BEFORE YOU BEGIN WRITING READ THE FOLLOWING FROM AN ADMISSIONS COUNSELOR REGARDING A STUDENT WHO WAS ACCEPTED TO EVERY COLLEGE
"What made her stand out? It wasn’t a number or a line on her resume, it was her intrinsic interest in learning and making connections that came through as she worked on each application. She wanted to think about what inspired her and how her background and interests would impact her future college community. Many straight A students want to write the perfect essay on the first try, revise it once and move on. This student thought, regularly, about the messages she was conveying in her writing and wasn’t afraid to take a risk, show her personality, or make a fresh start when one idea wasn’t turning out the way she planned. Frankly, despite the numerous other commitments she had, she WANTED to put herself into the college application process."
The Common Application has announced that the 2016-2017 personal statement essay prompts will be the same as the 2015-2016 prompts.
These prompts are designed to elicit information that will strengthen the other components of the application. "We want to make sure that every applicant can find a home within the essay prompts, and that they can use the prompts as a starting point to write an essay that is authentic and distinguishing," said Scott Anderson, former school counselor and current Senior Director for Programs and Partnerships for The Common Application.
Among the more than 800,000 unique applicants who have submitted a Common App so far during the 2015-2016 application cycle, 47 percent have chosen to write about their background, identity, interest, or talent - making it the most frequently selected prompt; 22 percent have chosen to write about an accomplishment, 17 percent about a lesson or failure, 10 percent about a problem solved, and four percent about an idea challenged.
Below are the 2017-2018 Common Application Essay Prompts. After the prompt, I will share how the prompt compares to the 2016-2017 prompts if students were already thinking about their college essays based on the previous year’s questions.
"What made her stand out? It wasn’t a number or a line on her resume, it was her intrinsic interest in learning and making connections that came through as she worked on each application. She wanted to think about what inspired her and how her background and interests would impact her future college community. Many straight A students want to write the perfect essay on the first try, revise it once and move on. This student thought, regularly, about the messages she was conveying in her writing and wasn’t afraid to take a risk, show her personality, or make a fresh start when one idea wasn’t turning out the way she planned. Frankly, despite the numerous other commitments she had, she WANTED to put herself into the college application process."
The Common Application has announced that the 2016-2017 personal statement essay prompts will be the same as the 2015-2016 prompts.
These prompts are designed to elicit information that will strengthen the other components of the application. "We want to make sure that every applicant can find a home within the essay prompts, and that they can use the prompts as a starting point to write an essay that is authentic and distinguishing," said Scott Anderson, former school counselor and current Senior Director for Programs and Partnerships for The Common Application.
Among the more than 800,000 unique applicants who have submitted a Common App so far during the 2015-2016 application cycle, 47 percent have chosen to write about their background, identity, interest, or talent - making it the most frequently selected prompt; 22 percent have chosen to write about an accomplishment, 17 percent about a lesson or failure, 10 percent about a problem solved, and four percent about an idea challenged.
Below are the 2017-2018 Common Application Essay Prompts. After the prompt, I will share how the prompt compares to the 2016-2017 prompts if students were already thinking about their college essays based on the previous year’s questions.
- Some students have a background, 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. [No change]
- The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you face a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? [Some word changes, but essentially the same]
- Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome? [Question revised, but essentially the same]
- Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma – anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. [No change]
- Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. [Revised, but similar]
- 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? [New prompt]
- Share an essay on a 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. [New compared to 2016-2017 prompts, but it was available to students in previous years]
Common App
2016-2017 Essay Prompts
1. 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.
2. The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
4. Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
We are pleased to share the 2015-2016 Essay Prompts with you. New language appears in italics:
Essay Questions:
Option #1: 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.
"Identity" is at the heart of this prompt. What is it that makes you you? The prompt gives you a lot of latitude for answering the question since you can write about your "background or story." Your "background" can be a broad environmental factor that contributed to your development such as growing up in a military family, living in an interesting place, or dealing with an unusual family situation. Your "story" could be an event or series of events that had a profound impact on your identity. However you approach the prompt, make sure you are inward looking and explain how and why your identity was influenced by your background or story.
Last year, the question just invited students to share their background or identity; this year, the Common App has broadened it to also include “interest” and “talent.” This is to help students realize this prompt is not just for the “I come from a culturally-underrepresented group” crowd.
See more Tips and Strategies for Essay Option #1
Option #2: The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
This prompt may seem to go against everything that you've learned on your path to college. It's far more comfortable in an application to celebrate successes and accomplishments than it is to discuss failure. At the same time, you'll impress the college admissions folks greatly if you can show your ability to learn from your failures and mistakes. Be sure to devote significant space to the second half of the question--what was your response to failure, and how did you learn and grow from the experience? Introspection and honesty is key with this prompt.
