auburn university essay prompts 2023

Writing Your Personal Statement

Writing a personal statement for graduate or professional school.

Writing a personal statement is an important part of your application to graduate school. It’s your first (and possibly only) chance to show the admissions committee who you are as a person beyond your transcript and test scores. Think of it as your professional autobiography where you tell a story about yourself to communicate to the committee why you would be a good addition to their academic community. Of course, it’s not an easy task to communicate who you are in an engaging, professional, and accurate way. Give yourself plenty of time to craft your statement!

Writing an Effective Personal Statement

Here are some important reflective questions you should ask yourself as you start the process. Take some time and write out your thoughts. Give yourself several pages—the more you write, the more you have to work with as you draft.

Here are some questions to help you get started:

What do you think is most important for the admissions committee to know about you? What’s distinctive, interesting, or unique about you and your experiences? When did you become interested in this field? What experiences or events have lead you to your this field of study? What special qualities or skills do you have that could help you be successful in their program? How did you develop those qualities or skills?

1. Know where you’re applying: Be sure you’ve done some research on the programs to which you’re applying and (when appropriate) tailor your statement to each program. Moreover, be sure you’re answering the appropriate question (or questions) asked—some schools (especially MBA programs) ask for multiple essays with specific prompts. 

2. Be engaging and be clear: Admissions Committees read many, many applications. Figure out what makes  you stand out! But also remember to respect the committee’s time and patience—you do not want to stand out in a negative way.

3. Be professional: Investigate your field. Talk to your professors and other professionals—learn what “professional” means in this context. You want to present yourself as ready to move beyond your undergraduate experience and enter into a new intellectual community.

Give yourself time for multiple drafts. Do  not  be the only person to read your statement. Get as many people to read it as possible. Proofread  very  carefully.

The consultants at the  Miller Writing Center  will be happy to help you at any stage in this process.

Do’s and Don’ts For Your Personal Statement

Tell a story. This will help you show your audience who you are, not just tell them.

Find an angle. If you have particular struggles in your life, obstacles you’ve overcome, or issues you’ve addressed, these events can help show your audience who you are and why you’d be a good addition to their program.

Be specific. Use tangible, specific details of your experience to communicate your story. Don’t rely on vague generalizations.

Concentrate on your opening paragraph. Your audience has many, many personal statements to read. Catch their attention early with an anecdote or “hook” that engages your reader while setting up your point about who you are.

Be sure you’re answering the question. This seems obvious, but be sure you’re clear about what you’re responding to—especially if you’re applying to multiple programs.

Tell what you know, not what you think people want to hear. You are representing yourself—be honest. It will come across best.

Give yourself time to reflect and write. Your story, your angle, your details, and your opening “hook” are unlikely to appear magically the first time you sit down to write. Give yourself time to think back on your experiences, draft out your ideas, and revise.

Get feedback from mentors and peers at every stage of the process. Talk to professors about what it means to be a member of your chosen academic community and about what in your experiences would be relevant to your statement. Have as many people as you can read your drafts and give you feedback. The Miller Writing Center will be very glad to help!

Use clichés. You may want to be doctors because you always wanted to help people, but you want to find a way communicate that idea in an honest and tangible way. Basically, avoid saying I’ve always wanted to be…. Do not start with quotes from other people, even famous ones, unless you can think of a particularly engaging way of doing so.

Be negative… …especially about your institution or other institutions. It can give your audience a general bad feeling—and worse, someone on the admissions committee may know who you are talking about.

Include everything that ever happened in your life. You have limited time and space. Be selective! And definitely do not rewrite your CV. Be sure you are telling a story that communicates who you are as a whole, not just listing your accomplishments.

Talk about high school.  You risk looking immature. Only include it if it is very relevant to the program you want to join. 

Talk about hot-button social/political issues  You risk alienating your audience. Of course, the story you want to tell may demand you do both these things—but be sure you have a very good reason to do so.

Go over the page or word limit .  Respect your audience’s time and energy. Do not overload them. 

Mispell werds or use grammer bad. You can lose your audience instantly. Do not risk it. 

Be the only person who reads your proposal besides the committee.  Try to have at least two other people read your statement. If one of them is a faculty member or professional in the field, that would be best, but anyone can give you useful feedback and help check for surface errors. The  Miller Writing Center  is there for you! 

Examples of personal statements from students.

Want advising on your personal statement.

Last Modified : Jan 26, 2024 @ 4:05 pm

2023-2024 Common App essay prompts

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"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

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How to Write the Common Application Essays 2024-2025 (With Examples)

The Common App essay is one of the most important parts of your application, but it can be extremely daunting if you’re not familiar with creative writing or what admissions officers are looking for.

In this blog post, we’ll provide advice on how to break down these prompts, organize your thoughts, and craft a strong, meaningful response that admissions officers will notice. If you’d like more free personalized help, you can get your essays reviewed and explore school-by-school essay help on CollegeVine.

Why the Common App Essay Matters

Admissions is a human process. While admissions committees look at grades, test scores, and extracurriculars, there are five students that have great qualifications in those areas for every spot in a university’s class. As an applicant, you need an admissions counselor to choose you over everyone else — to advocate specifically for you. 

This is where essays come in; they are an opportunity for you to turn an admissions counselor into an advocate for your application! Of your essays, the Common App is the most important since it is seen by most of the colleges to which you apply. It is also your longest essay, which gives you more space to craft a narrative and share your personality, feelings, and perspective.

It’s not hyperbole to say that getting the Common App essay right is the single most important thing you can do to improve your chances of admission as a senior. 

Overview of the Common App

The Common App essay is the best way for admissions committees to get to know you. While SAT scores, your past course load, and your grades provide a quantitative picture of you as a student, the Common App essay offers adcoms a refreshing glimpse into your identity and personality. For this reason, try to treat the essay as an opportunity to tell colleges why you are unique and what matters to you.

Since your Common App essay will be seen by numerous colleges, you will want to paint a portrait of yourself that is accessible to a breadth of institutions and admissions officers (for example, if you are only applying to engineering programs at some schools, don’t focus your Common App on STEM at the expense of your other applications — save that for your supplemental essays).

In short, be open and willing to write about a topic you love, whether it is sports, music, politics, food, or watching movies. The Common App essay is more of a conversation than a job interview.

What Makes a Great Common App Essay?

A great Common App essay is, first and foremost, deeply personal. You are relying on the admissions committee to choose you over someone else, which they are more likely to do if they feel a personal connection to you. In your essay, you should delve into your feelings, how you think about situations/problems, and how you make decisions.

Good essays also usually avoid cliche topics . A couple overdone themes include an immigrant’s journey (particularly if you’re Asian American), and a sports accomplishment or injury. It’s not that these topics are bad, but rather that many students write about these subjects, so they don’t stand out as much. Of course, some students are able to write a genuine and unique essay about one of these topics, but it’s hard to pull off. You’re better off writing about more nuanced aspects of your identity!

You should also, of course, pay close attention to your grammar and spelling, use varied sentence structure and word choice, and be consistent with your tone/writing style. Take full advantage of the available 650 words, as writing less tends to mean missed opportunities.

Finally, it’s a good practice to be aware of your audience – know who you are writing for! For example, admissions officers at BYU will probably be very religious, while those at Oberlin will be deeply committed to social justice.

See some examples of great Common App essays to get a better idea of what makes a strong essay.

How your Common App Essay Fits with Your Other Essays

The Common App is one part of a portfolio of essays that you send to colleges, along with supplemental essays at individual colleges. With all of your essays for a particular college, you want to create a narrative and tell different parts of your story. So, the topics you write about should be cohesive and complementary, but not repetitive or overlapping. 

Before jumping in to write your Common App essay, you should think about the other schools that you’re writing essays for and make sure that you have a strategy for your entire portfolio of essays and cover different topics for each. If you have strong qualifications on paper for the colleges you are targeting, the best narratives tend to humanize you. If you have weaker qualifications on paper for your colleges, the best narratives tend to draw out your passion for the topics or fields of study that are of interest to you and magnify your accomplishments. 

Strategy for Writing the Common App Essays

Because the Common App essay is 650 words long and has few formal directions, organizing a response might seem daunting. Fortunately, at CollegeVine, we’ve developed a straightforward approach to formulating strong, unique responses.

This section outlines how to: 1) Brainstorm , 2) Organize , and 3) Write a Common App essay.

Before reading the prompts, brainstorming is a critical exercise to develop high-level ideas. One way to construct a high-level idea would be to delve into a passion and focus on how you interact with the concept or activity. For example, using “creative writing” as a high-level idea, one could stress their love of world-building, conveying complex emotions, and depicting character interactions, emphasizing how writing stems from real-life experiences.

A different idea that doesn’t involve an activity would be to discuss how your personality has developed in relation to your family; maybe one sibling is hot-headed, the other quiet, and you’re in the middle as the voice of reason (or maybe you’re the hot-head). These are simply two examples of infinitely many ideas you could come up with.

To begin developing your own high-level ideas, you can address these Core Four questions that all good Common App essays should answer:

• “Who Am I?”
• “Why Am I Here?”
• “What is Unique About Me?”
• “What Matters to Me?”

The first question focuses on your personality traits — who you are. The second question targets your progression throughout high school (an arc or journey). The third question is more difficult to grasp, but it involves showing why your personality traits, methods of thinking, areas of interest, and tangible skills form a unique combination. The fourth question is a concluding point that can be answered simply, normally in the conclusion paragraph, i.e., “Running matters to me” or “Ethical fashion matters to me.”

You can brainstorm freeform or start with a specific prompt in mind.

Sometimes, it can be helpful to start by jotting down the 3-5 aspects of your personality or experiences you’ve had on a piece of paper. Play around with narratives that are constructed out of different combinations of these essential attributes before settling on a prompt. 

For example, you might note that you are fascinated by environmental justice, have had success in Model Congress, and are now working with a local politician to create a recycling program in your school district. You may also have tried previous initiatives that failed. These experiences could be constructed and applied to a number of Common App prompts. You could address a specific identity or interest you have associated with public advocacy, discuss what you learned from your failed initiatives, explore how you challenged the lack of recycling at your school, fantasize about solving waste management issues, etc. 

Selecting a prompt that you identify with

For example, consider the following prompt: 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?

Perhaps you had been a dedicated and active member of your school’s debate team until one of your parents lost their jobs, leaving you unable to afford the high membership and travel dues. You decided to help out by getting a job after school, and responded to your familial hardship with grace and understanding (as opposed to anger). A few months later, and after speaking with your former debate coach and your parents, you set up a system to save up for your own trips so that you could still participate in debate!

In general, the most common mistake CollegeVine sees with Common App essays is that they aren’t deeply personal. Your essay should be specific enough that it could be identified as yours even if your name wasn’t attached. 

If you get stuck, don’t worry! This is very common as the Common App is often the first personal essay college applicants have ever written. One way of getting unstuck if you feel like you aren’t getting creative or personal enough is to keep asking yourself “why”

For example: I love basketball…

• Because I like having to think on the fly and be creative while running our offense.

It can often help to work with someone and bounce ideas off them. Teachers are often a bad idea – they tend to think of essays in an academic sense, which is to say they often fail to apply the admissions context. Further, it is unlikely that they know you well enough to provide valuable insight. Friends in your own year can be a good idea because they know you, but you should be careful about competitive pressures applying within the same high school. Older friends, siblings, or neighbors who have successfully navigated the admissions process at your target universities (or good universities) strike that medium between no longer being competitive with you for admissions but still being able to help you brainstorm well because they know you.

