A College Application Essay About a Life Challenge
Read how to write a strong, compelling college essay on a challenge you have overcome.
There is no doubt that it feels good to write about our struggles. Literature is filled with these stories. Think Jane Eyre, The Life of Pi, I am Malala, or Man’s Search for Meaning. However, writing an essay about a life challenge in a strong way takes skill.
An essay about a life challenge may work for # 2 of the commonapp.org prompts, but you may also write about life challenges for other prompts:
- Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
- The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
- Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
- Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
- Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
- Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
- Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.
The Problem or Challenge Should be 1/4 of the Essay
These essays work best when the challenge or problem description section is one quarter of the essay and three quarters of the essay is about how you have dealt with a challenge and how it has changed you.
Why that formula? Two major reasons:
First, people usually write the problem description first. Problems are interesting and exciting, because we want to solve them. So we often write quite a bit about them. Ooops! Often we don’t leave enough words to talk about how we dealt with the problem and how it has changed us. After you write about your challenge or your problem, try to get some help editing the description so it is about 1/4 or 1/3 of the essay. The problem description should be much shorter than the description of how you dealt with the challenge and how it has changed you. (Also, you don’t need to start by describing the problem. You can start with a paragraph that shows the “new you” that has conquered the problem, then describe the problem later in the essay.)
Secondly, the most interesting part of an essay about a life challenge is how you solved the problem or overcome the challenge, so that should be 2/3 or 3/4 of the essay. The new, resourceful you who figured out how to solve the problem is the person attending college, so give that “new you” more words in your essay. How did you solve the problem or overcome the challenge?
How Your Behavior Has Changed Should be 3/4 of the Essay About a Life Challenge
Remember to discuss how you dealt with the problem and how it has changed you–not just your beliefs, but your behavior.
For example, have you started driving your siblings to and from their extracurriculars because of a parent’s illness? Have you started a charity to help people in similar situations as yours? Show how you have changed because of your struggle. How do you act differently now?
Read, “More About How to Answer the Challenging Diversity Question”
Avoid these three pitfalls when writing about challenges or diversity
How to avoid sounding like you are complaining
Student essays shine when they show how you’ve taken initiative. Colleges want to know about choices you make. This essay is about you: what you care about, and what you’ve done about. Just because someone has said something stupid or hurtful to you, doesn’t mean their thoughtless line and your response belongs in your essay, unless your response highlights your abilities and interests. For example, a racist comment is not college essay-worthy, unless it prompted you, for example, to start a new multi-cultural club at your high school. Neither is it ever advisable to write negatively about a teacher or a coach, no matter what they have done.
How to avoid sounding like you are bragging about what you have overcome
Avoid saying “I used to be X” (for example shy or inattentive) “but now I’m Y” (for example outgoing or focused.) The reason is that in general, people don’t change that quickly. We all have to contend with our genetic makeup when trying to change who we are.
Instead, start your essay by describing a situation that shows an aspect of yourself that you are proud of–for example, how you take initiative, help others, or love to read. Then reveal how your achievement or story was made even harder because of your situation—a disability, your experience with systemic racism, etc.
Read “How Bored Do College Admissions Officers Get When They Read College Essays”
How to avoid having people feel sorry for you
The point of a college application essay is to impress and interest the reader enough so they believe you would be a great addition to the student body, and that you will graduate. Having them feel sorry for you won’t accomplish this.
Show a reader how you are engaged and invigorated about taking on new challenges. Show a reader how your challenges have strengthened you.
The details of the challenge, such as dealing with racism, bullying, or a disability, are not nearly as interesting as how you have dealt with the challenge and been changed by it—not just mentally, but in actions that you can describe and show.
A story about how you have dealt with your life challenge says a great deal about who you are, what you have learned from people around you, and how you will handle challenges in the future.
Need help writing your college application essay? Through Essay Coaching, you’ll work one-on-one with award-winning writers Debbie Merion and Sarah J. Robbins, who help students, authors and businesses tell their story in a compelling, meaningful way. Write Debbie or Sarah to learn more.
