common app essay brainstorming worksheet

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• What is the Common App?
• Filling Out The Common Application
• Common App Deadlines
• Common App FAQs
• Common App Essay Prompts
• Choosing a Common App Essay Topic
• Common App Essay Brainstorming
• Writing The Common App Essay Introduction
• Writing The Common App Essay Conclusion
• Common App Essay Format
• Common App Essay Structure
• Common App Essay Word Limit
• Common App Essay Editing
• Common App Essay Tips
• Common App Essay FAQs
• How To Write A College Essay
• College Essay Examples
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Brainstorming the Common App Essay

You’ve read and reread the Common App essay prompts and chosen a topic . Now it’s time to plan what ideas you could write about in your Common App essay and how you can match these back to a topic within one of the prompts. Firstly you’ve found a bit of time and space to mull over a few outlines and ideas; that’s great and absolutely vital. However if you’re struggling to think of an interesting subject that you can write about, here are a few ideas we brainstormed earlier that may help you get started.

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.

• Do you belong to any after school clubs or take part in any sports at the weekend? These are interests you could write about. Clubs and sports showcase team working, planning, strategy and forward thinking. 
• Do you regularly go on trips with your family? Where do you go? What sparks your interest and imagination when you’re on these trips?
• Do you have a hobby that consumes your time during holidays? What are you aiming to achieve with your hobby.

The great news is with this prompt, you only have to write about a background, an identity, an interest or a talent, i.e. one of these 4, and not all of them.

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?

Some things you might think about include (for example):

• Did you try to learn the guitar and struggle to pick it up? Did you audition for a school play and didn’t get the part? How have you moved on from this and come back stronger? Did you persevere and try again the next year? Did you succeed this time?
• Did you fail your driving test first time, but passed it after trying again? What did you change to ensure you passed?

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

• Do you have brothers and sisters or friends who may have been bullied or harassed? How did you stand up for them?
• Do you have any family or friends with disabilities or learning difficulties? Have they encountered any issues when they’ve been out with you at the cinema, shopping, on holiday or down the bowling alley? How have you responded? 
• Have you been treated unequally or unfairly by someone because of your sexuality or religion? How have you responded?

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.

For this prompt, think about things outside of your education life, such as:

• Do you do any volunteer work at the weekend? Is this in a community venue or local animal rescue center? When you volunteer do people ask you for help with their problems such as sick pets, or housing and social care issues? What suggestions do you offer them?
• Do you have a weekend job in a mall, or an independent shop or a food place? What questions do your customers ask you? How do you solve them and make them happy?
• Are you in a school science club? What have you been experimenting with in the club and why?

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

• Within your particular faith, have you gone through a particular ceremony/event? How has this made you feel?
• Informal events are usually more unique that birthdays and weddings. Did you help out an elderly neighbor by putting up a new fence for him? Have you organized a neighborhood clean-up, or a street car wash for charity?

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 could be about a topic you've heard recently on the news, or have recently learnt from school. Consider:

• How are you developing your interest?
• Is there anyone / any group that is adding to your knowledge?
• How would you like to develop your knowledge?

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.

• Do you have a topic of interest that you know a lot about, outside the realms of your normal study?
• If so, how did you come to find out about this interest?
• What is its relevance to your life, and the wider world?
• What implications does it have, and what impact will it have on the future?

These are just a few ideas that can give you topics to write about for your essay. If you’re still looking for inspiration why not write down a few ideas about what you do each day, at school, after school at the weekend or with your family and friends during holidays. Try and match any of your activities to the wording in the prompts.   Try checking your ideas with family and friends. It always helps to get a second opinion.  Once you’ve found an idea, just try writing a couple of sentences to explain it and then match it to one of the prompts. You’re already part way there and now it’s time to start writing your essay . 

Further information

For more tips and advice on filling out your common application for college, please see:

• Common Essay Prompts
• Choosing A Common App Essay Topic
• Common App Essay Introduction
• Common App Essay Conclusion
• Editing Your Essay

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Where to Begin? 6 Personal Essay Brainstorming Exercises

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Creating the First Draft of Your College Application Essay →

The Common App publishes a list of 7 prompts each year. They ultimately ask for similar types of responses, regardless of slight alterations year-to-year. The Common App prompts provide you with a forum to write about yourself, using whatever anecdote or vehicle you wish in order to communicate something profound and genuine about yourself to adcoms.

If this feat seems daunting or spellbindingly vague to you, you are not alone. For virtually every student applying to college, the moment when you sit down to draft your personal statement is likely the first—and may end up being the only—time in your life when you are pushed to describe your entire identity succinctly and eloquently. So, where to begin?

As with any writing assignment, the best way to approach the personal essay is to brainstorm what it is you want the entire essay to communicate about you to the adcom that will be considering you for admission. Read on for 4 surprising brainstorming exercises that will lead you to an effective personal statement strategy.

1. Consider the four core questions.

When writing your personal statement, there are four questions that your essay should answer:

• “Who am I?”
• “Why am I here?”
• “What is unique about me?”
• “What matters to me?”

These questions are important because they help bring awareness to the kind of person you are and touch on things such as your personality traits, your journey throughout high school, the interests and skills that make you unique, and what’s important to you. Colleges want to understand how you became who you are, and where you’re going (successful alumni reflect well on their school, after all!).

2. Try freeform writing.

To help answer these questions and start brainstorming, freeform writing is a good place to start. Begin by writing down 3-5 aspects of your personality or experiences and spend some time constructing narratives out of these different combinations.

This process of getting some ideas on paper and seeing how they can relate to each other can help you better identify a prompt that works for you. For example, you might note that you enjoy tutoring students in STEM, and are now working with a local school to create a Women in STEM initiative in your school district. You may also have tried previous initiatives that failed. These experiences could be constructed and applied to a number of Common App prompts. You could address a specific identity or interest you have associated with STEM, discuss what you learned from your failed initiatives, explore how you challenged the lack of women in STEM programs in your school district, envision solving for the lack of women involved in the science and mathematics fields, etc.

