Which Common App Prompt Is Best For You?

 
 
 

Now that you have some great stories and examples to answer your prompts, learn how to get started the right way. Comet has interviewed Admission Officers from top universities (Stanford, UCLA, USC, Brown, Dartmouth and more) to gather insights and best practices for each prompt. We’ll help you take the best angle by telling you what AO’s are really asking and why it matters to them. Let’s get right into it:

 
 
 

PROMPT 1. THE ABOUT YOU ESSAY: 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 prompt is asking you to share your “origin story”--how you arrived at the version of you today. What makes you - you. You can focus on your cultural heritage, your unique life experiences, your unique talents, or your deepest passion and pursuit of an interest. Whatever you choose--this prompt wants you to share the core of who you are and how you see yourself as a person. This prompt is asking you to explain how you see yourself as a person and what were your most formative moments.

  • The admissions readers are looking for students who are self-aware, who can talk about their roots, their interests, their meaningful life events and who they are now because of all of those unique sets of intersections and permutations of experiences. Admissions officers want to be able to say, “hey, I understand who this applicant is and where they came from, because they understand this about themself and is able to communicate it in a clear, compelling fashion.” Given college is an important period of self-exploration, admission readers want students who willingly go internal to reflect and learn from their own experiences and use that to strengthen their own sense of identity and self. So, this essay must address your identity, however you define it.

Looks like you’ve really risen to the challenges and obstacles of life and have survived some hard situations. We recommend you respond to:

PROMPT 2. THE OVERCOMING ESSAY: 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 prompt is asking us to admit and reflect on our failures. We all fail at one point, and this prompt wants you to share how you responded to that failure. For this prompt, focus on what you gained or learned from the experience. How did you redirect your energies in a new way or cast off an unhelpful belief or attachment and recentered yourself after a loss or deep disappointment. The key element to successfully answering this prompt is to reflect on how this failure affected you and what you did as a result of it. So, after you have told your (brief) story, you should do quite a bit of reflecting on how this experience led to personal growth or greater understanding of the world around you.

  • The admission readers are looking for students who have strengthened their resilience and learn from their mistakes. They want to see you are self-aware enough to recognize your blind spots and areas of growth and see how you navigate past that. College is often a time where students make new, bold, and even poor choices--and admission readers want to make sure that students coming in can recover from a misstep (or even a big fall). Admission officers really want to see your humility in admitting that you do make mistakes. and that you are willing to push past those mistakes and persist and grow.

PROMPT 3. THE BELIEF ESSAY: Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

  • This prompt is asking you to recount a time there was a clash between your ideas and the ideas of others, and how you navigated that tension with curiosity, conviction, and compassion. When it comes to disagreement in ideas or perspectives, take time to recount how you came to realize the gap or tension, and the steps you took to resolve that conflict or incongruency. Please note that this isn’t just directed outwardly--sometimes the best deconstruction moments occur with unhealthy or unhelpful internal beliefs we carry in ourselves about the world, our own worth, or other people.

  • The admission readers are looking for critical thinkers who speak up (with others or even with your own previously held notions or insecurities). Colleges thrive when students courageously speak their mind and hearts in response to problems, injustices, unhelpful beliefs or systems in their surroundings. Admission readers want to admit students who are willing to advocate for their convictions and beliefs, and who are willing to be challenged and influenced by others.

PROMPT 4. THE GRATITUDE ESSAY: 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?

  • This prompt is really asking for you to share how you are a better, deeper, wiser, and more confident person because of someone else's time and support. In some way also, this is a "tribute essay," in which you honor and thank a significant person in your life (but remember, the essay is still about you). This essay is about you taking stock of your past and sharing what you are grateful and thankful for. Part of this essay also asks you to focus on how you are going to pay that forward.

  • The admission readers are looking for students who practice gratitude. The admissions committee who is reviewing your application wants to get a sense that you are a grateful person. And, specifically, that gratitude motivates you enough for you to be giving and gracious to others in the future. College is often a time of mentorship--be it you being mentored by another or you mentoring someone else. The greatest gifts are often due to the choices, support, and time of others, so this essay helps you share those moments of gratitude and service.

PROMPT 5. THE PERSONAL GROWTH ESSAY: Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

  • This prompt is really asking for an “a-ha!” moment in your life. When did you have a wake up call, where your life was coasting along, and then something happens that forces you to recognize that suddenly you feel differently or think differently. We all have these “Aha!” moments from time to time, and when they do occur, we reorient ourselves in our world. This is an opportunity to share one of your “Aha!” moments. In some ways, this essay is asking for a moment when you felt enlightened or you stepped into your wiser, higher self.

  • The admissions readers are looking for students who are open-minded and flexible. College is a time to step into new interests, new outlooks, new ways of being--and admission readers want to see their students willingly engage in that process. Admission readers are looking for students who are open to reconsidering their stance or ways of being and being flexible enough to pivot and change as needed.

PROMPT 6. THE PASSION ESSAY: 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 prompt is really asking you to share a time or an anecdote that demonstrates the depth of your interest, that shows the reader that you can become completely engrossed and lose track of time. Notice, however, that the prompt does not use the word “activity.” As we will see, certain activities are related to topics, but here, you want to focus on the academic or intellectual foundations that underlie the things you do. Your chosen focus for this essay could be just about anything, but what matters is the thought that may lead to the activity—and not on the activity itself.

  • The admission readers are looking for students who are deeply and intellectually curious. Colleges and universities are communities of learners, first and foremost. So what admission readers want to see are students invested in learning, growing their understanding, expanding their internal frameworks and beliefs about the world. The most critical part is consider: “Whom do you turn to, or what do you turn to, when you want to learn more?” That's a signal to the admissions committee that you will find a way to gain answers and insight for things you deeply care about. It showcases what it's really like to be inside of your brain. Colleges love to hear about what occupies your mind–after all, colleges are places where you expand and train your mind. This prompt offers an opportunity to talk about the ideas that excite you.

PROMPT 7. THE “YOUR CHOICE” ESSAY”: 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.

This is so open-ended, no offered memories listed here.

Read to submit? Get your essay reviewed by a professional first!