Overall, there is no single “correct” topic. Your essay will be strong as long as you are comfortable and passionate about your idea and it answers the Core Four questions.

Common App essays are not traditional five-paragraph essays. You are free to be creative in structure, employ dialogue, and use vivid descriptions—and you should! Make sure that context and logic are inherent in your essay, however. From paragraph to paragraph, sentence to sentence, your ideas should be clear and flow naturally. Great ways to ensure this are using a story arc following a few major points, or focusing on cause and effect.

The traditional approach

This involves constructing a narrative out of your experiences and writing a classic personal essay. You are free to be creative in structure, employ dialogue, and use vivid descriptions—and you should! Make sure that context and logic are inherent in your essay, however. From paragraph to paragraph, sentence to sentence, your ideas should be clear and flow naturally. Great ways to ensure this are using a story arc following a few major points, or focusing on cause and effect.

The creative approach

Some students prefer to experiment with an entirely new approach to the personal essay. For example, a student who is passionate about programming could write their essay in alternating lines of Binary and English. A hopeful Literature major could reimagine a moment in their life as a chapter of War and Peace, adopting Tolstoy’s writing style. Or, you could write about a fight with your friend in the form of a third person sports recap to both highlight your interest in journalism and reveal a personal story. Creative essays are incredibly risky and difficult to pull off. However, a creative essay that is well executed may also have the potential for high reward.

Your Common App essay must display excellent writing in terms of grammar and sentence structure. The essay doesn’t need to be a Shakespearean masterpiece, but it should be well-written and clear.

A few tips to accomplish this are:

• Show, don’t tell
• Be specific
• Choose active voice, not passive voice
• Avoid clichés
• Write in a tone that aligns with your goals for the essay. For example, if you are a heavy STEM applicant hoping to use your Common App essay to humanize your application, you will be undermined by writing in a brusque, harsh tone.

“Show, don’t tell” is vital to writing an engaging essay, and this is the point students struggle with most.  Instead of saying, “I struggled to make friends when I transferred schools,” you can show your emotions by writing, “I scanned the bustling school cafeteria, feeling more and more forlorn with each unfamiliar face. I found an empty table and ate my lunch alone.”

In many cases, writing can include more specific word choice . For example, “As a kid, I always played basketball,” can be improved to be “Every day after school as a kid, I ran home, laced up my sneakers, and shot a basketball in my driveway until the sun went down and I could barely see.”

To use active voice over passive voice , be sure that your sentence’s subject performs the action indicated by the verb, rather than the action performing onto the subject. Instead of writing “this project was built by my own hands,” you would say “I built this project with my own hands.”

Finally, avoid clichés like adages, sayings, and quotes that do not bring value to your essay. Examples include phrases like “Be the change you wish to see in the world” (it’s also important to know that sayings like these are often seriously misquoted—Gandhi did not actually utter these words) and lavish claims like “it was the greatest experience of my life.”

A few tips for the writing (and re-writing!) process

• If you have enough time, write a 950 word version of your personal statement first and then cut it down to the official word limit of 650. In many cases, the extra writing you do for this draft will contain compelling content. Using this, you can carve out the various sections and information that allow you to tell your story best. 
• Revise your draft 3-5 times. Any more, you are probably overthinking and overanalyzing. Any less, you are not putting in the work necessary to optimize your Common App essay.
• It can be easy for you to get lost in your words after reading and rereading, writing and rewriting. It is best to have someone else do your final proofread to help you identify typos or sentences that are unclear.

Deciding on a Prompt

This section provides insights and examples for each of the 7 Common App essay prompts for the 2024-2025 cycle. Each of these prompts lends itself to distinct topics and strategies, so selecting the prompt that best aligns with your idea is essential to writing an effective Common App essay.

Here are this year’s prompts (click the link to jump to the specific prompt):

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..

This prompt offers an opportunity to engage with your favorite extracurricular or academic subject, and it allows you to weave a narrative that displays personal growth in that area. An essay that displays your personality and a unique interest can be attention-grabbing, particularly if you have an unconventional passion, such as blogging about Chinese basketball or unicycling.

Don’t feel intimidated if you don’t have a passion that is immediately “unique,” however. Even an interest like “arctic scuba diving” will fail as an essay topic if it’s not written with insight and personality. Instead of attempting to impress the Admissions Officer by making up unusual or shocking things, think about how you spend your free time and ask yourself why you spend it that way. Also think about your upbringing, identity, and experiences and ask yourself, “What has impacted me in a meaningful way?”

Here Are A Few Response Examples:

Background – A person’s background includes experiences, training, education, and culture. You can discuss the experience of growing up, interacting with family, and how relationships have molded who you are. A background can include long-term interactions with arts, music, sciences, sports, writing, and many other learned skills. Background also includes your social environments and how they’ve influenced your perception. In addition, you can highlight intersections between multiple backgrounds and show how each is integral to you.

One student wrote about how growing up in a poor Vietnamese immigrant family inspired her to seize big opportunities, even if they were risky or challenging. She describes the emotional demand of opening and running a family grocery store. (Note: Names have been changed to protect the identity of the author and subjects in all the examples.)

The callouses on my mother’s hands formed during the years spent scaling fish at the  market in Go Noi, Vietnam. My mother never finished her formal education because she  labored on the streets to help six others survive. Her calloused hands not only scaled fish, they  also slaved over the stove, mustering a meal from the few items in the pantry. This image  resurfaces as I watch my mother’s calloused hands wipe her sweat-beaded forehead while she  manages the family business, compiling resources to provide for the family. 

Living in an impoverished region of Vietnam pushed my parents to emigrate. My two  year-old memory fails me, but my mother vividly recounts my frightened eyes staring up at her on my first plane ride. With life packed into a single suitcase, my mother’s heart, though,  trembled more than mine. Knowing only a few words of English, my mother embarked on a  journey shrouded in a haze of uncertainty. 

Our initial year in America bore an uncanny resemblance to Vietnam – from making one  meal last the entire day to wearing the same four shirts over and over again. Through thin walls, I  heard my parents debating their decision to come to the United States, a land where they knew  no one. My grandparents’ support came in half-hearted whispers cracking through long-distance  phone calls. My dad’s scanty income barely kept food on the table. We lived on soup and rice for  what seemed an interminable time. 

However, an opportunity knocked on my parents’ door: a grocery store in the town of  Decatur, Mississippi, was up for rent. My parents took the chance, risking all of their savings.  To help my parents, I spent most of my adolescent afternoons stocking shelves, mopping floors,  and even translating. My parents’ voices wavered when speaking English; through every attempt to communicate with their customers, a language barrier forged a palpable presence in each  transaction. My parents’ spirits faltered as customers grew impatient. A life of poverty awaited us in Vietnam if the business was not successful. 

On the first day, the business brought in only twenty dollars. Twenty dollars. My mother and my father wept after they closed the shop. Seeing the business as a failure, my mom commenced her packing that night; returning to Vietnam seemed inevitable. 

The next business day, however, sales increased ten-fold. More and more customers  came each successive day. My mom’s tears turned into—well, more tears, but they were tears of  joy. My mother unpacked a bag each night. 

Fifteen years later, my parents now own Blue Bear Grocery. My parents work, work,  work to keep the shelves stocked and the customers coming. The grocery store holds a special  place in my heart: it is the catalyst for my success. My parents serve as my role-models, teaching  me a new lesson with every can placed on the shelf. One lesson that resurfaces is the importance  of pursuing a formal education, something that my parents never had the chance of. 

When the opportunity to attend the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science  (MSMS) presented itself, I took it and ran, as did my parents by leaving Vietnam and by buying  the store. Although I am not managing hundreds of products, I am managing hundreds of  assignments at MSMS – from Mu Alpha Theta tutoring to lab reports to student government to British literature. 

Had I not immigrated, my hands would be calloused from the tight grip of the knife  scaling fish rather than from the tight grip on my pencil. My hands would be calloused from scrubbing my clothes covered in fish scales rather than from long hours spent typing a research paper. 

Although the opportunities that my parents and I pursued are different, our journey is  essentially the same: we walk a road paved with uncertainty and doubt with the prospect of success fortified by our hearts and our hands.

Identity – this can mean 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 remember the audience (college admissions counselors often lean progressive politically), so this might not be the best place to make sweeping claims about today’s state of race relations. However, reflecting on how your culture has shaped your experiences can make for a compelling essay. Alternatively, focusing on a dominant personality trait can also make for a compelling theme. For example, if you’re extremely outgoing, you could explain how your adventurousness has allowed you to learn from a diverse group of friends and the random situations you find yourself in. One important thing to note: the topic of identity can easily lack originality if you cover a common experience such as feeling divided between cultures, or coming out. If such experiences are integral to who you are, you should still write about them, but be sure to show us your unique introspection and reflection.

One student detailed how growing up as an American in Germany led to feelings of displacement. Moving to America in high school only exacerbated her feelings of rootlessness. Her transcultural experiences, however, allowed her to relate to other “New Americans,” particularly refugees. Helping a young refugee girl settle into the US eventually helped the writer find home in America as well:

Growing up, I always wanted to eat, play, visit, watch, and be it all: sloppy joes and spaetzle, Beanie Babies and Steiff, Cape Cod and the Baltic Sea, football and fussball, American and German. 

My American parents relocated our young family to Berlin when I was three years old. My exposure to America was limited to holidays spent stateside and awfully dubbed Disney Channel broadcasts. As the few memories I had of living in the US faded, my affinity for Germany grew. I began to identify as “Germerican,” an ideal marriage of the two cultures. As a child, I viewed my biculturalism as a blessing. I possessed a native fluency in “Denglisch” and my family’s Halloween parties were legendary at a time when the holiday was just starting to gain popularity outside of the American Sector. 

Insidiously, the magic I once felt in loving two homes was replaced by a deep­rooted sense of rootlessness. I stopped feeling American when, while discussing World War II with my grandmother, I said “the US won.” She corrected me, insisting I use “we” when referring to the US’s actions. Before then, I hadn’t realized how directly people associated themselves with their countries. I stopped feeling German during the World Cup when my friends labeled me a “bandwagon fan” for rooting for Germany. Until that moment, my cheers had felt sincere. I wasn’t part of the “we” who won World Wars or World Cups. Caught in a twilight of foreign and familiar, I felt emotionally and psychologically disconnected from the two cultures most familiar to me. 

After moving from Berlin to New York state at age fifteen, my feelings of cultural homelessness thrived in my new environment. Looking and sounding American furthered my feelings of dislocation. Border patrol agents, teachers, classmates, neighbors, and relatives all “welcomed me home” to a land they could not understand was foreign to me. Americans confused me as I relied on Urban Dictionary to understand my peers, the Pledge of Allegiance seemed nationalistic, and the only thing familiar about Fahrenheit was the German after whom it was named. Too German for America and too American for Germany, I felt alienated from both. I wanted desperately to be a member of one, if not both, cultures. 

During my first weeks in Buffalo, I spent my free time googling “Berlin Family Seeks Teen” and “New Americans in Buffalo.” The latter search proved most fruitful: I discovered New Hope, a nonprofit that empowers resettled refugees, or “New Americans,” to thrive. I started volunteering with New Hope’s children’s programs, playing with and tutoring young refugees. 