3. Make a list of opinions you firmly hold and explain them.

This exercise requires you to think about aspects of your identity that you have actively chosen. While exercise #4 asks you to consider what parts of your identity you have struggled to overcome, this exercise asks you to consider what aspects of your identity you are most proud of—those opinions that you hold because you chose to believe in something specific of your own accord.

This is an important brainstorming exercise because it should get you thinking about things you are passionate about. Ultimately, you will want to write your personal statement about something that defines you, gets you excited, and can exhibit your ability to think and speak for yourself. So now, before you start writing, make a list of the things that you care about most, and explain why you feel that way about them.

This list can include everything from your political affiliation to your stance on McDonald’s decision in the past year to serve breakfast for longer. The point of this exercise is that there is no right or wrong way of going about it, no topic that is more worthwhile than any other so long as you are passionate about it.

4. Make a list of your character flaws.

While the ultimate goal of the personal essay is to present yourself in as positive a light as possible to adcoms, the challenge is to do so in a way that is realistic and genuine. To do this, you’ll need to do some serious thinking about what types of character flaws accompany your best traits.

There are two main reasons why we suggest that students not shy away from talking about their own shortcomings as well as their achievements. The first reason is quite simple: a personal statement that paints a picture of its writer as perfect and without flaws will come across as dishonest and unrealistic. Obviously, you want to avoid this at all costs. Second, and even more important, if you are able to write a personal statement that acknowledges your flaws and recognizes that you are imperfect, it will reflect positively on you and vouch for your maturity.

If it feels counterintuitive or scary to dwell on anything other than successes, do not fret: that is the expected reaction to this advice. But if done correctly, acknowledging that you are not perfect can add genuineness to any personal essay. So, how to discuss character flaws? There are several ways to go about this.

One way is to discuss a character flaw that you have always struggled with and worked to improve upon throughout your life. In this scenario, discussing flaws can help introduce a discussion about growth or maturation and give your personal statement a nice narrative arc. Yet another way to discuss your character flaws is to acknowledge how certain struggles or personal shortcomings have shaped your identity, allowing you to go into more detail about the ways in which you were able to better yourself by identifying a flaw in yourself and being willing to fix it.

The thinking here is that students have no difficulty remembering all of the accomplishments, productive experiences, and glowing achievements that they want to include in their personal statements. After all, it is easy to write about these things. It is much harder to force yourself to think about aspects of your identity that rankle, and to think about how these things have shaped you.

5. Reflect on your choices and why you made them.

Another brainstorming exercise that can help you think of a topic is to reflect on what choices you’ve made and why. Once you come up with a list, it will be easier to see what you value and the direction in which you can take your essay.

Think about some of these questions to get the juices flowing:

• Why are they my best friend?
• Under what circumstances did we become friends?
• When did we last fight?
• If I had to spend 10 days doing the same exercise or physical activity, what would I choose? Why?
• Say I had to pick one food, and my three closest friends or family members could only eat that food for one week. What would that food be and why?
• Say I had to start a business selling something, and I would achieve the average level of success (financially, socially, etc) within that business, what would I choose to do?
• What movie would I want to take the place of a character in and which character would I want to play? Why?
• What class or teacher did I like most, and why? What class or teacher did I dislike most, and why?
• If I had to choose between singing, doing standup comedy, or dancing in front of 18,000 people, what would I choose? Why?

6. Make a list of anecdotes, childhood memories, or stories about yourself. Then choose one and make it your “vehicle.”

Finally, you should conclude your brainstorming session by searching for a vehicle: an anecdote that you can use to frame your personal statement.

You can use anecdotes in your personal statement in a number of ways. Some students choose to open with one, others close with one, and still others will use two or three anecdotes in order to add color and rhetorical flair to the points they are trying to make about themselves. The best types of anecdotes are the ones that tell the most about you or give insight into your character.

When we help students write their personal statements, we usually begin by brainstorming a few potential anecdotes to use in your essay. But if you are wondering what the point is of using an anecdote— Why use one at all when I could save words and just talk about myself ?—it’s useful to first understand why telling a story or two makes your personal statement stronger.

Ultimately, you will want your personal statement to communicate something about your character and personality that is unique and appealing to schools. When an adcom reads your personal statement, they are looking to hear about you in general, they are looking to learn something unique or special about you (so they can differentiate you from other applicants), and they are also looking for evidence that you would be a valuable addition to their community. But the fact of the matter is that these are fairly broad and vague directives to write about if you don’t have something specific to focus on.

This is where the anecdotes come in to save the day! They help instigate a conversation about yourself, your personality, your identity, and your character while also giving you something concrete to talk about. This is why we call it a “vehicle”—it can exist in its own right, but it carries with it important information about you as well.

Now that you know what the purpose of this vehicle is, it should be a little easier to brainstorm the anecdote(s) that you choose to frame your personal statement with. If you are not yet sure what to write about in your personal statement, you can start brainstorming anecdotes from your childhood, from favorite family stories to fond memories, from hilarious vacation mishaps to particularly tender moments. Do your parents have favorite stories to tell about you? Write those into your list as well.

Once you have a collection of stories to work with, you may begin to see certain patterns forming. Perhaps all of your favorite stories take place in the same setting—a vacation home that meant a lot to you or in the classroom of your favorite teacher. Maybe, you will realize that all of your fondest memories involve a certain activity or hobby of yours. Or, alternatively, you may notice that one story from your childhood mirrors or foreshadows a like, dislike, or accomplishment that would come to fruition later in your life.

If you already know what you want to say about yourself, you can come at the same exercise from another angle: try to think of several anecdotes that could be potential vehicles for the message about yourself that you want to transmit. If you want to illustrate that you love to learn, try to think pointedly about where that love comes from or what you have done that proves this. In this case, remember that any given anecdote can reveal more than one thing about you.

It is hard to imagine all of the possible personal statements that could come out of this brainstorming session, but it is almost certain that this exercise will help you come up with several concrete points to make about yourself and provide you with a tangible way to say those things.

Final Thoughts

If after doing these six brainstorming exercises, you still don’t feel ready to write your personal statement, fear not! Writing a personal essay is daunting and won’t be done in three steps, or even three days! 

