How to Approach the Common App Essay Prompts (2022-2023)

College Applications are stressful, and students are often terrified when they think about the essay prompts. Every year, the process seems more complex and competitive, and students are left wondering how to approach the essays to make themselves "stand out."

The arbitrary metric of college selections makes this process even more frightening. It almost appears like a secret code that admissions committees utilize to select the students - blind to the personality of a student, their accomplishments, and what not! So naturally, students wonder - "What should I talk about in my common app essay?"

The truth? They are looking to get to know you - without frills.

And within the Common Application, the common app essay is the primary and the most personal writing sample you submit to the Admissions Offices. The point of this essay is to showcase your personality in front of the admission committee and provide them with reasons to pick you over the other applicants. In addition, this 250-650 word essay helps the officers assess your interests, background, character, and personality.

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.

This essay prompt lets you engage the reader with a competitive edge you feel you possess over the other applicants. It could be anything from an extra-curricular or academic subject that displays your personal growth. Try to showcase the more unconventional hobbies or passions in this prompt.

Questions you should ask yourself while writing this essay:

• Remember the keywords: "background, identity, interest OR talent," AND "meaningful."

• What around you has impacted your life in a meaningful way?

• What have you achieved that influences certain aspects of your personality?

• What experiences have shaped your ambitious self the most?

• What background or interests are an integral part of who you are?

This prompt is highly open to interpretation, providing you with an opportunity to address exciting highlights of your life. So make sure you seize the opportunity and express your individuality through this essay.

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 essay prompt can be broken down into three different parts. First, you address a challenge or setback you have encountered, then talk about its impact on you, and lastly, you talk about your key takeaways from that setback.

The secret to acing this essay is to make it focus less on the problem you've encountered and more on the solution you came up with to deal with it. In addition, the way you dealt with the situation should highlight the positive qualities of your personality.

Questions you should ask yourself while writing this essay:

• What is the biggest obstacle I've faced so far?

• If not the biggest, which deterrent impacted me and positively influenced my life in the long run?

• How well did I respond to the challenges or obstacles I encountered?

• Have the challenges faced shaped me into a better person?

• Did anything positive come out of these challenges I have met?

While working on this essay, remember that you want to draw the readers' attention to your ability to overcome that obstacle and learn from it. Talking too much about the problem itself could deviate the readers' attention from the positives to the negatives.

Prompt 3

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

This essay can be a little challenging because it requires you to passionately discuss your beliefs, ideas, and values. Therefore, while approaching this essay, be careful not to sound like a preacher.

However, these essays can come off as quite insightful if well-crafted. They present you with an opportunity to demonstrate your ability to stand by your beliefs while still considering the idea of others and the world around you.

Questions you should ask yourself while writing this essay:

• What are the beliefs and values you stand by most firmly?

• Have you taken a stand against an unpopular opinion?

• What about this unpopular belief induced the urge within you to take a stand against it?

• What do you feel you could have done differently?

As much as this prompt might allow you to take a firm stand against unpopular beliefs, you don't want to disintegrate others' points of view or insult them. You do not want to come off as highly critical of viewpoints, so you should focus on how this belief impacted your right and not about why you are right and others are wrong.

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?

Please think of this prompt as a simple question asking you to recall an incident or event that made you feel thankful while also keeping in mind that your answer to it has the potential to provide deep insights about who you are. When you tell the Admissions Office about what you're grateful for, you can portray your culture, philosophy, and way of thought.

Questions you should ask yourself while writing this essay:

• What is a significant problem you've faced in the past?

• Who helped you overcome this major challenge in your life?

• What did this person do to help you overcome the problems you encountered?

• Explain what you will do due to your gratitude for someone helping you out or if you've already done something for it.

It is essential to choose a story that is relevant to your experiences. To make this impactful ensure that you do not just showcase the gratitude in a single moment; instead, you showcase the impact it has had on you since.

Prompt 5

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

In an effective response to this prompt, ideally, you should briefly discuss an accomplishment or event that you feel matters to you. However, the majority of the essay should not be about the achievement itself; instead, about what you gained from it and how it led you to your growth.

To write this essay, you do not necessarily have to think of an extravagant, life-altering event altogether. Rather, you can come up with something small yet significant as well.

Questions you should ask yourself while writing this essay:

• What experiences have had a lasting impact on you?

• What has impacted your life enough to make you question how you live it?

• When was the last time you learned something of great significance that led you to grow as an individual?

The key to acing this essay is to take the readers on a personal, transformational journey of your existence. Openly articulate about the event, the following realizations, and the growth you experienced.

Prompt 6

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

This prompt is personal to you and allows you to show off your talent while helping the admissions officers gain insight into what excites you and is vital to you.

You can write narratives about the simplest things and deepen the meaning they withhold by making it exceptionally yours.

Remember that the best way around this essay is to answer the question of "why" something captivates your attention. Then, convey your passion for this 'something' that has all your attention with a creative play of words.

Questions you should ask yourself while writing this essay:

• What truly excites you? Why?

• How do you learn more about something that catches your interest?

• What makes learning about this topic exciting or satisfying for you?

This essay should bring forth your passion and demonstrate that you enjoy exploring subjects that intrigue you.

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.

The title of this prompt is self-explanatory: write about anything you want. This can be both easy and difficult for the applicants, depending on their outlook. It can come off as easy because you don't have to follow any instructions and prompts, whereas because the prompt is very broad and can cover almost everything under the sun.

This is the perfect opportunity if you've been meaning to write about things that aren't covered in the previous prompts.

Questions you should ask yourself while writing this essay:

• What things do you want the Admissions offices to know about you?

• Is there an experience so uniquely and definingly yours that you want the admissions offices to know of?

• Is there anything important that can't be found on your transcripts or other application information that you would want to talk about?

Since this prompt gives you the freedom of expression, regardless of the topic, make sure you make an excellent pick.

THE HEADMASTER TIP

We recommend that you go through all the seven prompts, introspect thoroughly, assess the potential of each prompt, and then settle for the one that speaks volumes to you and helps you present yourself in the best light in front of the Admissions Offices. Do not get caught up in finding the "perfect" topic. Just make sure you write about something meaningful to you because the Admissions Offices value authenticity the most.