Essay writing is one of the academic writing words learned by English Department students at one of the private universities in Yogyakarta. This study aimed to investigate the students’ perception on essay writing in writing class including the benefits and the challenges of essay writing in writing class as perceived by the students. The researcher used descriptive qualitative design in a qualitative approach to achieve the objective of this study. This study was conducted at English Education Department in one private university in Yogyakarta. The participants of this study were four batch 2017 students of English Language Education Department at one private university in Yogyakarta. The participants of this study were one female and three female of English Students at one private university in Yogyakarta. The researcher conducted the interview in collecting in-depth data about the student's perception on essay writing in wring class based on the participants’ experiences. The findings of this study showed that the students achieved several benefits during writing an essay in writing class. Essay writing has benefits in enriching students’ vocabulary, improving grammar skills, expressing ideas, and increasing students’ critical thinking. The findings of this study also presented that there were several challenges faced by the students during writing an essay in writing class. They were difficulty in the use of correct spelling, lack of linguistic knowledge, limited knowledge of the topic and limited vocabulary.