For more guidance, check out these blog posts:

How to Write a Personal Statement That Wows Colleges

How to Come Up With an Idea for a Personal Statement

How to Write the Common App Essays

Mastering the Personal Statement

5 Tips for Editing Your College Essays

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6 Writing Exercises for Personal Statement Brainstorming

July 16, 2020

The idea of writing a personal statement can be scary for a lot of students. It’s a major component of your college application and can often be the only time the admissions committee gets to read your writing. Somehow, within the span of 650 words maximum, you’re supposed to showcase your personality, writing ability, and overall growth by responding to one of several open-ended prompts. But don’t worry, we’re here to help you. This blog contains 6 writing exercises to get you started with personal statement brainstorming .

What is the Personal Statement? 

Whether you’re applying using the Common App, Coalition App, or a school specific app, it’s likely you’ll need a personal statement. (The UC and Texas application systems a different story)

For the purposes of this blog post, we’ll be concentrating on personal statement brainstorming specifically for the Common App . The Common App gives you 7 potential prompts to choose from which haven’t changed in the past few years. Why? Because they’re vague and open to interpretation, meaning they give students a LOT of leeway about what to discuss. The last prompt lets you write about anything in case your idea doesn’t fit into one of the other categories, so this essay is completely open to any story you want to tell. Let’s take a look…

The Prompts:

• Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, please share your story.
• 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?
• Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
• 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 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.
• Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
• Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging 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?
• 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.

What Do These Prompts Want You to Achieve?

It’s valuable that the prompts push you to reflect because the best personal statements showcase your voice and passion. These prompts sound like big questions, but they are trying to push you. 

Each prompt gives you the chance to showcase and reflect upon a specific time in your life. A strong personal statement showcases your voice and passion. An excellent personal statement does that AND demonstrates a moment of personal growth. That doesn’t mean you have to pick something entirely unusual or a huge event — sometimes it’s the smallest and most mundane of moments that shape our understanding of ourselves, from a conversation with a stranger to the routine act of making a favorite sandwich. Ultimately, the best personal statements will end with you (mentally and emotionally) in a different place than where you started. 

How Do I Get Started?

So now you know what you’re supposed to achieve with the personal statement… but how do you come up with a topic? Sitting down and staring at the blank page and blinking cursor isn’t going to help you craft your essay. First you need to brainstorm. Here are 6  writing exercises for personal statement brainstorming that can help you get your creativity going.

Writing Exercise 1: Create an Idea Bank . 

You can find inspiration for your personal statement anywhere at any time. Keep a journal, open Word document, notebook, or note on your phone where you write down any anecdotes or thoughts regarding important moments or events in your life. This will give you potential material for a great personal statement.

You can start this as early as freshman year! Remember, your personal statement should focus on a moment of growth during high school -- if something formative happened to you when you were younger, it’s okay to mention that and use it in the framework of your essay, but colleges want to know what you’re like NOW. Jot down any and all thoughts that come to mind in your idea bank, and you can later take a step back and consider which topics best showcase who you are.

Writing Exercise 2:  Reflective Writing Experiment

Writing reflectively is hard. Thinking about what you’ve done, why you did it, what it meant to you, and what you might change can be difficult. You need to get in the habit of being able to think deeply about your interests and experiences. As you think about personal statement brainstorming , start getting in that mode by responding to some more general prompts. Write a paragraph or more in response to a question and see where it takes you. 

Here are some prompts to get you started:

• What are the high school moments that are most memorable to you? Why?
• Is there something you spend a lot of time thinking about? If so, how have you explored that interest? 
• How do you spend your free time?
• How have you grown in the past year?
• What’s your favorite memory? Why?
• Was there a particular incident that shaped your perspective?

Writing Exercise 3:  Word Association

Start generating a list of potential topics. Don’t limit yourself or set any expectations about finding the “perfect” topic. This is meant to get you to start thinking about all the things that make you YOU. What’s important to you? Why? When you think about yourself and what makes you unique, what comes to mind? Write it down. The personal statement helps convey the perspective that only you can bring — take advantage of it.

Writing Exercise 4:  Work Backwards

This might sound counterintuitive, but you need to think about your application holistically and see what’s missing. What do you want the admissions committee to know about you from looking at your activities, honors, essays, and the rest of your application? Are you someone who loves physical activity and consistently played three varsity level sports while also volunteering at your library? Are you a talented artist who hopes to explore other fields in college? 

As part of personal statement brainstorming , think about what you want the application committee to know about you, and then figure out where there are gaps. If you’re that sports enthusiast who hasn’t had the chance to talk about the importance of volunteering in an essay yet, maybe the personal statement is where you focus on your love of community service (so long as you have the experiences to back it up!). Don’t invent a brand new interest for the purposes of your personal statement; think about what you’ve already introduced and use it as a place to expand on that experience. Just remember -- the personal statement should not be a regurgitation of your activity list. Instead, it’s a time to think about what your interests and experiences say about you. 

Writing Exercise 5: The Mind Map -

If you’re more of a visual learner, this might be the right fit for you. Mind mapping helps you think of the big picture. Start with thinking about a topic, and then envision how the essay will play out -- write down how each idea might link to the previous. 

For example, your topic might be that you want to go into medicine… but how does that turn into an essay?

Want to be pre-med ---> hope to help people ---> times I’ve done that -- volunteering at a clinic; working in a hospice, organizing a fundraising drive for that hospice 

And so on. You can map out a potential personal statement without having to commit to an actual topic. Instead, you can map out several potential essays and pick the most interesting and unique one.

Writing Exercise 6: Your Stories from Every day Life

As you continue exploring topics, think about if there's one or two stories that you tell everyone about yourself. Write it down. Then take a look. What have you highlighted? What did you leave out? Is this an accurate portrayal of yourself? This exercise can help you narrow down what matters to you — what you see as a core component of yourself. You can use this exercise to determine which parts of you are significant enough for the personal statement.

Once you’ve completed your personal statement brainstorming session, you’ve hopefully got a list of potential topics. So start writing! You’ll need to revise and produce multiple drafts. Get as many people to give you feedback as possible -- your friends, family, and teachers. You might also need to write multiple versions to see which idea is the best for your personal statement. Although the editing and polishing are important steps, the brainstorming process is what gets your essay started. Good luck!