It was there that I met Leila, a twelve-­year-­old Iraqi girl who lived next to Hopeprint. In between games and snacks, Leila would ask me questions about American life, touching on everything from Halloween to President Obama. Gradually, my confidence in my American identity grew as I recognized my ability to answer most of her questions. American culture was no longer completely foreign to me. I found myself especially qualified to work with young refugees; my experience growing up in a country other than that of my parents’ was similar enough to that of the refugee children New Hope served that I could empathize with them and offer advice. Together, we worked through conflicting allegiances, homesickness, and stretched belonging. 

Forging a special, personal bond with young refugees proved a cathartic outlet for my insecurities as it taught me to value my past. My transculturalism allowed me to help young refugees integrate into American life, and, in doing so, I was able to adjust myself. Now, I have an appreciation of myself that I never felt before. “Home” isn’t the digits in a passport or ZIP code but a sense of contentedness. By helping a young refugee find comfort, happiness, and home in America, I was finally able to find those same things for myself.

The above essay was written by Lydia Schooler, a graduate of Yale University and one of our CollegeVine advisors. If you enjoyed this essay and are looking for expert college essay and admissions advice, consider booking a session with Lydia .

Interests – Interest are basically synonymous to activities, but slightly broader (you could say that interests encompass activities); participation in an interest is often less organized than in an activity. For instance, you might consider cross country an activity, but cooking an interest. Writing about an interest is a way to highlight passions that may not come across in the rest of your application. If you’re a wrestler for example, writing about your interest in stand-up comedy would be a refreshing addition to your application. You should also feel free to use this topic to show what an important activity on your application really means to you. Keep in mind, however, that many schools will ask you to describe one of your activities in their supplemental essays (usually about 250 words), so choose strategically—you don’t want to write twice on the same thing.

Read a successful essay answering this prompt.

This prompt lends itself to consideration of what facets of your personality allow you to overcome adversity. While it’s okay to choose a relatively mundane “failure” such as not winning an award at a Model UN conference, another (perhaps more powerful) tactic is to write about a foundational failure and assess its impact on your development thereafter.

There are times in life when your foundation is uprooted. There are times when you experience failure and you want to give up since you don’t see a solution. This essay is about your response when you are destabilized and your actions when you don’t see an immediate answer.

For example, if you lost a friend due to an argument, you can analyze the positions from both sides, evaluate your decisions, and identify why you were wrong. The key is explaining your thought process and growth following the event to highlight how your thinking has changed. Did you ever admit your fault and seek to fix the problem? Have you treated others differently since then? How has the setback changed the way you view arguments and fights now? Framing the prompt in this way allows you to tackle heavier questions about ethics and demonstrate your self-awareness.

If you haven’t experienced a “big” failure, another angle to take would be to discuss smaller, repeated failures that are either linked or similar thematically. For example, if you used to stutter or get nervous in large social groups, you could discuss the steps you took to find a solution. Even if you don’t have a massive foundational challenge to write about, a recurring challenge can translate to a powerful essay topic, especially if the steps you took to overcome this repeated failure help expose your character.

One student described his ignorance of his brother’s challenges — the writer assumed that because his brother Sam was sociable, Sam  was adjusting fine to their family’s move. After an angry outburst from Sam  and a long late-night conversation, the writer realizes his need to develop greater sensitivity and empathy. He now strives to recognize and understand others’ struggles, even if they’re not immediately apparent.

“You ruined my life!” After months of quiet anger, my brother finally confronted me. To my shame, I had been appallingly ignorant of his pain.

Despite being twins, Max and I are profoundly different. Having intellectual interests from a young age that, well, interested very few of my peers, I often felt out of step in comparison with my highly-social brother. Everything appeared to come effortlessly for Max and, while we share an extremely tight bond, his frequent time away with friends left me feeling more and more alone as we grew older.

When my parents learned about The Green Academy, we hoped it would be an opportunity for me to find not only an academically challenging environment, but also – perhaps more importantly – a community. This meant transferring the family from Drumfield to Kingston. And while there was concern about Max, we all believed that given his sociable nature, moving would be far less impactful on him than staying put might be on me.

As it turned out, Green Academy was everything I’d hoped for. I was ecstatic to discover a group of students with whom I shared interests and could truly engage. Preoccupied with new friends and a rigorous course load, I failed to notice that the tables had turned. Max, lost in the fray and grappling with how to make connections in his enormous new high school, had become withdrawn and lonely. It took me until Christmas time – and a massive argument – to recognize how difficult the transition had been for my brother, let alone that he blamed me for it.

Through my own journey of searching for academic peers, in addition to coming out as gay when I was 12, I had developed deep empathy for those who had trouble fitting in. It was a pain I knew well and could easily relate to. Yet after Max’s outburst, my first response was to protest that our parents – not I – had chosen to move us here. In my heart, though, I knew that regardless of who had made the decision, we ended up in Kingston for my benefit. I was ashamed that, while I saw myself as genuinely compassionate, I had been oblivious to the heartache of the person closest to me. I could no longer ignore it – and I didn’t want to.

We stayed up half the night talking, and the conversation took an unexpected turn. Max opened up and shared that it wasn’t just about the move. He told me how challenging school had always been for him, due to his dyslexia, and that the ever-present comparison to me had only deepened his pain.

We had been in parallel battles the whole time and, yet, I only saw that Max was in distress once he experienced problems with which I directly identified. I’d long thought Max had it so easy – all because he had friends. The truth was, he didn’t need to experience my personal brand of sorrow in order for me to relate – he had felt plenty of his own.

My failure to recognize Max’s suffering brought home for me the profound universality and diversity of personal struggle; everyone has insecurities, everyone has woes, and everyone – most certainly – has pain. I am acutely grateful for the conversations he and I shared around all of this, because I believe our relationship has been fundamentally strengthened by a deeper understanding of one another. Further, this experience has reinforced the value of constantly striving for deeper sensitivity to the hidden struggles of those around me. I won’t make the mistake again of assuming that the surface of someone’s life reflects their underlying story.

This prompt is difficult to answer because most high schoolers haven’t participated in the types of iconoclastic protests against societal ills that lend themselves to an awe-inspiring response. A more tenable alternative here could be to discuss a time that you went against social norms, whether it was by becoming friends with someone who seemed like an outcast or by proudly showing off a geeky passion.

And if you ever participated in a situation in tandem with adults and found some success (i.e., by blogging, starting a tutoring organization, or participating in political campaigns), you could discuss your experiences as a young person without a college degree in professional circles. However, avoid sounding morally superior (as if you’re the only person who went against this convention, or that you’re better than your peers for doing so).

Another way to answer this prompt is to discuss a time when you noticed a need for change. For example, if you wondered why medical records are often handwritten, or why a doctor’s visit can be long and awkward, maybe you challenged the norm in healthcare by brainstorming an electronic-recording smartphone app or a telemedicine system. In a similar way, if you led a fundraiser and recognized that advertising on social media would be more effective than the traditional use of printed flyers, you could write about a topic along those lines as well. Focus on what action or experience caused you to recognize the need for change and follow with your actions and resulting outcome.

As a whole, this prompt lends itself to reflective writing, and more specifically, talking the reader through your thought processes. In many cases, the exploration of your thought processes and decision-making is more important than the actual outcome or concept in question. In short, this essay is very much about “thinking,” rumination, and inquisition. A good brainstorming exercise for this prompt would be to write your problem on a sheet of paper and then develop various solutions to the problem, including a brief reason for justification. The more thorough you are in justifying and explaining your solutions in the essay, the more compelling your response will be.

While this prompt may seem to be asking a simple question, your answer has the potential to provide deep insights about who you are to the admissions committee. Explaining what you are grateful for can show them your culture, your community, your philosophical outlook on the world, and what makes you tick. 

The first step to writing this essay is to think about the “something” and “someone” of your story. It is imperative to talk about a unique moment in your life, as the prompt asks for gratitude that came about in a surprising way. You will want to write about a story that you are certain no one else would have. To brainstorm, ask yourself: “if I told a stranger that I was grateful for what happened to me without any context, would they be surprised?” 

Note that the most common answers to this prompt involve a family member, teacher, or sports coach giving the narrator an arduous task ─ which, by the end of the story, the narrator becomes grateful for because of the lessons they learned through their hard work. Try to avoid writing an essay along these lines unless you feel that your take on it will be truly original.

Begin your essay by telling a creative story about the “something” that your “someone” did that made you thankful. Paint a picture with words here ─ establish who you were in the context of your story and make the character development of your “someone” thorough. Show the admissions committee that you have a clear understanding of yourself and the details of your world. 

Keep in mind, however, that the essay is ultimately about you and your growth. While you should set the scene clearly, don’t spend too much time talking about the “something” and “someone.”

Your story should then transition into a part about your unexpected epiphany, e.g. “Six months after Leonard gave me that pogo stick, I started to be grateful for the silly thing…” Explain the why of your gratitude as thoroughly as you can before you begin to talk about how your gratitude affected or motivated you. Have a Socratic seminar with yourself in your head ─ ask yourself, “why am I grateful for the pogo stick?” and continue asking why until you arrive at a philosophical conclusion. Perhaps your reason could be that you eventually got used to the odd looks that people gave you as you were pogoing and gained more self-confidence. 

Finally, think about how learning to be grateful for something you would not expect to bring you joy and thankfulness has had a positive impact on your life. Gaining more self-confidence, for example, could motivate you to do an infinite number of things that you were not able to attempt in the past. Try to make a conclusion by connecting this part to your story from the beginning of the essay. You want to ultimately show that had [reference to a snippet of your introduction, ideally an absurd part] never have happened, you would not be who you are today.

Remember to express these lessons implicitly through the experiences in your essay, and not explicitly. Show us your growth through the changes in your life rather than simply stating that you gained confidence. For instance, maybe the pogo stick gift led you to start a pogo dance team at your school, and the team went on to perform at large venues to raise money for charity. But before your pogo days, you had crippling stage fright and hated even giving speeches in your English class. These are the kinds of details that make your essay more engaging. 

This prompt is expansive in that you can choose any accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked personal growth or new understanding.

One option is to discuss a formal accomplishment or event (whether it is a religious ritual or social rite of passage) that reflects personal growth. If you go this route, make sure to discuss why the ritual was meaningful and how specific aspects of said ritual contributed to your personal growth. An example of this could be the meaning of becoming an Eagle Scout to you, the accomplishment of being elected to Senior Leadership, or completing a Confirmation. In the case of religious topics, however, be sure to not get carried away with details, and focus on the nature of your personal growth and new understanding — know your audience.

Alternatively, a more relaxed way to address this prompt is using an informal event or realization, which would allow you to show more personality and creativity. An example of this could be learning how to bake with your mother, thus sparking a newfound connection with her, allowing you to learn about her past. Having a long discussion about life or philosophy with your father could also suffice, thus sparking more thoughts about your identity. You could write about a realization that caused you to join a new organization or quit an activity you did not think you would enjoy, as doing so would force you to grow out of your comfort zone to try new things.

The key to answering this prompt is clearly defining what it is that sparked your growth, and then describing in detail the nature of this growth and how it related to your perception of yourself and others. This part of the essay is crucial, as you must dedicate sufficient time to not undersell the description of how you grew instead of simply explaining the experience and then saying, “I grew.” This description of how you grew must be specific, in-depth, and it does not have to be simple. Your growth can also be left open-ended if you are still learning from your experiences today.

One student wrote about how her single mother’s health crisis prompted her to quickly assume greater responsibility as a fourteen-year-old. This essay describes the new tasks she undertook, as well as how the writer now more greatly cherishes her time with her mother.

