The Common App Essay
What the Shell do they want?
Common App Essay Options
Option #1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical
dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
Option #2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and
its importance to you.
Option #3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe
that influence.
Option #4. Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art,
music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
Option #5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds
much to the educational mix. Given your personal background,
describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to
the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that
demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
Option #6. Topic of your choice.
Option #1
Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical
dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
• Note the key word here: Evaluate
– You aren't just describing something; the best essays will
explore the complexity of the issue.
– When you examine the "impact on you," you need to show
the depth of your critical thinking abilities. Introspection,
self-awareness, and self-analysis are all important here.
– Careful with essays about the winning touchdown or tiebreaking goal. These sometimes have an off-putting "look
how great I am" tone and very little self-evaluation.
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Analyze
Small is still significant
Don’t brag
Show your character
Option #2
Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its
importance to you.
• Keep the "importance to you" at the heart of
your essay
– It's easy to get off track with this essay topic and start
ranting about global warming, Darfur, or abortion. The
admissions folks want to discover your character, passions
and abilities in the essay; they want more than a political
lecture.
• Pick something close to home
• Show why you would be a good choice
• Don’t lecture
Option #3
Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that
influence.
• I'm not a fan of this prompt because of the wording:
"describe that influence”
– A good essay on this topic does more than "describe."
Dig deep and “ANALYZE.”
• Handle a "hero" essay with care
– Your readers have probably seen a lot of essays talking
about what a great role model Mom or Dad or Sis is.
• Realize that the "influence" of this person doesn't
need to be positive.
• Push the language
• Be careful about writing about mom and dad. You
are also writing about yourself
Option #4
Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music,
science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
• As in #3, be careful of that word “describe”.
– You should really be "analyzing" this character or
creative work. What makes it so powerful and
influential?
– Don’t do too much describing
– Focus on explaining
• Avoid the big obvious ones to help you
sound different
• Keep the focus on you
Option #5
A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix.
Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity
in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
• Realize that this question defines "diversity" in
broad terms.
– It is not specifically talking about race or ethnicity
(although it can be).
– Ideally, admissions folk want every student they
admit to contribute to the richness and breadth of
the campus community. How do you contribute?
• Diversity isn’t just about race or country of origin
• Know why colleges want diversity
– Sit down and think carefully think about this
• Approach 3rd world encounters carefully
• Keep the focus on you
Option #6
Topic of your choice.
• Sometimes you have a story to share that doesn't
quite fit into any of the options above.
– However, the first five topics are broad with a lot of
flexibility, so make sure your topic really can't be
identified with one of them.
– Don't equate "topic of your choice" with a license to write
a comedy routine or poem (you can submit such things via
the "Additional Info" option). Essays written for this
prompt still need to have substance and tell your reader
something about you.
• Make sure that you really don’t want to do
options 1 – 5
• Make sure you write an essay (no poems, or
stories)
• Reveal yourself!
General Tips
• Do not use titles.
• “Have something to say instead of having to say
something.” Write about something that’s actually
interesting to you, that you actually would like to talk
about.
 This is a harder and a more demanding task
than actually writing the essay. How many
essays have you written? How many essays
have you written about yourself?
Tip #1: Wordiness and Repetition in College
Admissions Essays
Tip #2: Vague and Imprecise Language in
College Application Essays
Tip #3: Clichés in College Admissions Essays
Tip #4: Overuse of "I" in FirstPerson Narratives
Tip #5: Excessive Digression in
Application Essays
Tip #6: Overuse of Flowery Language in
Admissions Essays
Tip #7: Weak Verbs in Admissions Essays
Tip #8: Too Much Passive Voice in College
Application Essays
Tip #9: Too Many Expletive Constructions
Bad Essay Topics
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Your Drug Use
Your Time in Jail
Your Heroism
One-Track Social, Religious or Political Lectures
Woe Is Me
The Travel Journal
A Comedy Routine
Excuses
Your List of Accomplishments
“I’m from _______”
Do’s and Don’ts
DOs
• Expand upon the broader implications of your discussion. This could include the following
strategies:
 Consider linking your conclusion to your introduction to establish a sense of balance by reiterating
introductory phrases.