Tags : essay writing , essay brainstorming , writing exercises , Personal Statement , personal statement brainstorming , common application essays

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Brainstorming Your Common App Essay - The Complete Guide

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The Common App essay is the single most important essay that you will write throughout your entire application process.

CollegeVine co-founder Vinay Bhaskara will provide an in-depth guide into brainstorming for your Common App essay, walking through multiple brainstorming techniques, topic selection, and much much more.

Attend this livestream and take your first step towards an awesome Common Application essay.

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Common App announces 2024–2025 Common App essay prompts

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We are happy to announce that the Common App essay prompts will remain the same for 2024–2025.

Our decision to keep these prompts unchanged is supported by past research showing that overall satisfaction with the prompts exceeded 95% across our constituent groups - students, counselors, advisors, teachers, and member colleges. Moving forward, we want to learn more about who is choosing certain prompts to see if there are any noteworthy differences among student populations and incorporate feedback into future decisions.

While some schools are beginning discussions with juniors and transfer students about college options, it's important to clarify that this doesn't mean students need to start writing their essays right away. By releasing the prompts early, we hope to give students ample time for reflection and brainstorming. As you guide students with their planning, feel free to use our Common App Ready essay writing resource, available in both English and Spanish .

For students who wish to start exploring the application process, creating a Common App account before August 1 ensures that all their responses, including their personal essays, will be retained through account rollover .

Below is the full set of essay prompts for 2024–2025.

• 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.
• 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?
• Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
• 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?
• Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
• 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?
• 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.

We will retain the optional community disruption question within the Writing section. Over the next year, we'll consult with our member, counselor, and student advisory committees to ensure we gather diverse perspectives and make informed decisions.

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Help your students write the perfect Common App essay

Download this free worksheet that will help your students write a compelling and original Common App essay by getting them to:

• Think about their qualities and achievements
• Brainstorm their story ideas
• Read a successful essay and pinpoint why it was so effective

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7 Common App Essay Brainstorming Exercises (2024-25)

Share this Common App Essay Brainstorming worksheet with your students to help them choose and respond to one of the seven Common App essay prompts and write an outstanding personal statement for their college applications. Add this resource to your virtual classroom for future reference!

10 Best Brainstorming Prompts for the Common Application Essay

To write a great common application essay, you have to think about yourself in a way you never have before. you have to reflect on your past, your experiences, and yourself..

Brainstorming for College Essays

Introduction

As the number of college applications submitted each year continues to grow exponentially and competition stiffens among the thousands of high- achieving students seeking admission, it has become increasingly important for applications to illustrate a complete, holistic picture of themselves. That has put a great deal of emphasis on the essays, which indeed, are vital pieces of the puzzle. While your grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities begin to show who you are on paper, the personal statement essay and other supplemental essays bring you into three-dimensional form for college admissions officers. The essays are your chance to make your voice heard and if executed properly, will help colleges determine whether you are a good fit for their university.

Please Note: This guide is intended to help you brainstorm and begin writing your college essays. This is a part part detailed guide. This is the first part, the other three parts are below:

• Part 2: The Perfect College Essay Structure
• Part 3: Sample College Essays
• Part 4:  Supplemental College Essays

Through exercises, worksheets, and discussions of sample essays, my hope is that by the end of this course, you will have in-depth knowledge of what colleges want to see in your essays, at least one or two (and hopefully more) essay ideas, and a solid start to your first draft.

To get the most out of this course, take your time with the exercises and the overall process. A large part of writing a successful essay is self-exploration and self-reflection. Another large part is understanding that an outstanding application essay requires thought, patience, lots of rewriting, and more rewriting. But most of all, you can and should have fun with this. You get to write about you and the things that interest and move you.

Enjoy the process!

2020 Common App Essay Prompts

The Common Application, known as the Common App ( commonapp.org ), is accepted by close to 900 schools, and will likely be the main tool you use for applying to schools. It allows you to compile all your information in one  place and easily disseminate it to the colleges of your choice. Other alternatives include the Coalition Application and applying directly using the school’s own application, but for this course, we will focus on the more popular Common App. Once you’ve written the essay for the Common App, it can be easily adapted to fit other applications.

On the essay portion of the Common App, you will be required by most colleges to answer one of the prompts in 650 words or less.

The 2020-2021 Common Application Essay Prompts are: ‍

• 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.
• 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?
• Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea.What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
• Describe a problem you solved or a problem you 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.
• Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
• 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?
• Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Which prompt should you choose?

Unless bells and whistles went off when you read a particular prompt because you’re certain you have the perfect story that fits it, then don’t worry about choosing just yet. It’s best to start with your brainstorming and then decide if you have an idea that matches a prompt. Meanwhile, the Common App gave students a gift when they added prompt number seven a few years ago, allowing you to submit any kind of essay on any topic. So, if your idea does not accurately and completely answer a certain prompt (which it must do), then play it safe and choose the last “freebie” option.

What are colleges looking for in your essay?

Before beginning your brainstorming and drafting, it’s important that you have a clear understanding of what kinds of things you should be communicating through your essay. The college admissions officers reading your essay can learn a lot about you through your words, overall theme, and depth of thought. The story you choose to tell is merely the backdrop and framework for a bigger picture. Your ultimate objective is to create a portrait of yourself in 650 words or less that shows your persona, unique aspects of your character, and why and how you will contribute to a university community.

For example, your essay can show colleges that you are:

• Intellectually curious about the world you live in Introspective
• Someone who takes initiative Motivated
• Hard working Creative Compassionate
• Someone who will contribute ideas, service, collaborative efforts, leadership
• Someone who brings a unique perspective or cultural experience An innovator
• Someone who loves to learn (even beyond school subjects) Committed (to a cause, to family, to friends, a belief, etc.) Able to adapt to new environments, overcome challenges

While these are the types of qualities colleges often want to see in students, this is not an exhaustive list and it doesn’t mean that you should fabricate or embellish information to fit into one of these categories.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR YOU TO DO IN YOUR ESSAY IS TO BE AUTHENTIC! ! Colleges want to know who you are and that you’ve taken the time to personally reflect on who you are and who you desire to be.

