common app essay about racism

Should I discuss racism and racial barriers in my common app essay?

so I am a light skinned Hispanic and I was wondering if it would be inappropriate to discuss how I am treated to be too dark skinned to be white and yet too light skinned to be accepted by my other Mexican peers. Is this too heated an issue? Will it portray me in a negative light? Thanks!

Do you have a group of friends that have accepted you as you are? If yes, include it in your essay. If no, then your concern may have some validity. It would be highly unlikely that every kid in your neighborhood harbors such prejudice.

It will only portray you in a negative light if you just use the essay to describe your negative circumstances without having done anything about it or learned anything from it. How has your situation shaped your identity? How has it changed the way you interact with others? What have you learned about the people who have treated you differently? It’s easy to conclude such essays with, “Despite what everyone thinks of me, I’ve learned to be proud of who I am,” but many essays will come to that conclusion. Try a different take on it if you can.

Thanks for the responses. Why would mentioning other peoples opinion in my essay make me more or less valid as a Latino student?

@educateddarcy My biggest issue among my peers is that hispanic students do not typically excel in my school and when I interact with them they are very defensive about the fact that I am not a real latino because I could pass as a tan “white”. What they don’t understand is that even though I am lighter than they are, I still deal with the bias’ they face from white people when they read my last name and realize I am more than just tan. I had a teacher in an AP class state that Mexican immigrants were ruining modern America and ask me if my parents were legal. An issue I took straight to the school board. My complaints were often implied as being less valid because I had lighter skin. Among the friends I make in AP classes, even though I share a heritage and language they do not appreciate my culture and often make insensitive remarks or playfully imply that I am only trying to gain an edge in admissions. Then I have really close friends, with whom race and college admissions are not a topic of conversation because we don’t see each other as competitors.

I would only write about racism in my essay if you have done something in your life to try to right that wrong. Otherwise you will come off as a victim, rather than someone who takes charge of their life and tries to fix the world for others.

So if you can say something along the lines of: from a young age I have noticed that people have excluded me and other hispanics from their social circle and activities; so I came up with the idea of forming a weekly discussion group to talk about racism with middle and high school students…and now there is much more social interaction and we have done fundraising to keep this and other similar groups going–well then racism and what you did to prevent it would be an awesome essay topic!

I’m fine with the substance in your essay. With Trump in the news, your AP story is more than relevant these days. Ii would definitely include that you have an inner circle of close friends who do not judge you based on the color of your skin. Listen, I’m sure this essay is not going to be the first time an admission counselor has come across this subject matter, but your personal stories will make it unique to you. Good luck.

Wow, the AP teacher’s remarks were egregious. I think you definitely can write about racism, but be sure that your essay doesn’t sound cliche.

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"Racism and it's effect on my human identity" - Common App Essay- Personal Experience

raspberri 1 / 2   Oct 23, 2010   #1 I can't think of how I can conclude this. General feedback would be nice, too. Thanks (: I am an American. I eat apple pie, watch baseball, and participate in every American holiday from the 4th of July to Thanksgiving. Every morning, I stand tall, place my hand over my heart, and pledge my allegiance to the country in which I was born and raised. Yet, for a long time, many of my peers in my small, predominantly Caucasian and Mexican town did not regard me as an American. In their eyes, I was a terrorist. It was my fault that in 3rd grade, Ciera's oldest brother died when the World Trade Centers collapsed. She stopped playing with me during recess, and when I confronted her about it, she said that she wasn't allowed to play with me anymore because her mommy said I was a terrorist. This struck me as odd, because I am Indian. However, there were very few Muslims and Middle-Easterners, so I had to suffice. This treatment frustrated me so dramatically that I tried to deny my own heritage. I would fight with my parents when they would try to make me go to a temple or pooja with them, I told people to refer to me as Ri, a more racially ambiguous name, I started eating meat, I cut my hair, I refused to speak Telugu, my first language, and I tried to live and breathe America in hope that the label of 'terrorist' would no longer be thrust upon me. I began to detest my culture and everything about it- the food, the language, and everything in between. Regardless of all the hard work on my part, I still couldn't rid myself the 'terrorist' label, the same way we were never able to completely power-wash the graffiti of "Go home, Terrorists" off of our garage door. I had transgressed from learning Bharathnatyam and listening to Bollywood music to doing ballet and listening to the Beatles, but that wasn't enough. Two years ago, my mother forced me to go to India with her and attend my cousin's wedding. I refused to participate in any of the pre-wedding ceremonies, such as putting henna on my hands, sewing my cousin's beautiful wedding sari, and preparing food for the guests; Instead, I sat in my room and read Lolita, hoping that all of this would end soon and I could go back to my comfort zone. Then, on the day of my cousin's wedding, as I watched her wear the sari I refused to sew, the bright henna on her hands changing between shades of red as the light of the wedding fire flickered on them, I realized: I am part of a beautiful culture. I am American, and I am Indian- I didn't have to choose between them. I began to notice that people cared less about my race and more about my personality. I was no longer angry at my peers for their ignorance; Instead, I tried to sympathize with their fear. I felt sad that they didn't know the difference between Hindus and Muslims, but I felt even worse that they couldn't comprehend that not all Muslims are extremists. I used to regret mentioning my race or religion. I had forgotten, because of the ignorance around me, that I came from a heritage rich with beautiful traditions and values. I forgot that all religions and ethnicities have stereotypes, but because I am a racial minority within the United States, the stereotypes seemed to have a particularly strong effect on me. I forgot that before this, I used to love my heritage with its rich traditions and its meaningful stories. I tried so hard to decimate my ties to my ethnicity, that by the time I realized what I had done, a part of my human identity was gone. From the moment that I made the realization that my ethnicity and race was a part of me that I could never rid myself of, I tried to reattach that part of myself back. I try to actively participate in traditional activities, such as dancing at Garba during Navaratri, telling the many stories about Diwali to the children who attend the poojas that I had once loathed, hoping that they will not make the same mistakes I did and learn to love their heritage and religion.

sandhiyar 2 / 4   Oct 24, 2010   #2 Wow, this is a powerful essay! to live and breathe America I'm not sure that this part is clear. I don't understand how you can live and breathe America. I like your idea, but I think it needs more clarification. I still couldn't rid myself OF the 'terrorist' label... guests; Instead, You don't have to capitalize "instead" after the semicolon. watched her wear the sari I refused to sew ... watched her wear the sari I HAD refused to sew... I am American, and I am Indian- I didn't have to choose between them. That's a good idea, but it doesn't really make sense. my ethnicity and race was a part of me WERE a part of me From the moment that I made the realization that my ethnicity and race was a part of me that I could never rid myself of, I tried to reattach that part of myself back. This is confusing as well. Try clarifying what you're trying to say. hoping that they will not make the same mistakes I did and learn to love their heritage and religion. This is confusing as well. Although I understand what you are saying, it sounds like you hope that they will not learn to love their heritage and religion. Just some pointers! Good luck!

alexla 7 / 17   Oct 24, 2010   #3 Whoa, this is well-written! For a conclusion, just do something like "I am an Indian. I x, y, and z" like you did with your intro. I think it'd be really effective! Best of luck!

OP raspberri 1 / 2   Oct 24, 2010   #4 Thank you for all of your help! How about this for a conclusion? It's really rough so it's probably ridden with grammatical errors and syntax issues. When I tried to strip myself of my ethnicity, I lost the bit of my soul that made me different from everyone else. My culture had such a huge impact on my youth before 9/11, that when I tried to get rid of it, I ripped out the part of myself that influenced my thoughts, dogma, and my aspirations. I felt like the bridge I had spent the first 8 years of my life building had just been hit by an earthquake that collapsed the bridge's support system, but I realized- that's okay. I just have to rebuild from the bottom up, incorporating both the Indian and the American aspects of my life to build a sturdier bridge. It will take time, but hopefully by the time my bridge is rebuilt, it won't be just orange, white, and green, or red, white, and blue, but a beautiful hybridization of both sets that will stand strong and proud of the rest of my life.

Addressing Diversity in a College Application Essay

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Nearly all colleges want to enroll a diverse student body, and they also want to enroll students who appreciate diversity. For these reasons, diversity can be a good choice for an application essay. Although the Common Application  dropped a question specifically about diversity back in 2013, the current Common Application essay questions still allow for an essay on the topic. Specifically, essay option one invites you to discuss your background or identity, and these broad categories open the door to an essay about the ways in which you will contribute to campus diversity.

