Writing is one of the important skills in academic performance. Good writing skill can help students to communicate their ideas in the form of written. From experience, the researcher identifies that there are some challenges in writing essay. This study wanted to see students’ challenges in writing essay of new students in university. There are two research questions of this study “what are the challenges in writing essay faced by ELED students” and “what are the strategies to overcome the challenges in writing essay faced by ELED students”. The study was conducted at one private university in Yogyakarta, with four participants which were from students of English Language Education Department batch 2017. This research was elaborated using descriptive qualitative research design. The data were gathered with interview. Based on data collection, this study revealed various findings about students’ challenges in writing essay and strategies how to overcome the challenges. The results showed what are challenges faced by students are inadequacy of grammar mastery, vocabulary mastery, formal language also be challenges for students in writing essay. Reading more and discussing with friends are how students to overcome the problem in writing essay.