It’s that time of the year. There’s a chill in the air, colorful leaves gently falling to the ground and crunching as you rustle through them, and, gulp, college admissions essays are coming up. As you excitedly scroll through the requirements of your top choice schools, you’re certain about one thing: getting into your dream school means writing the perfect Common App essay. We’re going to help you do just that. The Common App essay, as you might know, is a personal essay that tells admissions officers “who you are” in just 650 words max. It might sound impossible to fit your entire identity into a few paragraphs, but it’s not. Your essay should encapsulate your values, perspective, and unique personality through a meaningful life experience. Now, you might be stumped, and not sure where to begin. Here are four things you need to know to write a perfect Common App essay: Tip 1: Don’t start by selecting a prompt. As you may already know, every year, the Common App announces its essay prompts. This year’s 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? 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.You might plan on reading through this list, picking the most interesting prompt, and trying to come up with a story that answers it. Don’t. The interesting thing about Common App essays is that you can actually write pretty much the same essay for each prompt, by modifying it slightly. This means that it’s way more important to come up with a super unique, one-of-a-kind event or experience in your life and then select the prompt that you think fits the experience, not vice-versa. This way, your essay will be more naturally about you, not you awkwardly trying to answer an essay prompt. Tip 2: Brainstorm. The best Common App essays are the ones that discuss experiences or realizations that no one has ever written about before. This is because they are one hundred percent authentic to the student writing it. In other words, if you’re true to yourself, your essay will be unique. So, start brainstorming. Sit down, and start jotting down any events or ideas that are important to you. Remember, the weirder or more surprising they are, the better your essay will be. A student might write an essay about their favorite pair of sneakers. One could write about a difficult relationship with their mother. Another could write an essay about the day they got their nose pierced. The possibilities are endless, so try to pick an experience that has room for critical thinking and analysis. If the topic seems simple, think twice. There is always room for insightful realizations about yourself and the world around you. Tip 3: Structure your essay logically. You might have the most fascinating essay in mind, but if you don’t structure it logically, it will fall flat. Start with the word count: if you’re aiming for 650 max, your essay can be about five paragraphs. We’re going to make things easy for you and share a tried-and-true mini-outline you can use to create the perfect Common App essay (you can modify this as needed): Paragraph One: Introduction Start with a hook. Draw your readers into your essay with some compelling imagery or a thought-provoking question. End on a sentence that sets the tone for what your essay will be about. Paragraph Two: Personal Reveal In this paragraph, you should include some key details about your personality and how it relates to your essay topic. Paragraph Three: Growth This paragraph should be all about how you grew and developed in the context of your essay topic. Paragraph Four: Perspective Here, you should nail down key realizations that have changed your perspective for the better. Paragraph Five: Conclusion Wrap up your essay! Return to your hook or end on a meaningful quote and an analysis of it as it relates to you. Tip 4: Write more than one draft. Sometimes, the first essay you write is not your best. So, prepare to write around three drafts of your Common App essay to ensure that you have room to play around with structure, content, and key ideas. But at the same time, don’t overdo it. Just as too many cooks can spoil a broth, too many drafts can kill an essay. Try to prepare a rough draft, a heavily edited version, and a final, polished draft with more minor edits. If you allow yourself enough to time to edit and revise your essay, you won’t be staying up the night before it’s due. As you work on your Common App essay, be open-minded. The perfect Common App essay doesn’t look one way: there are millions of great Common App essays out there, and yours can be one of them! As William Faulkner once said, “If a story is in you, it has to come out.”