Many of the other Common Application essay options—whether on obstacles, challenging beliefs, solving a problem, or personal growth—can also lead to essays about diversity. Do you see diversity leading to problems that need to be fixed? Has your attitude towards diversity changed over time? Diversity is such a broad topic that there are many ways to approach it in an essay.

You will also find that many colleges and universities have supplemental essays on diversity, even if that word isn't used in the essay prompt. If you're asked to explain what you'll bring to the campus community, you're being asked about diversity.

Key Takeaways: An Essay on Diversity

• Diversity is about much more than race and skin color. Being white doesn't mean you don't contribute to campus diversity.
• If writing about the importance of diversity, be sure to avoid clichés and stereotypes linked to positions of privilege.
• Make sure your essay makes clear how you will contribute to the richness of the campus community.

Diversity Isn't Just About Race

While you can certainly write about race in your application essay, realize that diversity isn't just about skin color. Colleges want to enroll students who have a diverse range of interests, beliefs, and experiences. Many college applicants quickly shy away from this topic because they don't think they bring diversity to a campus. Not true. Even a white male from the suburbs has values and life experiences that are uniquely his own.

Understand Why Colleges Want "Diversity"

An essay on diversity is an opportunity to explain what interesting qualities you'll bring to the campus community. There are check boxes on the application that address your race, so that isn't the main point with an essay. Most colleges believe that the best learning environment includes students who bring new ideas, new perspectives, new passions and new talents to the school. A bunch of like-minded clones has very little to teach each other, and they will grow little from their interactions. As you think about this question, ask yourself, "What will I add to the campus that others won't? Why will the college be a better place when I'm in attendance?"

Be Careful Describing Third-World Encounters

College admissions counselors sometimes call it "that Haiti essay" — an essay about a visit to a third-world country. Invariably, the writer discusses shocking encounters with poverty, a new awareness of the privileges he or she has, and greater sensitivity to the inequality and diversity of the planet. This type of essay can too easily become generic and predictable. This doesn't mean you can't write about a Habitat for Humanity trip to a third-world country, but you want to be careful to avoid clichés. Also, make sure your statements reflect well upon you. A claim like "I never knew so many people lived with so little" can make you sound naive.

Be Careful Describing Racial Encounters

Racial difference is actually an excellent topic for an admissions essay, but you need to handle the topic carefully. As you describe that Japanese, Native American, African American, or Caucasian friend or acquaintance, you want to make sure your language doesn't inadvertently create racial stereotypes. Avoid writing an essay in which you simultaneously praise a friend's different perspective while using stereotyping or even racist language.

Keep Much of the Focus on You

As with all the personal essays, your essay needs to be personal. That is, it needs to be primarily about you. What diversity you will bring to campus, or what ideas about diversity you will bring? Always keep in mind the primary purpose of the essay. Colleges want to get to know the students who will become part of the campus community. If your entire essay describes life in Indonesia, you've failed to do this. If your essay is all about your favorite friend from Korea, you have also failed. Whether you describe your own contribution to campus diversity, or if you talk about an encounter with diversity, the essay needs to reveal your character, values, and personality. The college is enrolling you, not the diverse people you've encountered.

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• College Application Essay - The Job I Should Have Quit
• Common Application Essay Option 3 Tips: Challenging a Belief
• 2020-21 Common Application Essay Option 4—Solving a Problem

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Common App Essays | 7 Strong Examples with Commentary

Published on November 19, 2021 by Kirsten Courault . Revised on May 31, 2023.

If you’re applying for college via the Common App , you’ll have to write an essay in response to one of seven prompts.

Table of contents

What is the common application essay, prompt 1: background, identity, interest, or talent, prompt 2: overcoming challenges, prompt 3: questioning a belief or idea, prompt 4: appreciating an influential person, prompt 5: transformative event, prompt 6: interest or hobby that inspires learning, prompt 7: free topic, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about college application essays.

The Common Application, or Common App , is a college application portal that is accepted by more than 900 schools.

Within the Common App is your main essay, a primary writing sample that all your prospective schools will read to evaluate your critical thinking skills and value as a student. Since this essay is read by many colleges, avoid mentioning any college names or programs. Instead, save tailored answers for the supplementary school-specific essays within the Common App.

Regardless of your prompt choice, admissions officers will look for an ability to clearly and creatively communicate your ideas based on the selected prompt.

We’ve provided seven essay examples, one for each of the Common App prompts. After each essay, we’ve provided a table with commentary on the essay’s narrative, writing style and tone, demonstrated traits, and self-reflection.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

This essay explores the student’s emotional journey toward overcoming her father’s neglect through gymnastics discipline.

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.

When “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” began to play, it was my signal to lay out a winning floor routine. Round off. Back handspring. Double back layout. Stick!

Instead, I jolted off the floor, landing out of bounds. Over the past week, I hadn’t landed that pass once, and regionals were only seven days away. I heaved a heavy sigh and stomped over to the bench.

Coach Farkas saw my consternation. “Mona, get out of your head. You’re way too preoccupied with your tumbling passes. You could do them in your sleep!”

That was the problem. I was dreaming of tumbling and missing my landings, waking up in a cold sweat. The stress felt overwhelming.

“Stretch out. You’re done for tonight.”

I walked home from the gym that had been my second home since fourth grade. Yet my anxiety was increasing every time I practiced.

I startled my mom. “You’re home early! Wait! You walked? Mona, what’s going on?!”

I slumped down at the kitchen table. “Don’t know.”

She sat down across from me. “Does it have anything to do with your father texting you a couple of weeks ago about coming to see you at regionals?”

“So what?! Why does it matter anymore?” He walked out when I was 10 and never looked back. Still, dear ol’ Dad always had a way of resurfacing when I least expected him.

“It still matters because when you hear from him, you tend to crumble. Or have you not noticed?” She offered a knowing wink and a compassionate smile.

I started gymnastics right after Dad left. The coaches said I was a natural: short, muscular, and flexible. All I knew was that the more I improved, the more confident I felt. Gymnastics made me feel powerful, so I gave it my full energy and dedication.

The floor routine became my specialty, and my performances were soon elevating our team score. The mat, solid and stable, became a place to explore and express my internal struggles. Over the years, no matter how angry I felt, the floor mat was there to absorb my frustration.

The bars, beam, and vault were less forgiving because I knew I could fall. My performances in those events were respectable. But, the floor? Sometimes, I had wildly creative and beautiful routines, while other times were disastrous. Sadly, my floor routine had never been consistent.

That Saturday afternoon, I slipped into the empty gym and walked over to the mat. I sat down and touched its carpeted surface. After a few minutes, my cheeks were wet with the bitter disappointment of a dad who only showed up when it was convenient for him. I ruminated on the years of practices and meets where I had channeled my resentment into acrobatics and dance moves, resolved to rise higher than his indifference.

I saw then that my deepest wounds were inextricably entangled with my greatest passion. They needed to be permanently separated. While my anger had first served to launch me into gymnastics, before long, I had started serving my anger.

Anger is a cruel master. It corrupts everything it touches, even something as beautiful as a well-choreographed floor routine.

I changed my music days before regionals. “The Devil” no longer had a place in my routine. Instead, I chose an energetic cyberpunk soundtrack that inspired me to perform with passion and laser focus. Dad made an obligatory appearance at regionals, but he left before I could talk to him.

It didn’t matter this time. I stuck every landing in my routine. Anger no longer controlled me. I was finally free.

Word count: 601

This essay shows how the challenges the student faced in caring for her sister with autism resulted in an unexpected path forward in her education.

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?

I never had a choice.

My baby sister was born severely autistic, which meant that every detail of our home life was repeatedly adjusted to manage her condition. I couldn’t go to bed without fearing that Mindy would wake up screaming with that hoarse little voice of hers. I couldn’t have friends over on weekends because we never knew if our entire family would need to shift into crisis mode to help Mindy regain control.

We couldn’t take a family vacation because Mindy would start hitting us during a long car ride when she didn’t want to sit there anymore. We couldn’t even celebrate Christmas like a normal family because Mindy would shriek and run away when we tried to give her presents.

I was five years old when Mindy was born. For the first ten years, I did everything I could to help my mom with Mindy. But Mom was depressed and would often stare out the window, as if transfixed by the view. Dad was no help either. He used his job as an excuse to be away from home. So, I tried to make up for both of them and rescue Mindy however I could whenever she needed it.

However, one day, when I was slowly driving Mindy around with the windows down, trying to lull her into a calmer state, we passed two of my former classmates from middle school. They heard Mindy growling her disapproval as the ride was getting long for her. One of them turned to the other and announced, “Oh my God! Marabeth brought her pet monster out for a drive!” They laughed hysterically and ran down the street.

