How To Choose The Right Common App Personal Statement Prompt

In this episode, Jamie Pack, Director of Content at Advantage College Planning helps break down what the Common App personal statement is really for, then she walks prompt by prompt through how students can write an essay that reveals character instead of chasing the “most impressive” story. We focus on voice, tone, and reflection so admissions readers finish your essay feeling like they’ve met a real person they want to know. We also cover:
• Why colleges use the essay to understand who you are and how you think 
• Building two lists: what the application already shows vs what’s missing 
• Avoiding sample-essay pressure and the myth that one essay decides admission 
• Prompt 1: choosing one essential thread rather than a full life story 
• Prompt 2: picking a healthy topic and using the one-third challenge, two-thirds growth formula 
• Prompt 3: handling disagreement with nuance, not arguments 
• Prompt 4: keeping gratitude essays focused on the student’s change and actions 
• Prompt 5: separating internal growth from external achievement and showing evidence 
• Prompt 6: writing curiosity essays that follow a rabbit hole instead of listing interests 
• Prompt 7: using topic of choice to reveal values and consistent traits without recycling work 

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Essays Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Feeling overwhelmed by college admissions? You're not alone. Welcome to College Planning Simplified. I'm your host, Stephanie D'Astuza with Advantage College Planning. Each month, I'll sit down with industry professionals and consultants to bring you expert insights from across the admissions landscape. Clear strategies, honest guidance, no unnecessary stress. Let's simplify this together. College Planning Simplified Community, thank you for joining us on today's podcast. I'm excited to welcome Jamie. She is our director of content and college planning consultant with Advantage College Planning. And today we're going to be talking about essays. And I know, Jamie, this is one of your favorite things to dig into. And today we're going to spend some time really digging into the prompts for the common application personal statement. So thank you, Jamie, for being with us. Thanks for having me, Stephanie. Absolutely. So before a student starts writing a college essay, I think it's important to understand what the admissions team's trying to find out about them. Don't you think? Well, we should spend some time on that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

I think that colleges with the Common App essay in particular are really trying to get to know who a student is as a person. So they want to know who a student is, how they think, what's important to them. Bonus if what they're learning is something that can't easily be found somewhere else in the application already.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Absolutely. Thank you for mentioning that. The instructions for the comment application reads to a student this essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely in a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from your courses, grades, and test scores? And then it moves on to offer seven different prompts, which we will dig into. But when you see these directions, what do you think colleges are actually trying to learn from this essay?

What Colleges Want To Learn

Two Lists That Unlock Topics

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Yeah. So that part of the instructions that's, you know, what do you want readers to know about you? I think is sometimes one of the most important questions in the planning process. And not even just the essay planning process, but the whole application planning process. You know, what do you want colleges to know about you? Um, because maybe I can come up with a decent answer to each prompt, but that information may not be what I want colleges to know about me. It might be something that I'm not comfortable sharing, or maybe it's already in my application somewhere, or it may not be relevant. Two big things about me are that I like cats and Thai food, but that's not necessarily something that a college would need to know about me to get to know who I am. Um, so starting with that question of what do I want colleges to know about me is a great exercise. I still remember this is from years ago, but I heard an admissions officer say to imagine you have a few minutes to sit down with them at a coffee shop and they have a student's whole application in front of them and they've read it cover to cover. And then they ask, what else do I need to know about you to understand you? So starting with that question, I think, is a wonderful exercise. And it's one that we do with our students. We have them make a list of all the things they want colleges to know and to get really specific. So I'm a good friend is less specific than I bring people from different groups together. And I'm a strong student is less specific than I push myself in math and science classes because I want to be an environmental engineer. So by making that list and then looking at the rest of their application to see, you know, what is already being conveyed in that transcript or that activity list or somewhere else, you know, that student who who takes those math and science classes who's interested in environmental engineering, that's probably showing up other places in the application. But maybe that I'm a connector of groups isn't. So the things that are left on that list can often make really great essay ideas.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

