College Essay Prompts: Tips and Insights to Pick the Right One

As you plan your college-application application essay, you face the infamous question:

Which prompt do I pick?

Most college admissions guidelines–including the common app and state-specific applications like the University of California (UC) app–give you the option to pick between multiple prompts.

This article will help you pick the best prompt and select a topic, including guiding questions, brainstorming strategies, and ideas about how to structure your essay.

What is a College Essay?

A college essay is a short, personal writing task included as part of your college application.

It’s a chance to demonstrate your approach to life and challenge, share what matters to you, and tell a story that helps admissions counselors observe how you interact with your environment. It’s also a chance to demonstrate your writing skills, unique style, and storytelling ability.

A college essay will typically include the following narrative elements:

• Storytelling: One or multiple scenes, stories, or a sequence of moments that pull the reader into your world. Some essays utilize a montage storytelling style, jumping between a series of snippets or scenes that build a cohesive picture.

• Detail: Vivid description of setting, characters, or emotions. Writers can use strategies like sensory detail or “slowing down time” to emphasize critical moments.

• Reflection: The part where you step back and comment on the story or events. A reflection explains why these events matter, what you learned, what you’d do differently, or what they reveal about you. The reflection usually explains the story’s theme or central message.

• Theme: Usually included in your reflection and at the end of your paper, a theme is a story’s main idea, central message, or lesson learned. It explains the “So what?”.

The way you organize these elements depends on how you structure your essay. Check out my essay outlines for help with that.

Essay Prompts: Impact on Storytelling, Structure, and Topic

The Common App includes the following 7 prompts, each with a distinct focus:

1. (Background and Identity) 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.

2. (Lesson from Failure) 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?

3. (New Realization) Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

4. (Acting with Gratitude) 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?

5. (Growth and Development) Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

6. (Personal Interest) 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?

7. (Open) 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.

Which College Essay Prompt Should You Pick?

The best college essay prompt for you is the one that inspires your most meaningful, unique, and enthusiastic topics and stories.

This might be a specific event or story that you experienced, but it also might be a topic or hobby you've practiced and developed over many years. You may even choose to write about a creative project, or describe your cultural identity.

The prompt you pick will affect your essay’s topic (focus), theme, structure, reflection, the stories you include, and the details you emphasize.

Therefore, I recommend first brainstorming a topic and theme for your paper, then deciding which prompt best fits your chosen topic.

The insights, questions, and brainstorming strategies below will help you pick the best topic and essay prompt.

College Essay Prompt 1: Background and Identity

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.

Insight

This prompt does not ask for a story, but instead about a background, identity or interest. While brainstorming, think about your activities, hobbies, and interests that have lasted over long periods of time. Consider cultural backgrounds, sports, creative pursuits, and things you spend a lot of time doing.

Questions to Guide Thinking

• What parts of your culture impact your life, and how? Consider family, friends, ethnicity, environment, and school.

• What activities or hobbies have you continued for a long time? How has your approach changed?

• Which activities (school and non-school) consume most of your free time? Why have you spent so much time on them?

• What skill are you most proud of? How did you develop that skill? Describe your process for learning it.

Topic Brainstorming Strategies

Use a Google doc or notebook to brainstorm:

• Freestyle bullet-point list (5 minutes): Read through the questions above. In a bulleted list, jot down all the words, stories, images, and people that come to mind as you ponder the questions.

• “How I Spend My Free Time” list: Think about how you choose to spend your free time. After listing your top free-time activities, rank them starting with #1 being your most time-intensive activity. Consider using one of your top 3 as an essay topic.

Essay Structure Ideas

• Montage of scenes: Rather than focusing on one story or event, this structure uses separate “snippets” or scenes to build a montage outlining your history with the topic or activity. You can arrange the scenes in chronological order, or jump around. A montage usually employs an ABABAB mixture of storytelling and reflection.

• A sequence of items: Your topic, culture, or activity may feature key items. For example, vacation souvenirs, accolades like trophies, photographs, jerseys, or trinkets around your room. Structure your essay in ABABAB style, with each item and its significance occupying a paragraph.

• One or two key stories: Pick one or two stories that demonstrate a key idea about your topic or background. This could be a moment you learned a major lesson, or a moment you accomplished great success. If choosing two stories, you can parallel one story from the beginning of your journey with a more recent story–discussing how you’ve grown.

College Essay Prompt #2: Lesson from Failure

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?

Insight

Your experience of a “challenge, setback, or failure” is a great opportunity to demonstrate your mindset, determination for success, and approach to learning and growth. You can focus on an internal struggle–like grief, stress, overcoming nerves or fear–or an external struggle like a lost game or challenging activity.

Your essay will probably mix internal and external struggles.

Questions to Guide Thinking

• What are your all-time biggest mistakes? How did each one change you?

• When was a time you failed at something multiple times, or despite intense preparation? How did you respond?

• Do you have any failures or mistakes that you’re glad happened? Why are you glad that you failed?