 Redefine a term used previously in your body paragraphs.
 End with a famous quote that is relevant to your argument. Do not TRY to do this, as this approach is
overdone. This should come naturally.
 Frame your discussion within a larger context or show that your topic has widespread appeal.
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Tie the conclusion back to your introduction.
 A nice conclusion makes use of the creativity you used in your introduction. If you used an anecdote in
your intro, use the conclusion to finish telling that story.
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Try to end on a positive note.
 You may want to restate your goals in terms
of how they will be fulfilled at the institution
to which you are applying.
Do’s and Don’ts
DON'Ts
• Summarize.
 Since the essay is rather short to begin with, the reader should not need to be
reminded of what you wrote 300 words beforehand. You do not need to wrap up
your essay in a nice little package. It should be an ending, not a summary.
• Use stock phrases.
 Phrases such as, "in conclusion," "in summary," "to conclude," belong only in dry,
scientific writing. Don't use them.
• Try to Explain the Unexplainable.
 Your essay need not be so tidy that you can answer why
people die or why starvation exists -- you are not writing
a sitcom -- but it should forge some attempt at closure
Check-list
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Have I answered the question asked?
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Do I back up each point that I make with an example? Have I used concrete and personal
examples?
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Have I been specific? Go on a generalities hunt. Turn the generalities into specifics!
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Could anyone else have written this essay?
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What does it say about me? After making a list of all the words you have used within the essay -directly and indirectly -- to describe yourself, ask: Does this list accurately represent me?
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Does the writing sound like me? Is it personal and informal rather than uptight or stiff?
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Regarding the introduction, is it personal and written in my own voice?
Is it too general? Can the essay get along without it?
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What about the essay makes it memorable?
First-Sentence Check
• To check the overall structure of your essay, conduct a first-sentence check.
Write down the first sentence of every paragraph in order. Read through them
one after another and ask the following:
 Would someone who was reading only these sentences still understand exactly what I am
trying to say?
 Do the first sentences express all of my main points?
 Do thoughts flow naturally, or do they seem to skip around or come out of left field?
• Now go back to your essay as a whole and ask:
 Does each paragraph stick to the thought that was introduced
in the first sentence?
 Does a piece of evidence support each point? How well does
the evidence support the point?
First-Sentence Check
• Is each paragraph roughly the same length? Stepping back and
squinting at the essay, do the paragraphs look balanced on the
page? (If one is significantly longer than the rest, you are probably
trying to squeeze more than one thought into it.)
• Does my conclusion draw naturally from the previous paragraphs?
• Have I varied the length and structure of my sentences?
Final Self-Edits
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Did I punctuate correctly?
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Did I eliminate exclamation points (except in dialogue)?
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Did I use capitalization clearly and consistently?
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Do the subjects agree in number with the verbs?
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Did I place the periods and commas inside the quotation marks?
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Did I keep contractions to a minimum? Do apostrophes appear in the right places?
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Did I replace the name of the proper school for each new application?
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Have I caught every single typo? (You can use your spell-checker but
make sure that to check and re-check every change it makes. It’s a
computer after all.)
Read your friend’s essays, have your friends
edit your essay
What happens when you’re friends don’t
read your essay
• Mt. Elgon National Park is well known for its rich deposits of herds of
elephants.
• I enjoyed my bondage with the family and especially with their mule, Jake.
• The book was very entertaining, even though it was about a dull subject, World
War II.
• I would love to attend a college where the foundation was built upon women.
• The worst experience that I have probably ever had to go
through emotionally was when other members of PETA
(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and I went to
Pennsylvania for their annual pigeon shooting.
• He was a modest man with an unbelievable ego