I love that, Jamie. What I'm hearing for you is that it's a great idea for students to make two lists. The first list being what do colleges already know about me? And the second list of what do I want them to know about me that might be missing. Why do you think students feel pressure to choose the most impressive story rather than the most meaningful one?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yeah. Often it is those most impressive stories or those example essays that are held up as this is what a good essay looks like, or this is an essay that works. And it's whether that's on TikTok or in the New York Times or you know, somewhere else in the media. I actually don't like it when students go out and try to find sample essays like that to read because it gets in their head about what a good essay is supposed to sound like. I also think that reading articles or like this or seeing someone talk about the essay that got them into their dream school on TikTok also divorces the essay from the rest of the application. An admissions decision was not made on that essay alone. It was made on an entire application. Along those lines, I also think the essay itself can take on an outsized importance because of the amount of time that's spent on it. It's usually the thing that students spend the most time on during the active application process. So it can start to feel like it's the most important thing, and then everything hangs on whether or not this essay is perfect. But that is a skewed sense of perception. If we look at the whole application, most of it is the work of three years, their transcript, their activity list, et cetera. It's three years of high school. And the essay is just one puzzle piece. It's maybe just a few weeks of work. It's really concentrated work, but it's not the same as looking back on the work of all of high school.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Absolutely. It's the piece of a whole. And you did a great job of um just reiterating that decisions are not made solely on the essay. I never admitted a student because they wrote an amazing essay, and that's the only reason. So it is a piece of a whole of a greater story.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

A few years ago, I heard an admissions officer at Vanderbilt say that a great essay can heal the sick, but it can't raise the dead. And I think about that often, where it can, you know, it can help an already strong application, but it's not going to be the thing that is the only reason a student was admitted.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Absolutely. Before we uh get into the prompts, I want to ask you, what kinds of insights do you find are typically missing from most applications that essays can uniquely provide?

SPEAKER_01 7:20

That's a good question. I think the biggest one is a student's voice, because nowhere else in the application does a student get to have their unique and individual voice directly heard by whoever is reading that application. You know, the transcript, the activity list, that's a reflection of work that they've done, letters of recommendation or somebody else talking about the student. But the essays are the only time where a student gets to put their voice into that application. So we tell students all the time that their essay should sound like them. Not like just any teenager, but like them, their unique self, that someone they know well should be able to pick their essay out of a stack and know that it's theirs. And I think that alone often improves an essay, no matter what it's about, because um, essays that sound like the real person who wrote them are just so much more fun and interesting to read. There are other things like individual perspectives or, you know, insight about a student's background or their interests or their life, things that are not quite as quantitative as the rest of that application, like the transcript or the activity list. Little details, you know, I love learning about what makes a student tick, what drives and motivates them to do all the great things that are elsewhere in their application, uh, how they they see the world. I think the rest of the application is mostly about what a student has done, not necessarily about who they are.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

And that's what I want to read an essay about. Awesome. Thank you. I think May is a great time for us to talk about essays. Some of our students have already started the process. We're starting our workshops on essays. So, parents, the the common application essay prompts are already out. Um, they're posted. The ones that we talk about today will be the ones for the class of 2027 on their application. So it's a great time for us to dig into this. As we go through the prompts, I want to highlight and uh hopefully you agree with me is there is no winning prompt. There is no like golden ticket that if you choose this prompt, um, it's better than others. They are each unique and they will each highlight some different things, but I think ultimately will highlight a student's character and their traits. How do you feel about that?

SPEAKER_01 9:39

I agree. I think that each prompt could potentially work for each student. I think there are some prompts that a student's gonna read and be like, you know what, that one's not for me. And that is also okay. We can talk a little bit. There's there's a couple of prompts in here that I think are challenging, and that's reflected in how often they're chosen. Common Out did a great job this year of releasing like the national breakdown of how many or what percentage of students chose each prompt. And that was really interesting to look at. But with the exception of a few prompts, there really the spread was really even.

Prompt One Background Without Life Story

SPEAKER_00 10:13

And I definitely have my favorites that I like working on, and there are ones that are a little trickier, but it's always interesting to see which ones students gravitate towards and feel comfortable with. Okay, let's get into it. So, prompt number one, I call this one the background prompt. 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. What do you think is the key word in this prompt? Oh, key word.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

I will give you a couple of keywords. They believe their application would be incomplete without it. So this prompt is asking, is there something that is not already in your application that we need to know to understand you? It's not asking for everything. Uh, it is specifically asking, what haven't you told us yet?

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Exactly. I find that students interpret this as I'm gonna tell you my entire life story. What do you think they're actually asking for?

