The Common App Essay (DUN, DUN, DUN…)

Overview Information  You only get 650 words; use those words very carefully.  DO NOT LIE, MAKE UP, OR EXAGGERATE FACTS. (This is not the SAT)  Every prompt will ask you a how or why part. If you don’t discuss what you have learned or how you have grown you are not addressing the prompt.  It is okay to display weakness in this essay. Understanding and being able to talk about your own flaws is a mark of maturity.  You only need to write ONE essay. Writing and submitting more than one essay is not required and does not help you.  Note: certain schools will require BOTH the Common App essay and their own writing prompts

Background Story  This essay is about something ongoing that shapes your identity.  Home life (race, gender, parenting, home environment, etc.)  This essay is NOT about a single instance or singular epiphany.  You can spend some time describing the background portion of the prompt but a majority of the time should be spent discussing HOW it shapes you. Only addressing the ongoing portion does not answer the prompt.  Be careful not to turn this into a sob story about how hard being poor, having divorced parents, moving around has been for you. Yes, it has been challenging but what does that do to make you who you are.

Failure  This essay is about a single instance.  This essay is NOT about something ongoing.  The failure must be specific and describable.  Spend only a small amount of words on the failure portion of the essay.  A majority of the words should address how if affects you and the lessons you learned.  If you don’t fully articulates what you learned from this failure you are not addressing the prompt.

Challenge a Belief or Idea  This essay should, ideally, be about an interaction with a larger social group (school, church, sports activity).  This essay is about a single instance in which your personal values clashed with that larger social group.  It should describe how and why your values clashed, the choice you made because of that clash, and the repercussions of that choice.  This is an essay in which you can fully explore your belief but be very careful not to sound judgmental or callous about opposing views.  This essay will be very personal for people and if you don’t reveal you true feelings of things this essay will come off as superficial.

Perfect Environment  This is the most imaginative essay; however, you need to make sure that you are striking the correct tone. (Don’t say I want to be at the beach because I love Spring Break.)  The place you choose should symbolically represent some part of the core of you. When you explain why it is meaningful it should correlate to something or someone in your life and that correlation should be fully explored in the essay.  DO NOT SIMPLY DESCRIBE THE PLACE. That is not the point of the prompt. A majority of the time should be spent on why this place is important to you.

Transition from Child to Adult  This essay is about a single event.  Like many other prompts, you should not spend too much time describing the event.  Focus your time and words on the lesson you learned that CHANGED you from child to adult.  DO NOT SELF ENGRANDIZE. This is not an essay about how awesome you are or how you the best at something. The movement from child to adult is not often marked with success but with crushing defeat and humiliation.  Remember that being an adult is about being the bigger person and not the winner.