So let’s start with an exercise that will help you with that reflection process and uncover some of your personal qualities that could shine through in your essay.

Worksheet 1:  Self-Exploration

Part 2: Ask 2 other people (a parent, relative, or friend) for 3 adjectives they would use to describe some of your character/personality traits. Record them below

Worksheet 2: Self-Exploration

For this next section, set aside at least 30 minutes when you will be undisturbed and can give your full attention to contemplating each question. Remember to answer genuinely and not from the perspective of what you “think” colleges want to hear. Take your time and write as much as you can to fully answer the questions. Sometimes the best nuggets/ideas/revelations come toward the end after you’ve gotten some of your initial thoughts down on paper. Use a separate paper or document to record your answers if needed.

• What do you love to do so much that when you’re doing it, you lose track of time?
• How are you unique or different in some way? Maybe you have a unique perspective, belong to a certain culture or group, or have a unique hobby.
• What moves you? What makes you angry? Or joyful? Why?
• What do you want colleges to know about you that they won’t find on the rest of the application?
• What is your superpower? What superpower do you wish you had?
• What is your ultimate goal in getting a college education? (be honest)
• What/how would you contribute to a college community? (think broadly here – could be a diverse perspective, cultural tradition, friendship, collaboration, leadership, new ideas, school spirit, etc.)
• What positive impact do you hope to have on others/society?

Worksheet 3: Creating Your Personal Purpose Statement

Now, using your adjectives from Worksheet 1 and the answers in Worksheet 2, let’s create a Personal Purpose Statement. You can actually create more than one statement if you feel you can’t narrow yourself down to one. The idea is to loosely define the kind of person you are and what you hope to achieve. It can serve as a guiding vision of what you want to communicate through your essay.

Complete the following statement:

I am a _____________, ______________, and _______________ person who loves _________________ and hopes to make a difference/impact by _______________.

Example: I am a kind, outgoing, and funny person who loves to make people laugh and hopes to make a difference/impact by creating uplifting comedic productions and/or therapies that will help people heal from trauma

In this example, the student might decide that their essay should display their sense of humor because that’s one of their unique personality traits. Maybe they can talk about how humor has healed them in some way. Keep in mind that your essay should “show” rather then “tell.” So you wouldn’t just say, “I’m funny and make people laugh.” You’d write an essay that perhaps make the reader chuckle or talks about a humorous situation or a time you made someone laugh or did something silly.

This Personal Purpose Statement can serve as an anchor for you as you move through the essay process. Return to it often to make sure you are communicating these core ideas in your essays. You may even want to check your overall application to review if it is reflecting these important qualities. 

Ideas For Your Essay

Again, make sure you have some quiet time and space without distractions. For this exercise, refer back to your Personal Purpose Statement from Worksheet 3. You may want to have Worksheets 1 and 2 on hand as well for added inspiration.

The next step is to come up with some stories/personal experiences that relate to your Personal Purpose Statement since these are the main things you want the colleges to know about you. Below you’ll find some questions to help guide you in brainstorming and mining your memory for ideas. It can also be helpful to ask family members for stories they might remember about you. Keep in mind you want to be honest and vulnerable and while you may reference things from your childhood, colleges are interested mainly in events that have impacted you during or just before your high school years.

Using our previous sample statement, “I am a kind, outgoing, and funny person who loves to make people laugh and hopes to make a difference/impact by creating uplifting comedic productions and/or therapies that will help people heal from trauma,” the student should think of personal experiences that demonstrate that they are kind, outgoing, or funny, as well as events and people that inspired them. For instance, maybe they’ve volunteered cheering up young children who are ill. In this case, they could tell a story about a certain child they interacted with who had a particular impact on them.

Okay, your turn.

Answer the following questions based on your Personal Purpose Statement:

Note: If you don’t have an answer directly related to your statement, answer the question anyway as best as you can. Every bit of information is helpful!

• What stories or experiences have I had that demonstrate the adjectives that describe me in my statement?
• Do I have any interests, hobbies, passions that relate to the statement? Is there a moment when I was doing those things that changed me, made me think differently, learn something, or choose to be or do things a certain way?
• What led me to know that this was how I wanted to make an impact? Try to zero in on the smaller moments or feelings that might have influenced you – hearing a friend’s personal story, a dog licking you in the face, some hurtful words you never forgot.
• Is there a person who inspired me to be this way or helped me know I wanted to pursue a certain path?
• What has been my greatest challenge/obstacle and how did I overcome it? Did it help create who I am or was I able to get through it because of who I am?
• What have I learned about myself over the last five years? What have I proven to myself? How did my personal characteristics contribute to this or were they created or changed somehow? Is there a story that demonstrates this?
• What have been my biggest accomplishments (not necessarily academic or school related)? What did they teach me? Is there a story you can use without bragging about the accomplishment that shows how you were transformed in some way? For instance, maybe you started a club to help homeless people. Tell us about how you befriended “Joe” and how he gave you a whole new perspective on homelessness.
• Have my family, culture, traditions, or identity contributed some way to my understanding of myself and the world, and/or who I want to be in the world? How?

Additional Brainstorming

Not every student has a story about a challenge, obstacle, or moment that changed them. If this is you, do not worry, because everyone does indeed have some kind of story to tell about themselves. Sometimes it’s challenging to think and talk about yourself, or you may think you don’t have something “interesting” to share (you do!). Often you just need to keep exploring. Some of the best ideas come when you least expect it – like when you’re taking a shower, or playing a sport, or doing chores.

So use the previous and following questions to get you started thinking, then put them away for a couple days and see if any inspirations come. Come back and review the questions again with a fresh mind. You can do this as many times as you need. Take your time and write down EVERY idea, even if you think it’s not a great one. You’ll end up with a good list that will be helpful for your supplemental essays as well.

• What’s your favorite movie? Book? Podcast? Show? Why?
• What’s hanging on the walls in your bedroom? What’s on your shelves?
• What’s your favorite app? Video game? Why?
• Where is your favorite place to hang out?
• Is there a special place you visit on a regular basis?
• What is something you learned/taught yourself just for the fun of it?
• What is something about you that few people know? (Maybe you love watching horror movies or have a collection of sports memorabilia or spend every afternoon baking with your grandmother….)
• What’s your favorite kind of music?
• What’s your favorite thing to do with your friends?
• What fictional character would you love to spend the day with?
• What real-life person, dead or alive, would you love to spend the day with?
• If you could give your younger self advice, what would it be?
• What is your least favorite activity?
• What’s one of your fondest memories?
• List a couple of times where you failed at something and a couple of times you succeeded.

