College admissions officers can tell a lot by reviewing an applicant’s transcript, but many of the intangibles that determine a student’s fit and future contributions to the campus are not as obvious.
And that is where the college essay comes in.
Limited to 650 words, the essay included with the Common Application, used by over 900 colleges and universities across the country, as well as any long form application essay from an individual college, is the best, and sometimes only, way for students to demonstrate who they are behind the numbers.
This 5 part series provides an overview of the college essay writing process to share with your high school senior or junior. Here are the topics and schedule, and I’ll come back to link each subsequent article after publication. He/she/they and him/her/them are used interchangeably throughout the articles.
College Essay Prep Posts
Part 1: What Admissions Officers are Looking for in a College Essay
Part 2: 10 Rules for a Great College Essay
Part 3: Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story
Part 4: First Draft of Your College Essay
Teens, if you have not yet viewed the first 3 parts of this series, please go back now and do so, particularly the section in Part 3 on Strategies to Develop the Writing Habit and Your Story. While some teens enjoy writing and write regularly, most teens are writers only under duress. Implementing the strategy or strategies listed in the first section of that post that work for you will produce the best essay possible with the least amount of pain.
So first, visit or revisit Part 3, then let’s get started on your first essay draft.
The 2023-24 Common App essay prompts** are as follows:
- 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.
**The source for this information is the official Common App site-- https://www.commonapp.org/blog/2023-2024-common-app-essay-prompts -- which also provides the overall context of the questions, explains any changes (none from 2022-2023), and offers more information about planning for college in general.
If reading through the list above causes you to hyperventilate, take a few deep breaths and remind yourself that millions of other high school students have written and submitted essays successfully, and that this is a great opportunity to show admissions officers the kind of person you are above and beyond test scores, classes, and grades.
First, own your mindset, and if it’s not serving you, acknowledge the feelings behind it but keep moving forward. Action breeds clarity. Set the schedule that works for you and commit to it. So whether you think you have a boring life, suffer from analysis paralysis or from perfectionism, feel like you have to be funny but you are not remotely so, not feeling inspired, or any of a myriad other excuses, just create your writing schedule, post it in your room or house for greater accountability, then execute. Work the process and the results will come.
The best gift you can give yourself is time, so start drafting as soon as possible after prompts are available, and certainly by the time the Common App for your class is open, follow your writing plan, and your essay will soon take shape. The questions change little, if at all, from year-to-year, so don't hesitate to start drafting early.
Second, here are a few suggestions for selecting the prompt you respond to:
Read through ALL parts of ALL questions, then read through again. Before jumping immediately to the 7th prompt, think about some of the creative writing exercises you did in Part 3 of this series. Do any of those stories, people, events, or situations jump out at you as fitting one or more of the other 6 prompts? Is there a writing assignment in the last couple of years which could be used as a starting point for one or more of the prompts?
Start jotting down ideas or notes related to each of the prompts in a notebook, a whiteboard, or a doc on your computer. One or 2, even 3, of the prompts should begin to resonate a bit more than the others, so start concentrating more effort on 1-2 of those. If it helps to write an outline first, then do it! If not, don’t! Just start writing. If it helps to use the post-it note method I mentioned in Part 3, then give that a try.
If you are feeling stuck or short on material, record your answer on your phone and see if it is easier to express your thoughts verbally than in writing. Similarly, talk through ideas or an answer with a friend, parent, or other trusted adult and either record or ask them to take notes as you talk. Transcribe your recording as is (recommended at this stage) or lightly edit to remove the “ah’s”, “ums”, and other extra words or phrases.
Whatever method you use, once you begin, just keep writing until the prompt has been fully answered, using as many sessions as you need, within the submission timeline, of course. Don’t self-edit as you go or worry about word count, spelling, or anything else, just get that first draft complete!
Congratulations! You’re on your way. The final part of this series will offer guidelines for writing and reviewing the next drafts (yes, that’s drafts with an ‘s’), including questions aimed at crafting the most compelling story possible.