After that day, I defied my parents at every turn. I also ignored Mindy. I even stopped doing homework. I purposely “got in with the wrong crowd” and did whatever they did.

My high school counselor Ms. Martinez saw through it all. She knew my family’s situation well. It didn’t take her long to guess what had probably happened.

“Marabeth, I get it. My brother has Down syndrome. It was really hard growing up with him as a brother. The other kids were pretty mean about it, especially in high school.”

I doubted she understood. “Yeah. So?”

“I’m guessing something happened that hurt or embarrassed you.”

“I’m so sorry. I can only imagine how you must have felt.”

It must have been the way she said it because I suddenly found myself sobbing into my trembling, cupped hands.

Ms. Martinez and I met every Friday after that for the rest of the year. Her stories of how she struggled to embrace living with and loving her brother created a bridge to my pain and then my healing. She explained that her challenges led her to pursue a degree in counseling so that she could offer other people what no one had given her.

I thought that Mindy was the end of my life, but, because of Ms. Martinez’s example and kindness, I can now see that Mindy is a gift, pointing me toward my future.

Now, I’m applying to study psychology so that I can go on to earn my master’s degree in counseling. I’m learning to forgive my parents for their mistakes, and I’m back in Mindy’s life again, but this time as a sister, not a savior. My choice.

Word Count: 553

This essay illustrates a student’s courage in challenging his culture’s constructs of manhood and changing his course while positively affecting his father in the process.

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

“No son of mine is gonna march around a football field wearing tail feathers while all the real men are playing football!”

I took a step backward and tried not to appear as off-balance as I felt. In my excitement, I had blurted out more information than my father could handle:

“Dad! I made the marching band as a freshman! Nobody does that—I mean nobody!”

As soon as I had said it, I wished I could recall those words. How could I forget that 26 years earlier, he had been the starting wide receiver for the state-champion Tigers on the same field?!

Still, when I opened the email on that scorching hot August afternoon, I was thrilled that five months of practicing every possible major and harmonic minor scale—two octaves up and two octaves down—had made the difference. I had busted reed after reed, trying not to puff my cheeks while moving my fingers in a precise cadence.

I knew he had heard me continually practicing in my room, yet he seemed to ignore all the parts of me that were incongruous with his vision of manhood:

Ford F-150 4x4s. Pheasant hunting. The Nebraska Cornhuskers.

I never had to wonder what he valued. For years, I genuinely shared his interests. But, in the fall of eighth grade, I heard Kyle Wheeling play a saxophone solo during the homecoming marching band halftime show. My dad took me to every football game to teach me the plays, but that night, all I could think about was Kyle’s bluesy improv at halftime.

During Thanksgiving break, I got my mom to drive me into Omaha to rent my instrument at Dietze Music, and, soon after, I started private lessons with Mr. Ken. Before long, I was spending hours in my room, exploring each nuance of my shiny Yamaha alto sax, anticipating my audition for the Marching Tigers at the end of the spring semester.

During those months of practice, I realized that I couldn’t hide my newfound interest forever, especially not from the football players who were going to endlessly taunt me. But not all the guys played football. Some were in choir and theater. Quite a few guys were in the marching band. In fact, the Marching Tigers had won the grand prize in their division at last year’s state showdown in Lincoln.

I was excited! They were the champions, and I was about to become a part of their legacy.

Yet, that afternoon, a sense of anxiety brewed in my belly. I knew I had to talk to him.

He was sweeping the grass clippings off of the sidewalk. He nodded.

“I need to tell you something.”

He looked up.

“I know that you know about my sax because you hear me practicing. I like it a lot, and I’m becoming pretty good at it. I still care about what you like, but I’m starting to like some other things more. I hope you’ll be proud of me whatever I choose.”

He studied the cracks in the driveway. “I am proud of you. I just figured you’d play football.”

We never talked about it again, but that fall, he was in the stands when our marching band won the state championship in Lincoln for the second time. In fact, for the next four years, he never left the stands during halftime until the marching band had performed. He was even in the audience for every performance of “Our Town” at the end of my junior year. I played the Stage Manager who reveals the show’s theme: everything changes gradually.

I know it’s true. Things do change over time, even out here in central Nebraska. I know because I’ve changed, and my dad has changed, too. I just needed the courage to go first.

Word count: 626

The student demonstrates how his teacher giving him an unexpected bad grade was the catalyst for his becoming a better writer.

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 stared in disbelief at the big red letter at the top of my paper: D. 

Never in my entire high school career had I seen that letter at the top of any paper, unless it was at the beginning of my first name. 

I had a 4.796 GPA. I had taken every pre-AP and AP course offered. My teachers had praised my writing skills! However, Mr. Trimble didn’t think so, and he let me know it:

“Darwin, in the future, I believe you can do better if you fully apply yourself.” 

I furiously scanned the paper for corrections. Not even one! Grammar and syntax? Perfect. Spelling? Impeccable. Sentence and paragraph structure? Precise and indisputable, as always. 

Was he trying to ruin my GPA? Cooper was clearly his favorite, and we were neck and neck for valedictorian, which was only one year away. Maybe they were conspiring to take me down. 

Thankfully, AP Composition was my last class. I fled the room and ran to my car. Defiant tears stained my cheeks as I screeched my tires and roared out of the parking lot. When I got home, I shoved in my AirPods, flopped on my bed, and buried my head under the pillow. 

I awoke to my sister, Daria, gently shaking my arm. “I know what happened, D. Trimble stopped me in the hall after school.”

“I’m sure he did. He’s trying to ruin my life.”

“That’s not what he told me. You should talk to him, D.”

The next day, although I tried to avoid Mr. Trimble at all costs, I almost tripped over him as I was coming out of the bathroom.

“Darwin, can we talk?” 

He walked me down the hall to his room. “Do you know that you’re one of the best writers I’ve ever had in AP Comp?” 

“Then why’d you do it?” 

“Because you’re better than you know, Darwin. You impress with your perfect presentations, and your teachers reward you with A’s and praise. I do frequent the teacher’s lounge, you know.” 

“So I know you’re not trying.”

I locked eyes with him and glared. 

“You’ve never had to try because you have a gift. And, in the midst of the acclaim, you’ve never pushed yourself to discover your true capabilities.”

“So you give me a D?!”

“It got your attention.”

“You’re not going to leave it, are you?”

“Oh, the D stands. You didn’t apply yourself. You’ll have to earn your way out with your other papers.” 

I gained a new understanding of the meaning of ambivalence. Part of me was furious at the injustice of the situation, but I also felt strangely challenged and intrigued. I joined a local writer’s co-op and studied K. M. Weiland’s artistic writing techniques. 

Multiple drafts, track changes, and constructive criticism became my new world. I stopped taking Mr. Trimble’s criticism personally and began to see it as a precious tool to bolster me, not break me down. 

Last week, the New York Public Library notified me that I was named one of five finalists for the Young Lions Fiction Award. They described my collection of short stories as “fresh, imaginative, and captivating.” 

I never thought I could be grateful for a D, but Mr. Trimble’s insightful courage was the catalyst that transformed my writing and my character. Just because other people applaud you for being the best doesn’t mean you’re doing your best . 

AP Composition is now recorded as an A on my high school transcript, and Cooper and I are still locked in a tight race for the finish line. But, thanks to Mr. Trimble, I have developed a different paradigm for evaluation: my best. And the more I apply myself, the better my best becomes. 

Word Count: 627

This student narrates how she initially went to church for a boy but instead ended up confronting her selfishness by helping others.

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

Originally, I went to church not because I was searching for Jesus but because I liked a boy.

Isaac Ono wasn’t the most athletic boy in our class, nor was he the cutest. But I was amazed by his unusual kindness toward everyone. If someone was alone or left out, he’d walk up to them and say hello or invite them to hang out with him and his friends.

I started waking up at 7:30 a.m. every Sunday morning to attend Grace Hills Presbyterian, where Isaac’s father was the pastor. I would strategically sit in a pew not too close but close enough to Isaac that when the entire congregation was instructed to say “Peace be with you,” I could “happen” to shake Isaac’s hand and make small talk.

One service, as I was staring at the back of Isaac’s head, pondering what to say to him, my hearing suddenly tuned in to his father’s sermon.

“There’s no such thing as a good or bad person.”

My eyes snapped onto Pastor Marcus.

“I used to think I was a good person who came from a respectable family and did nice things. But people aren’t inherently good or bad. They just make good or bad choices.”

