College Essay
Now is time for the infamous college essay. This is perhaps one of the most crucial portions of the application through which you can express themselves and show a specific side to colleges not already conveyed. The Common Application usually has seven different prompts from which to choose. Be sure to tailor your essay around the prompt that you choose and remember that there is a 650 word maximum. Below are the prompts for the 2018-19 Common Application:
The 2018-19 Common Application Essay Prompts:
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.
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?
3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
4. 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.
5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
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?
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.
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?
3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
4. 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.
5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
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?
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.
Tips for Writing a Great Essay
1. Be Authentic: Not only is it easier to write about something important to you, but admissions teams can tell when students are not being authentic. Write about something that has affected your life but avoid cliches. Be sure to also convey something that could not be regularly found on other aspects of the application. In other words, don't write about your responsibilities as class president or other routine extracurricular activities.
2. Be Unique: Colleges are not looking for an essay about the "time you banked in the game winning basket in the championship game." Not only is it cliche, it also does not tell much about you other than your athletic prowess, if that. Instead, students should strive to dig below the surface of cliches. A story about making cakes as a child and how this related to your problem-solving abilities is a much stronger essay. Check out two more examples of strong personal essays in the video at the bottom of this page.
3. Keep a strong narrative voice throughout: Along with being authentic, colleges want to learn about you and hear your voice. Most example essays that you will read feature a strong narrative voice on a personal topic and you should strive for something similar in your own essay.
4. Reflections and Metaphors!: Most great essays have a strong metaphor that then connects to their academic life. Returning to the cake essay, the student writes a personal anecdote about how they would bake cakes as a kid, but how they would not always turn out how they thought they would. He then related it to how life does not always turn out how you expected but how it often turns out for the better. He also talks about the problem-solving skills he learned from baking cakes and how it applies to his interest in engineering. This is a multi-faceted, creative essay that describes a personal memory while relating it to his academic interest and profound understanding of life! In other words, BINGO!
5. Just Write!: One of the hardest aspects of writing a piece is to start it. So, my advise to those of you who are completely stumped is to just write. Write for thirty minutes, even if what you write is unintelligible. Try a stream of consciousness style where you write without any filter. Start off by thinking about your childhood or something in which you are emotionally invested. This will hopefully get your creative juices flowing.
6. EDIT!: Be sure to meticulously comb through your writing piece for any grammatical errors that will distract from your main focus. Stay away from contractions and other informal language.
2. Be Unique: Colleges are not looking for an essay about the "time you banked in the game winning basket in the championship game." Not only is it cliche, it also does not tell much about you other than your athletic prowess, if that. Instead, students should strive to dig below the surface of cliches. A story about making cakes as a child and how this related to your problem-solving abilities is a much stronger essay. Check out two more examples of strong personal essays in the video at the bottom of this page.
3. Keep a strong narrative voice throughout: Along with being authentic, colleges want to learn about you and hear your voice. Most example essays that you will read feature a strong narrative voice on a personal topic and you should strive for something similar in your own essay.
4. Reflections and Metaphors!: Most great essays have a strong metaphor that then connects to their academic life. Returning to the cake essay, the student writes a personal anecdote about how they would bake cakes as a kid, but how they would not always turn out how they thought they would. He then related it to how life does not always turn out how you expected but how it often turns out for the better. He also talks about the problem-solving skills he learned from baking cakes and how it applies to his interest in engineering. This is a multi-faceted, creative essay that describes a personal memory while relating it to his academic interest and profound understanding of life! In other words, BINGO!
5. Just Write!: One of the hardest aspects of writing a piece is to start it. So, my advise to those of you who are completely stumped is to just write. Write for thirty minutes, even if what you write is unintelligible. Try a stream of consciousness style where you write without any filter. Start off by thinking about your childhood or something in which you are emotionally invested. This will hopefully get your creative juices flowing.
6. EDIT!: Be sure to meticulously comb through your writing piece for any grammatical errors that will distract from your main focus. Stay away from contractions and other informal language.