The key to questions like this one: don’t dwell on your failures but emphasize how you’ve overcome challenges and are now stronger, wiser, and better for them.
If you choose this prompt, you need to be very particular about the failure you decide to reveal. Don’t make it be anything that causes admissions offices to question your character, judgment, or integrity. I’ve always advised students that the best “failures” to talk about are the ones that are not really your fault. For example, you love singing but are completely tone deaf and couldn’t get a part in the school musical to save your life, so you decided to become a music critic for your local newspaper. No one can fault you for being a bad singer. But they can applaud your ability to turn lemons into lemonade.
Option #3: Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
Keep in mind how open-ended this prompt truly is. The "belief or idea" you explore could be your own, someone else's, or that of a group. The best essays will be honest as they explore the difficulty of working against the status quo or a firmly held belief, and the answer to the final question--would you make the same decision again--need not be "yes." Sometimes in retrospection we discover that the cost of an action was perhaps too great. However you approach this prompt, your essay needs to reveal one of your core personal values. If the belief you challenged doesn't give the admissions folks a window into your personality, then you haven't succeeded with this prompt.
Question #4: Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
This question wants to know your values and your thought process. How and what you value will be evident based on your topic. This can also gauge how you respond under pressure. If you choose an intellectual challenge consider whether or not it is relevant to the topic you wish to study in college. Perhaps this concept is more abstract than concrete.This prompt does not require you to have the solution but rather would prefer to see how you could go about working on one. If a theoretical solution is possible it is not necessary.
Make sure that the essay says enough about YOU. Sure, you’d like to solve the problem of a global water shortage. But don’t just tell colleges why it’s a problem, tell them what you’ve done about it. But personally, I think the best essays for this prompt are not “save the world” kind of essays. Maybe you watched your friend in a wheelchair struggle with the supposedly accessible walkways and ramps at your school and lobbied for a solution. Or maybe you were frustrated with the cost of textbooks and instituted a book exchange program. Admissions offices are looking for your thought process, creativity, and determination here, not the scale of your problem or solution.
Option #5: Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
I'm not a fan of the way this prompt is worded for it suggests that a single event or accomplishment can be so transformative that one becomes an adult overnight. Maturity comes as the result of a long train of events and accomplishments (and failures). That said, this prompt is an excellent choice if you want to explore a single event or achievement that marked a clear milestone in your personal development. Be careful to avoid the "hero" essay -- admissions offices are often overrun with essays about the season-winning touchdown or brilliant performance in the school play. These can certainly be fine topics for an essay, but make sure your essay is analyzing your personal growth process, not bragging about an accomplishment.
I think the trick to this essay is not to focus too much on the “childhood to adulthood” part, and just think about the moments or events in life that have caused you to fundamentally change as a person or to see the world differently.
Some Final Thoughts: Whichever prompt you chose, make sure you are looking inward. What do you value? What has made you grow as a person? What makes you the unique individual the admissions folks will want to invite to join their campus community? The best essays spend significant time with self-analysis, and they don't spend a disproportionate amount of time merely describing a place or event. Analysis, not description, will reveal the critical thinking skills that are the hallmark of a promising college student.
If you find yourself grumbling about the loss of the "Topic of Your Choice" option for the essay, keep in mind that all five of the new prompts allow for great flexibility and creativity. The folks at The Common Application have cast a wide net with these questions, and nearly anything you want to write about could fit under at least one of the options.
- You must complete the education portion of the common app
- Then link your common app to Naviance.
- From there you can request a letter of recommendation in Naviance
- Your teacher will receive an e-mail from Naviance with instructions
2016-2017 Essay Prompts
1. 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.
2. The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
4. Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
We are pleased to share the 2015-2016 Essay Prompts with you. New language appears in italics:
- 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 failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
- Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
- Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
- Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
Essay Questions:
Option #1: 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.
"Identity" is at the heart of this prompt. What is it that makes you you? The prompt gives you a lot of latitude for answering the question since you can write about your "background or story." Your "background" can be a broad environmental factor that contributed to your development such as growing up in a military family, living in an interesting place, or dealing with an unusual family situation. Your "story" could be an event or series of events that had a profound impact on your identity. However you approach the prompt, make sure you are inward looking and explain how and why your identity was influenced by your background or story.
Last year, the question just invited students to share their background or identity; this year, the Common App has broadened it to also include “interest” and “talent.” This is to help students realize this prompt is not just for the “I come from a culturally-underrepresented group” crowd.
