“How long should my Common Application essay be?”
Common app essay prompts for 2021-2022 applicants have been released and I’m looking to get started tomorrow morning on my favorite prompt which I knew they’d keep up there. The thing is, I don’t know a single person who’s started to write their common app essays several months before the application season. I was wondering if it was perhaps looked down upon or something because of how uncommon it was. I’d appreciate it if you experienced people could perhaps clear up misconceptions I may have.
Essentially, this prompt is asking you to discuss a time when things didn’t go according to plan. Perhaps it was a project that failed, a parent’s unexpected illness, or a personal barrier, to name a few. Note that the Common App wants you to reflect on two questions: 1) how the situation affected you and 2) what you learned. As such, you’ll want to approach this question with a solid degree of self-awareness. How have your experiences enabled you to grow?
You might be familiar with the , Common App for short, which serves as a single application shared by over 900 colleges, including every Ivy League school and similarly elite universities like , , and the . The Common App allows you to enter information like your name, demographics, extracurricular activities, and more just once for every school that uses it. It’s also where you’ll encounter “The Common App Essay,” otherwise known as your personal statement (PS), which is what this guide will focus on.
So, the big take-away ideas on the Common App Essay are these:
Though not every school uses the Common App—many state or public schools often have their own systems—the work you do in writing your Common App Essay will serve you in every other component of the process, including applying to non-Common App schools and writing the secondary and supplemental essays that often accompany both types of applications.
This essay prompt is for students who look back at their application and see something missing. Among the test scores, activity descriptions, and grades, a part of who they are is unrepresented. This unrepresented part of you doesn’t need to be directly relevant to the college admissions process, but might instead reflect your journey to become who you are today. Furthermore, whatever you choose to focus on in this essay could shed light on who you will be once you start college. That is, what kind of personality, background, perspective, and so on will you bring to your collegiate community?
Crucially, the topic of this essay should be adding meaningfully to your college application. In other words, note the wording of this prompt: “so meaningful… their application would be incomplete without it.” If your personal essay topic doesn’t provide new information, new perspectives, or significant elaboration on the rest of your application, then you may need to come up with a different topic. In contrast, if your essay topic seems like it will really change your application reader’s perspective on who you are, then you’re probably on the right track.
When the college admissions officers see you have selected this prompt, they expect to see a tale of growth, adaptation, and lessons learned. If you describe a challenging situation you have experienced, but leave out the lessons you learned from it, then you risk giving the impression that you won’t be able to elastically respond to challenges you might face in college. In other words, your story needs a beginning, middle, and end. Who were you before you faced this challenge/setback/failure, what was the obstacle itself, and who are you after this experience? Answering all these questions clearly in your essay will give it the coherent, cohesive structure great Common App essays tend to display.
Unlike most colleges want the common app essay.
In other words, your four years of schoolwork, AP, IB, ACT, and SAT exams, community service, volunteering, and so on account for only 70 to 90 percent. These estimates are provided not to scare you, but rather to emphasize how critical it is for you to spend at least as much time on your college essays as would on any other high school pursuit.
I've collected the common app essay.
College provides students with the opportunity to learn about new ideas, perspectives, belief systems, and histories. In addition, when in college, you will likely be surrounded by more diversity of thought and life experience than you have ever encountered before. Changing your mind and being receptive to new ideas can be challenging, though. Thus, admissions officers often look to see if those abilities are displayed in applicants’ Common App essays. This essay is your opportunity to show your ability to be open-minded, think critically, and keep growing through that process.
Common App Essay Guide Part 1: Ideation
The Common App essay gives colleges the opportunity to learn more about you as a person and what’s important to you. You should use this space to tell your story and reveal different facets of your personality.
What I wrote about for my Common App Essay
Here, we explain what the Common App essay entails before diving into admissions experts’ biggest tips for crafting a memorable personal statement.
5 Common App Personal Essay Red Flags
One of the biggest fears of many students and parents is the sheer anonymity of the process. You, the college applicant, have worked hard through high school, earning great grades, expanding your worldview through , and contributing to your community… and now, it can seem pretty unjust to throw yourself at the mercy of an application system that seems arbitrary, blind to your personality, or even uncaring.