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Yeah, I think it goes similarly back to that list of what do I want colleges to know about me? They're wanting to know what does the student feel is is important enough that needs to be revealed to fully understand who they are, that maybe isn't coming through already. That's not your whole life story. You only have 650 words. Um, and it's not tell us a background, identity, interest, and talent. It's not all of those things. It's what is something, what is a piece of you that that we really need to know?

SPEAKER_00 11:52

They're gonna look at what uh has already been provided to them in terms of their activity list. And obviously they know the classes and the grades they meant, but they don't know how, like you said, a particular experience affected them, right? Like who they met along the way, who who they vibed with on the soccer field, or they don't know how they've changed because of an experience. So I think that this prompt is is um great for that. This is popular for my students. I think um a lot of students feel comfortable with this. How about for you?

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Uh yeah, I think so. I think that this is a prompt that sounds like it's gonna be easier to write than it actually turns out being for a lot of students. Um, because I think it's really easy with this prompt to write an essay of I'm gonna tell you about my family or I'm gonna tell you about my community. Uh, and that's not telling you about the student necessarily. Um, I think it can also be difficult for students to figure out what the what they really want to focus on. Again, not giving their whole life story in 650 words, but but really picking this is what I want my takeaway to be, and and narrowing, narrowing that down. So yeah, I think that this is probably a pretty popular prompt.

Prompt Two Challenges With Growth Focus

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Yeah. As is number two, let's talk about this. This is the obstacle prompt. 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? Okay, so this is a lot more specific than prompt number one. Um, and the key sentence is at the end: like, what did you learn from this? How did it affect you? So many students go straight to trauma or big failure. What do you think is a healthier or more effective way to approach this prompt?

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yeah, I think students read this prompt and immediately assume that they need to reveal the worst thing that's ever happened to them. And don't realize that that is often really hard to write about and reflect on and write about for the purpose of this essay. So if a student comes to me with an idea for a prompt, for this prompt that maybe is centered around trauma or a big failure, we have a conversation about it. Um, is this something they're willing to write multiple drafts about? Is it something that they're willing to receive feedback on? That's not always easy. But also, can they answer the main part of the question and show their growth? You know, not just talk about the challenge, but talk about the growth and what they've learned from it. If something is still ongoing or actively painful, it can be incredibly hard to step back and analyze that thoughtfully. And that is not often in the student's best interest. So it's not even that, you know, you're not showing enough growth. It's that health part you mentioned. It's is this the healthy thing for you to do? Um, no student should ever feel pressured to, you know, mine their own trauma for a college application essay. And for a lot of students, there are other places in the application that may be more appropriate for that type of information where it can be easier to write about or more effective, like given context and the additional information section about a situation without having to get creative and essay form about it. Um, so that's my take on the healthier part of the question. For the, you know, how can this be more effective? A challenge can be anything. It doesn't have to be a huge, huge thing you've overcome. I do think it does need to be a real challenge and not a humble brag in reverse. So it's not uh, you know, I got a B on my AP Kim test and then I really, you know, studied hard and got all A's. Like that's not you're just you just want me to know you that all A's. Um, then maybe is in the in this in the spirit of the question. But it can be academic or interpersonal or creative or internal, cultural, really anything that has created uh friction and caused some growth. And that's the thing that the prompt is is really looking for. Can you show me what you've learned? Can you show me how you've grown? Don't just tell me that you did. Can you show me how that happened and what that has looked like for you in your day-to-day life? So I think that's the part of the essay that needs to be the strongest rather than writing about the strongest challenge.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Absolutely. I hear you say that in those discussions, you challenge a student to emphasize focusing on the response rather than the pop. But what does that look like in practice when you're working with a student?

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Oh, I give my students basically like a mathematic formula for this one. I think most students approach this topic and their essay is almost all challenge, and then a tiny bit of growth at the very end because they're running out of words. And it should be the opposite. So I tell my students no more than half, or really no more than one-third of the essay should focus on the challenge. And then two-thirds of that essay should really highlight your growth and what you've learned, and making sure you're bringing your reader into the present, especially if it's a challenge that happened in the past. And if you don't have enough growth to, again, show to fill up about two-thirds of that essay, this might not be the topic to write about. Um, that doesn't mean the challenge isn't an important part of your life and it's not something that has really impacted you in some way. But again, the purpose of the essay and what the question is actually asking is can you show us what you've learned? Can you show us how you've grown?

