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No matter who you are or what kind of life you have led up until this point, there is an engaging Common App essay topic already inside of you. In fact, there are numerous amazing topics hiding in that noggin of yours; your challenge is to knock those gems loose so we can look them over and choose the ones that will shine under the scrutiny of the admissions microscope.
This is your chance to stand out. Admissions sees thousands of transcripts, activity lists, and applications, but (if you follow these tips) they’ll only see one college essay like yours! With a 650-word essay, you’ll give them a view into your life, your mind, and your vision for the future. It might sound like a tall order, but if you use these handy brainstorming tactics, you’ll be sure to come up with a compelling, honest story that shows rather than tells them that you’re just what they’re looking for.
Often, the qualities you should share are intangible measures of your character, passion, and motivation, so it’s best to anchor them with real-life experiences and lessons learned. We recommend highlighting small details others might overlook and engaging with your past self in a way that displays personal growth and self-awareness.
The trick is to transform the brainstorming process from an exercise in academic pressure and existential crisis into playtime for self-discovery/exploration and self-expression.
This is where an interview with yourself comes in handy! Rather than picking a prompt first, we recommend reading through the prompts and then swiftly tossing them to the side. (Bye bye for now…) Oftentimes, the story you want to tell will back its way into a prompt after you’ve written the first draft of your admissions essay. So don’t stress over answering any one prompt perfectly from the start.
Begin by thinking of which qualities you want to make known about yourself to admissions. Are you funny? Do you ask a lot of questions? Are you always on time or super early for appointments? Are you an only child who considers close friends to be like family? Valuable traits to highlight: humor, creativity, curiosity, maturity, motivation, originality, courage, sincerity, introspection, ambition, resilience, talent, positivity, and anything else that makes you an asset to any college campus community. Once you know the traits you want to share, interrogate your memory to recall a story or experience to exemplify these qualities.
Of course, it’s impossible for most people to showcase all of these qualities in one interaction let alone in one essay, so choose a few that apply to you the most. You are not trying to tell your life story but, rather, highlight parts of your personality and background that haven’t been covered in the rest of your application and could set you apart from other applicants. Then, using a specific anecdote, metaphor, or other storytelling device, organically put your talents on display. This emphasizes your human qualities while also marking you as a candidate worth remembering.
It’s one thing to tell a story, but it’s another to translate those events into meaningful stepping stones of your life for someone else to appreciate. The purpose of the anecdote is to give your reader the back story of how you became who you are today, so take them on a journey and then guide them to the point you want to make with a bit of analysis. Here are a few examples of how to do this:
After trying out for a leading role in a production of Beauty and the Beast, you were devastated to learn you had been assigned to be props master. But after researching the history of props in theater, you learned how many people depend on you! What is Belle without her books or Beast without his wilting rose? How did you embrace your new role and gain a new appreciation for folks working in the background, in theater and in life?
You battled a knee injury from gymnastics and were told you’d never compete again. Disappointment rattled you to your core, but once you recovered, you were invited to join a rec soccer team. You quickly found that your agility, power, and balance from years in the gym serve you well! With newfound confidence, in what ways did you embrace a team-oriented sport? Did you learn that you work well with others to achieve a common goal? How will you utilize this skill in college?
You arrived at kids camp to work as a leader in training, but the camp had a staff shortage. Without notice, you were promoted to be a full-fledged counselor! With a week before the kids arrive, what did you do to prepare? Did you get advice from more seasoned counselors? Did you call your older sister for advice? What changed about you by the end of the summer? How has your experience prepared you for living away from home in college?
Telling stories well requires that you share your perspective and isolate the unique details of your experience to draw the reader in. From there, you can explain what these details mean to you and how they’ve shaped who you are and how you interact with the world around you.
Pro Tip: Admissions is looking to welcome students who are both self-assured and willing to learn new things, so don’t be afraid to share a past failure that turned into a learning experience. Just be sure, in those cases, to lean into the positive outcome more than dwell in the negative parts of the story.
Once you know the story you want to tell and the top-tier qualities about you that you want to share, you can revisit the prompts and see which one works best (knowing there’s always handy dandy open-ended Prompt #7 waiting in the wings).
At this point, we always recommend reading the prompt carefully and revising your Common App essay to fit the brief. Structure is your friend in this case and can even bring out aspects of your story that you omitted or downplayed in the first draft. Lean into the theme and be sure to reflect honestly about who you were, who you are, and who you want to become.