Some Ideas You Could Work With

Review your answers on both sections and list at least 3 ideas you could use for your essay:, the power of storytelling.

The best essays rely on one of the most natural, but powerful, techniques storytelling. Everyone has stories. You tell stories all the time when you talk about something that happened to you today. You listen to your family’s stories. You have stories that stick with you because they are especially memorable.

Often stories, especially in books and movies, follow the classic Hero’s Journey, which basically takes the character from an ordinary life, through a challenge or obstacle, and then through some transformation. This is a great reference point when thinking about how you might tell one of your own stories in an essay. In addition, you can find some great inspiration on storytelling on “The Moth” podcast or at themoth.org, which hosts storytelling competitions around the world. Watch some of the storytellers and see how they use description and detail, build interest and suspense, and then tie it all together so the story has a clear purpose and message.

Ultimately, what makes stories such an effective device in your essay is that they “show” rather than “tell.” You don’t want to say in your essay, “I’m funny. I like to make people laugh.” By telling a story that shows your sense of humor and how you felt making another person laugh, you make that point in a much more meaningful way.

Keep this in mind as you begin to explore further for the story or stories you can showcase in your essay.

Developing Your Ideas

Time to dive in! Let’s pick an idea and start coming up with some details that you could use in the essay. This process should help you get a feeling about whether you have enough material to work with on a certain topic/theme. Remember this is a trial-and-error process, so you may switch directions several times before finding the essay you want to write. In addition, as you spend some initial time fleshing out your topic here, pay attention to how you feel about the subject. This essay should be something you will enjoy writing.

See ”Example Answers” following this questionnaire if you need a little more help.

Answer the following questions to help you elaborate on the idea:

• How does this story illustrate what you want colleges to know about you?
• List at least 3 points you can make with this story:
• Write at least a paragraph summarizing your main story/theme.
• Describe some of the background leading up to the story.
• Zoom in on some details. Pretend you are taking a photograph of a moment from this story. Describe it in detail. Who was there? What were you feeling? What were you thinking? What are the images, colors, environment in the scene?
• What was the major turning point/highlight in the story?
• Discuss in more detail the outcome and how it impacted you. What did you learn? How were you changed?
• What is the life lesson? How will use this going forward? Is there something in this story that helps guide you in the way you will approach your life in college?

Example Answers

Here are some sample answers that our sample student might come up with. Remember the student’s personal purpose statement is, “I am a kind, outgoing, and funny person who loves to make people laugh and hopes to make a difference/impact by creating uplifting comedic productions and/or therapies that will help people heal from trauma.” Main Idea/Story/Theme: Volunteering at All Children’s Hospital – How Jill’s laughter healed me and made me realize what I wanted to do for others

1. How does this story illustrate what you want colleges to know about you?

• I believe laughter and comedy are healing
• I’m a kind person, volunteering/spending my free time with Jill, other kids
• I’ve done research on laughter as a healing medicine
• I have a goal to expand comedy programs/therapies in hospitals

2. List at least 3 points you can make with this story:

• Comedy is a valuable artform
• Healing modalities don’t always need to medicinal or serious
• I would contribute to a college by living this philosophy/perhaps creating similar programs

3. Write at least a paragraph summarizing your main story/theme (doesn’t have to be perfectly written at this point; these are just notes). The summer after my freshman year, I joined a couple of friends in the Healing Hearts program. We visited sick children twice a week. They wanted us to read to them, keep them company, play games. I met Jill on my second visit. She was 7 years old and had a rare lung disease. We didn’t even talk about that much. Mainly, she told me about what a pain it was to be poked and prodded and tested all the time. She just wanted to be a normal kid playing with her friends at home. That part of me that just wants to see people smile kicked in. I started coming up with jokes, books, and other things that I thought would entertain Jill. That one day, Jill finally broke out into an all-out giggling attack I saw her so differently. She was, if even for a moment, not feeling or thinking about pain or being sick. She looked completely different too. Then I got caught up in the laughing too and I felt it too. Relief. It clicked right then. Maybe I had always wanted to make people laugh because it made me feel better when they were happy. Was that selfish? As we kept laughing, I realized we were giving each other a mutual gift. Laughter is contagious. I also started wondering about its real healing effects.

4. Describe some of the background leading up to the story. ‍ I’ve always loved watching a good comedy, stand-up comedians and making people laugh. When someone isn’t happy, it becomes my mission to turn their frown upside down. I never really understood the power of humor, however, until ironically, I started what some would consider a very sad volunteer job spending time with young children who have major and sometimes life-threatening diseases. Even my mom tried to talk me out of doing it, thinking I’d end up depressed.

5. Zoom in on some details. Pretend you are taking a photograph of a moment from this story. Describe it in detail. Who was there? What were you feeling? What were you thinking? What are the images, colors, environment in the scene? Moment with Jill laughing. Sitting in her room which was drab white and gray. Only color was from a few pretty pictures she had drawn that were hanging on the wall. Her mom was sitting in the corner reading a book on her kindle. I had brought my own joke book that day, determined to get her to laugh. The jokes kept bombing though. She’d chuckle politely. Then the nurse came in to check on her. She took her temperature and blood pressure, said a few words to the mom, and left. Jill rolled her eyes. Then I rolled my eyes dramatically. Jill rolled her eyes and this went back and forth a few times until I just crossed my eyes and pretended to pass out on the floor. Jill started to laugh so much I saw tears forming in her eyes. I started laughing too and then I snorted. That was it. We both lost it. Even her mother couldn’t help but laugh too.

6. What was the major turning point/highlight in the story? Jill transformed before my eyes when she was laughing. This little girl who always looked sad and in pain was suddenly light and free. I witnessed the power of a good laugh and felt it for myself as well.

