You've completed your activity list, answered every question, and tweaked your essays to fit each application. But there's one you can't fudge: the "why this school?" essay! It's a lot of pressure, right when you need to really shine. I'll walk you through it.
Stuck on the Common App? 15 Prompts to ‘Unstick’ You
In my introduction to what you should write about in your Personal Statement, I note that college admissions officers are reading your Common App Essay to find out: what you're passionate about; where you've showed initiative; how you've transformed in important ways; in short, what makes you YOU!
But as for actually CONVEYING all that….well, easier said than done, right? There are MANY mental obstacles that come up when it’s time to actually draft the thing. After all, a blank computer screen and a blinking cursor can even feel scary to lifelong writers, let alone high schoolers!
First I’m going to ask you to take a slow, deep breath with me. As someone who’s helped hundreds of students of all stripes write superlative essays, I can assure you that you, too, have PLENTY of things to talk about. We just have to find those gold nuggets in the hills of your experience and personality!
So, open up a blank Word/Google .doc or grab a piece of paper. You’re going to jot down your answers to questions below. Once you’ve answered these 15 prompts, common threads should start to emerge, and you’ll be on your way to a Personal Statement that stands out from the stack while staying true to you!
Article Contents
1. Video version of this article
2. What to ask yourself if you have Personal Statement writer’s block
Video version of this article:
What to ask yourself if you have Personal Statement writer’s block
A. Finding Your Personal Statement subject: How do you spend your spare time?
The answers to these four Qs make up the basic foundation of your life—the water you’d swim in, if you were a fish. For that reason, you might not even realize that not everyone shares these interests. It’s easy to think that all teenagers spend their weekends closely observing nesting owls with binos, or making candles for their friends. But believe me, most people don't surf birding forums or visit apothecary shops just for kicks. This is a YOU thing that makes you—and your application—interesting.
1. In class: What are your academic and intellectual interests?
2. Outside of class: What are your favorite hobbies and activities? What do you enjoy about them?
3. Over the summer: Have you done any programs, classes, interesting trips, or taught yourself anything?
4. To relax: What do you do when you need to take a breather from life’s stresses?
B. Common App essay tip: Consider your special interests
5. Do you have any unusual talents or skills? If so, how did you develop them? How did you get into them in the first place?
6. Are there any global topics or social issues you feel passionate about? Why? What are you doing about it?
Again, you may assume that since you’ve been spending years rehabbing injured squirrels in your neighborhood, everyone else must be thinking about/working on the same thing. They aren't. Or if you're obsessed with watching football and teaching yourself every last detail about player stats, you may think that's just typical teenager stuff. It isn't. It’s special that you taught yourself how to splint a tiny leg from an anatomy book, and you should consider writing about it.
C. Personal Statement inspiration: your achievements.
7. What accomplishment are you most proud of? What did you have to do to accomplish it?
8. What was the most challenging ordeal or event you've gone through? How did you get through it?
9. When or how have you shown leadership?
You don’t have to have won a state championship in a given activity for an accomplishment to say something about you. More than how "big" an achievement appears by external metrics, it's the work you put in that's impressive to the admissions counselors. Not everything you want to do in life (and college) will come easily to you. In fact, even if you were truly born with a "natural" genius for something, you'll still only get better at that thing through hard work. What shows your character is how you put your nose to the grindstone and embrace the challenge—especially when success was not guaranteed and you had to take a risk.
D. Common App essay ideas: pivotal moments.
10. What was the best experience you've ever had? Why was this the "best"?
11. What was the worst experience you've ever had? Why was this the "worst"?
12. How have you changed over the past few years? Was there any event or person who caused/facilitated this transformation?
There aren't always major life events or "Aha!" moments that alter the course of your life and personality. However, if there are, the key is to look for the positive in the situation: how did you make lemons out of lemonade? How did you mature, even though a situation may have been really tough? Or if something wonderful happened, how has this made you a more appreciative and grateful person, someone determined to spread the good fortune you’ve received?
E. College essay brainstorming: your personality.
13. How are you unique or different from other people you know?
14. Is there anything about you that doesn't fit the stereotype, or that's unexpected?
15. Do you have any principles or beliefs that guide your actions? What are they?
The person reading your application wants to know what kind of person you are and where you'd fit in on their campus. They want to know what makes you tick—and bonus points for being self-aware enough to already have some ideas about this in high school! Are you the philosophical type who actively thinks about the values you hold, and how to act on them? That means you think for yourself, which will serve you well into college and beyond. Do you surprise people by being different from what they'd expect, like the varsity swimmer who also closely follows the clarinetist Martin Frost and listens to his concert recordings every night after school? Surprising traits and combinations like this will make you stand out—and help you get into your dream school!
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I hope this brainstorming sesh has helped illuminate some common themes from your life. If one topic has come up several times, chances are, that's what you should write about to let the admissions officers know exactly who you are and why you're special!
More than that, I also want this exercise to assure you that you have several unique qualities that you probably take for granted, but that others would find awesome.
Though I'm able to give out this advice for free, sometimes you need extra one-on-one help to get the guidance and confidence you need. To learn about working together one-on-one to bring out the real YOU in your Common App and supplemental essays, contact me here. Or, if you’re more of a self-study type, check out my full guide to writing a killer Personal Statement here.