Tears streamed down my face and my mind was paralyzed with fear. Sirens blared, but the silent panic in my own head was deafening. I was muted by shock. A few hours earlier, I had anticipated a vacation in Washington, D.C., but unexpectedly, I was rushing to the hospital behind an ambulance carrying my mother. As a fourteen-year-old from a single mother household, without a driver’s license, and seven hours from home, I was distraught over the prospect of losing the only parent I had. My fear turned into action as I made some of the bravest decisions of my life. 

Three blood transfusions later, my mother’s condition was stable, but we were still states away from home, so I coordinated with my mother’s doctors in North Carolina to schedule the emergency operation that would save her life. Throughout her surgery, I anxiously awaited any word from her surgeon, but each time I asked, I was told that there had been another complication or delay. Relying on my faith and positive attitude, I remained optimistic that my mother would survive and that I could embrace new responsibilities.

My mother had been a source of strength for me, and now I would be strong for her through her long recovery ahead. As I started high school, everyone thought the crisis was over, but it had really just started to impact my life. My mother was often fatigued, so I assumed more responsibility, juggling family duties, school, athletics, and work. I made countless trips to the neighborhood pharmacy, cooked dinner, biked to the grocery store, supported my concerned sister, and provided the loving care my mother needed to recover. I didn’t know I was capable of such maturity and resourcefulness until it was called upon. Each day was a stage in my gradual transformation from dependence to relative independence.

Throughout my mother’s health crisis, I matured by learning to put others’ needs before my own. As I worried about my mother’s health, I took nothing for granted, cherished what I had, and used my daily activities as motivation to move forward. I now take ownership over small decisions such as scheduling daily appointments and managing my time but also over major decisions involving my future, including the college admissions process. Although I have become more independent, my mother and I are inseparably close, and the realization that I almost lost her affects me daily. Each morning, I wake up ten minutes early simply to eat breakfast with my mother and spend time with her before our busy days begin. I am aware of how quickly life can change. My mother remains a guiding force in my life, but the feeling of empowerment I discovered within myself is the ultimate form of my independence. Though I thought the summer before my freshman year would be a transition from middle school to high school, it was a transformation from childhood to adulthood.

This prompt allows you to expand and deepen a seemingly small or simple idea, topic, or concept. One example could be “stars,” in that you could describe stargazing as a child, counting them, recognizing constellations, and then transforming that initial captivation into a deeper appreciation of the cosmos as a whole, spurring a love of astronomy and physics.

Another example could be “language,” discussing how it has evolved and changed over the course of history, how it allows you to look deeper into different cultures, and how learning different languages stretches the mind. A tip for expanding on these topics and achieving specificity is to select particular details of the topic that you find intriguing and explain why.

For example, if you’re passionate about cooking or baking, you could use specific details by explaining, in depth, the intricate attention and artistry necessary to make a dish or dessert. You can delve into why certain spices or garnishes are superior in different situations, how flavors blend well together and can be mixed creatively, or even the chemistry differences between steaming, searing, and grilling.

Regardless of your topic, this prompt provides a great opportunity to display writing prowess through elegant, specific descriptions that leverage sensory details. Describing the beauty of the night sky, the rhythms and sounds of different languages, or the scent of a crème brûlée shows passion and captivation in a very direct, evocative way.

The key to writing this essay is answering the question of why something captivates you instead of simply ending with “I love surfing.” A tip would be to play off your senses (for applicable topics), think about what you see, feel, smell, hear, and taste.

In the case of surfing, the salty water, weightlessness of bobbing over the waves, and fresh air could cater to senses. Alternatively, for less physical topics, you can use a train of thought and descriptions to show how deeply and vividly your mind dwells on the topic.

Well-executed trains of thought or similar tactics are successful ways to convey passion for a certain topic. To answer what or who you turn to when you want to learn more, you can be authentic and honest—if it’s Wikipedia, a teacher, friend, YouTube Channel, etc., you simply have to show how you interact with the medium.

When brainstorming this particular essay, a tip would be to use a web diagram, placing the topic in the middle and thinking about branching characteristics, themes, or concepts related to the topic that are directly engaging and captivating to you. In doing so, you’ll be able to gauge the depth of the topic and whether it will suffice for this prompt.

In the following example, a student shares their journey as they learn to appreciate a piece of their culture’s cuisine.

As a wide-eyed, naive seven-year-old, I watched my grandmother’s rough, wrinkled hands pull and knead mercilessly at white dough until the countertop was dusted in flour. She steamed small buns in bamboo baskets, and a light sweetness lingered in the air. Although the mantou looked delicious, their papery, flat taste was always an unpleasant surprise. My grandmother scolded me for failing to finish even one, and when I complained about the lack of flavor she would simply say that I would find it as I grew older. How did my adult relatives seem to enjoy this Taiwanese culinary delight while I found it so plain?

During my journey to discover the essence of mantou, I began to see myself the same way I saw the steamed bun. I believed that my writing would never evolve beyond a hobby and that my quiet nature crippled my ambitions. Ultimately, I thought I had little to offer the world. In middle school, it was easy for me to hide behind the large personalities of my friends, blending into the background and keeping my thoughts company. Although writing had become my emotional outlet, no matter how well I wrote essays, poetry, or fiction, I could not stand out in a sea of talented students. When I finally gained the confidence to submit my poetry to literary journals but was promptly rejected, I stepped back from my work to begin reading from Whitman to Dickinson, Li-Young Lee to Ocean Vuong. It was then that I realized I had been holding back a crucial ingredient–my distinct voice. 

Over time, my taste buds began to mature, as did I. Mantou can be flavored with pork and eggplant, sweetened in condensed milk, and moistened or dried by the steam’s temperature. After I ate the mantou with each of these factors in mind, I noticed its environment enhanced a delicately woven strand of sweetness beneath the taste of side dishes: the sugar I had often watched my grandmother sift into the flour. The taste was nearly untraceable, but once I grasped it I could truly begin to cherish mantou. In the same way the taste had been lost to me for years, my writer’s voice had struggled to shine through because of my self-doubt and fear of vulnerability.

As I acquired a taste for mantou, I also began to strengthen my voice through my surrounding environment. With the support of my parents, peer poets, and the guidance of Amy Tan and the Brontё sisters, I worked tirelessly to uncover my voice: a subtle strand of sweetness. Once I stopped trying to fit into a publishing material mold and infused my uninhibited passion for my Taiwanese heritage into my writing, my poem was published in a literary journal. I wrote about the blatant racism Asians endured during coronavirus, and the editor of Skipping Stones Magazine was touched by both my poem and my heartfelt letter. I opened up about being ridiculed for bringing Asian food to school at Youth Leadership Forum, providing support to younger Asian-American students who reached out with the relief of finding someone they could relate to. I embraced writing as a way to convey my struggle with cultural identity. I joined the school’s creative writing club and read my pieces in front of an audience, honing my voice into one that flourishes out loud as well.

Now, I write and speak unapologetically, falling in love with a voice that I never knew I had. It inspires passion within my communities and imparts tenacity to Asian-American youth, rooting itself deeply into everything I write. Today, my grandmother would say that I have finally unearthed the taste of mantou as I savor every bite with a newfound appreciation. I can imagine her hands shaping the dough that has become my voice, and I am eager to share it with the world.

Your GPA and SAT don’t tell the full admissions story

We’ll let you know what your chances are at your dream schools!

This prompt allows you to express what you want to express if it doesn’t align directly with the other prompts. While this prompt is very open-ended, it doesn’t mean you can adapt any essay you’ve written and think it will suffice. Always refer back to the Strategy section of this article and make sure the topic and essay of your choice addresses the Core Four questions necessary for a good Common App essay.

This prompt, more than the others, poses a high risk but also a high-potential reward. Writing your own question allows you to demonstrate individuality and confidence. Here, you can craft an innovative essay that tackles a difficult topic (for example, whether to raise or lower taxes) or presents information with a unique format (such as a conversation with an historical figure).

We encourage you to try something unconventional for this prompt, like comparing your personality to a Picasso painting, using an extended philosophical metaphor to describe your four years of high school, or writing in a poetic style to display your love of poetry. If you are extremely passionate about a topic or an expert in a certain area, for example Renaissance technology or journalism during World War II, you can use this prompt to show your authority on a subject by discussing it at a high level.

Be careful to frame the essay in a way that is accessible to the average reader while still incorporating quality evidence and content that would qualify you as an expert. As always, exercise caution in writing about controversial social or political topics, and always make sure to consider your audience and what they’re looking for in a student.

Sometimes an unconventional essay can capture Admissions Officers’ attention and move them in a profound way; other times, the concept can fly completely over their heads. Be sure to execute the essay clearly and justify your decision by seeking high-quality feedback from reliable sources. As always, the essay should demonstrate something meaningful about you, whether it is your personality, thought process, or values.

Here’s what the experts have to say about this prompt…

This prompt, like the others, is really asking you to tell the story of who you are. Your essay should be personal and should talk about something significant that has shaped your identity.

Here are a few broad themes that can work well: academic interest; culture, values, and diversity; extracurricular interests; and your impact on the community. You should highlight one of these themes using creative, vividly descriptive narrative. Make sure to not fall into the common pitfall of talking about something else -- an extracurricular activity, for example -- more than yourself.

A student I advised had a great idea to respond to this prompt -- an essay about how they do their best thinking while sitting on a tree branch near their home. Not only was it unique and personal, but it allowed the student to show what they think about, dream about, and value. That's the main goal for any applicant responding to prompt 7.

Alex Oddo Advisor on CollegeVine

All of the Common App prompts are broad in scope, but this one really takes the cake! I typically advise using the first six prompts as guardrails for your brainstorm, but in doing so, you may come up with a topic that doesn’t cleanly fit with any of the first six prompts. That’s where this prompt can come in handy.

Or, you might have an idea that’s really out there (like writing about your love of sonnets as a series of sonnets). Essentially, this prompt is a good fit for essays that are anywhere from slightly unconventional to extremely atypical.

If this all feels a bit confusing - don’t worry! How you write your story is much more important than what prompt you end up choosing. At the end of the day, these are just guides to help you cultivate a topic and are not meant to stress you out.

Priya Desai Advisor on CollegeVine

Students who want to complete the CommonApp’s seventh prompt need to have already gone through the other prompts and determined that their story cannot fit with those. Thus, generally speaking, I advise my students to not use the final prompt unless it is absolutely necessary.

If an admission officer believes that your essay could have been used with one of the other prompts, this may lead them to have a perception about you as a student that might not be accurate.

Nevertheless, as my colleagues have pointed out, what matters is the essay the most and not necessarily the prompt. That being said, the test of whether or not you as a student can follow directions is part of the prompt selection and how well you answer it. If you choose the final prompt and yet your answer could work with another available prompt, this will not put you in your best light.

In conclusion, only use this prompt when absolutely necessary, and remember that the purpose of the personal statement is to give the admissions officers a glimpse into who you are as a person, so you want to use this space to showcase beautiful you.

Veronica Prout Advisor on CollegeVine

Where to get your common app essay edited.

At selective schools, your essays account for around 25% of your admissions decision. That’s more than grades (20%) and test scores (15%), and almost as much as extracurriculars (30%). Why is this? Most students applying to top schools will have stellar academics and extracurriculars. Your essays are your chance to stand out and humanize your application. That’s why it’s vital that your essays are engaging, and present you as someone who would enrich the campus community.