My mind raced through a mental checklist of whether my past actions fell mostly into the former or latter category.

“As it says in Deuteronomy 30:15, ‘I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.’ Follow in the footsteps of Jesus and do good.”

I glanced to my left and saw Margaret, underlining passages in her study Bible and taking copious notes.

Months earlier, I had befriended Margaret. We had fourth-period Spanish together but hadn’t interacted much. She was friends with Isaac, so I started hanging out with her to get closer to him. But eventually, the two of us were spending hours in the Starbucks parking lot having intense discussions about religion, boys, and our futures until we had to return home before curfew.

After hearing the pastor’s sermon, I realized that what I had admired about Isaac was also present in Margaret and other people at church: a welcoming spirit. I’m pretty sure Margaret knew of my ulterior motives for befriending her, but she never called me out on it.

After that day, I started paying more attention to Pastor Marcus’s sermons and less attention to Isaac. One year, our youth group served Christmas Eve dinner to the homeless and ate with them. I sat across from a woman named Lila who told me how child services had taken away her four-year-old daughter because of her financial and living situation.

A few days later, as I sat curled up reading the book of James, my heart suddenly felt heavy.

“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

I thought back to Pastor Marcus’s sermon on good and bad actions, Lila and her daughter, and the times I had passed people in need without even saying hello.

I decided to put my faith into action. The next week, I started volunteering at the front desk of a women’s shelter, helping women fill out forms or watching their kids while they talked with social workers.

From working for the past year at the women’s shelter, I now know I want to major in social work, caring for others instead of focusing on myself. I may not be a good person (or a bad one), but I can make good choices, helping others with every opportunity God gives me.

Word count: 622

This essay shows how a student’s natural affinity for solving a Rubik’s cube developed her self-understanding, academic achievement, and inspiration for her future career.

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?

The worst part about writing is putting down my Rubik’s cube so that I can use my hands to type. That’s usually the worst part of tackling my to-do list: setting aside my Rubik’s cube. My parents call it an obsession. But, for me, solving a Rubik’s cube challenges my brain as nothing else can.

It started on my ninth birthday. I invited three friends for a sleepover party, and I waited to open my presents right before bed. Wrapping paper, ribbons, and bows flew through the air as I oohed and aahed over each delightful gift! However, it was the last gift—a 3 x 3 x 3 cube of little squares covered in red, green, blue, yellow, white, and orange—that intrigued me.

I was horrified when Bekka ripped it out of my hands and messed it all up! I had no idea how to make all the sides match again. I waited until my friends were fast asleep. Then, I grabbed that cube and studied it under my blanket with a flashlight, determined to figure out how to restore it to its former pristine state.

Within a few weeks, I had discovered the secret. To practice, I’d take my cube with me to recess and let the other kids time me while I solved it in front of them. The better I became, the more they gathered around. But I soon realized that their attention didn’t matter all that much. I loved solving cubes for hours wherever I was: at lunch, riding in the car, or alone in my room.

Cross. White corners. Middle-layer edges. Yellow cross. Sune and anitsune. 

The sequential algorithms became second nature, and with the assistance of a little black digital timer, I strove to solve the cube faster , each time attempting to beat my previous record. I watched speed solvers on YouTube, like Australia’s Feliks Zemdegs and Max Park from Massachusetts, but I wasn’t motivated to compete as they did. I watched their videos to learn how to improve my time. I liked finding new, more efficient ways of mastering the essential 78 separate cube-solving algorithms.

Now, I understand why my passion for my Rubik’s cube has never waned. Learning and applying the various algorithms soothes my brain and centers my emotions, especially when I feel overwhelmed from being around other people. Don’t get me wrong: I like other people—just in doses.

While some people get recharged by spending time with others, I can finally breathe when I’m alone with my cube. Our psychology teacher says the difference between an extrovert and an introvert is the situations that trigger their brains to produce dopamine. For me, it’s time away, alone, flipping through cube patterns to set a new personal best.

Sometimes, the world doesn’t cooperate with introverts, requiring them to interact with many people throughout the day. That’s why you’ll often find me in the stairwell or a library corner attempting to master another one of the 42 quintillion ways to solve a cube. My parents tease me that when I’ve “had enough” of anything, my fingers get a Rubik’s itch, and I suddenly disappear. I’m usually occupied for a while, but when I finally emerge, I feel centered, prepared to tackle my next task.

Secretly, I credit my cube with helping me earn top marks in AP Calculus, Chemistry, and Physics. It’s also responsible for my interest in computer engineering. It seems I just can’t get enough of those algorithms, which is why I want to study the design and implementation of cybersecurity software—all thanks to my Rubik’s cube.

Just don’t tell my parents! It would ruin all the fun!

Word count: 607

In this free topic essay, the student uses a montage structure inspired by the TV show Iron Chef America to demonstrate his best leadership moments.

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.

Iron Chef America: College Essay Edition

The time has come to answer college’s most difficult question: Whose story shows glory?

This is … Iron Chef America: College Essay Edition!

Welcome to Kitchen Stadium! Today we have Chef Brett Lowell. Chef Brett will be put to the test to prove he has what it takes to attend university next fall.

And the secret ingredient is … leadership! He must include leadership in each of his dishes, which will later be evaluated by a panel of admissions judges.

So now, America, with a creative mind and empty paper, I say unto you in the words of my teacher: “Let’s write!”

Appetizer: My first leadership experience

A mountain of mismatched socks, wrinkled jeans, and my dad’s unironed dress shirts sat in front of me. Laundry was just one of many chores that welcomed me home once I returned from my after-school job at Baskin Robbins, a gig I had taken last year to help Dad pay the rent. A few years earlier, I wasn’t prepared to cook dinners, pay utility bills, or pick up and drop off my brothers. I thought those jobs were reserved for parents. However, when my father was working double shifts at the power plant and my mom was living in Tucson with her new husband, Bill, I stepped up and took care of the house and my two younger brothers.

Main course: My best leadership experience

Between waiting for the pasta water to boil and for the next laundry cycle to be finished, I squeezed in solving a few practice precalculus problems to prepare for the following week’s mathletics competition. I liked how the equations always had clear, clean answers, which calmed me among the mounting responsibilities of home life. After leading my team to the Minnesota State Finals for two years in a row, I was voted team captain. Although my home responsibilities often competed with my mathlete duties, I tried to be as productive as possible in my free time. On the bus ride home, I would often tackle 10 to 20 functions or budget the following week’s meals and corresponding grocery list. My junior year was rough, but both my home and my mathlete team needed me.

Dessert: My future leadership hopes 

The first thing I ever baked was a chocolate cake in middle school. This was around the time that Mom had just moved out and I was struggling with algebra. Troubles aside, one day my younger brother Simon needed a contribution for his school’s annual bake sale, and the PTA moms wouldn’t accept anything store-bought. So I carefully measured out the teaspoons and cups of various flours, powders, and oils, which resulted in a drooping, too-salty disaster.

Four years later, after a bakery’s worth of confections and many hours of study, I’ve perfected my German chocolate cake and am on my way to mastering Calculus AB. I’ve also thrown out the bitter-tasting parts of my past such as my resentment and anger toward my mom. I still miss having her at home, but whenever I have a baking question or want to update her on my mathlete team’s success, I call her or chat with her over text.

Whether in school or life, I see problems as opportunities, not obstacles, to find a better way to solve them more efficiently. I hope to continue improving my problem-solving skills next fall by majoring in mathematics and statistics.

Time’s up! 

We hope you’ve enjoyed this tasting of Chef Lowell’s leadership experiences. Next fall, tune in to see him craft new leadership adventures in college. He’s open to refining his technique and discovering new recipes.

Word count: 612

If you want to know more about academic writing , effective communication , or parts of speech , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Academic writing

• Writing process
• Transition words
• Passive voice
• Paraphrasing

 Communication

• How to end an email
• Ms, mrs, miss
• How to start an email
• I hope this email finds you well
• Hope you are doing well

 Parts of speech

• Personal pronouns
• Conjunctions

The Common App essay is your primary writing sample within the Common Application, a college application portal accepted by more than 900 schools. All your prospective schools that accept the Common App will read this essay to understand your character, background, and value as a potential student.

Since this essay is read by many colleges, avoid mentioning any college names or programs; instead, save tailored answers for the supplementary school-specific essays within the Common App.

When writing your Common App essay , choose a prompt that sparks your interest and that you can connect to a unique personal story.

No matter which prompt you choose, admissions officers are more interested in your ability to demonstrate personal development , insight, or motivation for a certain area of study.

