The Common App essay is one of the most important parts of your application, but it can be extremely daunting if you’re not familiar with creative writing or what admissions officers are looking for.
In this blog post, we’ll provide advice on how to break down these prompts, organize your thoughts, and craft a strong, meaningful response that admissions officers will notice. If you’d like more free personalized help, you can get your essays reviewed and explore school-by-school essay help on CollegeVine.
The Common App essay is one of the most important parts of your college application. With 650 words to make an impression, writing a great Common App essay can seem daunting. But with some strategic thinking and planning, you can craft an essay that will grab admissions officers’ attention.
In this comprehensive guide we’ll walk you through how to write an amazing Common App essay from brainstorming ideas to polishing your draft. We’ll also analyze examples of successful essays to show you what makes them stand out.
Why the Common App Essay Matters
The Common App essay gives admissions committees a chance to get to know the person behind the application. While test scores and grades show your academic abilities, the essay reveals your personality, perspectives, and passions As an applicant, you need to convince admissions officers to advocate for you A stellar essay is key to turning them into fans.
Of all your college essays, the 650-word Common App essay carries the most weight since most colleges will see it. Take full advantage of the space to tell your unique story. Crafting a thoughtful, engaging personal narrative can be the difference between getting accepted or rejected.
What Makes a Great Common App Essay?
Great Common App essays are deeply personal and reveal something meaningful about you. Focus on conveying your feelings, perspectives, and motivations. Admissions officers want to feel connected to you.
Strong essays also tackle fresh topics. Overdone themes like immigrant experiences or sports injuries tend to blend together. You can certainly write a unique essay on those subjects, but it’s difficult. Instead, highlight more nuanced aspects of your identity.
Additionally, pay close attention to style and tone. Use vivid imagery, varied sentence structure, and active voice. Be consistent in style and tone throughout. 650 words may not seem like much space, but it’s enough room to tell a compelling story.
Finally, know your audience. Admissions officers at religious universities or social justice-focused colleges will have different expectations. Write accordingly.
How Your Common App Essay Fits With Supplements
The Common App essay is one part of your overall college essay portfolio, along with school-specific supplemental essays. When choosing Common App essay topics, consider your supplemental essay topics too. Together, your essays should complement each other and illustrate different dimensions of who you are.
Before writing your Common App essay, reflect on your supplement essay topics and develop an overarching strategy. If you have amazing extracurricular qualifications, focus your Common App essay on humanizing yourself. If your academics are less stellar, use your Common App essay to highlight your passions.
Step-by-Step Guide to Writing the Common App Essay
Writing a great Common App essay takes time and strategic thinking. Follow these steps:
Brainstorm Ideas
Before reading the prompts, brainstorm topics and ideas. One approach is to focus on a passion and how you engage with it. For example, you could emphasize your love of creative writing and how you turn real-life experiences into stories.
You can also consider how your personality developed in relation to your family and identify potential topics from there.
Address these core questions in your brainstorming:
- Who am I?
- Why am I here?
- What makes me unique?
- What matters to me?
Keep asking “why” when brainstorming to dig deeper. Bounce ideas off friends and siblings who know you well.
Choose a Prompt
Select a prompt that aligns with your idea. We’ll analyze the prompts later in this article.
If nothing jumps out, brainstorm more. Don’t settle on a topic you’re lukewarm about. When you’re passionate, your essay will be more engaging.
Outline and Organize
Decide on a structure. You could use a narrative arc or focus on cause and effect. Just ensure your ideas flow logically.
You don’t have to follow a 5-paragraph essay format. Feel free to be creative, but maintain clarity.
Write a Strong Draft
Keep these tips in mind when writing:
- Show, don’t tell: Use vivid imagery and details rather than stating facts.
- Be specific: Use precise language.
- Use active voice: Subjects should perform actions.
- Avoid cliches: They lack originality.
- Maintain a consistent tone: Align with your essay goals.
Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through! This is your chance to bring your application to life.
Revise and Refine
Leave time to revise your essay several times. Focus on tightening language, improving flow, and clarifying ideas.
Have someone else proofread your final draft for typos and clarity. Fresh eyes can identify areas for improvement.
Analyzing the Common App Essay Prompts
Let’s break down the 7 prompts for 2022-2023. We’ll suggest strategies and provide example responses.
Prompt 1
Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
This prompt is an invitation to expand on an extracurricular passion, academic interest, or unusual talent. Weaving a story about personal growth in an activity or interest makes a compelling essay.
Even a common interest like sports can work if written with insight about your development. Focus on why the interest is meaningful to you.
Here is an example response about pursuing coding:
From an early age, I found puzzles and problem-solving thrilling. My favorite toys were Legos and puzzle books. I would spend hours absorbed in building complex creations piece-by-piece or unraveling challenging logic puzzles. By age 10, I discovered coding, which combined these passions. I was hooked from the moment I printed “Hello World!” for the first time.
After learning HTML and CSS, I started building rudimentary websites for fun. Gradually, I picked up JavaScript, Python, and more. I watched hundreds of coding tutorials online and spent my free time experimenting. Each small coding victory gave me a rush of satisfaction.