Prompt Three Disagreement With Maturity

SPEAKER_00 17:21

I love that formula. I'm gonna take that with me. Thank you. One third's two-thirds. One third's two-thirds. Prompt number three. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome? I actually love this prompt. It is one of definitely one of the most specific prompts. And I think it challenges some really deep thinking more than the others. It can be risky, but I think it could be powerful. What makes it effective and powerful when it's done well?

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Yeah, this is not a prompt I see a lot of students choose. No, and then it was nationwide, I think the least chosen prompt last year. Only 3% of students picked this prompt because I think it just feels difficult. I think it feels harder than it is. These are my big fingers that have prompt. Yeah. I think this prompt works best when the essay is genuinely about change. It's uh about, you know, being open-minded or having nuance rather than trying to prove a point or trying to convince your reader that you're right about something. I think the strongest versions of this essay usually involve a student grappling with something that is complex. You said it's your deep thinkers. I think that's actually that's very, very accurate. But they're not, you know, standing on a stage and announcing, here is why I'm right. They're showing how their thinking has evolved and changed over time. And that change over time, I think, can be really compelling because colleges want students who are thinking deeply, who are engaging thoughtfully and respectfully with ideas and people and perspectives. So the point of this essay is not defend a position at all costs. It should feel mature and reflective, not like an argument. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

How do you think students can navigate disagreement or maybe controversial topics without alienating readers?

SPEAKER_01 19:21

I think tone is hugely important here. I think sometimes students read this prompt and assume that the goal is to sound bold or sound provocative or edgy with this prompt, but admissions readers are not looking for debate team performances. And you don't know who's reading your essay and what they believe. So the tone you take really does matter. Um, I think you can state what you think about something without insulting someone else who may think differently than you. So with this prompt, I think colleges are looking for things like self-awareness, critical thinking, maturity. I think a good rule of thumb is that the essay shouldn't rely on the reader agreeing with the student in order to appreciate the essay. It's more, again, about about change of how your beliefs evolved over time and not necessarily about here's the thing I believe. I also think that there's a difference between discussing a difficult topic and making the essay itself combative or aggressive. So students can absolutely write about complicated issues, but they need to remember the purpose of the essay, which is understanding the student and not winning an argument.

Prompt Four Gratitude Without Cliches

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Absolutely. Thank you for really um highlighting that. I love to see how students think. And if done well, their thoughtfulness will come through with that prompt. It remains a favorite of mine, although not very popular. Number four, I've never had a student choose this prompt. 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? I think this is more complex than some of the others. On the surface, it seems like, you know, they're asking you about a time you felt gratitude, but it's really not quite so simple, right? And I think this is one that trips students up. Why is it not really about the other person? Even though in the prompt it says reflect on something that someone has done for you. Why is it not about the other person?

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Because ultimately that other person is not the person applying to college. This is not their application. So the goal is not to help the reader understand them, it's to understand the student. This is not my favorite prompt. This has been around for a couple of years. I think you said something where it's a complicated prompt, but on the service, it looks really simple. And this is one, again, I think 3% of students chose this prompt last year nationwide. But this prompt to me can veer very quickly into cliche. And it's, you know, let me tell you about my family's sacrifices to get where I am, or let me tell you about, you know, my mom or my dad or my best friend or my dog. It can be difficult to do well because they're they're again missing the second part of that question. You know, how has this gratitude affected or motivated you? Ultimately, you know, the other person can be a catalyst for growth or change or action, but the essay can't stop at this person was wonderful and I'm thankful for them. Otherwise, it's it's just a tribute speech. So, you know, thank your mom for all the things that she's done for you. But but then maybe, maybe just thank her instead of having it be an essay about your mom. I think highlighting can be really useful here. I highlight a lot when I'm working with students on their essays. So I think it is a great visual for balance in an essay. So highlight, you know, write that draft. Highlight how much of the essay is about the other person in one color, and then how much is about the student's actions after the fact in another color? Is that highlighting out of balance in favor of the other person? In most versions of this essay that I've read, yeah, it is. But the real question underneath the prompt is, you know, what did this experience reveal about you, the student, the applicant, and what have you done as a result? So, did it change how you show up for other people? Has it altered your understanding of community or generosity or mentorship? Has it shifted your priorities? The gratitude and the prompt matters because of what it awakened or changed in the student and then motivated them to go and do.