7. Discuss in more detail the outcome and how it impacted you. What did you learn? How were you changed? I wanted to investigate and learn if there was any real data to support laughter being healing. I did a research paper and found some interesting studies (can give some stats). It also made me realize this was something I would always participate in, whether as a volunteer or hopefully as more of a career.

8. What is the life lesson? ‍ How will use this going forward? Is there something in this story that helps guide you in the way you will approach your life in college? I will definitely pack my sense of humor and my desire to make others smile when I go to college. There’s plenty of seriousness in the world. I prefer to see the brighter side.

What Makes A Good Essay?

As mentioned previously, a good college admissions essay is authentic, reveals something about the student that can’t be found in the rest of the application, and shows that the student is introspective and self-aware.Remember that the admissions officers are reading hundreds of essays, so at the minimum, you want to submit a well written, well-thought-out essay that is error-free. At best, you are hoping to give them an interesting essay that holds their attention and is memorable for them. Don’t let that intimidate you. As an essay advisor who has read countless essays, I never tire of reading the fascinating stories students share. Everyone has a story to tell and there are infinite ways to weave your own personal tale and introduce yourself to the reader.

Some of the basic elements that comprise a “good” essay are:

• An attention-getting opening line or paragraph (the “hook”), which we will discuss in more detail later
• A strong conclusion
• Conversational tone – this essay is not a research paper or literature essay with a strict structure. Think of it as a blog entry.
• Clean writing, meaning there are no spelling, punctuation, or grammar errors (make sure your essay is proofread several times by different people before you submit it)
• Overall, it flows well and makes sense
• Accurate word count (you don’t have to be exact, but don’t go over or way under)
• If answering a prompt, make sure your essay stays focused on the subject of the prompt
• It’s written in your voice, meaning it sounds like you (readers can tell when parents, advisors, or teachers have helped a little too much)

What Makes A Bad Essay?

I’d love to say there are no bad essays, but there are occasions where students veer off track. here are some common pitfalls you should avoid:.

Don’t brag about yourself or your accomplishments. Example: Here’s a line from one student’s first draft: “Even though I was one of the smarter kids in the highest class…” Now, even though the student was trying to make a point about how shy they were, this line comes across as boastful. Stay away from these kinds of statements or find a way to say it that doesn’t sound like you are bragging. Exceptions would be if it is part of a bigger story in which the actions or outcomes are revealing something about your character or a lesson learned. Along the same lines, don’t list your accomplishments in your essay. That’s what the other parts of the application are for. Don’t use words or ideas that don’t sound like you. It’s nice to stretch yourself a bit in your writing, using synonyms to avoid repetitive words and showing that you have a wide vocabulary. But some students get caught up in impressing the readers and sprinkle their essays with complicated words they don’t even understand. Again, admissions officers read right through that. Be yourself! Don’t rush through the essay writing. It will show. Don’t get too cutesy. There’s a fine line between originality/creativity and trying so hard to be different that it misses the mark. Don’t use too many clichés. For instance, “life is hard,” “you don’t appreciate things until you lose them,” “every cloud has a silver lining.” Communicate these things in your own original thoughts and words. I would add that using quotes at the opening of essays is also cliché if not executed properly. Don’t use profanity, discuss bodily functions in too much detail, or overshare about personal situations, such as your sex life. (Yep, people do these things.)

There are also some topics that are best to avoid if possible, mainly because they are overused or not well-executed. The caveat here is that I have seen some exceptional essays on these subjects so don’t get discouraged if you want to tackle one of these. Just make sure your essay has a personal twist and demonstrates an insightful, mature view of how you were affected and changed.

Some of these “tricky” topics include:

• Sports stories . A lot of students tell the common story about a great victory or defeat. Not only is it overused, but students also fall into the trap of giving more of a play by-play account, rather than speaking about themselves and their emotions and perspectives. If you’re going to use an athletic experience, make sure it tells something about you as an individual – how you were transformed, what you learned, how it affected who you are today.
• Personal tragedy stories . Again, you may have a poignant story to share about loss, illness, grief and those do make for some compelling, heartfelt essays. If you choose to write about it, make sure to focus mainly on the personal growth and transformation you experienced as a result of the tragedy. The mistake students sometimes make is getting bogged down in the minute details of the event. You’ll want to give no more than 25 percent of the essay to relaying the tragic details and spend the rest of your word count letting the reader know what role this tragedy played in your life on a broad scale and perhaps, how it influenced you to a certain path.
• Volunteer/mission/community service experience. This has just been done too many times. But if you have a unique twist that covers more than “it opened my eyes to things I never knew,” then go for it. Maybe you made a lifelong connection or chose a career because of it.
• Writing about a person who has influenced you . The biggest pitfall here is spending too much time talking about the other person so the reader learns more about the person you’re writing about than they do about you. This type of essay is successful when you show how that person influenced your values or character and how that’s being expressed in your life.
• I’m going to add Covid-19 to the list this year as no doubt, thousands will write about this issue. Keep in mind that the Common App has added space for a brief optional response on this topic (see Part VI for more on this). My fear is that on the personal statement, admissions officers’ eyes may begin to glaze over when they see another Covid-19 essay. On the other hand, I do think there will be some powerful stories that emerge from this shared global experience. If you have a compelling personal story related to the pandemic that truly changed/impacted your life, thinking, or life path in some way – and requires more than the 250 words you’re being allotted on the Covid-19 essay – then just make sure to tell it in a way that focuses mostly on your unique experience/ transformation. Similarly to the personal tragedy subject, you shouldn’t spend time talking about details that everyone is already familiar with; focus on the impact it had on you.

What makes an essay stand out from the rest?

The French phrase, je ne sais quoi , comes to mind when trying to answer this question. It means, “an indefinable, elusive quality, especially a pleasing one.” Often, it’s difficult to pinpoint what makes an essay special or memorable; it just has that je ne sais quoi and you know it when you read it.

That said, there are some common elements that are typically found in outstanding essays:

• Creativity/originality – something new that the reader hasn’t seen a hundred times
• Compelling storytelling
• They evoke emotions, perhaps inspire
• Show depth of thought
• Include vivid descriptions and details

The good news is that you don’t have to be a master writer, have experienced an earth-shattering experience, or have all life’s answers to create an excellent essay that the reader will appreciate. Simply being willing to be vulnerable and share honestly goes a long way. And some of the best essays I’ve read are based on simple, everyday stories and experiences. The following section has a few exemplar essays with comments following each to point out what makes them successful.