When I started high school, I had the opportunity to take computer science classes. Learning programming fundamentals and collaborating on coding projects with classmates only deepened my passion. I stayed late after school in the computer lab, working to perfect my coding skills. Soon I was tackling advanced challenges like developing a pixel art program and simple browser games.
Outside of class, I expanded my skills further by working on personal coding projects – like building a responsive weather app. With each line of code, each bug fixed, and each program executed successfully, I solidified my certainty that computer science is the career path for me. I joined my school’s coding club and seek out every opportunity to keep learning and developing as a programmer.
Now I excitedly look ahead to studying computer science in college. I can’t wait to take my coding knowledge to the next level and tackle ever more complex challenges. Coding has become an indispensable part of who I am.
This response illustrates the writer’s early interest in coding and demonstrates how it has shaped their high school years. Specific details and examples show rather than tell their passion for programming.
Prompt 2
The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
This prompt provides an opportunity to demonstrate resilience, maturity, and personal growth. Colleges want to admit students who can handle adversity and learn from it.
When responding, pick an obstacle that reveals something deeper about you. Avoid common challenges like not making varsity sports or bombing a test. Dig deeper. Share how you responded in the moment and what the experience taught you.
Here is an example response about failing an important test:
Walking out of the SAT, I felt confident I had sailed through the test effortlessly. In the weeks that followed, I daydreamed about impressing colleges with my score. Reality came crashing down when I opened my score report to see a disappointing 1780/2400. My heart sank.
At first, I made excuses. I convinced myself the room had been too hot or that I just hadn’t gotten enough sleep. Deep down though, I knew I hadn’t put in the work to prepare correctly. I had taken a few practice tests but often relied on last-minute cram sessions rather than diligent study habits.
This wake-up call changed my approach to academics. I stopped looking for shortcuts and started developing disciplined study skills. I worked with a tutor to identify my weak areas in math and focused my prep on mastering those concepts. Instead of cramming the night before tests, I did a little review each night for weeks.
The difference became clear when I took the SAT again 3 months later and scored a 2100/2400. Beyond the improved score though, I learned an invaluable life lesson. Hard work and perseverance pay off much more than talent or intelligence alone. I will carry this lesson with me to college and beyond. Failure can be disheartening, but overcoming it builds grit and character.
Rather than complaining about the bad score, this response demonstrates maturity by focusing on the importance of diligence. It highlights
Deciding on a Prompt
This section provides insights and examples for each of the 7 Common App essay prompts for the 2023-2024 cycle. Each of these prompts lends itself to distinct topics and strategies, so selecting the prompt that best aligns with your idea is essential to writing an effective Common App essay.
Here are this year’s prompts (click the link to jump to the specific prompt):
Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
This prompt is difficult to answer because most high schoolers haven’t participated in the types of iconoclastic protests against societal ills that lend themselves to an awe-inspiring response. A more tenable alternative here could be to discuss a time that you went against social norms, whether it was by becoming friends with someone who seemed like an outcast or by proudly showing off a geeky passion.
And if you ever participated in a situation in tandem with adults and found some success (i.e., by blogging, starting a tutoring organization, or participating in political campaigns), you could discuss your experiences as a young person without a college degree in professional circles. However, avoid sounding morally superior (as if you’re the only person who went against this convention, or that you’re better than your peers for doing so).
Another way to answer this prompt is to discuss a time when you noticed a need for change. For example, if you wondered why medical records are often handwritten, or why a doctor’s visit can be long and awkward, maybe you challenged the norm in healthcare by brainstorming an electronic-recording smartphone app or a telemedicine system. In a similar way, if you led a fundraiser and recognized that advertising on social media would be more effective than the traditional use of printed flyers, you could write about a topic along those lines as well. Focus on what action or experience caused you to recognize the need for change and follow with your actions and resulting outcome.
As a whole, this prompt lends itself to reflective writing, and more specifically, talking the reader through your thought processes. In many cases, the exploration of your thought processes and decision-making is more important than the actual outcome or concept in question. In short, this essay is very much about “thinking,” rumination, and inquisition. A good brainstorming exercise for this prompt would be to write your problem on a sheet of paper and then develop various solutions to the problem, including a brief reason for justification. The more thorough you are in justifying and explaining your solutions in the essay, the more compelling your response will be.
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What are the Common App essay prompts?
The Common App Essay prompts are diverse enough that they allow you to write about pretty much anything. Therefore, we encourage you to brainstorm your best stories first and then think about which question to answer. Admissions committees have no preference for which prompt you choose.
How long is a Common App essay?
If you have weaker qualifications on paper for your colleges, the best narratives tend to draw out your passion for the topics or fields of study that are of interest to you and magnify your accomplishments. Because the Common App essay is 650 words long and has few formal directions, organizing a response might seem daunting.
What is a common application essay?
What is the Common Application essay? The Common Application, or Common App, is a college application portal that is accepted by more than 900 schools. Within the Common App is your main essay, a primary writing sample that all your prospective schools will read to evaluate your critical thinking skills and value as a student.
Do I need to write a Common App essay?
If you’re applying to more than one or two colleges, there’s a good chance you’ll have to use the Common Application, and that means you’ll probably have to write a Common App essay. In this guide, I’ll cover everything you need to know about the essay. I’ll break down every single Common App essay prompt by going over the following:
