Common App essays for Fall 2007 applicants

Posted by Dee

For those who have yet to sign up for an account on the Common Application website (which, by the way, I hope isn’t too prevalent considering it’s free to sign up for an account even if you don’t end up using it), here’s a sneak peek at the essay topics. With the Common Application you get a choice for your essay between six prompts. Below, I’ve paraphrased the prompts because I’m not sure it’d be very legal for me to rewrite them verbatim…

1. Evaluate an important experience, achievement, risk you’ve taken, or ethical dilemma you’ve faced and its impact on you.

2. Discuss a personal, local, nat’l, or international issue and its importance to you.

3. Indicate a person who’s had a significant influence on you and describe that influence.

4. Describe a fictional character, historical figure, or creative work (art, music, science, etc.) that’s influenced you and explain that influence.

5. A range of interests, perspectives, experiences, etc. adds a lot to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that shows what you’d bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that showed the importance of diversity to you.

6. Any topic you want!

As you can see, they’re pretty open ended, but that doesn’t mean you need to share your whole life story. Brainstorm. Figure out what’s interesting and unique about you, and write about that. Don’t be boring, and don’t write about something that tons of other people will be writing about unless you can write about it in an interesting and enlightening and fresh way.