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Essay Guide: How to Brainstorm Your Essay

Many students struggle with identifying a good topic for their essay.  Conventional wisdom says to start by brainstorming a list of potential topics, and chances are, you have already started a mental list of ideas.  You might think you only have a few choices for topics, based on your activities or experiences, or you might have started writing a rough draft or two.  We advise, however, that you put down your list of topics and back away from it. Forget that exists for a moment. Seriously, thinking about this initial list tethers you to certain ideas that might not actually be your best options .

Now you can begin brainstorming with a clean slate.

Our strategy is this: start with thinking about what you want to show in your entire application, not just one essay . Every single component in your app has one purpose – to tell more about YOU .  Filling out the rest of the application by rote and focusing solely on the essay is short-sighted and will leave so much potential untapped in your application.  

• Every single component in your app has one purpose - to tell more about YOU.

An admissions officer’s goal is to understand you fully, in the context of your background and the rest of the applicant pool. They will begin this with assessing your academic abilities and potential. Then they will evaluate how you will fit into the student body they’re trying to curate. All of this can be somewhat broad and diverse and touch on several institutional goals. But they will dig deep to find out what each applicant is like, what your core values and motivations are, what kind of student you will be, how you will contribute to the vibrant and intellectual campus community they’re building, etc.

Your goal with essay brainstorming is to ascertain how to powerfully tell your story in a manner that will fit these criteria.  The entirety of your application (again, not just one essay) aims to showcase your abilities, qualifications, and uncommon attributes as a person in a positive way.  Before you begin outlining or writing your application, you must determine what is unique about you that will stand out to an admissions panel.  As we addressed in a previous blog post , all students are truly unique. Not one other student has the same combination of life experiences, personality, passions, or goals as you do.  Your job in your application is to frame your unique personal attributes in a positive and compelling way. How will you fit on campus? What personal qualities, strengths, core values, talents, or different perspectives do you bring to the table? What deeper motivations/beliefs or formative experiences can you use to illustrate all of this?

It is always helpful to start with some soul-searching or self-examination.  You might not immediately know what you want to share about yourself. It’s not a simple task to decide how to summarize your whole life and being in a powerful and eloquent way on your application.  Introspection prior to starting your application takes additional time and effort rather than jumping straight into your first draft. But it is also a valuable method to start writing a winning application that stands out from the stack.

It’s often easiest to start thinking in terms of superlatives — what are the most meaningful things about you?  Here is a list of questions to help you brainstorm broadly before you narrow down your focus for writing:

• What are your interests? 
• What sparks your curiosity?
• What are your favorite books ?  What are your favorite movies and why?
• What websites do you visit frequently?
• What are your hobbies? 
• With whom do you enjoy spending time? Who has impacted your life the most?  What are the most important relationships in your life?
• Reflect upon “superlatives” in your life.  What moments were most memorable, formative, enlightening, enjoyable, or valuable?  What physical possessions, experiences, dreams, or lessons could make your superlatives list?
• Stop and think about what things, people, or circumstances in your life are really unique, fascinating, or outlandish. Are there any that really have a lot of “cultural flavor” (whatever your culture is)?
• What are your strongest opinions or beliefs, and have any of these changed since you started high school?
• What are your goals for your life in 10 years?
• If you could change any three things in the world, what would they be?
• What are you biggest strengths?  What are the biggest challenges you have overcome?

And now the biggest questions: WHY?

• Why do you love the things you love?  Why are they important? What led you to your answer?  
• Why are you interested in and passionate about them?  What compels you toward them?
• What do your answers reveal about your core values?
• Is there a story you could share that would demonstrate or explain why one or more of these is significant to you?

Your why needs to go beyond your desire to get into college, get a good job, or make your family proud.  It should be driven from within – from the things that intrigue and excite you and make your life worth living.  There is a big difference between applicants who are motivated by boosting their college resume and applicants who are motivated by core values, drive, and passion.

• There is a big difference between applicants who are motivated by boosting their college resume and applicants who are motivated by core values, drive, and passion.

Jot down some notes on the questions listed above. Then go back and revisit your list of possible topics. Which ones can you use as examples of the above? Which ones will a reviewer naturally extrapolate to the next level? Which ones will give you a sounding board or platform for explaining who you really are and what matters most to you?

Note: once you begin writing, remember that you shouldn’t address any of this directly. Be indirect and subtle, and use examples/stories and details to make your main points. Don’t chisel them into stone tablets and bash the reviewer in the face or yell “Look how smart I am!” That also means you shouldn’t say “I’m a great team player and I can’t wait to contribute at X College!” Instead, show an example of a time you worked on a team effectively and let the reviewer form their own conclusions.  We will cover this in greater detail in our essay guide, but it’s worth noting here as it’s part of the process of picking a topic. 

You cannot gracefully fit all you want to communicate into one essay.  Instead make sure your vision is clearly conveyed somewhere in your application. Each component only needs to carry a small part of your message.  Your essay is the most dynamic component, but every section is vital to the overall effectiveness of your application. The best way to intentionally weave the key aspects you have identified about yourself into your application is to create an application arc.

The theme or arc is a one-phrase summary of your entire application.  It’s not actually written down anywhere in your application, but it’s the overall impression you hope to leave with the person or committee reviewing your application.  It could be “brilliant entrepreneur and mathematician who started her own successful tutoring business” or “talented athlete who wants to study economics and finance as they pertain to sports”, or even “avid baker whose hobby sparked an interest in chemistry”. It doesn’t have to be related to your intended major, but your arc will be stronger and clearer if it is. The more components of your application that you can tie to your arc, the better.  However, your arc should be multifaceted, not so specific that you appear one-dimensional. The goal of the arc is to highlight both your depth and breadth as a person–both to keep you from pinballing all over your interests in your application, and to also keep you from focusing solely on one aspect of yourself.  

Questions about any of this?  Let us know in the comments below, and we’ll get back to you!

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