equip students for self-advocacy)
- Guidance for addressing mental health issues in the personal statement and additional information section (based on recent conversations with admissions officers)
- Specific case studies and examples from students Ethan and Tom have worked with recently
- Why the advice “any topic can work” may be misguided and actually counterproductive
- A step-by-step walk-through of how to help a student brainstorm a brand new essay idea + outline in less than an hour
- Tips for how Early Decision + Early Action essays may differ from regular decision essays (and why that might not be a bad idea)
- Conversation and learning opportunities with other students immersed in this process right now
Real Example Essays
Learn from actual essays from recent students
Practical Techniques
Gain strategies you can put to use right away
Get Your Questions Answered
Ask Ethan and Tom anything you like students on their lists
Meet Tom
Tom Campbell (he/him) is an eternally extra Gemini who has spent the past seven years helping students and families navigate the college admissions process – one alliterative/assonant aphorism at a time.
Prior to joining College Essay Guy, he worked as a college counselor at Lakeside School and an admissions officer at Pomona College and College of the Holy Cross (his alma mater).
He stans em dashes and semicolons, Kacey Musgraves (all eras, not just star crossed and Golden Hour), superior breakfast burritos, and complaining about space tourism.
Meet Ethan
Ethan Sawyer is a nationally recognized college essay expert, sought-after speaker, and author of the Amazon bestsellers College Essay Essentials and College Admission Essentials.
Each year he helps thousands of students and counselors through his online courses, workshops, articles, products, and books, and works privately with a small number of students.
A graduate of Northwestern University, Ethan holds an MFA from UC Irvine, two counseling certificates, is certified in Myers-Briggs and hypnotherapy. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife and daughter.
Go beyond the topic to uncovering what matters most - to your students and the colleges they apply to.
This course is pay-what-you-can.
Access is really important to me. In fact, it’s at the heart of most everything I do and is why so many resources on my site are free.
It’s why this course is available at Pay-What-You-Can for high school college counselors in schools, CBOs, or non-profits with small budgets and few resources for professional development.
“Wait, so if our counseling department doesn’t have a budget, we can still join?”
Yep. If that’s you, click on one of the orange buttons below to request a Pay-What-You-Can spot. Don’t be shy; I’d love to have you.