How to Write Your Personal Statement
An excellent college personal statement needs an organizing principle—a guiding light that tells colleges who you are and displays your self-awareness and maturity. So what exactly IS an organizing principle? Let me explain.
How to Choose Your Personal Statement Topic
Top Tips for Campus Visits!
If you approach your college visits proactively, you can come home from them WAY further along in your application process than you left. Here's how.
Should I Use the Coalition App or the Common App?
If you’re a high school Senior (or younger), the Common App and Coalition App can save you a TON of time on your college applications. But what are the differences between these two options, exactly—and which is the better fit for YOU? This blog post brings you the answers.
College Process News: SAT II and SAT Essay Discontinued
As of January 2021, the College Board has discontinued the optional SAT essay section and the SAT II Subject Tests for US students. How will these major changes affect test prep and the competitive college process for YOU? I’m breaking it down.
Do you have to write the essay on the SAT or ACT?
Do you have to write the essay on the ACT or SAT? I’m usually here to tell you that skipping something you COULD use as an opportunity to shine is a mistake…but maybe not this time. Read on to find out if you’re one of the lucky ones who really CAN forget about writing the SAT Essay section or the ACT Writing component.
Nailing the SAT Essay Part I: Sloppy Success vs. Perfect Mediocrity
So many of us women – at any age – suffer from feelings of having to be “perfect”, whatever exactly that is. I, for one, started feeling this way in middle school – gotta love puberty! - but the quest to be perfect exploded in high school. In the top-ranking public high school in the country – Talented and Gifted Magnet in Dallas, Texas – I was taking 8 (you read that right) concurrent AP classes my Junior year, and obsessing about getting 99’s across the board on my report card. I was a little “cray”.
Luckily for me, my misplaced desire for perfection had definite endings – the end of the grading period, the end of the school year, etc. Also, luckily for me, my course-load was math/science/computer-heavy, where there is an end to every problem and you just have to get there.
But what do you do when you’re writing an essay, and there are infinite ways you could craft your words, infinite examples you could utilize, infinite combinations of sentence structures and ways to weave your argument?
That, my friend, is when you need to chuck this need for perfection out the window… ESPECIALLY if you are writing a timed essay on the SAT or ACT!!
See, even though you might not have experienced it yet, in the “real world” (outside of school), it’s fairly impossible to be “perfect”. There will always be someone more skilled, smarter, prettier, faster, stronger, more “successful”, and wealthier than you.
If you wait until you’re “perfect” before you submit that report/manuscript or audition for that part, you’ll be waiting a long time - possibly forever – before you follow your dreams.
And if you wait until you think you have the “perfect” essay written in your head before you put your pencil on the paper and start writing it, time will be called before you finish your introduction!!!
In my experience tutoring and coaching countless high-schoolers for the SAT and ACT, the biggest essay obstacle I’ve seen is when the student just wasn’t able to finish her essay in the designated time: 25 minutes for the SAT and 30 minutes for the ACT. (Or more, if you have extended or double time.) That’s when you see essay scores of 2 or 4 out of 12 possible points.
Sadly, the test-graders only see what’s on the page. They will NEVER see the beautiful thoughts in your head, or your gripping stance on how history repeats itself unless we can innovate as a society. Therefore, your job is to get your thoughts on that page so that they can be graded. And whatever will be, will be.
In general, if you can just write and finish the 2 pages you’re allotted on the SAT (or get 2 pages written on the ACT), you’re looking at a safe score of 8+ out of 12. While not phenomenal, this is waaaaay better than a 2, and could mean the difference of 100+ points on the SAT Writing section!
So, if this is you, and you are paralyzed by a need to be perfect, you may be wondering how you can go from never getting your thoughts on the page and scoring a 2 – to letting go and getting a solid 8 that can be built upon.
It’s easy: practice being sloppy!
For the next month, I want to you try the following exercise, which I learned from Julia Cameron’s “Morning Pages” and adapted to get results for teenagers prepping for the SAT:
Mental Mastery Technique #1: Practice Sloppy Success
1) Get a blank sheet of computer paper.
2) Set the alarm on your phone for 5 minutes.
3) Start writing! Your goal is to completely fill up the page in the 5 minutes before your alarm goes off.
That’s it! However, here are some helpful hints, as this seems way easier than it actually is:
- Keep your pen moving and write whatever pops into your head. If you are blank, write “blank” until something pops into your head.
- DO NOT erase or cross out anything! Not even a misspelled word. You need to get used to not being perfect for the sake of this exercise.
- Don’t worry about perfect grammar, complete sentences, or “stupid” ideas. This is an exercise in getting your thoughts on the page without censoring.
- Don’t read what you wrote. You even have my permission to throw away the sheet of paper afterwards.
I’ve gotten amazing results for my students with this practice, sometimes in as little as a couple days. Why? For several reasons:
- No more over-analysis-paralysis! Something actually gets written!
- By writing whatever comes up, you are releasing feelings of test anxiety and other emotions onto the page, so it no longer takes up your valuable head-space.
- You are shifting the focus of what you’re trying to accomplish: finishing as opposed to being perfect.
Please help yourself and give this a try. Right now! After all, it only takes 5 minutes. Then post your comments below to share the results you get.
Very Important: Can you think of a friend/classmate who’s suffering from writer’s block on the SAT or ACT essay? Share this post with them – you might just save their score!