Before submitting your application, you should have someone else review your essays. That’s why we created our free  Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools.  Find the right advisor for you  to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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CollegeVine's essay prompt database

Find your college’s application essay prompts for 2023-24

Latest essay prompts for the top 100 schools.

At CollegeVine, our goal is to make the college application process a little less stressful, so we’ve compiled the latest essay prompts for the top 100 schools in one easy, searchable database.

Also, every year we create free guides on “ How to Write X School’s Essays ” for the top 100 schools. In these guides, we give you tips and tricks on how to approach each prompt. As such, our prompt database also contains a link to each school's Essay Breakdown.

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60+ College Essay Prompts From Actual 2023-2024 Applications

Ideas to inspire every college applicant.

Writing a college application essay can be a stressful task for a lot of students. The more practice they get in advance, the better! This roundup of college essay prompts gives applicants a chance to explore their thinking, polish their writing, and prepare to make the best possible impression on selection committees. Every one of these questions is taken from real college applications for the 2023-2024 season, so they’re meaningful and applicable to today’s high school seniors.

Common App 2023-2024 College Essay Prompts

2023-2024 coalition for college essay prompts, life experiences college essay prompts, personal college essay prompts, academics college essay prompts, creative college essay prompts.

Hundreds of colleges and universities use the Common App process . For many schools, this includes responding to one of several college essay topics, which can change each year. Here are the essay prompts for the current application cycle (check with your chosen school/s to see if an essay is required).

• 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.

More than 150 colleges and universities use the Coalition for College process . Here are their essay prompts for 2023-2024.

• Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.

• What interests or excites you? How does it shape who you are now or who you might become in the future?
• Describe a time when you had a positive impact on others. What were the challenges? What were the rewards?
• Has there been a time when an idea or belief of yours was questioned? How did you respond? What did you learn?
• What success have you achieved or obstacle have you faced? What advice would you give a sibling or friend going through a similar experience?

• Submit an essay on a topic of your choice.

Answer these questions by sharing specific examples from your own experience.

• Who is your favorite conversation partner? What do you discuss with that person?
• Discuss a time when reflection or introspection led to clarity or understanding of an issue that is important to you.
• Share an example of how you have used your own critical-thinking skills on a specific subject, project, idea, or interest.

• Describe a time when you were challenged by a perspective that differed from your own. How did you respond?
• What are the best words of advice you have received? Who shared them, and how have you applied them in your own life?
• Elaborate on an activity or experience you have had that made an impact on a community that is important to you.
• Using your personal, academic, or volunteer/work experiences, describe the topics or issues that you care about and why they are important to you.
• Who do you agree with on the big, important things, or who do you have your most interesting disagreements with? What are you agreeing or disagreeing about?
• Reflect on a personal experience where you intentionally expanded your cultural awareness.
• When was the last time you questioned something you had thought to be true?
• Discuss the significance to you of the school or summer activity in which you have been most involved.
• Reflect on a time when you or someone you observed had to make a choice about whether to act with integrity and honesty.
• Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.

• Describe a time you did not meet expectations and what impact the experience had on you.

These essay topics give schools a better sense of who you are, what you value, and the kind of student citizen you might be.

• What drives you to create, and what do you hope to make or have you made?
• Which book, character, song, monologue, or piece of work (fiction or nonfiction) seems made for you? Why?
• What would you want your future college roommate to know about you?
• How has your own background influenced the types of problems you want to solve, the people you want to work with, and the impact you hope your work can have?

• Describe any meaningful travel experiences you’ve had.
• What would you want to be different in your own country or community to further principles of equality, equity, or social justice?
• What strength or quality do you have that most people might not see or recognize?
• If you could live your life fighting for one cause, what would it be and why?
• What gives meaning to your life?
• If you wrote a letter to yourself to be opened in 20 years, what would it say?
• If you had the power to change the course of history in your community or the world, what would you do and why?

• Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it.
• What is the greatest compliment you have ever been given? Why was it meaningful to you?
• Explain how a text you’ve read—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or literature of any kind—has helped you to understand the world’s complexity.

Topics like these show your academic interests and demonstrate your commitment to learning and discovery.

• What does it mean to you to be educated?
• What is your motivation for pursuing higher education?
• Describe your reasons for wanting to attend the specific school you’re applying to. Who or what factored into your decision?
• Academic inquiry starts with bold questions. What are some of the bold questions you have pondered that get you excited, and why do they interest you?

• What has been your best academic experience in the last two years, and what made it so good?
• If you decide to take a “gap year” between high school and college, what would you do during that time?
• Many schools place a high value on diverse student populations. How can you contribute to and support a diverse and inclusive student population at your chosen school?
• Imagine you were just awarded a research grant for a project of your choice. What are you researching and why?
• What do you love about the subject(s) you selected as potential major(s)? If undecided, share more about one of your academic passions.

• Describe a time when you’ve felt empowered or represented by an educator.
• Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.

Use these college essay topics to show off your creativity and innovative thinking.

• You are tasked with creating a new category for the Nobel Prize. Explain what it would be, why you chose your specific category, and the criteria necessary to achieve this accomplishment.

• Pick one person—a historical figure, fictitious character, or modern individual—to converse with for an hour, and explain your choice.
• If you could witness a historic event (past, present, or future) firsthand, what would it be and why?
• If you could have a theme song, what would it be and why?
• Discuss a book that you would call a “great book.” What makes the book great in your view?
• If you could give any historical figure any piece of technology, who and what would it be, and why do you think they’d work so well together?
• If I could travel anywhere, I would go to …
• My favorite thing about last Tuesday was …
• Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge.
• If you had 10 minutes and the attention of a million people, what would your TED Talk be about?
• What are your three favorite words in the English language? Explain what they mean to you.
• Imagine that you could have one superpower. What would it be and how would you use it? What would be your kryptonite?

• Which Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor (real or imagined) best describes you?
• If you could create a college course that all students would take, what would it be about and why?
• What website is the internet missing?

How do you help your students prepare their college application essays? Come share your ideas and ask for advice in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, check out  the ultimate guide to college scholarships.

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Submit your ePortfolio or essay for award consideration

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To promote outstanding writing by Auburn students, University Writing invites submissions to two awards.

(1) The Outstanding ePortfolio Award recognizes the critical thinking, visual literacy, technical competency, and effective communication that make for excellent ePortfolios. (2) Offered in partnership with the Academic Sustainability Program, the Sustainability Essay Award prompts writers to consider the holistic nature of sustainability and their relationship with the physical environment.

Submissions for both awards are due on March 19, and  submission guidelines are available online. .

Submitted by: Layli Miron

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7 Common App Essay Prompts for 2023-2024

The Common App has seven essay prompts from which to choose. All of them ask you to respond to broad, open-ended questions or statements that relate to a period of personal growth, intellectual challenge, and/or problem-solving capacities. Note of the prompts seen as better or worse in the college admissions process.

Regardless of which prompt you choose, there are key elements that should appear in your essay. The most important is to tell a story of real personal importance, an event or experience that was truly meaningful to you. Then, you’ll need to explain why it mattered so much.

Beyond that, keep in mind the following:

• Narrate the story so readers know what you were thinking at the time , not just what the story means to you now; really let readers inside your head.
• Don’t recap your resume; your extracurricular activities and transcript appear elsewhere in the application, and it’s a missed opportunity to just repeat them here.
• Look for moments of conflict rather than immediate triumph; admissions officers want to read about ethical dilemmas, moments of learning, and perseverance.
• Consider how your college essay will read to an admissions committee. They don’t know you at all, so make sure you’re coming across as friendly, likable, and thoughtful.
• Avoid clichés whenever possible. The best way to do that is to stick to specifics; writing about your individual experiences will keep your essay original.
• Finally, despite all this, don’t worry too much about the essay prompts! They may be helpful to brainstorm, but all of them are broad enough to encompass whatever story you most want to tell. Figure out what your story is, then choose the best fit prompt later. You may find a good match, but if not, there’s always “topic of your choice” (#7).

For the 2023-2024 college application cycle, there are seven different prompts for the Common App personal essay. Read on to understand what admissions officers are expecting from each prompt, as well as tips to ensure that you’ve written a truly great essay.

Common App Prompt #1: 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.

On its face, Prompt #1 seems like a straightforward diversity question, and high school students who don’t see themselves as having a diverse identity—or not wanting to write about it—may skip right over it. Yet, while certainly highlighting a particular identity is a valid and promising way to respond to this question, it’s actually much broader than the buzzwords suggest. Yes, the core of the essay is identity , but that is much broader than race, gender, or creed.

Background, identity, interest, and talent can encompass any and all aspect of a student’s life, from their family’s particular quirks to their favorite hobby. If there’s something about you that you feel is intrinsic—whether it’s where you’re from, what you look like, what you do for fun, what you’re passionate about, even your name—consider writing about it here.

Tips for Common Application Essay Prompt #1

When responding to Prompt #1, consider the following:

• What makes you, you? What factors of your identity are most important?
• Where did you come from, and why is that important to you now?
• What is a meaningful community in your life, one that is essential to your identity?
• What’s something you do that makes you feel the most like you?
• Why are you personally passionate about your area of academic interest?

Examples of Strong Essay Topics for Prompt #1

• A moment or series of moments related to your unusual familial background that had a profound effect on the way you approach and experience the world today.
• The (unexpected?) discovery of a hobby or talent that fundamentally reshaped your personal growth and/or started your journey of intellectual discovery.
• A meaningful anecdote about realizing that a particular piece of your identity, one that once felt awkward or uncomfortable, has made you stronger and wiser.

Common App Prompt #2: 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?

As you can tell from these essay questions, college admissions officers love reading about personal growth, and there’s no more direct way than to tackle head-on a story about a time that you failed and then got back up and tried again. While it seems counterintuitive to talk about a time you failed, this prompt actually offers a way to truly stand out. Admissions officers read about accomplishments for hours on end—how often do they hear about failures?

As you brainstorm, think about moments where you didn’t succeed, and then really consider how you eventually overcame, or are still trying. But remember: the central point of this essay should NOT be the ultimate triumph, but the process of learning and improving.

Tips for Common Application Essay Prompt #2

When responding to Prompt #2, consider the following:

• What is something that you have genuinely struggled with?
• What is a time you felt truly proud of yourself? When and why?
• What’s the hardest you ever worked at something, and what did you learn?
• Have your expectations for yourself changed over the years? How and why?
• How do you handle frustration? Where did you learn those skills?

Examples of Strong Essay Topics for Prompt #2

• A story about realizing that something important in your life was not working as you expected or hoped, and you made a change of your own accord.
• A period in which your life at home or at school was fundamentally disrupted and you learned essential coping, mediation, and/or leadership skills.
• A moment in which you hurt or offended someone close to you, and the subsequent period during which you improved yourself and made amends.

(Note: The most common type of essay admissions officers see for this prompt is the sports injury essay, a narrative of setback and eventual victory that is so common to have become a cliché. If you have a unique version of this, go for it, but otherwise beware!)

Common App Prompt #3: Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

In some ways this essay is a variation on Prompt #2, but instead of asking you to talk about a failure, it’s asking you to reflect on a time you were wrong. Like Prompt #2, Prompt #3 offers a golden opportunity to show your growth in a meaningful, introspective way. Higher education is all about being exposed to new ideas and questioning what you thought you knew, so there’s a lot of value in showing an admissions committee that you know how to do that.

While you may feel a temptation to write this essay entirely about discovering your intellectual passion, admissions officers prefer to see more introspection than that. This prompt is asking you to reflect on a time that one of your core beliefs about society was challenged by someone or something, and how you responded in the moment and afterward.

Tips for Common Application Essay Prompt #3

When responding to Prompt #3, consider the following:

• Has a friend or peer ever said you were wrong about something?
• Has a teacher ever said something that caused you to reconsider your beliefs?
• Have you ever had a crisis of faith, whether politically or spiritually?
• What’s an experience you had that wasn’t at all what you were expecting?
• Is there a question or idea that you’re still wrestling with today?

Examples of Strong Essay Topics for Prompt #3

• The first time you encountered a person or group of people who you expected to be one way, and the actual experience made you reconsider a much larger belief.
• Something you learned, in or outside the classroom, that challenged your previously held ideas and caused you to continue reading and exploring to learn more.
• An experience you had with a friend, peer, colleague, or even stranger that raised uncomfortable questions for you that you may still be wrestling with.

Common App Prompt #4: 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?

This prompt can be a great way to illustrate how you engage with other people in your life. Colleges are always curious to see how potential students will be active community members, and showing appreciation for friends, family members, teachers, peers, or other people who are presently part of your community can drive home how engaged you will be with others at your eventual college campus.

The tricky piece of this prompt is that it ostensibly focuses on something that  someone else has done for you. Your objective, therefore, will be to make sure that the essay still puts you and your goals front and center. Note the final question here: how did the gratitude affect or motivate you? What someone did for you is not meant to be the story here; what you did in response to that kindness is the real story.

Tips for Common Application Essay Prompt #4

When responding to Prompt #4, consider the following:

• What have you been inspired to do in response to others’ generosity or kindness?
• What’s the most fulfilling experience you’ve ever had engaging with your community?
• What kind of service work do you envision undertaking in college, and why?
• How do you make a difference?
• What was something nice you did for another person in response to something nice being done for you?

Examples of Strong Essay Topics for Prompt #4

• A story about how receiving a much-needed resource or piece of advice inspired you to pay it forward.
• An explanation of how you’ve started working to solve a particular social or political problem because of someone else’s influence on your life.
• A time when you took responsibility for something, big or small, because someone took responsibility for something for you.

Common App Prompt #5: Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Even though it’s buried at number five, this is the classic Common App prompt. Regardless of which prompt you answer, anything you write should basically follow the format of this one: a particular event or realization that led to personal growth. Although you may find inspiration in other prompts, the key words in this one – realization, personal growth, understanding of yourself – are themes that are essential to any successful Common App essay.

What distinguishes this prompt from the others is the focus on the moment. Whereas essays for other prompts might use a series of moments or a gradual realization, this prompt asks you to narrate a singular event that ultimately had a significant impact on the way you think and act. Thus, it’s the right prompt for you if you want to focus on one especially rich anecdote.

Tips for Common App Essay Prompt #5

When responding to Prompt #5, consider the following:

• What small but unexpected event has stuck in your mind over time?
• What’s the most meaningful conversation you ever had with a friend?
• Have you ever made a small decision that turned out to have a big impact?
• What do you know now that you didn’t before? How did you learn?
• How have you changed during the last year? Why is that?

Examples of Strong Essay Topics for Prompt #5

• A story about a time you decided to do something on a whim, only to ultimately find that it led you to one of the most profound learning experiences of your life.
• A conversation you had with a friend or family member that led to a bigger project, one that became especially meaningful and impactful to you or your community.
• The moment that a question or dilemma came into real focus for you, and you decided to undertake further research or service to pursue new, better answers.

Common App Prompt #6: 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?

This prompt is one of the newest entries to the Common Application, and it has the benefit of being both broad and creative. This is a prompt for students who can speak and write rapturously about something that interests them, whether it’s their area of academic focus or just something they find fascinating, from chess matches to bird watching.

There is a lot of room in this prompt to be creative, but keep in mind that by the end, college admissions officers need to have learned something about you, not just the topic. That means that, in addition to writing about why the subject is so captivating, you also need to explain why it’s meaningful to you, and what this passion says about your personality.

Tips for Common App Essay Prompt #6

When responding to Prompt #6, consider the following:

• When did you last lose yourself in an activity or hobby?
• What do you read or watch when you have total freedom to decide?
• What’s something you and your friends can talk about for hours on end?
• What big questions do you frequently find yourself pondering?
• What do you do to unwind and de-stress?

Examples of Strong Essay Topics for Prompt #6

• A reflection on how a particular activity that you can do for hours on end (hiking, doing puzzles, etc.) allows you to clear your mind and/or reenergize your body.
• A story about a time you completely lost yourself in a book or project, and how that experience changed the way you think about learning or knowledge.
• A meditation on an intellectual problem that you find especially fascinating, one that gives readers a sense of why it matters so much to you personally.

Prompt #7: 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.

The “topic of your choice” prompt was reintroduced to the Common Application in 2017 after a brief hiatus. This is the perfect choice for students who have a clear idea of the story they want to tell, but don’t see any other prompts that are a good fit for it. As stated previously, the most important thing a Common App essay can do is tell an authentic, personal, introspective story as well as you can. If it doesn’t fit into any of the prompts, so be it!

What you should not do for Prompt #7, even though it seems like it would fit, is submit an essay that you wrote for class, especially an analytical or research-based one. You certainly can revise something you wrote for a class if it meets the goals of a personal essay, but don’t shoehorn something else in. The best course of action is nearly always to write a new essay specifically tailored to the expectations of admissions committees.

Tips for Common Application Essay Prompt #7

If you decide to write an essay without using a prompt, just bear in mind the core strategies for a successful Common App essay:

• Tell a story with specific detail (sights, sounds) as well as your feelings at the time;
• Reflect on why this moment, event, passion, realization, etc., was meaningful to you;
• Look to the future and articulate how this experience will shape you going forward.

Final Thoughts

The Common Application essay isn’t the only writing you’ll be doing for your college applications; most schools also require supplemental essays that ask specific questions about the school or your background. But the Common App essay goes to every school on your list, and is often one of the first things admissions officers see. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and in many cases, the Common App essay is it.

That means you need to brainstorm many ideas; don’t necessarily settle for the first thing that comes to mind. Then, you’ll need to take some real time to draft it, making sure that you’ve presented a thoughtful and interesting piece. After that, be prepared to write several drafts. It takes time and effort to get this piece right. Consider getting some advice from someone who knows what admissions committees are looking for.

Finally, don’t get discouraged looking at these prompts! You may be thinking, I’m still in high school, what am I going to write about? But don’t worry – every person has a story to tell. Your Common App essay doesn’t have to deal with the biggest and most serious issues. In most cases, it’s actually better if it doesn’t. Instead, focus on what’s unique and distinctive about you, then find the best way to present it. And if you need help, just give us a call!

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Auburn University Early Action for Fall 2024 Admission

Same for our child - applied on 10/13, application complete 10/16, acceptance 10/20 - completely didn’t expect it.

Interesting…sounds like the pushed the whole process back. Last year, there were two “waves” of invites and acceptances, and a lot of kids knew if they were in before winter break. The essays prompts were a little out of the ordinary, so maybe it’s good applicants have some extra time to mull over them.

Essay prompts? We applied directly with AU NOT the Common App, a s recommended by our local AU Recruiter, and had no essay prompts. Applied - Sept 10th Application Showed Complete - Sept 13th Accepted Oct 13th Honors College Invite email to the “new” AU student email on Oct 16th. 1st Step Housing Completed on Oct 20th with a “timestamp” incoming for Nov 8th at the earliest.

I think Hlauburn is referring to the Honors application. I was just searching for the prompts and they are pretty specific.

what do you mean by “first step housing completed”? What first step?

I am wondering too as we were not able to do anything related to housing- it just says you will receive an email with a time slot beginning November 8th. There was no option to fill anything out or do anything else.

You had to go into the housing portal through your newly issued Auburn Email and affirm, state, etc. that you WANT on-campus housing for FALL 2024. If you do NOT you will not get the statement for when the portal opens on Nov 8th. Your entrance to the portal, at the earliest on Nov 8th, is DEPENDENT on the student affirming, stating, etc. that he/she wants ON-Campus housing.

I guess I’m calling that a step.

Step 1: activate your Auburn email to receive your housing application timeslot

Students will receive a timeslot to apply for housing once they have been accepted to the university. Timeslots will be sent to students’ Auburn email account and are randomly assigned to accepted students. Timeslots are generated via a lottery system and randomly assigned after each admissions acceptance round. Students can reference the Application Timeslot Notifications chart below for when to expect their timeslot email.

OK we did NOT see that option in his portal. We will have to look again.

There are 3 Links to click through: ONCE YOU ARE LOGGED IN

https://universityhousing.auburn.edu/

Then Click on “BLUE BOX” in the middle of the page that says Housing Studen Portal

Then Click on Fall 2024 - Spring 2025 Housing Application at the top of the page.

You will see “Term Selector” Academic Year 2024-2025 CLICK THE BLUE BOX “APPLY”

You are outside the range of your assigned time slot.

You are receiving this error because you are outside the range of your assigned timeslot. Please check your timeslot below.

According to our records, you have not been issued a timeslot to access the 2023-2024 New Applicant application. If you think this is an error, please contact our office by emailing [email protected] .

Please remember to check your Auburn email regularly for important housing information and updates.

Thank you and War Eagle!

Auburn University Housing

You are Good To GO. Keep checking your AU email for your entrance time to the housing portal.

If you do NOT go through these steps You have NOT declared your intent for on-campus housing.

I just got off the phone with University Housing. They confirmed that ALL incoming Freshman 2024 students will be receiving an email with instructions and a time slot to register for housing. All of them. If they do not want housing, they ignore the email. If they want to apply for housing, they log on during their designated time slot and follow the instructions. There is nothing to do before this other than make sure that the student has activated their Auburn portal with the duo factor authentication and has access the their Auburn emails. Hope this clarifies.

The slight nuance to this - since it sounds like this is the same thing they did last year - is the timing of all of that. I looked at my stuff for S23 and couldn’t find the specific dates but seem to recall the date you need to opt into housing, make deposits and housing selection was sometime in March. I could be slightly off on this but pretty sure it was before the 4/1 RD notice date a lot of schools have and definitely before the 5/1 student decision day deadline.

So either you need to be committed to Auburn as a choice pretty early on or risk that you’re going to make deposits to accept admission at AU and later withdraw if a better option comes in.

Yes it sounds like beginning 11/8 at earliest, register/apply for housing and pay $100 deposit. In March in order to do the rest (roommate, etc.) need to Commit. Really hoping he makes a decision before that. He likely will since the latest he’s hearing from schools is February and they are two not at the top of his list.

I activated my email but I don’t know where to go into the housing portal and affirm anything. Do you have a link?

@kungfulettuce see my comment upthread about housing- I called housing and they confirmed there is nothing to “do” other than make sure portal is set up and student is receiving Auburn emails to their portal.

There were some admits last Friday, maybe there will be today too? Hope so.

Did anyone ever receive the welcome to Auburn packet or anything like a letter?

We have not received anything yet

Ours arrived in the mail this morning. We’re in-state.

From the 10/13 acceptance round. Letter dated 10/18, postmarked 10/26.

Spoke too soon / came today

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Our Analysis of the 2023-2024 Supplemental Essay Prompts

This year's batch of supplemental essay prompts was released on august 1st. here's what those prompts reveal about the changing priorities at colleges and universities..

