Hey there! Like all juniors right now, I'm going through the college planning phase and I'm trying to brainstorm for my Common App essay. Just curious, what kinda topics should I prepare for?
While the specific Common App essay prompts may slightly change each year, the overarching themes remain pretty consistent. These prompts generally aim to get to know you better, your life experiences, values, and how you handle and grow from challenges.
Here are some guiding principles you might use as you brainstorm:
1. Personal Growth: How have you changed or grown over time? What experiences have shaped your views or personality? This is an opportunity to present an experience and its impact on you.
2. Overcoming Challenges: Have you faced hardships or obstacles that have shaped who you are? Remember, the key focus here should be more on how you responded to the challenge and less on the challenge itself.
3. Passions and Interests: Is there something you are passionate about? Remember, this doesn't have to be an academic interest. It can be a pastime, a love for art, music, cooking, or even your interest in community service.
4. Identity: Prompts may ask for an essay about your background, identity, interest, or talent. The primary goal here is to understand what is unique or special about you.
5. What you believe in: This might be an opinion you hold, a cause you stand for, or a personal philosophy that you strictly follow.
Importantly, avoid common topics like sports injuries or victories, learning new languages, and immigrant stories unless you have a very unique perspective on these. Even highly engaging topics can lose their impact due to oversaturation.
Approach the essay as you would a story: make it vivid and compelling, and remember to show rather than tell. For example, if you're talking about your love for ecology, don't just say that you're passionate about it. Show it by detailing the after-school ecology club you started or the wetlands restoration project you've been working on.
It's not about writing what you think admissions officers want to hear—it's about telling them something authentic about who you are and what experiences have shaped you. Choose a topic that is deeply compelling to you; chances are it will be compelling to your reader as well. And lastly, ensure the story you choose aligns well with the rest of your application and offers new information for the adcoms that isn't readily obvious from your profile.
Remember to get started early and revise, revise, revise!
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