2019 college app essay prompts

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. In breaking down how to write an essay based this prompt, the key words to keep in mind are:. Many students grow up in non-traditional circumstances, from spending Sundays visiting their parents in jail to losing a limb at age seven. These narratives can make for a powerful essay, as long as you go beyond the events themselves, and describe how your background impacted the development of your values and abilities, and how they have played out during high school. In my opinion, this essay works best for those students who have something out of the ordinary about them or the way they have grown up.

Popular College Application Essay Topics (and How to Answer Them)

If you have students who are looking to study at a university in the US, then there is a high probability they will submit some of their applications through the Common App. Over higher education institutions accept applications through the Common App. This helps to speed up the admissions process, since students only have to submit relevant personal information once. Click here to download. There are seven Common App essay prompts for Each is designed to give students the opportunity to explore who they are, what they want from a college education, and their core beliefs and values.

Each of the Common App essay prompts will encourage students to explore a different facet of their background and their personality. It could be something about their family history, background or lineage. It might be a sport, interest or talent they had when they were younger that has informed them as a teenager. This could be racial identity, sexual orientation, or even a religious belief.

To use an example, you may have a student who is an avid bookworm. This is quite general interests, so it would be necessary for students to talk about something very specific.

What have they learned from their favourite books? How has reading shaped their worldview, or their sense of themselves? This prompt, fundamentally, is trying to get students to think about how they overcome adversity and how they learn from mistakes. Can students prove that they confront setbacks without giving up? There are a number of ways students can approach this prompt.

They could talk about one, big failure that completely redefined who they are, or a series of smaller, inter-connected failures that are somehow linked. Examples of ways that students could answer this question is by talking about a class they failed, or a subject at school they have continually failed to master. Again, the key here is specificity.

As with all of the Common App essay questions, this is an invitation for a student to talk about a more personal, singular worldview. There are arguably two ways a student could approach this prompt. Again, you should encourage your students to look for very specific, real-world ways that they can answer this question. For example, it may be that they have done some voluntary or community work that has affected how they feel about political issue like homelessness or care for the elderly.

They could even have run a social media campaign for a school event, and learned something about the power of marketing!

In a relatively short space of time, a student needs to tell a story of change, reflection and growth. Our advice? As with all of the prompts we have discussed so far, the wording of this question means that students can draw their inspiration from anywhere.

This prompt is designed to help the reader understand two basic things about a student. However, once again, we come back to what are arguably the two pillars of a strong Common App essay — specificity and story.

Prompt 5 is designed to get students to talk about a key milestone in their life, and how it affected them. Again, situations that are as specific and meaningful as possible will really help an essay stand out. Some examples of some useful milestones students could write about for this prompt include:. This is a great prompt to encourage students to share their intellectual passions and interests.

For students interested in this topic, the world is their oyster! A student could write about their love of the Star Wars universe if they want to — but they need to explain why they find this intellectually stimulating or engaging. As you can see from this prompt, it gives students an inordinate amount of freedom to talk about whatever they want!

If you are working with students who want to use this as a topic, then make sure that they are linking their essay back to them, their intellectual interests, personal achievements and background. Students should keep their answers specific, personal to them and, most importantly, find a way to tell a good story. Students need to think about how they can demonstrate the following.

The ability to collaborate, and demonstrate teamwork is something which university admissions staff will be looking for. Encourage your students to think about a moment where they learned the value of teamwork.

Ask your students to make a note of any extracurricular activities which may connect with their academic passions and interests. Extracurricular activities are a great way for students to demonstrate relevant leadership and organisational skills and reflect on any experiences or challenges which they have overcome.

The Common App essay needs to be a truly individual piece of work, and the ability to demonstrate leadership, or entrepreneurial drive, will in turn help students to illustrate that they have the ability to be innovative and forward thinking. Ask students to make notes on the following:.

Community service is a great way to demonstrate citizenship and a sense of social responsibility. Students writing their Common App essay will be asked to demonstrate an understanding of other cultures, or the ability to speak another language. Check out these powerful Common App opening lines from students at some of our BridgeU partner schools. These openers also come highly rated from US admissions staff. Every day, after school, I come home late. Both immediately offer the promise of an essay which will be story-driven and dramatic.

In short, these opening lines make the reader want to know more. Vivid storytelling, and the ability to hone a narrative is vital when writing the Common App essay. Here are some essential components of a great essay which are worth considering and practicing. It was the 7th of July, and four suicide bombs had detonated in London. This is a sample from an essay that discusses the terrorist attack in London on July 7, Each day, I was used to reading and talking about current events.

Understanding world events is my passion. Evaluating their importance is my responsibility. Today, however, these same events were threatening to tear my life apart. I tried to imagine how any religion could not only condone but encourage these actions. I thought about how our Western culture had become irredeemably intertwined with other cultures, all of which seemed mutually uncomprehending. These are two further excerpts from the same essay.