Thanks to the perceived essay loophole Chief Justice Roberts’ Supreme Court decision language created—establishing that students can write about racial identity when tied to other experiences and characteristics—there has been much speculation that colleges would scramble to add diversity-related questions to their applications. Now that the Common App has reset for 2023-24, we can see colleges’ new supplemental questions. Did this bear out? So far, we’d say: yes. Yes it did. Here are a few overall trends and changes we’re noticing in the 2023-2024 supplemental essay prompts.

An increase in DEIB-related essays

This comes as no surprise. It’s important to note that many colleges already had prompts that asked students to reflect on their identities, on their communities, or on how they would contribute to diverse campuses; schools like Duke, Michigan, and Syracuse have included questions like this on their supplements for years now. But other schools have made notable changes since June’s decision: University of Miami, for example, replaced their question about the ibis (which, admittedly, we are not terribly sad to see go); American University scrapped their “why AU?”; and UVA retooled the essay questions they had only just retooled last year (even though UVA’s Dean J admitted she really liked last year’s version).

Here are the new versions of those schools’ supplemental essay questions:

University of Miami

“Located within one of the most dynamic cities in the world, the University of Miami is a distinctive community with a variety of cultures, traditions, histories, languages, and backgrounds. The University of Miami is a values-based and purpose-driven postsecondary institution that embraces diversity and inclusivity in all its forms and strives to create a culture of belonging, where every person feels valued and has an opportunity to contribute. Please describe how your unique experiences, challenges overcome, or skills acquired would contribute to our distinctive University community.” (max 250 words)

American University

“At American University, Inclusive Excellence is a cornerstone of the academic experience for our students, and we deeply value the learning that is inspired by the diversity of backgrounds and life experiences that all our community members bring with them. Please share why you would like to join this community.” (max 150 words)

All Applicants (300 words or less):

“What about your background, perspective, or experience will serve as a source of strength for you or those around you at UVA?”

(…and read more about UVA’s new legacy-based optional question here ).

More choice for students

Many colleges who have introduced new questions have included these questions as one of several choices. BU, for example, introduced a new question—“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?”—but kept their classic “Why BU?” as an alternative option. Offering prompt choices—which schools like Tufts, Boston College, Villanova, Emory, and University of Richmond have done for quite some time—allows for students to write about their identities if they wish and on their own terms.

…Except at Harvard

As one of the defendants in the Supreme Court case, Harvard has lots of eyes on its post-SCOTUS decision making. Its response to the decision? Eliminating the previous optional (er, “optional”) essay and instituting five required essays. Very Harvard of them. And yes, one of them is directly about diversity:

“Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a diverse student body. How will the life experiences that shape who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard?”

Less emphasis on “why us?” essays

While this isn’t true everywhere, we saw a few surprising changes at some “why us?” stalwarts. Perhaps most notably, Tulane’s “why us?” essay—which, for many years, famously had an 800-word limit—is now a mere 250. And while last year Tulane had three different robust supplemental essay questions, now it’s just the one. Truly, our jaws are on the floor (yes, at this time of year, this counts as Very Exciting News. We essay editors don’t get out much in August). Equally shocking: no “why Indiana?” question for Indiana University in Bloomington. In fact, no supplement at all! That’s one way to lower the barrier to entry and boost application numbers (just ask Northeastern).

For tips on how to tackle these essay questions, check out our College Essay Hub . And if you’re looking for more in-depth, one-on-one support, reach out to our college admissions team!

Caroline Hertz

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Competitive Merit Scholarships

Competitive merit scholarships are renewable for four years. First-year students must enroll summer or fall immediately following high school graduation to receive consideration.* Consideration

• First-year students accepted for admission by early February receive automatic consideration. A scholarship application is not required.
• Consideration is based on high school GPA and standardized test score. Verify Auburn has received your academic information in the Applicant Portal. The high school GPA that determined eligibility for admission will be the same GPA that determines eligibility for scholarships. Auburn will accept the ACT Superscore Report. Auburn will also calculate a superscore for the SAT and any individual score reports from ACT. Only your best testing result will be used for scholarship consideration. Updated highest scores from individual tests must be received by Auburn by January 10. Scores received after this deadline will not be reviewed for competitive merit scholarship consideration.
• Scholarships are awarded competitively. Consideration does not guarantee an award. Each entering class competes with itself. Actual awards are determined based on the number of qualified admitted students, the credentials of those applicants, and available funding.
• First-year students accepted for admission earlier are more likely to receive an award.
• Scholarships are awarded mid-November, mid-January, and early February.
• Recipients are notified by email to their  Auburn email account and by postal mail to their permanent address.

*Please visit First-year Student Scholarships under Frequently Asked Question s for more information on specific enrollment situations that may impact competitive merit scholarship eligibility.

Competitive Merit Scholarships for Alabama Residents

Competitive merit scholarships were awarded to Alabama residents enrolling fall 2025 as follows.  This chart is a guide and is not a guarantee of future awards.  Each entering class competes with itself. Actual awards are determined based on the number of qualified admitted students, the credentials of those applicants, and available funding. Additional competitive merit scholarships not shown may be awarded as funding permits.

Competitive Merit Scholarships for Non-Residents

Competitive merit scholarships were awarded to non-residents enrolling fall 2025 as follows. This chart is a guide and is not a guarantee of future awards. Each entering class competes with itself. Actual awards are determined based on the number of qualified admitted students, the credentials of those applicants, and available funding. Additional competitive merit scholarships not shown may be awarded as funding permits.

Scholarships for National Merit Finalists

Consideration

• First-year students named National Merit Semifinalists must complete the scholarship application through AUSOM by February 14.
• National Merit Finalists should contact the National Merit Scholarship Corporation to name Auburn University as their first choice institution by May 1.  For more information how students qualify as National Merit Finalists, please visit  National Merit Scholarship Corporation .
• National Merit Finalists receive a stipend of $4,000 over four years at $1,000 per year.
• Depending on eligibility as determined through completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)*, eligible students may receive an additional $1,000 annually.
• National Merit Finalists who are Alabama residents may receive the National Scholars Presidential Scholarship valued at $42,000 over four years at $11,000 per year , which will replace a previously awarded competitive merit scholarship.

*The FAFSA is the only form a student is required to complete to be considered for student assistance from any of the Title IV, HEA programs except for information needed to ensure the student’s eligibility for such assistance (e.g., information needed to complete verification or to demonstrate compliance with the student eligibility provisions of the HEA and the regulations). Additional information, if requested, will be listed on the student’s AU Access My Finances page after we receive the results of the FAFSA. For additional information, visit the Office of Financial Aid.

Scholarship Payment and Renewal

To receive scholarship funds, students must enroll for a minimum of 12 credit hours each term by the last day to add courses for the term (the 15 th  class day). Scholarship funds are applied as a credit to the student’s university billing account at the amount indicated in the scholarship award letter. Scholarship awards are divided equally between fall and spring semester and disbursed a maximum of 10 days before the semester begins.

Competitive merit scholarships are available for a maximum of eight semesters, independent of academic program. To be eligible for renewal, students must have a minimum 3.0 unadjusted Auburn GPA and have earned a minimum of 24 Auburn credit hours from fall to spring of the current academic year. Eligibility for scholarship renewal for the upcoming academic year is reviewed at the end of spring semester.

Students who plan to enroll summer term and wish for their competitive merit scholarship to be applied during that term should email the Office of University Scholarships. Scholarship funds requested for summer term will contribute to the maximum eight semester total.  Students must be eligible for scholarship renewal at the end of spring semester to request payment for summer term.

Students who are unable to enroll at Auburn for an expected term for any reason should contact the Office of University Scholarships. Exceptions are granted for students who obtain a medical resignation or military withdrawal or participate in the Cooperative Education Program. Students who obtain a medical resignation or military withdrawal or participate in the Cooperative Education program during the fall or spring semester of an academic year may be granted through the summer term to meet renewal requirements.

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Supplemental Essay Guide 2024-25

What do the 2024-25 supplemental essay prompts really mean, and how should you approach them? CEA's experts are here to break them all down.

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Agnes Scott College 2024-25 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

Alvernia University 2024-25 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide  

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UChicago Supplemental Essay Questions

The University of Chicago has long been renowned for our provocative essay questions. We think of them as an opportunity for students to tell us about themselves, their tastes, and their ambitions. They can be approached with utter seriousness, complete fancy, or something in between.

Each year we email newly admitted and current College students and ask them for essay topics. We receive several hundred responses, many of which are eloquent, intriguing, or downright wacky.

As you can see from the attributions, the questions below were inspired by submissions from UChicago students and alumni.

2024-25 UChicago Supplement

Question 1 (required).

How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.

Question 2: Extended Essay (Required; Choose one)

Essay option 1.

We’re all familiar with green-eyed envy or feeling blue, but what about being “caught purple-handed”? Or “tickled orange”? Give an old color-infused expression a new hue and tell us what it represents. – Inspired by Ramsey Bottorff, Class of 2026

Essay Option 2

"Ah, but I was so much older then / I'm younger than that now” – Bob Dylan. In what ways do we become younger as we get older? – Inspired by Joshua Harris, Class of 2016

Essay Option 3

Pluto, the demoted planet. Ophiuchus, the thirteenth Zodiac. Andy Murray, the fourth to tennis's Big Three. Every grouping has something that doesn’t quite fit in. Tell us about a group and its unofficial member, why (or why not) should it be excluded? – Inspired by Veronica Chang, Class of 2022

Essay Option 4

"Daddy-o", "Far Out", "Gnarly": the list of slang terms goes on and on. Sadly, most of these aren’t so "fly" anymore – “as if!” Name an outdated slang from any decade or language that you'd bring back and explain why you totally “dig it.” – Inspired by Napat Sakdibhornssup, Class of 2028

Essay Option 5

How many piano tuners are there in Chicago? What is the total length of chalk used by UChicago professors in a year? How many pages of books are in the Regenstein Library? These questions are among a class of estimation problems named after University of Chicago physicist Enrico Fermi. Create your own Fermi estimation problem, give it your best answer, and show us how you got there. – Inspired by Malhar Manek, Class of 2028

Essay Option 6

And, as always… the classic choose your own adventure option! In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, choose one of our past prompts (or create a question of your own). Be original, creative, thought provoking. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun!

