An admissions expert has revealed the most common mistakes people make in their college essays – and the topics you should avoid writing about.

Founder of College Contact Sophie Smith has spent the last five years working as a college admissions coach and has helped thousands of kids get into the school of their dreams.

She has also earned viral fame on TikTok for often sharing advice to help students write college essay that will blow their admissions officers away.

Most recently, she posted a video detailing the errors that people often make on their essays that could negatively impact their chance of getting accepted into college.

She explained that while it’s common to write about a hardship that you have overcome, some people take it way too far.

According to Smith, you should view your college essay as a job application, and you should not write about anything that you would not be comfortable saying in person to an interviewer.

‘If you are sitting at a job interview and the interviewer said tell me a story about yourself, and you would not say what you put in your college essay, then you should not write it for your college essay,’ she said.

‘You need to think in this way. You’re applying for college, it’s the same as applying for a job.’

She stressed that your essay should not include anything ‘graphic, inappropriate or illegal.’

‘Nothing that has a bad outlook on you or that’s going to reflect bad on you,’ she continued.

‘Sure, we love a good growth story but the bad part of the growth story cannot be something illegal or something too bad.

‘Let’s keep the essays PG, let’s keep the topics PG and career appropriate.’

In another video, Smith shared some other vital tips for writing the perfect college essay.

First, she advised against repeating information that is already listed elsewhere on the application.

She also recommended you don’t use AI to help write the essay because admissions staff can usually tell and it will ultimately ‘ruin and diminish’ your hard work.

Smith said her best piece of advice is to add as many details as possible to the essay to ensure it’s not ‘boring and bland.’

‘(If you’re) saying, “I walked into class and blah blah blah…” (think about), what class? What time was it? What were you wearing?’ she said.

‘Those little random details start adding up and showing the reader a picture of who you are and what choices you’re making.

‘Your college essay is not supposed to read like your normal academic papers that you write for school.’

As for structure, Smith explained that she has found that in the best college essays, the overall message isn’t fully clear to the reader until the end.

‘(The best is when readers are) trying to figure out what the hook is throughout the essay then at the end you have that big reveal moment,’ she shared.

‘If you can do it correctly and shock (the reader), that’s crazy. Those are the things that will be memorable to an admissions officer.’

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Admissions expert reveals most common mistakes people make in their college essays