Juniors are nearly rising seniors and are increasingly considering their topics for their college essays, especially now that the 2026-2027 Common App essay prompts have been released. Confusion surrounds the supposedly effective method of “trauma dumping,” which involves sharing in detail past difficult experiences or hardships. Trauma dumping is a common approach to writing a college essay, but there is much backlash surrounding it, making students confused on whether or not to avoid it or utilize it.

Common App is a college application platform that allows students to submit applications to several colleges while only having to put in their information once, and the platform releases college essay prompts for its applications every year. The questions for the 2026-2027 applications are the same as those for 2025-2026, and one question involves sharing challenges or setbacks the student has faced and how they overcame them. This question has become a popular choice for trauma dumping, especially in the past few years as many students share success stories of writing about their family problems, sports injuries, or minority struggles, and they then get acceptance letters or even full rides to colleges. 

However, there has been pushback against the idea that writing about hardships is a good path for college essays, especially among students who find the topic is a shortcut. “I did not feel the need to trauma dump because I wanted to show my hard work and motivation to make academic accomplishments rather than being admitted because of sympathy,” said senior Tyler Payson, who will be attending Salisbury in the fall.

The concept that one’s dedication and diligence is more important than hardship is also a suggestion made by Jennifer Schorr, one of Sherwood’s English Composition Assistants who helps students with their college journey. Schorr says that “trauma dumping doesn’t typically reassure an admissions officer of your ability to fit in and succeed,” but instead showcasing resilience and growth can be important. An essay about a traumatic experience can be well developed and success can stem from this, according to Schorr, but an important factor of that success is its showing of the student’s character.

The Common App also has a 250-word essay supplementary on “Challenges and Circumstances,” which can be used to write about trauma. “It is absolutely not important to convey hardships or past trauma in your main common app essay,” said Schorr. 

Still, the perception that seniors should write about traumas on their common app persists. This leaves students who haven’t experienced any severe hardships or simply don’t want to write about them in the middle; unable to write about trauma, but unsure of what else to write about that could still get them into college. An anonymous senior mentioned the common belief that “people with tragic pasts usually win,” and how this concept created a pressure to trauma dump or write about “crazy experiences,” even though she “hasn’t really had any.” The growing belief that one needs to gain sympathy from admissions officers is also likely in direct correlation with the increase in essays about sports injuries. Not finding any other trauma to write about, an injury is the next best thing. 

It is important to put serious thought into a college essay, and not stray down the same path others do because there is a concept of success. Schorr recommends that students make an appointment with her to brainstorm their essay, to create a perfect topic that will showcase their value and personality well. She suggests students “think of your essay like a substitute for an interview” and whatever topic one picks, make sure it truly conveys their personality and capability to learn and flourish in the college environment.