When applying to a university or college, you prepare a bunch of documents, including the information about your test scores and grades from high school, and provide everything to the college admission office. But that is not enough! To show who you are and prove that you will be the best candidate for a particular school, you should submit a specific assignment. That is a common app essay, and your task is to approach that issue attentively. So many similar pieces are already written-in fact, all of them are about a great desire to study in a certain school. There is real competition and, except for knowledge, skills, and personal traits, nothing makes you different from other applicants. But, you need to do your best to boost the chances to be enrolled without worries. What can you include in an application writing?
All these points form a great way to know your personality better. Also, it is a chance to assess not only your academic competence but writing skills and ability to analyze yourself as well as information around. But, many students sweating over one challenging dilemma. What app topic to choose to present yourself the best way possible? In our article, we want you to take a closer look at the common app prompt issue and analyze a few examples of topics to use.
How to develop the best strategy and convince the admission committee? What subject area can be your ace in the hole? Students start preparing to this stage of their life in advance-so challenging it seems to be. Well, to defeat the enemy, you have to understand what you are dealing with first.
The primary purpose of the Common Application assignment is to allow students a chance to enter a higher educational establishment. And, you are going to reach that goal with the help of a particular assignment. That is an application essay. It is your statement, academic resume, and magnum opus in the educational world of high school. You have only about 650 words to persuade the college representatives that you deserve to study in that particular school. Therefore, apart from good writing skills and a correct structure, you need to know what buttons to push and what aspects to highlight in your paper. The prompt you choose can influence the way you write, and the mission is to make the right bets.
It was a Common Application committee decision to leave the prompts from previous years unchanged-don't lose your chance to benefit from that! As you brainstorm the application process, ask your friends or senior students for some useful recommendations. Maybe they will share some tips with you?
After the analysis of common app prompt ideas, you can decide what aspects to cover by a certain topic. All that lets you formulate a coherent message, gather the information, and consider the best structure for your writing in advance.
We are going to look through the major prompts, discuss their core purposes and topics, and provide you with several ideas for consideration. Be confident that our guide will inspire you to prepare an essay that will open the doors of all the colleges!
Everyone is an individual with unique interests, hobbies, and talents. There is definitely something special about you, and why not make it the core of an application essay? Think about what makes people interested in you as an individual and what aspects of you as a person are worth discussing.
What comes to your mind when you think of yourself? Is there something interesting in your life that identifies your personality and makes it stand out from the crowd? With a story about your background, it is possible to develop a captivating narration. But if you choose this prompt, be careful and don't present yourself as a center of the universe-stay reasonable. Here, the purpose is to dwell on your personality and let the admissions folks know it better. Consider the following ideas:
Keep in mind that your application writing can be based on any type of essay (argument, narration, cause-effect, etc.)
If you are good at proving a point, the topics focused on this prompt can be what you are looking for. The world around us is full of different concepts, ideas, and beliefs that you can accept or challenge. It can be engaging to show which beliefs inspire and, on the contrary, make you stay away from any related concepts. If you had an experience of challenging a belief, that is worth mentioning. To write common app using this prompt, be sure you have enough information that will help you prove the idea and convey a relevant statement. Some questions that can help you are:
Every life is based on what the person believes in. Don't lose an opportunity to write about your main principles and show that you are a student who knows what their objectives are.
Our experience is formed by victories and challenges we face, but although everyone makes mistakes, not everyone can learn from them. Do you have a challenge, after dealing with which your life changed? Maybe there were different obstacles on your way that provided you with crucial questions to consider? Have you ever doubted your own dreams and aims?
If you successfully convince the admission board that you are a diligent student who isn't afraid of problems, the enrollment chances will be higher.
For these essays, real-life examples and personal experience have the best value.
Is there something that makes you forget about everything? Is it your place of power, your role model, or memory you always come back to? It can be even a hobby, a book, or an idea you live for. There is always something that keeps people moving, and the motivation received from that is a great topic to develop in your app essay. You can describe how the need for something new makes you learn more or how your own discoveries widen the understanding of the world. Maybe, you can resonate with one of the statements below?
There should always be an impulse that doesn't let you stop; otherwise, it will be hard for the application committee to understand whether you are interested in self-development and the institution at all.
That is one of the simplest common app essay examples. It combines your interests, motivation, challenges you face, and your self-analysis. The task here is to show the history of your personal growth and significant changes in your perception of the world around. Frequently, such an essay focuses on a particular sparked period of student's life where a series of events and accomplishments influences their personality. When choosing a prompt like that, be ready to formulate a topic with which you will be able to conduct a profound introspection. Your writing may convey the following aspects:
Not all applicants can describe the moment of their personal growth. It requires reasonable thinking to consider your own good and bad or strong and weak points.
It seems that every applicant can choose this topic because you will hardly find a person who has never faced problems or had aims. The representatives of the admissions committee want to explore your through the problem-solving process and assess how competitive you are. But the prompt we are talking about isn't focused on the challenges you've experienced only. Here, you may also write about the issues that you would like to solve. You can cover such subjects as ethical dilemmas and controversial questions-that will present your analytical skills in their finest.
For instance, you are concerned about the air pollution problem. However, you understand that one person cannot solve it because different measures should be taken on a global basis. Your primary aim is to demonstrate a problem and offer the main steps to follow for its eliminating. The issues you may include are:
Here, the relevant information you use plays a crucial role. To come up with pertinent solutions and profound analysis, you have to be aware of what is going on not only inside your head. The competence about events around the globe can come in handy during your application process.
The opportunity to choose absolutely any topic appeared not so long ago. If you don't like the above-mentioned ideas or would like to cover different prompts, you are free to pick absolutely any subject area. But, the admissions office isn't interested in reading the description of your favorite book or movie-the topic should characterize you as an individual and a competent student and demonstrate your skills. If the topic allows you to strut your stuff, embark on it without worries!
When you are confident about the application essay topic you want to focus on, a good decision would be to prepare an essay example. This way, you will see what parts are challenging for you and what topics it is better to avoid. Also, on our website, every student can ask one of our consultants to provide useful articles on application essay writing. Or, you can get a custom common app paper from us! In any case, we wish you luck and hope you will be enrolled in the college of your dreams.