To decide on a good college essay topic , spend time thoughtfully answering brainstorming questions. If you still have trouble identifying topics, try the following two strategies:

• Identify your qualities → Brainstorm stories that demonstrate these qualities
• Identify memorable stories → Connect your qualities to these stories

You can also ask family, friends, or mentors to help you brainstorm topics, give feedback on your potential essay topics, or recall key stories that showcase your qualities.

A standout college essay has several key ingredients:

• A unique, personally meaningful topic
• A memorable introduction with vivid imagery or an intriguing hook
• Specific stories and language that show instead of telling
• Vulnerability that’s authentic but not aimed at soliciting sympathy
• Clear writing in an appropriate style and tone
• A conclusion that offers deep insight or a creative ending

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How to Answer the 2019-20 Common App Essay (Part I)

Julia de Raadt

Head of research and lead admissions expert, table of contents.

Stay up-to-date on the latest research and college admissions trends with our blog team.

This year, the Common App announced that the 2019-2020 essay prompts will remain the same as the   2018-2019 essay prompts .  This is immensely helpful for the team at Empowerly, as we are very familiar with the questions and it also means that students have more time to prepare their responses.  

Here are the first seven prompts:

• 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?
• 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, 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.

Alright, so none of these Common App essays should make anyone feel like a knuckle-dragger, but just because they’re easy doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be taken seriously. Answer these questions with the same respect and caution as you would an SAT essay question.

This is a two-part series, folks. For this blog, we’re only going to focus on the first three, so let’s get going.

Common Pitfalls of Common App Essays

Let’s break these apart and examine them one at a time. It’s not that whatever you would say right off the bat would be wrong (you can’t get an open ended essay wrong unless you go out of your way to do so), but what you choose to say might just be the very same thing everyone else says , too . You don’t want that . You want to stand out and be a diamond in the rough. Let everyone else rehash the same answers that have been said over and over again, ad nauseum, year after year. While they do, you can show the admissions office that you know how to spin a new beat.

Remember: Machines aren’t reading these. People are, and they’re reading hundreds a day. Needless to say, it can get VERY boring. Your job, then, is to change that for them, if even for but a moment.

Get comfy and turn your brain on. We’re going to go through three Common App essay prompts one at a time.

•   “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 mistake that many seniors make with this essay is they use it to tell a tale of woe. Don’t let your application be a sob fest. Yes, parents getting divorced is horrible, and of course getting mono during your junior year is a real drag. Whatever has hurt you in the past is a real shame, but a college application is not the time to try and inspire pity so you can get into your dream school. If a college is awesome and inspirational to you, you don’t want to seem weak and vulnerable, do you? Your sad story is not going to get you in. Colleges want people who do things, and who are go-getters. They want people who refuse to accept that something is impossible to do. Regardless of where you are applying, endeavor to be the best thing they’ve ever seen walk around the corner.

Another common pitfall with this essay question that might cause you to bleed into the background is to talk about your love of sports or music. A lot of people love baseball, basketball, football and band. They are all great and fun, but if you choose to talk about them you need to be 100% positive that what you have to say has never been said before.

Bottom line: If you want to write this essay, but have to think about what it is you’d say if you did, this essay isn’t for you if you have a choice not to write it. If you do have to write it, meditate on your idea or talk to your parents or teachers about it. Sometimes only other people see the best things about us.

•   “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?”

This is very similar to Common App essay one in that a lot of people are going to see this as a chance to explain bad grades they got, etc. But what admissions officers want to read about is a challenge that you fought tooth and nail to overcome; that even if you didn’t succeed, you didn’t go down running from the enemy. You faced it head on and went down screaming and kicking until your last breath. Crazy metaphor, but that’s the oomph and moxie they want to see. Portray yourself as a fighter, not a loser. That’s the most important thing. Let them know you were no one’s victim. In fact, you almost had ’em, and if you had the chance to do it again, you know exactly what you’d do.   

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

A lot of colleges only want a certain amount of essays from students, and, to be honest, not a lot of people even do this one; therefore, if you nail this one you’re definitely going to stand out.

But, I have to play the role of the parent here for a moment and say the next part just in case: do not condone any type of violence, racism, bigotry, or hatred in this essay. Duh? OK, good. Let’s move on.  

A good thing to do with this Common App essay is to highlight a world event that is going on and question that country’s leader’s motives. The outcome obviously doesn’t have to be, “and I wrote him a letter, and he wrote me back apologizing for his actions.” Maybe your change in mindset affected your politics. Maybe you scrutinize a politician’s international policy beliefs before voting for him. You can take it any which way you choose. The end goal is to show you understand that America isn’t the only country in the world.

Well, we’re not done yet, but how do you feel after reading about the first three? Have you thought about how to stand out from a crowd? If not, click on part two –  2019-20 Common App Essay (Part 2) .

Hopefully, by the end you’ll be good to go.

If you would like more college advice, check out our other articles in our blog!

For more college help and advice, please schedule a free consultation with one of our college advisors below.

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SCOTUS Says You Can Discuss Race in Your College Essay. Should You?

The us supreme court banned colleges’ affirmative action admission practices, raising a question about students writing about race in their college essay.

Although the Supreme Court says college application essays may discuss race and disadvantage, BU experts say inauthentic or traumatic recollections won’t cut it. Photo by Delmaine Donson/iStock

Should You Discuss Race in Your College Essay?

“Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.” — Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

“The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race. Many universities have for too long done just the opposite. …Universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”—Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

Confused? So are many in higher education. When the United States Supreme Court sacked affirmative action racial preferences in June, Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion, while spotlighting applicants’ personal essays, also put vague guardrails around their use. And anyway, not every young person who has suffered racial discrimination wants to revisit it in their essay, that critical part of applying to college where students tell their story in their voice. 

After the SCOTUS decision, the advice from Boston University admissions and college guidance experts is this: your story must always be authentic. It can be about discrimination or other challenges met and dealt with, but it need not be. And it shouldn’t be , if writing about it means revisiting traumatic experiences.

“The essay for us is just going to continue to be as important as it always was,” notwithstanding the new legal landscape, says Kelly Walter (Wheelock’81), BU dean of admissions and associate vice president for enrollment. She has discussed the ruling with the University’s legal office, she says, and her office has tweaked BU’s two essay question options applicants must choose from. (The University also asks potential future Terriers to complete the Common Application for college, which has its own essay requirement.) The tweaks were partly in response to the court ruling, Walter says, but also to ensure that the questions conveyed to students “what BU stood for, and that we value diversity. We thought it was very important to put that out there front and center, and for them to be able to specifically respond to our commitment, our values, as it relates to one of these two essay questions.” 

Those questions are:

Reflect on a social or community issue that deeply resonates with you. Why is it important to you, and how have you been involved in addressing or raising awareness about it? What about being a student at BU most excites you? How do you hope to contribute to our campus community?

While the chief justice exhorted students to share discrimination episodes in answering such questions, recent alum and current student Erika Decklar (Sargent’22, SPH’24) says that may not be comfortable for some. She is an advisor with BU Admissions College Advising Corps (CAC-BU) , which gives college application counseling to low-income and other marginalized high schoolers.

“In my experience,” Decklar says, “students from marginalized backgrounds gravitate towards writing college essays on traumatic experiences, whether they are comfortable sharing these experiences with admissions counselors or not. We have always advised and encouraged students to write about a topic that highlights their strengths, personalities, and passions—whether it is a ‘resiliency’ essay or an essay about their culture, values, or a unique passion.”

After the SCOTUS ruling, Decklar says, her advice to students has not changed. “We should continue motivating students to write about a passion, something that makes them unique, but not coach them to write about their traumatic experiences.” 

Katie Hill, who directs CAC-BU, says applicants sharing in their essays what makes them special “does not require them revisiting their pain. If students so choose, we can help them write about their families and cultures, what is beautiful and makes them proud to be” of that culture.

Students from marginalized backgrounds gravitate towards writing college essays on traumatic experiences, whether they are comfortable sharing these experiences with admissions counselors or not. Erika Deklar (Sargent’22, SPH’24)

But what BIPOC (Black, indigenous, people of color) students do not need, Hill says, is to hear from their advisors that in order to get into college, they need to open themselves up beyond their comfortable boundaries.

Walter agrees that an applicant’s story need not be an unrelenting nightmare. It’s true that some of them “are sharing things about their personal lives that I’m not sure I would have seen 20 years ago,” she says. “Students are certainly talking about their sexual identity in their essays. And some will say to us, ‘I’m telling you this [about my identity], and my parents don’t know yet.’” 

