The Common App is an important tool for students applying to college, and it can make managing your personal and academic history much simpler—but what about your writing samples? Specifically, there’s the essay. While schools that use the Common App often have shorter, school-specific essays in their supplementary materials, the largest essay is one that you will write through the Common App and submit to all the schools to which you’re applying. So what is the Common App essay? How can you get started on it, and how can you make sure yours is the best it can be? Let’s have a look:

Essay Topics

The Common App essay, sometimes called the “long essay,” can be based on one of a choice of prompts the Common App provides you. The Common App has already released the essay prompts for the 2021-2022 college application cycle, and they are the same as the choices used for the 2020-2021 application cycle. There are seven choices, which allow you to choose between:

  • Describing a meaningful aspect of your background in detail

  • Exploring a setback or obstacle you’ve faced, and what you learned from it

  • Looking back on a time you questioned a belief you held, and the results of that questioning

  • Thinking about a time you were grateful, and how this gratitude has motivated you

  • Describing an important accomplishment and how it impacted you

  • Exploring a topic you’re passionate about, why it engages you so much, and what it means to you

  • An essay of your own choice and design you feel suits you better

As you can see, the essay topics lend themselves to a lot of personal reflection, with leeway to sculpt your essay to fit what you want to express. Of course, it’s up to you to figure out which one works for you. How do you decide?

That’s one of the trickiest parts of your essay-writing process—choosing your topic. For the Common App essay, the freedom of choice can be a good thing, because it gives you the ability to write about something meaningful to you, which a more specific essay prompt may not have covered. However, it can also leave you paralyzed by too many choices. Only you can decide which essay topic is best for you, but you can always ask for advice—from friends, family, teachers, or even a tutor or college advisor. Looking at what makes a good essay topic can also help you narrow down which topic will fit you best.

Getting Down to Writing

Once you’ve picked a topic for your Common App essay, it’s time to write! The Common App essay is described as “long,” but is generally expected to be roughly 650 words, and preferably under 700 words. While there are no strict word limits, it’s best to keep roughly within this limit—an essay that’s concise and to the point will hold your admissions officer’s attention, and keep them focused on the most important things you want to say.

Since your Common App essay is likely going to a large number of schools, be sure to focus it around you as a person, rather than what you want out of any one college, or type of college (research universities, liberal arts colleges, etc.). While you can tell the schools you’re applying to why you’re interested in them in the school-specific sections, this is your chance to say why they should be interested in you.

As always, remember to draft your essay with plenty of time to spare, and to review it more than once, both for content and for writing style and grammar. It’s also helpful to have other people look over your Common App essay before you submit it—consider reaching out to a trusted teacher, or even an expert, like our A-List college advisors, who’ve seen students through the application process before. Your essay is your chance to show colleges how great you are, and with focus, effort, and a little help, you’ll do just that!