Top 50 Personal Essay Topics

You might be set a personal essay as a criterion for your admission to college or it might be set at any time during your academic career. A personal essay is essentially a form of self-expression. It draws on other essay formats – like a narrative essay – but of all academic assignments it is the loosest and least dogmatic. It can be more prosaic than other more technical formats demand. Whatever form, at its core is the presentation of your experience or emotions. It is a time when you can find your muse and really express yourself in the written word.

1. I went to college to say thank you to my parents
2. How being bullied made me the person I am today
3. William Blake is the poet I most admire
4. My spirit of adventure
5. How I propose to spend the long vacation
6. Why I am taking a gap year
7. What the “art of conversation” means to me
8. Why I left Facebook
9. I want to be able to drink legally before I’m 21
10. How being in a band helped my leadership skills
11. Why I chose a career in the medical field (or any other field)
12. My first experience as a babysitter
13. Becoming an older sister (or brother)
14. I will be a lifelong learner
15. My father (mother) is my hero
16. Life skills I learned in college
17. Why I love the Golden Age of Hollywood
18. Chocolate is my comfort food
19. The reasons I keep a food diary
20. The bravest thing I have ever done
21. The one thing I would change about the world
22. I will never forget the day that …
23. The advice I would give to a new high school student
24. My siblings and childhood
25. How I would spend $1 million
26. The place I would most like to live
27. The proudest moment of my life so far
28. Did I feel pressured into going to college?
29. Why I joined an online dating site
30. I wish I had looked after my teeth
31. The things I learned from my grandmother (father)
32. I’m proud to be a Millennial
33. The way I deal with my allergies
34. Why opera moves me so much
35. My love of Shakespeare
36. I will never prefer eBooks over printed books
37. Why pole dancing is my favorite form of exercise
38. I wasn’t allowed a pet as a child. Today I have 5 pets.
39. Why marine pollution breaks my heart
40. I took a gap year but wish I had traveled more
41. Why I plant a new tree every year
42. I do not use social media
43. I wish my mother had taught me to cook
44. Visiting museums has taught me a great deal
45. Monet and Van Gogh are my favorite artists
46. An eclectic music taste makes me interesting
47. I want to enter local politics in my 40s
48. It’s time I learned to appreciate my Irish roots
49. There was a time when …
50. If I ruled the world …