How to Write a Winning College Admission Essay

College admission is as competitive as ever and applicants are doing some crazy (illegal?!) things to get the edge. The best way to show your personality and get an edge with schools is to win them over with a well-written college admission essay.

More than 800 institutions use the Common Application (Common App) to gather the personal and academic information they need. That means you can apply to several public and private universities simultaneously. Some use individual applications containing prompts created and chosen to highlight information and traits they look for in their applicants.

How the Common App Works

The Common App provides seven prompts for your college admission essay. Write essays for two prompts to create choices for essays to submit. Be interesting and concise when introducing yourself and your values. Write at least 250 words for your essay, but no more than 650 words. Do not waste space on general information and ideas that don’t give admissions officers the information they need. You’ll want to include as many concrete details about yourself as possible to tell them who you are.

To ensure success, be sure to give yourself plenty of time to think, write, and revise until you write an essay that truly represents you.

 

 2019-2020 Prompts

PROMPT 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.

Objective: Provide an honest personal statement about who you are so college admissions officers feel a connection with you. 

Describe what makes you unique: Do you like slam poetry? Do you love live-streaming video games? Are horses your passion? Explain how your interest fundamentally shapes your identity. What character trait is strengthened? How could this trait help you in your chosen course of study?

PROMPT 2
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?

Objective: Discuss your ability to handle difficulties and obstacles.

Admissions officers know college life won’t be easy. They value people who show they won’t let obstacles stop them. Acknowledge your struggles and demonstrate you won’t let a little difficulty keep you from getting what you want in life. That’s “perseverance” — a valuable trait when you get to college.

If you struggled academically early in high school and have a lower overall GPA than you want, this prompt allows you to show how you apply yourself and reach your goals. It also proves that you are a well-rounded person even if without many extracurriculars on your resume.

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

Objective: Colleges search for critical thinkers who are curious and familiar with introspection. Give examples.

Demonstrate what you learned from the experience. Prove your resilience and an open mind. Make sure your experience is relevant and specific. Reflect on your process and what you learned

PROMPT 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.

Objective: Demonstrate how you think and what you value. Your answer illustrates your potential to use the information and skills you learn in college.

Present a problem and explore the specific steps you could follow to its solution. Explain why you were/are concerned and why you noticed it. Demonstrate your ability (or openness) to think critically. Share your idea for how to solve the problem. Describe what you think you need to know to arrive at a solution.

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

Objective: Demonstrate how you think and what you value. Your answer illustrates your potential to use the information and skills you learn in college.

Present a problem and explore the specific steps you could follow to its solution. Explain why you were/are concerned and why you noticed it. Demonstrate your ability (or openness) to think critically. Share your idea for how to solve the problem. Describe what you think you need to know to arrive at a solution.

PROMPT 6
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?

Objective: Describe your motivation to learn and your methods for acquiring knowledge. Demonstrate that you are determined when you want to know something. Discuss the tools and methods you use.

Definitely answer the part of the question asking who or what you turn to when you don’t know something. Admission officers understand information is at our fingertips these days, so if you answer that you “Google” it and watch YouTube tutorials, along with contacting teachers and using library resources, don’t worry.

PROMPT 7
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 design.

Objective: Allows applicants who don’t find the other prompts inspiring to give insight into themselves.

Make sure this essay introduces you as an individual who has interests, strengths, and weaknesses you can use to leverage the programs and education each institution offers.

Getting Started:

Whether a college uses the Common App or their own application, the college admission essay is your best opportunity to make yourself stand out from the applications on the admissions officer’s desk. This is the place where you can use your voice to become a real person, not just the numbers reflected on test scores, grades, and high school transcripts. The time you spend writing a couple of solid, butt-kicking essays becomes worthwhile because you can use them in multiple ways.

Brainstorm ideas before committing to a topic.
  • Budget your time accordingly. Do not write your college admission essay the night before it’s due. You want to represent yourself accurately and interestingly. This takes time and thought. Therefore, begin the essay process during the summer before your senior year.
  • Discuss it with others, ask your friends and family about times they remember you standing up for what you believed in or overcoming an obstacle. What do they remember about you? An amusing anecdote about you as a small child sparks an entertaining essay showing who you are inside.
  • Make notes as you go about your day: What do you do? What conversation topics interest you? Sometimes we aren’t aware of our interests or beliefs because they are so much a part of us. When you pay attention to what you do, what you think about, and the conversations you have, you begin to see who you are.
  • Scan your social media posts or saved phone photos. Pay attention to what you say, the “rants” you’ve posted, even the pages and people you follow. What do you “like”? What do you comment on? Inspiration can come from anywhere.
Outline your idea.
  • Form the “thesis statement.” Once you know more about yourself, summarize your knowledge into a sentence or two conveying the answer to the prompt’s objective.
  • Choose details from your notes that support your statement within the body of your work.
  • Choose the best order to present your information. Be specific so your path is clear when it is time to write.
Write your first draft.
  • Be prepared to write more than one draft. This is okay and completely normal for this process. When you write something, people only know what they read in the final draft, so you don’t need to worry about being flawlessly brilliant immediately.
  • Write out everything you gathered to create a complete answer. Don’t worry about the word count. Be sure you include every specific detail you liked.
  • In the following drafts, edit out extra details, passive verbs, and tighten your thoughts. This short, one-page essay requires detail so choose your words and ideas carefully.
  • Revise your first draft a few times to get it as close to perfect as possible.
  • Be sure you have a resource for objective and timely feedback because It’s hard to give yourself input on your own work. One such source is the Interactive Editor by Ecree. This teacher-approved online tool can provide you with real-time writing feedback as you compose your drafts.
Submit your final essay(s) to your selected colleges/universities.

Writing a college admission essay can become the most exciting part of the process because admissions officers use them to find out who you are. When you use concrete details and stay focused on the intention behind the prompt, the essay allows you to shine, and become more than test scores, course descriptions, and grades on a high school transcript. Ecree will help you describe yourself and what makes you unique.  This online writing tutor is available 24/7/365 to offer unlimited writing feedback – making it even easier to write an outstanding essay that will get the attention it deserves.