The Common Application essay is likely the longest essay your student will have to write for their college applications. This is a maximum of 650 words, and it focuses on answering one of seven essay prompts that participating colleges have agreed to in order to encourage students to write insightfully about themselves.

Insight. That’s the whole point of this essay. Colleges are looking to better understand your student: Who are they? What do they care about? What are their passions? Their dreams? What have they experienced in life, and how have those experiences shaped who they are? These are all questions that students seldom ask themselves. Amid the bustle of high school: the classes, the AP tests, the SAT or ACT, extracurriculars, volunteering, sports, who has the time to stop and think about these things?

But that’s exactly what colleges are asking students to do. And it’s likely the first time since elementary school that they have been asked to write about themselves.

How should you approach the Common App prompts?

First things first is to understand what the prompt is asking your student to write about. Keep in mind that none of the prompts are inherently better or preferred by the colleges. Your student can pick whichever prompt they want. I tend to use the prompts to help students come up with ideas, and then we write the essay without worrying about any particular prompt. We can find a prompt their story fits under afterward.

But let’s look at all seven prompts here and see what kinds of information colleges are trying to elicit from students. [1]

Always ask yourself:

1. What is this prompt getting at?

2. What kind of things are colleges trying to learn from me by asking this question?

3. What stories can I tell that give them these kinds of information?

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.

What is this prompt getting at? What the student finds meaningful! The phrase, “background, identity, interest, or talent” is there to give students options and ideas of what to think about that might be meaningful to them, but the point is to get at what gives your student meaning in life (the key phrase in the prompt is “... so meaningful that [the student] believes their application would be incomplete without it.” What part of themselves is so central to who they are that not discussing it would mean that an admissions person would not truly know who your student is? This prompt is incredibly open-ended and enables students to write about almost anything.

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 is what I call the “resilience” prompt. Colleges are trying to understand how your student responds to adversity. It is often when we stretch ourselves that we falter, and colleges want to get a glimpse not only at what your student is passionate enough about to stretch themselves, but also how they react when they fail or falter. Then, did your student reflect on that failure or setback and find a way to overcome it? If overcoming it was not possible this time (perhaps the failure happened in a competition, and there’s no “going back” to do better), what did they take away from the experience that helped them improve for the future? In short, does your student learn from mistakes and grow?

Prompt 3: Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Colleges are trying to understand whether your student is comfortable disagreeing with others or standing up for their convictions, even when they might be standing up alone. But more importantly, perhaps, how do they do this? And how do these situations resolve? These days, college students are very much interested in holding a moral position and shouting down those with whom they disagree (see most college protests and the discourses around campus free speech), which is counter-productive for individual growth and the free exchange of ideas, two tenets that colleges tend to value. This prompt is here to give students an opportunity to showcase how they act when they disagree with others or push back against beliefs they find objectionable. This will not only tell colleges what your student finds objectionable and perhaps why they found it important to stand up, but what it looks like when your student does so. This can say a lot about their character.

Prompt 4: Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?

This is the “gratitude” prompt. Introduced in 2021 in response to COVID-19, this essay seeks to focus on the positive. However, the phrase “in a surprising way” has thrown off students when they approach this essay. I think the purpose here is to avoid contrived “gratitude” essays about someone supporting your student or helping them through a hard time. Colleges might not learn as much from a student who writes about a time their friend bought them lunch, a teacher gave them some grace on a big project or test, or their parents let them go out on a school night.

Perhaps a teacher was hard on your student, which they found unfair at the time, but they learned something useful from the experience? Or maybe that harshness kept the student from doing something that ended up being a bad fit for them, and they’re glad they did not get involved? Or maybe someone gifted a book that the student was not appreciative of at the time, but down the road its message resonated with them in a way they didn’t anticipate? These are “surprising” examples of gratitude because we are only grateful in hindsight. Another example might be if someone did you a small kindness that perhaps meant very little to them, but meant a lot to you? Why did it mean so much, and how have you carried that lesson into your friendships today? These kinds of deeper stories are what colleges are trying to get at.

Prompt 5: Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Like with Prompt 2, colleges are looking to see how your student reflects on their own experiences and grows from them. The “accomplishment, event, or realization” are there to help spark ideas, but it’s the “growth and new understanding” that matters. This will demonstrate what your student believes now about themselves or about others, and it will show how they have changed over time. This is an opportunity for your student to show maturity, grace, and empathy, and to highlight any “soft skills” they might have that are otherwise difficult to illustrate in the rest of their college application.

Prompt 6: Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
This is the “what interests you” prompt. Notice that the prompt does not say “academic” topic, idea, or concept. This does not have to be something from physics or psychology class (although it can be!). It could be something your student has noticed in the world and gotten naturally curious about.

Colleges want to know what sparks your student’s curiosity and interest. This will tell them something about the kinds of ideas that fascinate your student, academic or otherwise. Why your student finds this interesting might hint at other kinds of ideas that may have captivated your student (or that might do so in the future).