Prompt Five Growth Beyond Achievements

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Absolutely. And if done well, if they executed it like you are encouraging them to, it will showcase their characteristic or trait that demonstrates who they are, right? And it answers the prompt and it shows something new. I just think that many times when we sit down with students and we're brainstorming, they they can't get to themselves. They can't find themselves in the story. Let's talk about prompt number five. I also really like this prompt. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. I kind of call this like the coming of age or the ah-fa moment um prompt, but it is about growth. But sometimes students confuse growth with achievement. How do you help them separate those? Ooh, good question.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

I love this prompt. I think this is probably one of my favorites. I think a lot of students really identify with this prompt, but you're right. It's that conflating growth with achievement. I think students are so conditioned to measure success externally that they assume that growth means I worked hard and then I succeeded. I worked hard and then I won something. But achievement and growth are not automatically the same thing. Growth is often internal, it may not be outwardly seen. It's about perspective and self-awareness and, you know, from the prompt, understanding other people or understanding yourself differently. Sometimes an accomplishment can trigger that growth, but the award itself is usually not the interesting part. If you think about like movies or books that you've read, you know, the narrative arc that a lot of movies and books follow is called the hero's journey. It's not the opening credits, meet the hero, the hero instantly succeeds, and then the movie ends. That's not very interesting. So it's it's more about the growth along the way and learning about the student. So a good question students can ask themselves is if I removed the achievement, if I removed the trophy, the title, the outcome, would there still be an essay here? And if the answer is no, then they're not really showing the growth or the new understanding that the essay is asking for. They're just telling me a story about a time they succeeded.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Exactly. I think that's a really good test. Thanks for sharing that. I love when they think of themselves, you know, I encourage students, think of your yourself before and then after. And that's answering the question what do you know or understand now that you didn't understand or know before? Um, really great conversations come out of this. And um again, we can see a student's thought process, their maturity really shines through. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

I think another important thing with this prompt is I tell my students, can you show the evidence? It's about being able to point to things that prove your point. So if you, you know, it's one thing to say, I became more empathetic. Cool, show me exactly what that looks like in your day-to-day life. Like show me that evidence. And if a student is not able to give specific examples that can back up that claim, they might be professing growth, but they aren't showing it yet. So, sort of like you were saying, there's got to be a before and after. There's got to be a moment of change. So if this exact essay could have been written by the student immediately after the event or accomplishment that they're writing about, they've not demonstrated growth yet. They don't have that evidence to point to. That doesn't mean that they won't get there or they shouldn't write about the thing. I've had a lot of students grow a lot in the drafting process of writing this essay. And that, you know, realizing, oh no, I don't have evidence. I've not, I can't point to something that I've done can really spur them to act and reflect deeper. So I love this prompt because I think it's an easy one for students to identify with and learn a lot about themselves, but also because they learn about themselves as they're writing this essay.

Prompt Six Curiosity That Feels Alive

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Exactly. I mean, the prompt itself is about a journey, and then the writing process is again another journey. I love that. Okay, let's talk about number six. 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? This is all about intellectual curiosity. They want to know what motivates a student, where do you get the information, uh, and why. I tend to have engineering slanted students choose this prompt. How about you? Do you have a certain kind of student that likes this prompt?

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Yeah, that's really interesting because it's usually my more creative students, my more like artistic students versus specifically like STEM or engineering. I love this prompt. Uh, I think it's very rarely chosen. Again, only 5% of students last year. And it is a shame because it is a great essay prompt. More people should choose this prompt. I think it's the what or who do you turn to when you want to learn more that turns students off at this prompt. But that's a really fun one.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

What distinguishes a strong, like can we say curiosity essay from one that just lists their interests?

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Yeah, I think curiosity feels alive on the page. You can feel the student thinking, you can feel their excitement. Weak versions of this essay tend to read like a resume, which we've already talked about, things that can otherwise be found in the application. But I liked robotics, biology, Legos, and engineering. That's not showing curiosity, that's just making a list of things I like. I think a good curiosity essay usually zooms in instead of zooming out. You're not trying to tell me everything you like. You are following a rabbit hole. Uh, whether that is a question or an obsession or a line of thought, it follows it deeply enough that we start to understand how that student's mind works. And honestly, I will say that the topic itself matters way less than the energy and the excitement behind it. In a strong version of this essay, it shouldn't matter if your reader also finds this idea interesting and fascinating. I think a student can write a really compelling essay about anything, ancient Roman plumbing techniques, uh, if the intellectual curiosity and excitement are there.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

How do you coach a student to show how they think rather than just what they like?