But she can reel off the opening lines from three of her favorite essays over the years that were hardly gloomy. One began, Geeks come in many varieties. “We laughed. It makes you want to keep reading,” she says. Then there was the woman who started, Life is short, and so am I.  

The third: By day, Louis is my trusty companion; by night, my partner in crime. “Doesn’t that make you want to read more and find out who or what Louis is?” Walter asks. (He was the applicant’s first car, a metaphor for this woman’s passion for the independence it conveyed, preparing her for the next step of going to BU, where she indeed matriculated.)

The essay is so important because it’s a given that applicants to BU can manage the academics here. “We have 80,000 students applying for admission to Boston University [annually],” Walter says, “and I think it’s fair to say that the vast majority of them can do the work academically. We’re also shaping and building a class.

“For some, it may be leadership. For some, it may be their cultural background. For others, it might be writing for the Daily Free Press. We really want to think about a wide variety of students in our first-year class.” The essay fills in blanks about applicants for admission, along with teacher and counselor recommendations, their high school activities, and their internships or jobs. 

That’s not to say there aren’t lethal don’ts to avoid, most of them emphasizing the necessity of having a proofreader.

“We often get references to ‘Boston College,’” says Patrice Oppliger , a College of Communication assistant professor of communication, who solicits faculty reviews of applicants to COM’s mass communication, advertising, and public relations master’s program before making a decision.

And need we say, do your own work? Walter recalls an essay from a couple of years back where the applicant discussed life in Warren Towers. “And I was like, wait, you couldn’t have lived in Warren Towers, you’re not here yet. And it became very clear that the parent, who was an alum—I think in an effort to help—was telling her story. And somehow no one [in that family] caught that.”

So writing about dealing with discrimination, race-based or otherwise, is fine if it’s not traumatic for you to revisit— and if it’s authentic. Authenticity also includes avoiding over-reliance on artificial intelligence in crafting your essay. According to Admissions’ AI statement ,

If you opt to use these tools at any point while writing your essays, they should only be used to support your original ideas rather than to write your essays in their entirety. As potential future Terriers, we expect all applicants to adhere to the same standards of academic honesty and integrity as our current students. When representing the words or ideas of another in their original work, students should properly credit the source.

“We want to think about not just who will thrive academically at BU,” Walter says, “but also who will enrich the University community and make diverse contributions.”

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The resiliency essay is the archetypical admissions essay of our time, but it has its drawbacks: https//www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/against-land-acknowledgements-native-american/620820/

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How to Tackle the 2014-2015 Common App Essays

Note: this blog post has been updated for the 2015-2016 application cycle. To view the most recent version, click here .

Earlier this morning, the Common Application was formally launched for the 2014-15 application cycle, and Admissions Hero’s essay team shared the following tips on how to tackle the all-important Common App essays for the upcoming application cycle.

Before discussing the specific prompts for the Common Application, first we should go over some general principles for the Common App essay. First and foremost, the Common App essay is about telling colleges why you are unique and/or what matters to you.

You have several avenues through which you can do this, including but not limited to highlighting a central theme of your application that is tied to one or several of your extracurricular activities, focusing on a specific personality trait or strength, or highlighting a particular challenge that you had to overcome.

That being said, there are distinct topics and strategies that each prompt lends itself to.

1.     Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.  

This prompt offers an excellent opportunity to engage with a particular extracurricular or academic area of passion, and it allows you to weave a narrative that displays personal growth in that subject or area. Particularly if you have an unconventional passion, such as blogging about South American soccer, or quilting, the combination of displaying your personality and the unique topic can be very eye-catching.

This prompt also represents an opportunity to consider questions of personal identity, whether that takes the form of racial identity, sexual orientation, gender, or simply one’s place within a specific community (even communities as unique as, say, players of World of Warcraft). With the topic of racial identity, it’s important to keep in mind the audience (college admissions counselors tend to be progressive politically), so this might not be the best place to make sweeping claims about reverse racism against Caucasian-Americans. However, careful consideration of intrinsic cultural elements (such as the effect that Chinese American culture’s prioritization of academics had on your personal development) is certainly a strong essay topic.

Also a quick note – while claiming to have experienced discrimination based on race or claiming to have a different sexual orientation or gender than heterosexual and male/female respectively can be an effective way to talk about your ability to overcome adversity, faked or exaggerated claims about said topic are often very easy to recognize and will result in a severe penalization.

2.     Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure.  How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?

This prompt lends itself to consideration of what facets of your personality allow you to overcome adversity, as well as display your self-awareness. It’s okay to choose a relatively mundane “failure” such as failing to win an award at a Model United Nations conference despite putting in hours of research into the topics of your committee (and learning that you should focus on how you project yourself and interacting more cordially, even when debating and competing against your peers). However, you should be careful not to sound over-confident (as if you are incapable of any failure larger than this).  You also want to avoid making the failure sound more devastating than it actually was.

Another (perhaps more powerful) tactic with this essay is to write about a more foundational failure and then assess its impact on your development thereafter.  This allows you to tackle more meaty questions about ethics (perhaps you cheated on a test and felt horrible about it), morality (maybe you stole something, your parents berated you for it, and now you hate theft to such a degree that if you find money on the street your turn it in), or the human condition (perhaps you made an insensitive comment or were close-minded in a particular instance).

You want to be careful to balance the severity of the failure with its recentness; in general, choose a failure from before high school so that it doesn’t color the admissions counselor’s view of your high school career.  Also, be sure that any failure you choose is within reason (so in general avoid talking about any felonies you’ve left behind you).

3.     Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea.  What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?

This prompt is a difficult one to answer, because most high school students haven’t participated in the types of iconoclastic protests against societal ills that lend themselves to an excellent response. However, a more tenable alternative here is to discuss a time that you went against social convention, whether it was becoming friends with someone who seemed like a social outcast and was ignored by most people but eventually became one of your best friends, by going against the popular opinion of your peers, or proudly showing off a geeky passion of yours. And if you ever participated in a situation in concert with adults and found some success (i.e. by blogging, starting a tutoring organization, or participating in political campaigns), you could discuss the stigma against young people without a college degree in professional and adult circles. The one thing to keep in mind when responding to this prompt is to avoid sounding morally superior (as if you are the only person who went against this social convention, or that you are better than your peers for doing so).

4.     Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content.  What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?

This prompt is best tied to a particular extracurricular passion, or perhaps to an environment that you find enjoyable or relaxing. The key with this type of essay is twofold. First, avoid simply stating the different elements in terms of their visual appearance, and bring in all of the senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste [perhaps less frequently]), so as to provide a more rich descriptive style of writing (that also incorporates heavy use of advanced diction and literary devices). Second, embedded within the environment in question, certain items or environmental factors should be used as explicit or implicit symbols for a facet of your personality. Ideally, the essay should be weighted more towards explanations of why the environment appeals to you (speak to character strengths and intrinsic personality traits).  The remainder of the essay (about one third) should be geared to the description of the environment (as outlined above).

5.     Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

This prompt is probably the most expansive in that you can choose any event that had a major impact on your life. One option is to discuss a cultural process (such as Bar Mitzvah or Upanayanam in Judaism and Hinduism respectively) that serves as a formal waypoint on a path to adulthood, but if you do so, make sure to discuss why the ritual made you “feel” like an adult, not just why you became one in practice. Informal events are probably easier to use because you can show more of your own personality and what makes you tick. A good way to assess whether an informal event demarcates a transition into adulthood is if it (1) gave you a new perspective or degree of self-awareness, (2) taught you that idealism can still play an important role in achieving goals, or conversely, (3) helped show you that the world doesn’t often conform today to idealistic realities (a time when you learned realism).  For example, perhaps after growing up in a multi-cultural environment, you finally witness a racist encounter in a more restricted environment.  This could serve as a powerful eye-opener about the state of some parts of the world, informally achieving an implicit state of adulthood.

However, your topic need not be so weighty when talking about your own growth, because when discussing personal development, almost any group can be massaged to form a “community,” which means you have a wide array of options to use as a point marking a transition to adulthood.

Want help with your college essays to improve your admissions chances? Sign up for your free CollegeVine account and get access to our essay guides and courses. You can also get your essay peer-reviewed and improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

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How to Talk About Race on College Applications, According to Admissions Experts

R afael Figueroa, dean of college guidance at Albuquerque Academy, was in the middle of tutoring Native American and Native Hawaiian students on how to write college application essays when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the race-conscious college admissions processes at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional .

Earlier in the week, he told the students that they shouldn’t feel like they need to talk about their ethnicity in their essays. But after the June 29 Supreme Court ruling , he backtracked. “If I told you that you didn’t have to write about your native or cultural identity, you need to get ready to do another supplemental essay” on it or prepare a story that can fit into short answer questions, he says he told them.

For high school seniors of color applying to colleges in the coming years, the essay and short answer sections will take on newfound importance. Chief Justice John Roberts suggested as much when he wrote in his majority opinion, “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.” That “discussion” is usually in an essay, and many colleges have additional short-answer questions that allow students to expand more on their background and where they grew up.

“The essay is going to take up a lot more space than maybe it has in the past because people are going to be really trying to understand who this person is that is going to come into our community,” says Timothy Fields, senior associate dean of undergraduate admission at Emory University.

Now, college admissions officers are trying to figure out how to advise high schoolers on their application materials to give them the best chance to showcase their background under the new rules, which will no longer allow colleges or universities to use race as an explicit factor in admissions decisions .

Shereem Herndon-Brown, who co-wrote The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions with Fields, says students of color can convey their racial and ethnic backgrounds by writing about their families and their upbringing. “I’ve worked with students for years who have written amazing essays about how they spend Yom Kippur with their family, which clearly signals to a college that they are Jewish—how they listened to the conversations from their grandfather about escaping parts of Europe… Their international or immigrant story comes through whether it’s from the Holocaust or Croatia or the Ukraine. These are stories that kind of smack colleges in the face about culture.”

“Right now, we’re asking Black and brown kids to smack colleges in the face about being Black and brown,” he continues. “And, admittedly, I am mixed about the necessity to do it. But I think the only way to do it is through writing.”

Read More: The ‘Infamous 96’ Know Firsthand What Happens When Affirmative Action Is Banned

Students of color who are involved in extracurriculars that are related to diversity efforts should talk about those prominently in their college essays, other experts say. Maude Bond, director of college counseling at Cate School in Santa Barbara County, California, cites one recent applicant she counseled who wrote her college essay about an internship with an anti-racism group and how it helped her highlight the experiences of Asian American Pacific Islanders in the area.

Bond also says there are plenty of ways for people of color to emphasize their resilience and describe the character traits they learned from overcoming adversity: “Living in a society where you’re navigating racism every day makes you very compassionate.” she says. “It gives you a different sense of empathy and understanding. Not having the same resources as people that you grow up with makes you more creative and innovative.” These, she argues, are characteristics students should highlight in their personal essays.

Adam Nguyen, a former Columbia University admissions officer who now counsels college applicants via his firm Ivy Link, will also encourage students of color to ask their teachers and college guidance counselors to hint at their race or ethnicity in their recommendation letters. “That’s where they could talk about your racial background,” Nguyen says. “Just because you can’t see what’s written doesn’t mean you can’t influence how or what is said about you.”

Yet as the essay portions of college applications gain more importance, the process of reading applications will take a lot longer, raising the question of whether college admissions offices have enough staffers to get through the applications. “There are not enough admission officers in the industry to read that way,” says Michael Pina, director of admission at the University of Richmond.

That could make it even more difficult for students to get the individual attention required to gain acceptance to the most elite colleges. Multiple college admissions experts say college-bound students will need to apply to a broader range of schools. “You should still apply to those 1% of colleges…but you should think about the places that are producing high-quality graduates that are less selective,” says Pina.

One thing more Black students should consider, Fields argues, is applying to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). (In fact, Fields, a graduate of Morehouse College, claims that may now be “necessary” for some students.) “There’s something to be said, for a Black person to be in a majority environment someplace that they are celebrated, not tolerated,” Fields says. “There’s something to be said about being in an environment where you don’t have to justify why you’re here.”

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October 7, 2020

The Common Application Takes Action to Address Systemic Racism

We recently saluted The Common Application for taking decisive action to address systemic racism. And what did Common App. do, you ask? The organization that makes the central platform through which the vast majority of college applicants apply to colleges opted to eliminate the prompt that asked applicants to answer if they’ve faced discipline by their high schools. As studies demonstrated, the prompt disproportionately negatively impacted Black/African American students applying to colleges. And so after years of debate about whether the question should be asked at all and, if so, how it should be posed, Common App. boldly eliminated the question in its entirety.

The Common Application Made a Courageous Change

It’s a decision that we believe is worthy of praise. As Benjamin L. Fu and Dohyun Kim report for The Harvard Crimson in a piece entitled “ Experts Say Common App Change Promotes Racial Equity in College Admissions ,” “Russell J. Skiba, a psychology professor at Indiana University, said he supported the Common App’s decision, saying it would help lessen racial inequities in college admissions and systemic racism more broadly. ‘I just think this is a courageous act on the part of the Common App, when an institution looks at itself and says, ‘you know, here is something that is potentially disadvantaging a group’ and takes affirmative action to remove that,’ Skiba said. ‘I think it’s the kind of actions that address and hopefully put an end to systemic racism.'”

The Common Application Is Deserving of Praise Today

We wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment of Mr. Skiba. Common App. looked inward and realized that one of its prompts unfairly discriminated against a group of applicants. And while it may have taken the organization too many years to finally take decisive action to address this inequity, we are glad they finally came around to take the courageous step of eliminating the question. Common App. has received its fair share of criticism from us over the years for issues with their application and so we figured we’d further shine sunlight today on a time when they did right.

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Colleges Will Be Able to Hide a Student’s Race on Admissions Applications

If requested, the Common App will conceal basic information on race and ethnicity — a move that could help schools if the Supreme Court ends affirmative action.

By Anemona Hartocollis

Each year, the million or so students applying to college through the Common App are given the option to check a box, disclosing whether they identify as Hispanic, Asian, Black or white, among other choices.

Now, with the U.S. Supreme Court expected to rule soon against race-conscious admissions — and with colleges wanting to follow the law — the Common App has made a pre-emptive move on what is known as the “race box.”

Beginning Aug. 1, colleges will be able to hide the information in those boxes from their own admissions teams, said Jenny Rickard, chief executive of the Common App, in an interview.

The new option will help colleges comply “with whatever legal standard the Supreme Court will set in regards to race in admissions,” Common App said in a statement. A nonprofit, Common App administers a universal application used by more than 1,000 colleges and universities.

The decision, which appears to be aimed at immunizing colleges from litigation, is one of the first concrete examples of how college admissions may be transformed if the Supreme Court bans or restricts race-conscious admissions. The college opt-out could also put more pressure on applicants to signal their racial and ethnic background through other means, primarily in essays or teacher recommendations.

The scope of the court’s decision, expected in late June, is unknown. But the justices showed a keen interest in the use of race boxes during the oral arguments last fall.

Colleges have said they will follow the law, but are wary of future litigation. Groups opposed to affirmative action have said that they may file lawsuits that could test the boundaries of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The potential case against race boxes is obvious, according to Edward Blum, founder of Students for Fair Admissions, the plaintiffs in the current court cases against Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

“If racial preferences are determined to be illegal, then it must follow that racial classification boxes should not be allowed on college application forms,” he said.

Masking the race boxes on the Common App could give universities a measure of plausible deniability, legal experts said, and perhaps some protection from lawsuits.

Essays are a less likely target for lawsuits. As a practical matter, it would be hard to redact mentions of race from the many thousands of application essays that colleges receive every year, with more than 50,000 applicants at Harvard alone.

But more litigation around the broader issue of diversity, like scholarships for Black students, seems likely. “There is a colossal, well-organized, well-funded attack agenda,” said Art Coleman, managing partner of Education Counsel, a consulting firm working with universities on the Supreme Court cases.

During oral arguments, the Supreme Court justices spent considerable time discussing the race box and the application essay. Some variant of the phrase “checking the box” was used more than 30 times during the five hours of argument before the justices last October.

Patrick Strawbridge, a lawyer for Students for Fair Admissions, sparred with the justices over when it would be appropriate for admissions officers to know the race of an applicant. He suggested that much would depend on the context of the revelation.

“What we object to is a consideration of race and race by itself,” Mr. Strawbridge told the justices.

“Race in a box-checking way, as opposed to race in an experiential statement?” Justice Amy Coney Barrett, one of the conservative majority expected to be sympathetic to the plaintiffs, elaborated.

Mr. Strawbridge said it would be harder to object to a thoughtful essay that invoked the student’s race in the context of a highly personal story.

An essay about overcoming racial discrimination could be permitted, because it “obviously indicates that the applicant has grit, that the applicant has overcome some hardship,” Mr. Strawbridge told the justices. “It tells you something about the character and the experience of the applicant other than their skin color.”