These two extracts tell us about a time where the writer realised that something they were normally passionate about could, in their own words, tear their life apart. The writer prides themself on their ability to make sense of world events — this was an event they struggled to make sense of, a moment when their status quo was challenged.

Collapsed on the sofa, I realised that the mission I had chosen, to convince my school community to connect with the rest of the world, to some extent was no longer necessary. July 7th, like September 11th, would do the job for me. I got through that day, as did my family, physically unscathed, but emotionally charged. We all have a choice: to connect with the rest of the world or to cut it off. The events of that morning reaffirmed my choice.

Non-interventionism is no alternative. Hell is not other people. The writer uses powerful storytelling techniques to end their essay, and shows that they end their account of the July 7 having gone on a journey.

Having faced a moment where their life was thrown into chaos, the writer reaffirms their decision to connect with the rest of the world. Integration between the two platforms allows for an easier transfer of data, enabling counselors to more easily send supporting documents, via BridgeU, to Common App institutions. This will help to smooth the application journey for students wishing to study at a Common App university. As your students prepare to submit their Common App essays, make sure that they are paying attention to the following checklist.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. What are the Common App Essay Prompts ? If this sounds like you, then please share your story. This is a wonderfully open Common App essay prompt. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome? By discussing a time they took a minority view against the majority opinion.

By reflecting on a time that their own deeply-held belief was challenged or placed under scrutiny. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma — anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale.

Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. What does this student deeply care about? How does this applicant solve problems? But again, specificity and a good story are essential! Passing an important test or exam. Becoming an older sibling. A religious ceremony or rite of passage, e.

Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more? Tips for Brainstorming your Common App essay.

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea.

This well-worn idiom captures the mindset of the decision-makers at the Common Application who announced this January that the essay prompts for the upcoming admissions cycle will be the same as they were in In the opinion of the College Transitions staff, the choice not to tinker was a wise one. 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. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Having helped thousands of students answer this question, I thought it would help to share some of my favorite Common App essay examples.

With the application cycle soon underway, the CollegeVine essay team wanted to share our best strategies on how to write the all-important and often-intimidating Common App essays. This year, The Common App announced that prompts will remain unchanged from the cycle.

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These applicants will have the same seven topics to choose from as students from the current admissions season. I recommend students write their essay over the summer when they have time to focus on it. Once senior year is in session, classes, extra-curricular activities and the rest of the application process will keep them too busy. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account.

How to Write the Common Application Essays 2020-2021 (With Examples)

COVID Update: To help students through this crisis, The Princeton Review has amended our refund and cancellation policies to ensure maximum course flexibility for those who enroll between April 21 st and May 31 st. For full details, please click here. The Princeton Review is currently experiencing some Dashboard down time. Come back again soon for an update. Sorry for the inconvenience. Get help writing your college application essays. Find this year's Common App writing prompts and popular essay questions used by individual colleges. The college essay is your opportunity to show admissions officers who you are apart from your grades and test scores and to distinguish yourself from the rest of a very talented applicant pool.

If you have students who are looking to study at a university in the US, then there is a high probability they will submit some of their applications through the Common App. Over higher education institutions accept applications through the Common App.

To help you tackle the Common Application essay, this post will cover:. Which Common App essay prompt is best?

The 2019-2020 Common App Essay Prompts

College Essays. I'll break down every single Common App essay prompt by going over the following:. This will be your complete starting guide for Common App essays. After reading this, you should have a lot of ideas for your own essays and directions to write a really strong personal statement. Before we dig into the nitty-gritty of the individual prompts, let's quickly go over the logistics of the Common App essay and some general tips to keep in mind. Although not every school in the US requires an essay as part of their application, the Common Application has traditionally required you to submit a blanket personal statement. That policy changed recently, and the essay is now optional for some schools. Here are examples of schools that do not require the Common App essay note that some may require a school-specific writing supplement instead :. As such, I would recommend sending your essay to schools even if they don't explicitly require it. It's also worth noting that because of the way this system is set up, you could theoretically send a different essay to each school. Focus on writing a single great personal statement. The exact word limit for the Common App essay has varied somewhat over the years, but the current range is words. You must stay within this length; in fact, the online application won't allow you to submit fewer than words or more than Some schools will state that if this isn't enough space, you can send them a physical copy of your essay.

How to Write the Common App Essay 2019-20

With the inclusion of the popular "Topic of Your Choice" option, you have the opportunity to write about anything you want to share with the folks in the admissions office. The current prompts are the result of much discussion and debate from the member institutions who use the Common Application. The essay length limit stands at words the minimum is words , and students will need to choose from the seven options below. The essay prompts are designed to encourage reflection and introspection. The best essays focus on self-analysis, rather than spending a disproportionate amount of time merely describing a place or event. Analysis, not description, will reveal the critical thinking skills that are the hallmark of a promising college student. If your essay doesn't include some self-analysis, you haven't fully succeeded in responding to the prompt.