The last question: “what or who do you turn to to learn more?” is going to give colleges a peek at what kind of learner your student is. Do they seek out academic articles on JSTOR? Do they go to the library and find books? Maybe they fall down a YouTube or Wikipedia rabbit hole for six hours? Perhaps they ask a teacher at school or another trusted adult? Maybe they go out of their way to email experts that they don’t know to ask questions? How your student learns and how resourceful they are in finding information are of interest here.

Prompt 7: Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

This is here to let your student get creative. Or if they’ve already written a piece they’re especially proud of that they think showcases their personality and their ability (perhaps for a creative writing competition or some sort of literary publication), they can save themselves the effort and use it here. This is also for those stories that do not obviously seem to fit into one of the other six categories.

So You Know What They’re Asking, Now What?

Now, your student is going to begin brainstorming and writing. I will go over my process for writing the Common App essay next week. But there are some things to keep in mind.

The Word Limit is a Maximum

Just because they give you 650 words to write with does not mean that you must fill all 650 words!

Read that again. You do not need to use all 650 words. Though it was used for ironic humor when Polonius said it, he wasn’t wrong: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” [2] But the danger is writing too little. There is a general sweet spot around 530–590 words, about 80–90% of the limit, that is a fine range to be in. If your student writes less than that, there’s a danger that they’re leaving out critical details or could reflect further on the significance of the experience they’re describing. But if the story is told, and its significance has been relayed, but your student is scratching their head, wondering how they will fill the extra 100 words of the essay, stop wondering. Just don’t. Let the essay end; there’s no benefit to fluffing a concise, strong story for the sake of reaching the word limit.

That said, when drafting the essay, your student should feel free to write well beyond the maximum 650 words. It might take them 1500 words to fully describe everything that relates to the story they want to tell. Will it all be relevant? Not at all. Will it all be tightly phrased and ready to submit? No. There’s a lengthy revision process that these essays will go through to winnow them down to the juiciest 600-ish words.

In short: When drafting the essay, write long; when submitting the essay, shorter is fine (if not preferred).

Stories Take A Few Standard Forms

There are a few common ways that these stories play out. I will get into more detail next week as part of my writing process, but just to preview three of the more common forms.

Problem-Action-Resolution: This is a common interview answer format that is also useful for writing college essays. There was a problem your student identified. They took some concrete actions, and reached some kind of resolution or learning as a result. Perhaps the resolution is incomplete as the student writes, but they can still talk about what they have gleaned from the experience thus far.

Vignette or Montage: I am a huge fan of using movies as a metaphor to explain how to structure stories to students. They’re relatable, concrete, and they get the point across. Everyone has seen some movie with a training montage or some other progress montage. Maybe a hero is preparing for a showdown with the big-bad-villain, or maybe a team of people is building something to reach a common goal. The scenes and locations will be different, the action might be taken by different characters, but it’s all in service of a single end goal. College essays can use this format to show all the different ways a single idea manifests in a student’s life.

Narrative (usually employing in media res as a hook): “In media res” literally means “in the middle of things.” It involves dropping the reader into the midst of the action, leaving them to find their bearings and figure things out. It’s used to great effect in TV shows all the time in the opening scene, followed by a fade to black, and then some text that will read, “A week ago…” or something similar. Students can employ the same strategy to drop a reader into their story, then set the scene afterward and lead the reader through the event they’re choosing to discuss. Students tend to end these stories with some moment of epiphany or growth. An “aha” moment that changed how they saw themselves, others, their world, or some challenge or task.

There are definitely other ways to structure your story: a rap, poem, or even a critical analysis. But the above three are the most common ways to structure the essay—and common is not always bad! Your child will be writing at least five, and up to maybe fifteen, different essays. Anything that we can do to make the writing process easier is a benefit.

Summary

The Common Application essay is only read for a few minutes, but it can take a month or more to craft an effective essay. This is probably the first time your student has been asked to write about themselves since they were little, when their own lives were some of the only things they could write about with authority.

That said, start with the prompts. Review each one and what it’s asking. But remember that which one your student picks ultimately has no bearing on their admission. Colleges do not care which prompt your student chooses. They only care that your student shares something authentic about themselves. This is their introduction to the admissions officers. Unless the college offers interviews, this essay is the only place in the application where the college gets to hear directly from the student in their own words. The spotlight is on your student for those two to five minutes. They should tell their story in their own voice in order to shine.

Don’t let your child go it alone! You can breathe easy knowing that an expert has your child’s back. Schedule a consultation today, it’s free!

Citations

[1] “Common App has announced the 2023–24 essay prompts” Common Application, https://www.commonapp.org/apply/essay-prompts (Accessed: Jul 20, 2023).
[2] Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark from The Folger Shakespeare. Ed. Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, Michael Poston, and Rebecca Niles. Folger Shakespeare Library, [Jul 20, 2023]. https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/hamlet/