Isiaah Crawford, president of the University of Puget Sound, said he hoped the court would agree with Mr. Strawbridge on that point.

“We certainly do believe that student applicants should have a First Amendment right to be able to speak about their background if they choose to do so,” Dr. Crawford said.

If discussion of a student’s race were fully barred, he said, a white applicant to an Ivy League school might be able to write about being the child of an alumna, while a Black student might not be able to “to talk about his or her background, whose grandparents weren’t let into schools like the Ivy League, and how that has impacted their choices.”

The Common App will continue to collect racial information for its own purposes, like looking at trends in applications among different groups, regardless of how the Supreme Court decides, Ms. Rickard said. Because the nonprofit does not admit students, it is unlikely to be a target of litigation.

Colleges will be able to suppress racial information from both the printable and digital forms of applications. The Common App already allows colleges to hide information about test scores if they do not consider test scores in admissions. Colleges have also been able to hide students’ Social Security numbers, birth dates, gender and criminal history.

Mr. Coleman said he hoped the court’s focus during oral arguments on checking the box meant that it would rule against only the most simplistic and stereotypical use of race in admissions.

Otherwise, he said, trying to hide an applicant’s race could become an exercise in absurdity. For instance, during an applicant’s interview, “Are you supposed to go behind a curtain?”

Anemona Hartocollis is a national correspondent, covering higher education. She is also the author of the book “Seven Days of Possibilities: One Teacher, 24 Kids, and the Music That Changed Their Lives Forever.” More about Anemona Hartocollis

In Florida, we’re truly blessed. Our laws let us pretend institutional racism doesn’t exist and never did; we have the God-granted right to destroy annoying wild lands to build sprawly new energy-inefficient homes; and our politicians are so selfless, so devoted, so virtuous, we don’t even need ethics laws.

Ethics laws are just plain rude. That’s why your Florida Legislature has produced a long-overdue bill ripping the guts out of ethics boards all over the state.

Under SB 7014 , those tiresome busybodies can’t go around initiating investigations of public servants merely because they may have committed some so-called “impropriety” such as accepting a little bribe here and there.

The bill says no one is allowed to lodge a complaint about an official unless they have “personal knowledge or information other than hearsay” and attest to it under oath.

In other words, you can’t accuse the senator or the city commissioner unless you were right there in the room, watching her stuff that wad of Benjamins in her pocket or witnessing him cut a sweet deal with that property developer who is also (coincidentally, of course) a big campaign donor.

Totally fair, obvs.

If the governor signs the bill — and surely such an aboveboard, transparent and scrupulously fair fellow as Ron DeSantis will do just that — elected officials will no longer have to worry about nasty jealous people sticking their noses into allegations of vote-rigging, lavish gifts from lobbyists, ghost employees, campaign finance violations and corruption.

DeSantis holds the distinction of being the 45th most popular governor in the nation for a reason!

Unhealthy obsession

Now if those nitpicky “ good government ” types could get over their unhealthy obsession with conflicts of interest, illicit freebies and other supposed official malfeasance, the state could get back to the business of denying women reproductive rights, banning books and raping the environment.

Which is exactly what a majority of Floridians elected them to do!

Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, says, “You’re welcome, Florida!” — for it was he who craftily got this tough-on-ethics bill through the Florida Legislature.

In its original form, SB 7014 was kind of a snooze, imposing some procedural rules on the Florida Commission on Ethics, but once it got out of committee, Young Sen. Burgess leapt into action with floor amendments (lest those nefarious ethics pressure groups get wind of it) which:

-- Strip power from local ethics boards. (The Legislature knows what’s good for you, so shut up.);

-- Require sworn statements of personal knowledge that some governmental naughtiness has occurred; and

-- Allow officials who are also lawyers (like Young Sen. Burgess) to claim attorney-client privilege, so they don’t have to name certain people on their financial disclosure forms, because it’s none of your dang beeswax whether or not anything funny is going on.

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As Young Sen. Burgess said, “Somebody could call a tip line, hotline, pick up the phone and say, ‘This person is doing X, Y and Z,’ hang up the phone, then immediately maybe call the media and tip that off that a complaint was made, then the whole thing spirals out of control.”

This is exactly what keeps happening to our fine politicians!

Former Tallahassee mayor and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum got fined five grand for letting a lobbyist pay the tab for a Broadway show, a boat ride around the Statue of Liberty and maybe part of a little jaunt to Costa Rica.

Nothing to see here

And look at what happened to poor former Miami City Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla. He was arrested last September and charged with multiple felonies , including money laundering and bribery.

The nosy, no-good Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust got all up into Díaz de la Portilla’s business and discovered he had been — let’s call it “incentivized” — to help a $30,000-a-year private school take over a city park, reducing by two-thirds public access to it.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Broward State Attorney’s Office claim the private school’s lobbyist paid for Díaz de la Portilla’s vacations and served as campaign fundraiser for his brother Renier de la Portilla, who was running for a county judge seat.

Of course, the Libs, the naysayers and assorted other weirdos who insist on knowing how elected officials spend taxpayer money are staging a whine-fest.

They call the bill “ anti-democratic ” and warn “it will allow corruption to go unchallenged if it comes into law.”

They insist it will prevent “whistleblowers” from blowing their cheap little whistles for fear of retribution, and quite right, too.

Mike Murawski, the guy who runs the Naples Commission of Ethics and Governmental Integrity, bellyached about how 62% voted in 2020 to set up a commission “ with the ability to self-initiate investigations,” and this new law “stands in direct opposition to the will of the people.”

The general counsel for the Tallahassee Independent Ethics Board says, “We might know that fraud is taking place, we might know that corruption is right in front of our eyes. But now under Senate Bill 7014, we’ll be completely powerless to do anything about it.”

Oh, fuss, fuss, fuss: These so-called “independent ethics boards” are mostly anti-MAGA cells set up in a gaggle of wokey places such as Tallahassee, Gainesville, Coral Gables, Tampa, Palm Beach and Miami to “gotcha” patriotic Americans who happen to like making a profit or maybe tickets to “Hamilton.”

Come on, people: Who among us hasn’t relied on a fat-walleted lobbyist or other useful “friend” to shell out for something we want in exchange for something they want? That’s how our American system works. If only the new law had been in effect last year, Alex Díaz de la Portilla would be A-OK.

Jose Arrojo, executive director of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, more or less admits that fact, saying that if anonymous whistleblowers can’t come forward, and if there are “no more employees referring information to us,” accusations won’t be worth a bucket of warm spit.

As Arrojo told The Miami Herald, “We would be sitting on our hands unless someone comes forward and files a complaint under oath.”

Well, go get a real job, mister! I hear lobbying pays really well.

Come now, Florida taxpayers. Do you truly need to worry your pretty little heads about government “ethics”? Don’t you have a road to clog, a tree to cut down or a vaccine to avoid?

Your elected officials don’t care about money and power. They want nothing more than to serve you. They love you. Trust them. After all, trust is the basis of all good relationships.

Diane Roberts is an eighth-generation Floridian. This essay , reprinted under a Creative Commons license, originally appeared in the Florida Phoenix.

© 2024 Florida Phoenix

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2023-2024 Common App essay prompts

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We are pleased to announce that the Common App essay prompts will remain the same for 2023-2024.

It’s not just for the sake of consistency that we have chosen to keep the essay prompts the same for the upcoming application year. Our past research has shown that overall satisfaction with the prompts exceeded 95% across our constituent groups - students, counselors, advisors, teachers, and member colleges. Moving forward, we want to learn more about who is choosing certain prompts to see if there are any noteworthy differences among student populations.

We know some schools are beginning to have conversations with juniors and transfer students about their college options. As we’ve always said, this is not a call for students to begin writing. We hope that by sharing the prompts now, students will have the time they need to reflect on their own personal stories and begin thinking about what they want to share with colleges. As you assist students with their planning, feel free to share our Common App Ready resource on approaching the essay (in English and Spanish ). You can also visit our YouTube channel to view our breakdown of all 7 Common App essay prompts . 

"Moving forward, we want to learn more about who is choosing certain prompts to see if there are any noteworthy differences among student populations." Meredith Lombardi, Director, Education and Training, Common App

Students who are ready to start exploring the application can create their Common App account prior to August 1. With account rollover , we will retain any responses to questions on the Common App tab, including the personal essay.

Below is the full set of essay prompts for 2023-2024.

• 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.

We will retain the optional community disruption question within the Writing section. 

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