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Yeah, I think the why does it captivate you part of the prompt is pretty crucial. Again, I said a minute ago, I thought that we should take out the what or who do you turn to when you want to learn more. I do like to see how a student learns and how they they use their resources and you know what learning styles appeal to them. But the why does it captivate you? You know, the goal of this essay isn't to list what you like or to educate the reader. I think that is also a problem I often see with this is you're you're essentially writing a research paper. But it's to express why this is the thing that makes you lose all track of time. Why is this like the thing that you love so much? I think this essay should feel like we're inside a student's brain for a little while. I want to see that process. Being specific helps, including connections that students have made, again, those rabbit holes they followed, experiments they've tried, even if they didn't work, questions they still have. This is not uh you even needing to prove your expertise about something. It's this is what I'm really curious about. Um, that's how we we get to know how a student thinks and how they engage deeply with those intellectual curiosity ideas that excite them.

Prompt Seven Topic Of Choice Done Right

SPEAKER_00 31:30

You're so right, though. What you said in the beginning, it comes alive off the page. There is an excitement, if done well, that just you can feel. And as a reader, you leave more excited to be like, I'm excited about this. I'm gonna do this as well. I do, I do really appreciate that. I think it's the most contagious prompt in a good way. It is. Okay, the last prompt number seven. 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. What are your thoughts? How do you feel about this option?

SPEAKER_01 32:15

I love this prompt, and I know that you do not love this prompt. Oh, which I think is a great reminder for listeners that real people read these essays, and real people sometimes have different opinions. Side note, do you think you would like this prompt more if it didn't say that as it could be an essay the students already written? Because I really wish it did not say that.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

100%. Yes. Listeners, uh, Jamie is uh Jamie knows that I do not like this prompt because as a former admissions reader, in reading this, I always questioned, am I reading an old essay?

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Yeah, students, this is your college application. Don't recycle a random essay. Um I think that students can go wrong with this prompt. I love it. I do. This is one of my favorite prompts. I do think there are some pitfalls. I think students sometimes assume that topic of choice means they can write literally anything, when really it's an invitation to tell the most effective story possible without forcing it into a category where it doesn't quite work. I think that honestly, many of the best common app essays that I've read do naturally blur many of the prompts together anyway. Growth and curiosity and gratitude and challenge, these are things that overlap constantly in real life. So I do like that this option gives students flexibility to shape their essay around the story rather than shaping the story to fit a prompt.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

Okay. All right. So tell me about a situation where it it makes the most sense to choose this.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Yeah, I think that there are a lot of different situations, especially when a student has, again, a story or a structure that feels maybe awkward under the other prompts, or they want to write about more than one moment. A lot of the prompts ask the student to reflect on a single thing that has happened. What if a student wants to write about four things and how they're all related? There's not really a prompt for that. Um, and I think that forcing an essay into a one prompt can sometimes weaken the essay. I think this option works really well for students whose, you know, strongest asset is a character trait or value or perspective rather than like a single defining event. For example, you know, if a student really wants colleges to know that they're a detail-oriented person or they are intentionally inclusive or they're very determined and that's not coming through necessarily in their application, this can be a great prompt to show how that thread travels through their life. It's also great, I think, for more creative students who want that aspect of their personality to shine through. So, for example, I had a student about five years ago who, and I've not read this essay in the last five years, but remember it vividly. She wrote about shoes. She wrote about how her life could be compartmentalized by her shoe collection. Um, and I remember two of the examples really well. One was her hiking sandals, that was her summer self. And the other was the high heels she had to wear for model UN. Um, I remember that she wrote that her shoes were not quite regulation. And she connected that to sometimes you have to take a calculated risk to express yourself. Oh, I love that. It was great. And this was during the pandemic and during virtual school. So she was doing model UN on Zoom and did not have to wear those heels, but she couldn't be that version of herself without them. And so reading that essay at the time and now even remembering it five years later, I remember feeling like I was sitting beside her while she was on Zoom in a blazer, pajama pants, and her heels. I loved that essay. I thought it was, I thought it was great. I also think that this can be a great approach for students who feel like they want to write about an overused topic. So maybe it's their sport or their art or something else that's super important to them. We had two new consultants uh on our team who have come to us from from different college admissions teams at different colleges. And when we were doing their training, when we started talking about sports essays, it was it was funny. They both said almost simultaneously something like, I tore my ACL and it taught me about resilience. And we all laughed about it. But like when I really look at it, we tell students all the time to be authentic in their essay and write about what matters to them. And then in the same breath, we say, Oh, you know, but that thing you spend 20 plus hours a week on outside of school working on that you've done for over a decade, don't write about that thing. It just doesn't always feel right to me. So I think that this is a great prompt where a student can include that thing as an example so that it becomes part of their story instead of the whole story. I'll give you an example. I have a former student who, in his brainstorming, identified being observant as one of his main character traits. And what that looked like for his brainstorming and his rough draft was he wanted to write about his sport. And what he really wanted to do was write about how he could always spot the play. And that's kind of what absorbent meant to him in that moment. But we pushed that topic further and he identified more examples that were really strong about how his observation skills made him a better leader, how he, you know, noticed things that other people didn't notice. And in the final essay, his sport was a paragraph. And it wasn't even about his technical skills. It was about how he noticed when younger players were struggling when they made it to varsity and how he would take them under his wing to work on their confidence, even if that meant they ended up getting more playing time than him. And he had other great examples that had absolutely nothing to do with the sport. That student got to write about his sport because it was important to him and it felt authentic to him. And it was part of the story without being the whole story. So the reader got to see this, you know, really consistent thread through his life. And the student was so proud of how that essay turned out. So yeah, I think as long as the essay reveals character, reflection, personality, the things we've talked about with all of the other prompts, I think this prompt can be incredibly effective.