See more Tips and Strategies for Essay Option #1
Option #2: The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
This prompt may seem to go against everything that you've learned on your path to college. It's far more comfortable in an application to celebrate successes and accomplishments than it is to discuss failure. At the same time, you'll impress the college admissions folks greatly if you can show your ability to learn from your failures and mistakes. Be sure to devote significant space to the second half of the question--what was your response to failure, and how did you learn and grow from the experience? Introspection and honesty is key with this prompt.
The key to questions like this one: don’t dwell on your failures but emphasize how you’ve overcome challenges and are now stronger, wiser, and better for them.
If you choose this prompt, you need to be very particular about the failure you decide to reveal. Don’t make it be anything that causes admissions offices to question your character, judgment, or integrity. I’ve always advised students that the best “failures” to talk about are the ones that are not really your fault. For example, you love singing but are completely tone deaf and couldn’t get a part in the school musical to save your life, so you decided to become a music critic for your local newspaper. No one can fault you for being a bad singer. But they can applaud your ability to turn lemons into lemonade.
Option #3: Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
Keep in mind how open-ended this prompt truly is. The "belief or idea" you explore could be your own, someone else's, or that of a group. The best essays will be honest as they explore the difficulty of working against the status quo or a firmly held belief, and the answer to the final question--would you make the same decision again--need not be "yes." Sometimes in retrospection we discover that the cost of an action was perhaps too great. However you approach this prompt, your essay needs to reveal one of your core personal values. If the belief you challenged doesn't give the admissions folks a window into your personality, then you haven't succeeded with this prompt.
Question #4: Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
This question wants to know your values and your thought process. How and what you value will be evident based on your topic. This can also gauge how you respond under pressure. If you choose an intellectual challenge consider whether or not it is relevant to the topic you wish to study in college. Perhaps this concept is more abstract than concrete.This prompt does not require you to have the solution but rather would prefer to see how you could go about working on one. If a theoretical solution is possible it is not necessary.
Make sure that the essay says enough about YOU. Sure, you’d like to solve the problem of a global water shortage. But don’t just tell colleges why it’s a problem, tell them what you’ve done about it. But personally, I think the best essays for this prompt are not “save the world” kind of essays. Maybe you watched your friend in a wheelchair struggle with the supposedly accessible walkways and ramps at your school and lobbied for a solution. Or maybe you were frustrated with the cost of textbooks and instituted a book exchange program. Admissions offices are looking for your thought process, creativity, and determination here, not the scale of your problem or solution.
Option #5: Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
I'm not a fan of the way this prompt is worded for it suggests that a single event or accomplishment can be so transformative that one becomes an adult overnight. Maturity comes as the result of a long train of events and accomplishments (and failures). That said, this prompt is an excellent choice if you want to explore a single event or achievement that marked a clear milestone in your personal development. Be careful to avoid the "hero" essay -- admissions offices are often overrun with essays about the season-winning touchdown or brilliant performance in the school play. These can certainly be fine topics for an essay, but make sure your essay is analyzing your personal growth process, not bragging about an accomplishment.
I think the trick to this essay is not to focus too much on the “childhood to adulthood” part, and just think about the moments or events in life that have caused you to fundamentally change as a person or to see the world differently.
Some Final Thoughts: Whichever prompt you chose, make sure you are looking inward. What do you value? What has made you grow as a person? What makes you the unique individual the admissions folks will want to invite to join their campus community? The best essays spend significant time with self-analysis, and they don't spend a disproportionate amount of time merely describing a place or event. Analysis, not description, will reveal the critical thinking skills that are the hallmark of a promising college student.
If you find yourself grumbling about the loss of the "Topic of Your Choice" option for the essay, keep in mind that all five of the new prompts allow for great flexibility and creativity. The folks at The Common Application have cast a wide net with these questions, and nearly anything you want to write about could fit under at least one of the options.
THE COMMON APP WRITING SUPPLEMENT
How can I view a college's Writing Supplement, if they have one?
In order to gain access or see the writing supplement (if offered) you must first complete all the college specific questions. Some writing supplements differ depending on the major/program you select on the school's specific page.
These questions are a way for the college to get to know you better
Example:
As you prepare your application, help us to appreciate your talents, academic accomplishments and personal achievements. We'll ask for your transcript and recommendations, and we will want to know more than just the statistics in your file. Tell us your story. Show us what’s special about you. Tell us how you would seize the academic and non-academic opportunities at THIS COLLEGE and contribute to the THIS PARTICULAR COLLEGE community. Above all, please write in a style that reflects your own voice.
