Answering Common App Essay Prompts

Colleges have started accepting applications in the US and if you want admission to your dream college, you must know about the Common App and its personal essay prompts! 

Common App is a way to apply to 1000-plus prestigious colleges in the USA and elsewhere 

One of the key application parts is the essay! You’ve to write an essay under 650 words on one of the 7 prompts that Common App releases every year! 

You must be thinking, “How you should write an essay?” and  “Which prompt you should choose?”.

In this newsletter, we’ll discuss answers to all your questions related to Common App essays. 

So, make sure you read the newsletter till the end to not miss any important point. 

First, let’s start with the question—How to choose the right prompt for your essay? 

▶️ How to choose the right prompt for your essay?

Choosing the right prompt is a crucial part of writing an essay. Here are the points you should keep in mind while choosing the prompt: 

📌 Do any stories come to your mind when you think of an essay? See if there is a prompt related to that story, it can be a great way of choosing the right prompt.

📌 Don’t fall for the common mistake of choosing a prompt where you don’t feel any passion to write about. Admission officers can clearly sense the essays written without passion.

📌 Your essay should share insights about you outside of your extracurricular activities, letter of recommendation, or GPA. 

▶️ 1. Background Prompt

Prompt: 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.

First, determine a piece of your background or identity that you want to write about. Talk about why this means so much to you and how it may have determined your life and the people with whom you are.

Describe experiences or achievements that you believe are the most significant, of which had an impact on your goals and character. 

📌 Example: 

• Share about a unique hobby you might have that none of your friends or family members share. 

• If you’ve been born and raised in a different cultural background, you can share the experience and how it has impacted you. 

▶️ 2. Facing Obstacles Prompt

Prompt: The learnings we take from obstacles we face can be a reason for later success. Think of a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

You may not be able to respond correctly to this prompt unless you have faced a problem or made a mistake. Explain the situation and how it affected you emotionally and physically.

Discuss how you responded and what it taught you about handling future circumstances. Think about what you have learned from the mistakes and how it made you stronger, and more self-sufficient. 

Wrap up by tying these learnings to your future goals and how these challenges made you resilient and eligible for further achievements.

📌 Example: 

• You can share about an experience where you faced a failure. Share how it affected you and what did you learn from it. 

• Share if you had any disappointment and how you turned that disappointment into something positive.  

▶️ 3. The New Standpoint Prompt

Prompt: Just think of a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the result?

Explain why you began to doubt some common beliefs - what personal experiences, what reading, or something else led you to doubt a certain factor about a particular assumption.

Your conclusion should reflect what you've learned from not supporting a particular belief or your overall perspective on it.

📌 Example: 

• You can share how you challenged a common superstition and how you convinced others to come on the same page. 

• You can write about how you questioned your family’s traditional career expectations and how it helped you to find your passion.

▶️ 4. The Appreciation Prompt

Prompt: 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?

Write about an act of kindness or support from a person who has brought unexpected joy and gratitude to your life. 

Consider how gratitude's emotions make you act or what behavioral changes you experience. Finish by linking experience to a positive aspect, how has this made you a better person?

📌 Example: 

You can tell a real-life story that you have experienced where your friend, family, or mentor motivated you to achieve your best self and acted as your support system through your hard times. 

Share how it positively impacted you in your growth and your trust and respect for your friend, family, or mentor.

▶️ 5. The Self-Growth Prompt

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

In this prompt, You want to point out one event or achievement that influenced a time when your personal growth was affected positively. 

Give the background of it and what aspect made you change your thinking. Describe how this experience strengthened your self-awareness.

And finally, round out your essay with an essence of how this discovery has influenced who you want to be and what you now plan on doing.

📌 Example: 

• You can share the story when you had a chat with a friend or family member that initiated a big project, which ended up being helpful for your community.

• You can share an experience where you did volunteering work and that helped you get a new perspective on social work. 

▶️ 6. The Intriguing Prompt

Prompt: 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?

You should detail a particular subject or idea that fascinates you and makes you just lose yourself. 

Explain what fuels your passion for this topic, and how that has driven you to delve deeper or seek out additional resources, people, or methods by which you learn more about it.

Your conclusion should highlight both how the topic has impacted your interests, and what you've learned from it.

📌 Example: 

• A story about a time you completely lost yourself in a book, and how that experience changed your perspective on learning or knowledge. 

• You can share a story about a “Lightbulb moment” you came across that helped you come to any specific realization.  

▶️ 7. The Open Canvas Prompt

Prompt: 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 design.

Pick an essay that essentially highlights your writing capacities and discusses what you like. When you start writing an essay, make sure it fits the prompt’s one of three themes (personal growth, challenge, or accomplishment). 

Or, you might create an essay emphasizing your strengths or seeing things differently. This can give quite an overview of your personality, interests, and viewpoints to the admission officers.

📌 Example: 

• You can share any experience that doesn’t fit in other prompts but that’s a very important part of your life. 

⏩ Tips to consider while writing answers to these prompts:

At a Glance ⚡

📌 Background Prompt: What will the presence of this background or identity mean to the group? 

📌 Facing Obstacles Prompt: Explain a problem and the lesson you gained from it.

📌 The New Standpoint Prompt: Think of a time when you doubted or disagreed with an idea. 

📌 The Appreciation Prompt: Give an example of an act of kindness that was demonstrated to you and how it made you feel. 

📌 The Self-Growth Prompt: Describe an achievement or an occurrence that provided for the individual development. 

📌 The Intriguing Prompt: To write an outline, discuss a topic/idea that interests you. 

📌 The Open Canvas Prompt: Post any essay on any subject.

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