What We Want Readers To Remember

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Okay, I love that. And it's you, you know, you're selling me on this. I'm gonna keep this in mind for this season and keep open-minded because I do the examples that you shared really do feel like they are the best fit to share that student story and to share more about themselves. So thank you. I'm gonna remain open-minded about that. If students remember only one thing when approaching these prompts, what should it be?

SPEAKER_01 38:50

What do you want your reader to walk away remembering about you? It's not about what you did, not what you accomplished. We get that in other parts of your application. It's, you know, what do you want them to remember about who you are? One thing we talk to students about a lot is these applications, these essays, they're read very quickly. The person reading it is taking notes. And, you know, they may not go back and reread your essay multiple times. They might read their notes about the essay. And their notes might be something like, This is the type of student who fill in the blank. You know, what do you want that fill in the blank to be? What do you want the takeaway? Remember, colleges, they have your grades, they have your activities. This is the place where you get to decide what you want them to know. It's also one of the few places where you get to sound like an actual person and not a transcript. So instead of asking, you know, what's the most impressive story I can tell? I think students should ask, what story genuinely helps someone better understand who I am and who I will be in the future?

SPEAKER_00 39:54

Absolutely. And in telling that story, I think tone is also very important. We can't reread um essays over and over as an admissions reader, but I do remember tone and what that student feels like. I call it a whisper in the ear that they're sharing with me, how they're what they feel is important for me to know. And in the way they share that, I learn who they are. So I think that's something else to keep in mind. Jamie, anything else that you have on your mind of what you think um a successful common app essay feels like to you when you read it?

SPEAKER_01 40:34

I think usually when I finish reading a really strong essay, I feel like I want to meet that student. And it's not because, you know, their essay was about the most impressive thing or it was flashy or emotionally intense or even beautifully written, but because the student came across as a thoughtful and real person. I think that the best essays have specifics, they have reflection, they have personality. They're not just trying to write what they think the reader wants to hear. And so, you know, to your point on tone and voice, their essay feels authentic and insightful and honest without trying to be artificially profound or this really, you know, deep academic thing. It sounds like a human. And more importantly, it feels like a teenager. Ideally, it's a thoughtful teenager who took some time with this, but still a teenager. I never want to read an essay that that loses that student's personality or voice. Those are my favorite essays when it feels like I could know this person. I want to meet that person.

Final Thoughts And How To Support

SPEAKER_00 41:41

I love that. Jamie, thank you so much for taking the time to share your insights and your examples. You have me excited for the essay season coming up. I know it's a lot of work ahead of us, but this discussion really reinvigorated me. And I'm looking forward to hearing all of my students' stories. Thank you so much, Jamie, and thank you for our Planning Simplified community for joining us. Thanks for listening to the College Planning Simplified Podcast. If today's episode resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share this podcast with someone who needs study guidance right now. I'll see you next time.