Some classic questions from previous years…

Exponents and square roots, pencils and erasers, beta decay and electron capture. Name two things that undo each other and explain why both are necessary. – Inspired by Emmett Cho, Class of 2027

“Where have all the flowers gone?” – Pete Seeger. Pick a question from a song title or lyric and give it your best answer. – Inspired by Ryan Murphy, AB’21

“Vlog,” “Labradoodle,” and “Fauxmage.” Language is filled with portmanteaus. Create a new portmanteau and explain why those two things are a “patch” (perfect match). – Inspired by Garrett Chalfin, Class of 2027

Due to a series of clerical errors, there is exactly one typo (an extra letter, a removed letter, or an altered letter) in the name of every department at the University of Chicago. Oops! Describe your new intended major. Why are you interested in it and what courses or areas of focus within it might you want to explore? Potential options include Commuter Science, Bromance Languages and Literatures, Pundamentals: Issues and Texts, Ant History... a full list of unmodified majors ready for your editor’s eye is available here . —Inspired by Josh Kaufman, AB'18

You are on an expedition to found a colony on Mars, when from a nearby crater, a group of Martians suddenly emerges. They seem eager to communicate, but they're the impatient kind and demand you represent the human race in one song, image, memory, proof, or other idea. What do you share with them to show that humanity is worth their time? —Inspired by Alexander Hastings, Class of 2023, and Olivia Okun-Dubitsky, Class of 2026

Who does Sally sell her seashells to? How much wood can a woodchuck really chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Pick a favorite tongue twister (either originally in English or translated from another language) and consider a resolution to its conundrum using the method of your choice. Math, philosophy, linguistics... it's all up to you (or your woodchuck). —Inspired by Blessing Nnate, Class of 2024

What can actually be divided by zero? —Inspired by Mai Vu, Class of 2024

The seven liberal arts in antiquity consisted of the Quadrivium — astronomy, mathematics, geometry, and music — and the Trivium — rhetoric, grammar, and logic. Describe your own take on the Quadrivium or the Trivium. What do you think is essential for everyone to know? —Inspired by Peter Wang, Class of 2022

Subway maps, evolutionary trees, Lewis diagrams. Each of these schematics tells the relationships and stories of their component parts. Reimagine a map, diagram, or chart. If your work is largely or exclusively visual, please include a cartographer's key of at least 300 words to help us best understand your creation. —Inspired by Maximilian Site, Class of 2020

"Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" - Eleanor Roosevelt. Misattribute a famous quote and explore the implications of doing so. —Inspired by Chris Davey, AB’13

Engineer George de Mestral got frustrated with burrs stuck to his dog’s fur and applied the same mechanic to create Velcro. Scientist Percy Lebaron Spencer found a melted chocolate bar in his magnetron lab and discovered microwave cooking. Dye-works owner Jean Baptiste Jolly found his tablecloth clean after a kerosene lamp was knocked over on it, consequently shaping the future of dry cleaning. Describe a creative or interesting solution, and then find the problem that it solves. —Inspired by Steve Berkowitz, AB’19, and Neeharika Venuturupalli, Class of 2024

Joan of Arkansas. Queen Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Babe Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Mash up a historical figure with a new time period, environment, location, or occupation, and tell us their story. —Inspired by Drew Donaldson, AB’16

Alice falls down the rabbit hole. Milo drives through the tollbooth. Dorothy is swept up in the tornado. Neo takes the red pill. Don’t tell us about another world you’ve imagined, heard about, or created. Rather, tell us about its portal. Sure, some people think of the University of Chicago as a portal to their future, but please choose another portal to write about. —Inspired by Raphael Hallerman, Class of 2020

What’s so odd about odd numbers? —Inspired by Mario Rosasco, AB’09

Vestigiality refers to genetically determined structures or attributes that have apparently lost most or all of their ancestral function, but have been retained during the process of evolution. In humans, for instance, the appendix is thought to be a vestigial structure. Describe something vestigial (real or imagined) and provide an explanation for its existence. —Inspired by Tiffany Kim, Class of 2020

In French, there is no difference between “conscience” and “consciousness.” In Japanese, there is a word that specifically refers to the splittable wooden chopsticks you get at restaurants. The German word “fremdschämen” encapsulates the feeling you get when you’re embarrassed on behalf of someone else. All of these require explanation in order to properly communicate their meaning, and are, to varying degrees, untranslatable. Choose a word, tell us what it means, and then explain why it cannot (or should not) be translated from its original language. —Inspired by Emily Driscoll, Class of 2018

Little pigs, French hens, a family of bears. Blind mice, musketeers, the Fates. Parts of an atom, laws of thought, a guideline for composition. Omne trium perfectum? Create your own group of threes, and describe why and how they fit together. —Inspired by Zilin Cui, Class of 2018

The mantis shrimp can perceive both polarized light and multispectral images; they have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. Human eyes have color receptors for three colors (red, green, and blue); the mantis shrimp has receptors for sixteen types of color, enabling them to see a spectrum far beyond the capacity of the human brain. Seriously, how cool is the mantis shrimp: mantisshrimp.uchicago.edu What might they be able to see that we cannot? What are we missing? —Inspired by Tess Moran, AB’16

How are apples and oranges supposed to be compared? Possible answers involve, but are not limited to, statistics, chemistry, physics, linguistics, and philosophy. —Inspired by Florence Chan, AB’15

The ball is in your court—a penny for your thoughts, but say it, don’t spray it. So long as you don’t bite off more than you can chew, beat around the bush, or cut corners, writing this essay should be a piece of cake. Create your own idiom, and tell us its origin—you know, the whole nine yards. PS: A picture is worth a thousand words. —Inspired by April Bell, AB'17, and Maya Shaked, Class of 2018 (It takes two to tango.)

“A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.” –Oscar Wilde. Othello and Iago. Dorothy and the Wicked Witch. Autobots and Decepticons. History and art are full of heroes and their enemies. Tell us about the relationship between you and your arch-nemesis (either real or imagined). —Inspired by Martin Krzywy, AB’16

Heisenberg claims that you cannot know both the position and momentum of an electron with total certainty. Choose two other concepts that cannot be known simultaneously and discuss the implications. (Do not consider yourself limited to the field of physics). —Inspired by Doran Bennett, AB’07

Susan Sontag, AB’51, wrote that “[s]ilence remains, inescapably, a form of speech.” Write about an issue or a situation when you remained silent, and explain how silence may speak in ways that you did or did not intend. The Aesthetics of Silence, 1967. —Anonymous Suggestion

“…I [was] eager to escape backward again, to be off to invent a past for the present.” —The Rose Rabbi by Daniel Stern Present: pres·ent 1. Something that is offered, presented, or given as a gift. Let’s stick with this definition. Unusual presents, accidental presents, metaphorical presents, re-gifted presents, etc.—pick any present you have ever received and invent a past for it. —Inspired by Jennifer Qin, AB’16

So where is Waldo, really? —Inspired by Robin Ye, AB’16

Find x. —Inspired by Benjamin Nuzzo, an admitted student from Eton College, UK

Dog and Cat. Coffee and Tea. Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. Everyone knows there are two types of people in the world. What are they? —Inspired by an anonymous alumna, AB'06

How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.) —Inspired by Kelly Kennedy, AB’10

Chicago author Nelson Algren said, “A writer does well if in his whole life he can tell the story of one street.” Chicagoans, but not just Chicagoans, have always found something instructive, and pleasing, and profound in the stories of their block, of Main Street, of Highway 61, of a farm lane, of the Celestial Highway. Tell us the story of a street, path, road—real or imagined or metaphorical. —Anonymous Suggestion

UChicago professor W. J. T. Mitchell entitled his 2005 book What Do Pictures Want? Describe a picture, and explore what it wants. —Inspired by Anna Andel

“Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.“—Miles Davis (1926–91) —Inspired by Jack Reeves

University of Chicago alumna and renowned author/critic Susan Sontag said, “The only interesting answers are those that destroy the questions.” We all have heard serious questions, absurd questions, and seriously absurd questions, some of which cannot be answered without obliterating the very question. Destroy a question with your answer. —Inspired by Aleksandra Ciric

“Mind that does not stick.” —Zen Master Shoitsu (1202–80)

Superstring theory has revolutionized speculation about the physical world by suggesting that strings play a pivotal role in the universe. Strings, however, always have explained or enriched our lives, from Theseus’s escape route from the Labyrinth, to kittens playing with balls of yarn, to the single hair that held the sword above Damocles, to the Old Norse tradition that one’s life is a thread woven into a tapestry of fate, to the beautiful sounds of the finely tuned string of a violin, to the children’s game of cat’s cradle, to the concept of stringing someone along. Use the power of string to explain the biggest or the smallest phenomenon. —Inspired by Adam Sobolweski

Have you ever walked through the aisles of a warehouse store like Costco or Sam’s Club and wondered who would buy a jar of mustard a foot and a half tall? We’ve bought it, but it didn’t stop us from wondering about other things, like absurd eating contests, impulse buys, excess, unimagined uses for mustard, storage, preservatives, notions of bigness…and dozens of other ideas both silly and serious. Write an essay somehow inspired by super-huge mustard. —Inspired by Katherine Gold

People often think of language as a connector, something that brings people together by helping them share experiences, feelings, ideas, etc. We, however, are interested in how language sets people apart. Start with the peculiarities of your own personal language—the voice you use when speaking most intimately to yourself, the vocabulary that spills out when you’re startled, or special phrases and gestures that no one else seems to use or even understand—and tell us how your language makes you unique. You may want to think about subtle riffs or idiosyncrasies based on cadence, rhythm, rhyme, or (mis)pronunciation. —Inspired by Kimberly Traube

In 2015, the city of Melbourne, Australia created a "tree-mail" service, in which all of the trees in the city received an email address so that residents could report any tree-related issues. As an unexpected result, people began to email their favorite trees sweet and occasionally humorous letters. Imagine this has been expanded to any object (tree or otherwise) in the world, and share with us the letter you’d send to your favorite. -Inspired by Hannah Lu, Class of 2020 

You’re on a voyage in the thirteenth century, sailing across the tempestuous seas. What if, suddenly, you fell off the edge of the Earth? -Inspired by Chandani Latey, AB'93 

The word floccinaucinihilipilification is the act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant or of having no value. It originated in the mid-18th century from the Latin words "floccus," "naucum," "nihilum," and "pilus"—all words meaning “of little use.” Coin your own word using parts from any language you choose, tell us its meaning, and describe the plausible (if only to you) scenarios in which it would be most appropriately used.  -Inspired by Ben Zhang, Class of 2022 

Lost your keys? Alohomora. Noisy roommate? Quietus. Feel the need to shatter windows for some reason? Finestra. Create your own spell, charm, jinx, or other means for magical mayhem. How is it enacted? Is there an incantation? Does it involve a potion or other magical object? If so, what's in it or what is it? What does it do?  -Inspired by Emma Sorkin, Class of 2021 

Imagine you’ve struck a deal with the Dean of Admissions himself, Dean Nondorf. It goes as follows: you’re guaranteed admission to the University of Chicago regardless of any circumstances that arise. This bond is grounded on the condition that you’ll obtain a blank, 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, and draw, write, sketch, shade, stencil, paint etc., anything and everything you want on it; your only limitations will be the boundaries of both sides on the single page. Now the catch… your submission, for the rest of your life, will always be the first thing anyone you meet for the first time will see. Whether it’s at a job interview, a blind date, arrival at your first Humanities class, before you even say, “hey,” they’ll already have seen your page, and formulated that first impression. Show us your page. What’s on it, and why? If your piece is largely or exclusively visual, please make sure to share a creator's accompanying statement of at least 300 words, which we will happily allow to be on its own, separate page. PS: This is a creative thought experiment, and selecting this essay prompt does not guarantee your admission to UChicago. -Inspired by Amandeep Singh Ahluwalia, Class of 2022

Cats have nine lives, Pac-Man has three lives, and radioactive isotopes have half-lives. How many lives does something else—conceptual or actual—have, and why? -Inspired by Kendrick Shin, Class of 2019

If there’s a limited amount of matter in the universe, how can Olive Garden (along with other restaurants and their concepts of food infinity) offer truly unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks? Explain this using any method of analysis you wish—physics, biology, economics, history, theology… the options, as you can tell, are endless.  -Inspired by Yoonseo Lee, Class of 2023 

A hot dog might be a sandwich, and cereal might be a soup, but is a ______ a ______? -Inspired by Arya Muralidharan, Class of 2021 (and dozens of others who, this year and in past years, have submitted the question “Is a hot dog a sandwich,” to which we reply, “maybe”)

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.” – Jessamyn West -Inspired by Elizabeth Mansfield, Class of 2020