The Basics

At a minimum, each student will write one essay which is referred to as The Personal Statement and it is completed through the Common Application (CA) and because most colleges use the CA, students can apply to many schools with only the push of a button. Keep in mind that many schools have supplemental applications with additional essays that will need to be submitted along with the CA. The good news is that these supplemental applications are available through the CA.

If done well, the essay writing process will be time consuming so it is important to start early and to be organized. An average of six prompts are released each spring for rising seniors to choose from and they are often the same or only slightly changed from previous years.  A prompt is a question or statement designed to give students a topic or an idea to use as a springboard.  One prompt may challenge students to talk about failure, while another may ask about a specific event or moment when the student changed their thinking. This year, the CA has reintroduced the open essay, allowing students to write about whatever they want.  I personally love that the CA included this opportunity again because it allows for unforced creativity and the opportunity to just simply write.  Because there are many ways to respond to any given prompt, it is important to read them carefully while writing down first thoughts about each.  After doing this, the student should take a few days to think about them before revisiting the prompts and deciding if there is one or more that triggers a response and makes them curious.

Top Tips For Getting Started

First of all, the most important thing is to actually get started. By mid-summer at the latest, sign on to the Common Application and make an account.  Take some time to explore the application and play with adding and subtracting schools.  Becoming comfortable with the application itself and knowing what is going to be required to complete it successfully will go a long way to making the process less stressful.

Because many students will have additional supplemental essays to complete, staying organized is critical.  Not only is it important to keep clearly marked files on your computer (to avoid the dreaded mistake of attaching the wrong essay to the wrong application), it is helpful to have a clear sense of which essays are being chosen and how they fit together so that the student can use each essay to share something new about themselves. There may be a supplemental essay that is required that is similar to a personal statement prompt.  If so, choosing the most complimentary CA prompt is important.