The Common Application
Learn about the seven essay prompts for The Common Application. Two new prompts were added for 2017-18, including one (Prompt 7) that allows you to write about any topic you want!
If you are applying to one or more of the college and universities that use The Common Application, you will need to write one core essay, commonly referred to as The Common App Essay. You choose one of the seven prompts and write one “personal statement” style essay that is between 250 and 650 words.
To find out more about this process, check out The Common Application web site.
If you need more help, check out Essay Hell’s tutoring and other services.
Two NEW Prompts for 2017-18!
(Prompts 6 and 7)
TOPIC OF CHOICE IS BACK!
How to Format Your Common Application Essay
Confused on How to Format Your Common Application Essay? Here are 9 Hot Tips The 2017-18 Common Application opened for business earlier this week (August. 1). Chances are you will soon need to know how to format your common application essay. If you are on the ball,...
The Trouble with Boys and College Application Essays
Who Writes Better College Application Essays: Boys or Girls? When I gave one of my summer college application essay writing boot camps this last weekend in my hometown of Laguna Beach, I had 11 boys and one girl. As the students showed up, I casually mentioned this...
Common Application Prompt 6: Be Warned!
Big Red Flag on this New Common Application Prompt 6! The Common Application added two new prompts for 2017-18. Now students can choose from seven prompts (instead of five) to inspire their personal statement "Common App" essay. The seventh new Common...
New Common Application Prompts for 2017-18
New Common Application Prompts for 2017-18: TOPIC OF CHOICE IS BACK!! Great news for you college-bound juniors who are just starting to think about your college application essays. If you need to write your personal statement essay for The Common Application,...
How to Write a College Application Essay: In 3 Easy Steps
After working with thousands of students from all over the world on writing the dreaded college application essay for the last eight years, I've finally been able to boil down the process to three simple steps. Yes, just three steps. If you follow these steps,...
Common Application Essay Prompts and Strategies for 2016-17
Stand Out in Your Common Application Essay So you are ready to start writing your Common Application Essay? Congratulations! You have found the best source of specific tips and strategies on exactly how to brainstorm topics for each of the 5 prompts--and learn...
How Many Common Application Essays Should You Write?
Short Answer: ONE College Application Essay for The Common App The Common Application comes out officially August 1. But they already announced the changes for this coming 2015-16 season. The most important were changes to the five essay prompts. (You can write...
How to Answer Common Application Prompt 4: Free Tutorial Video
The folks at The Common Application added a new prompt this year and I love it. It asks you to write about a problem. What's so great about a problem? Problems = Stories = Great Essays! This may be the only time having a juicy problem is a good thing. So take...
Pulling Your Hair Out Over The Common App? Here’s Some Relief
Students trying to submit their college applications--including their essays--to The Common Application are finding all sorts of glitches and problems this fall. Apparently, it's a new system and some students have spent literally hours trying to make it...
Hot Strategies for All Five of the New Common Application Prompts
College Application Essays Which Prompt Will You Pick? UPDATE: Most of this information is still helpful and relevant. However, please see the changes in the NEW Common Application Prompts for 2015-16! If you are ready to brainstorm ideas for your Common...
Should You Take the Challenge of Prompt 3 of New Common App?
College Application Essays: How to Answer Prompt 3 of the Common App. Who or What Have You Confronted Lately? When you read the five options for your Common Application essay, one prompt probably will appeal to you first off. Others you will skim and...
The Essay Tightrope: How Far to Push the New Common App Prompts
If you are working on your Common Application, you have five prompts (or essay questions) to choose from for your essay. The challenge is to pick the prompt that you can answer to write your best, most effective essay. In previous years, you had the option to...
Should You Choose Prompt 5 for Your Common App Essay? Maybe…
PLEASE NOTE! This prompt has changed for 2017-18. This post is now obsolete, although you can still find helpful general information on how to think about prompts and write your essays. The revised prompt 5 is: Discuss an accomplishment, event,...
Oprah and Prompt 2 of The Common Application
Yesterday, I wrote about how you can answer Prompt #2 of The Common Application and write about recovering from a failure. Coincidentally, our favorite motivator Oprah Winfrey stood up in front of the graduating class at Harvard University just last weekend and...
The Beauty of Failure: How to Answer Prompt 2 of The Common Application
College Application Essays: Tell a Story to Answer Prompt 2 When Messing Up is a Good Thing I almost like Prompt #2 as much as Prompt #1 of the new essay questions for The Common Application: The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success....
How to Answer Prompt #1 of the New Common Application
College Admissions Essays: The Common App. Prompt #1 My Favorite Out of the seven prompts you can chose from to write your application essay for The Common Application, I like the first one a lot. (UPDATE: As of 2017, you can now write about any topic you want. See...
Common App Prompt 4: When Your Problem is a Good Thing!
How to Answer Prompt 4 for the Common App for your College Application Essay Prompt 4: Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma---anything that is of personal...
College Essay Help from The Best: The New York Times
Mentor Essays for The Common App And Other College Application Essays If you are one of those students who understands how important these college admissions essays can be to landing in the school of your dreams, the New York Times just published a dream...
The New Common App Prompts: The Good, Bad and the Ugly
College Application Essays How To Answer the New Common App Questions The best news about his year's Common Application (2015-16) is that you can still write about almost any topic you want---these prompts are very open-ended. And they also added a new prompt...
Find Your Defining Qualities
No matter what the prompt asks for, almost any effective college essay should showcase one or several of what I call your "defining qualities." If the prompt asks you to write a personal statement (for The Common App), tell about yourself or wants to know why you are...
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