2017-18 common application essay prompts a guide
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.
The 2020 Common Application Essay Prompts
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. According to the folks at the Common Application , in the admissions cycle, Option 7 topic of your choice was the most popular and was used by The second most popular was Option 5 discuss an accomplishment with In third place was Option 2 on a setback or failure.
The stories and information shared in an essay are what the Admissions Officer will use to advocate for the student in the admissions committee. Always keep in mind why colleges are asking for an essay: they want to get to know you better. Nearly all selective colleges and universities as well as many that aren't overly selective have holistic admissions, and they consider many factors in addition to numerical measures such as grades and standardized test scores.
Your essay is an important tool for presenting something you find important that may not come across elsewhere in your application. Make sure your essay presents you as the type of person a college will want to invite to join their community.
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 it that makes you you? The prompt gives you a lot of latitude for answering the question since you can write a story about your "background, identity, interest, or talent.
You could write about an event or series of events that had a profound impact on your identity. Your "interest" or "talent" could be a passion that has driven you to become the person you are today.
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 may seem to go against everything that you've learned on your path to college. It's far more comfortable in an application to celebrate successes and accomplishments than it is to discuss setbacks and failure. At the same time, you'll impress the college admissions folks greatly if you can show your ability to learn from your failures and mistakes. Be sure to devote significant space to the second half of the question—how did you learn and grow from the experience?
Introspection and honesty are key with this prompt. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
Keep in mind how open-ended this prompt truly is. The "belief or idea" you explore could be your own, someone else's, or that of a group. The best essays will be honest as they explore the difficulty of working against the status quo or a firmly held belief. The answer to the final question about the "outcome" of your challenge need not be a success story. Sometimes in retrospection, we discover that the cost of an action was perhaps too great.
However you approach this prompt, your essay needs to reveal one of your core personal values. If the belief you challenged doesn't give the admissions folks a window into your personality, then you haven't succeeded with this prompt. Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. 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.
With the ability to write about an "intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma," you can essentially write about any issue that you find important. Note that you do not have to have solved the problem, and some of the best essays will explore problems that need to be solved in the future. Be careful with that opening word "describe"—you'll want to spend much more time analyzing the problem than describing it.
This essay prompt, like all of the options, is asking you to be introspective and share with the admissions folks what it is that you value. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
This question was reworded in admissions cycle, and the current language is a huge improvement. The prompt use to talk about transitioning from childhood to adulthood, but the new language about a "period of personal growth" is a much better articulation of how we actually learn and mature no single event makes us adults. Maturity comes as the result of a long train of events and accomplishments and failures. This prompt is an excellent choice if you want to explore a single event or achievement that marked a clear milestone in your personal development.
Be careful to avoid the "hero" essay—admissions offices are often overrun with essays about the season-winning touchdown or brilliant performance in the school play see the list of bad essay topics for more about this issue. These can certainly be fine topics for an essay, but make sure your essay is analyzing your personal growth process, not bragging about an accomplishment.
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 option was entirely new in , and it's a wonderfully broad prompt.
In essence, it's asking you to identify and discuss something that enthralls you. The question gives you an opportunity to identify something that kicks your brain into high gear, reflect on why it is so stimulating, and reveal your process for digging deeper into something that you are passionate about.
Note that the central words here—"topic, idea, or concept"—all have rather academic connotations. While you may lose track of time when running or playing football, sports are probably not the best choice for this particular question. 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.
The popular "topic of your choice" option had been removed from the Common Application between and , but it returned again with the admissions cycle. Use this option if you have a story to share that doesn't quite fit into any of the options above. However, the first six topics are extremely broad with a lot of flexibility, so make sure your topic really can't be identified with one of them.
Also, don't equate "topic of your choice" with a license to write a comedy routine or poem you can submit such things via the "Additional Info" option. Essays written for this prompt still need to have substance and tell your reader something about you.
Cleverness is fine, but don't be clever at the expense of meaningful content. Whichever prompt you chose, make sure you are looking inward. What do you value? What has made you grow as a person? What makes you the unique individual the admissions folks will want to invite to join their campus community?
The best essays spend significant time with self-analysis rather than merely describing a place or event. The folks at The Common Application have cast a wide net with these questions, and nearly anything you want to write about could fit under at least one of the options.
If your essay could fit under more than one option, it really doesn't matter which one you choose. Many admissions officers, in fact, don't even look at which prompt you chose—they just want to see that you have written a good essay. Share Flipboard Email.
Allen Grove. College Admissions Expert. Allen Grove is an Alfred University English professor and a college admissions expert with 20 years of experience helping students transition to college. Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter. Updated November 20, From the Admissions Desk "While the transcript and grades will always be the most important piece in the review of an application, essays can help a student stand out. Below are the seven options with some general tips for each:. See more Tips and Strategies for Essay Option 6.
common app essay parrotsprint.co.nz Common App Brings Back the Topic of Choice Essay for Regular decisions for the class of. Our Common App expert, Elyse Krantz, has you covered! Read on. What Are the Essay Prompts for the Common Application?
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.
The Common App Essay Prompts for the class of are available:.
No one is asking you to write your college application essays just yet. The good folks over at the Common Application have made some pretty terrific changes to the new essay prompts , all with the goal of making it that much easier for you to share your story with admissions readers. Question 1.
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The first milestone in your college application journey has officially arrived. Today the Common Application released their essay prompts. In addition, your options have expanded! 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.
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Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? Students looking for guidance on how to answer the most common prompts for college application essays for can find excellent advice, tips and ideas in this handy primer. This easy-to-use guide provides writing strategies for the essay prompts required by The Common Application, the Coalition for Access application, the University of California and ApplyTexas applications, as well as other popular college prompts. It include tips and ideas for answering the main transfer essays both Common App and UCs , as well as the most common, shorter supplemental "supps" essay required by many schools, such as why you are the right fit for a school and your extracurricular interests and activities. It also has a chapter on how to recycle essays. This guide is the perfect companion for writing coach Janine Robinson's other popular book, "Escape Essay Hell!
The sixth essay prompt of the Common Application full text below asks you to write about the driving force behind your intellectual curiosity.
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.
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Great news for you college-bound juniors who are just starting to think about your college application essays. If you need to write your personal statement essay for The Common Application , they just made it a lot easier. To bring you up to speed on these new Common Application Prompts, last year they had 5 prompts to pick from to write your main essay for The Common Application. Now they changed some of the previous prompts just minor tweaks , and added 2 news ones you can pick from as well. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. Remember, you are looking for a topic you can write about that will help you differentiate sets you apart yourself from the other applicants. Then, if you want, go back and read the prompts to see if any match up with what you wrote about; if not, go with Prompt 7. Either way, you want a topic that will help you write an essay that is interesting to read especially at the start to grab their attention! This blog is packed with advice and tips on exactly how to pull this off—without losing your mind. At the same time, you can use their ideas as a springboard for finding your topic. I like how they have tweaked the old prompts and made them even more thought-provoking and inspirational. If you want to start from scratch to brainstorm your perfect topic, start with my post How to Write a College Application Essay in 3 Steps. I also recommend my short and easy writing guide, Escape Essay Hell , that is a step guide to finding that perfect topic and cranking out an effective personal statement essay—perfect for The Common Application. Here are some other posts that can help you get started under my Jumpstart Your Essay tab. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it.
The Common Application’s 2017-18 Essay Prompts: What You Need To Know
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. Attention, college applicants! The Common Application is now available. The Common App allows you to submit applications to multiple colleges and universities by completing one online form.