Topic Brainstorming Strategies

• Bullet-point list (5 minutes): Create a bullet-point list of every word, image, and experience that comes to mind as you read the above questions. Consider any challenges and difficult or painful moments you’ve experienced. Put a star next to the 3 most meaningful items from your list, and consider those as potential topics.

• “My Biggest Mistakes” 3-column T-Chart: From left to right, label the three columns Mistake, Details, and Reflection. In the Mistake column, list mistakes you’ve made that taught you a meaningful lesson. Under Details, describe a few key images or particulars from the event. In the Reflection column, describe the takeaway or lesson learned.

Essay Structure Ideas

• Story first, reflection second: Begin your essay by telling the story’s full plot without uninterrupted, with sensory detail, storytelling elements like dialogue, and a climax moment. Then, use your essay’s second section to reflect, comment on lessons learned, and explain your growth. For more guidance, check out my AAABBB essay outline.

• “The Turning Point”: Identify the moment in your story when the tone changes–usually, from negative to optimistic, such as when you said, “enough is enough.” Then, divide your story in two: before the turning point, and after. Begin your essay by telling the story, but pause at the turning point, using a reflection paragraph to zoom in on the moment. What went through your mind? What did you realize? What made this moment stand out? Then, finish your story, before reflecting back on the whole journey.

College Essay Prompt #3: New Realization

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

Insight

Universities want to see evidence of you using independent and critical thinking, because these are leadership qualities. Brainstorm times when you challenged a status quo–your own, a friend’s or family member’s, or even a social norm.

Questions to Guide Thinking

• When did you go against what everyone else was doing? Why?

• Have you ever done something that surprised you? Why did it surprise you, and what caused you to do it?

• Have you ever intentionally changed your mindset, to become more optimistic or focused on something? What was the result?

• When did you shed a bad habit and replace it with a more productive one? What caused this change, and how did it turn out?

• Have you ever disagreed with someone in a position of power, based on what you felt was right?

Topic Brainstorming Strategies

• Bullet-point list (5 minutes): Brainstorm a list of every experience, word, or attitude that comes to mind as you read the questions above. Select your top 3 as potential topics.

• Old me/new me T-Chart: Label the left-hand column Old me and the right-hand column New me. On the left, list outdated habits, beliefs, or self-imposed limitations that you previously held. Under “new me”, list the new mindset or habit that has taken the old one’s place.

Essay Structure Ideas

• “This, I Believe” paper: Begins by introducing a key belief, moral, or idea you hold. Spend the first paragraph explaining why this philosophy is important. Then, spend the middle of your essay describing the events that helped you develop this belief, or when you had to defend it against something, someone, or yourself. In the final paragraph or two, explain how this belief helps you in other aspects of your life–relationships, work, school, learning, hobbies, or self-growth.

• “The Turning Point”: Identify the “turning point” in your story, when you had a sudden or important realization. Begin your essay by telling the story up until the turning point, then zoom in on the realization, devoting a whole paragraph to what went through your mind and how or why it transformed. Then, finish telling the story before devoting the final paragraphs to reflection about how that realization or belief impacts your present life.

College Essay Prompt #4: Acting with Gratitude

Prompt: 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?

Insight

Universities want to see that you demonstrate appreciation, teamwork, and curiosity toward those around you. This prompt addresses how you feel about other people, and what you notice and appreciate about the world. Aim to find something unique and personal to be thankful for.

Questions to Guide Thinking

• What qualities do you most appreciate in a friend or family member? When did someone display this quality?

• Which opportunities have brought unexpected blessings?

• What are some unique opportunities that you’ve had, and how have they led to unique experiences?

• Has someone ever helped you when you were in a desperate or dire situation? How did that momentum carry you forward afterward?

Topic Brainstorming Strategies

• Bullet-point list (5 minutes): Brainstorm a list of all the words, experiences, people, and lessons learned that come to your mind as you read the above questions. Select the top 3 as potential topics.

• “People I appreciate” three-column T-Chart: From left to right, label the columns People, Qualities, and Stories. Under People, list friends, family, teachers, coaches, or anyone else who you appreciate. Under Qualities, list the 2-3 qualities that you find most special and inspiring about each person, or physical and non-physical gifts they’ve given you. Under Stories, note a situation where this person demonstrated those qualities to benefit you. Keep in mind that this doesn’t need to be a single event but can also be a chain or pattern of helpful actions this person has demonstrated.

• Literal vs figurative gifts T-Chart: Create a T-Chart with left-labeled Literal gifts and right Figurative gifts. On the left, list the physical or outward gifts that people have given you–items, actions, or displays of support. On right, describe the unseen benefit, impact, lesson, or opportunity you gained from each gift.

Essay Structure Ideas

• “Who I Was, Who I Am Now”: Begin by describing what your life was like before the event or person–what was missing, any flaws or lack that you had but perhaps didn’t realize. Then, describe the event(s) with as much sensory detail as possible. Aim to identify the story’s most important moment, using storytelling strategies like sensory detail to slow down time. To close your essay, reflect on how you’ve changed since then–what new perspective, approach, or attitude will you take with you?

• “Multiple Ways I Use My Gift”: Begin your essay by telling your chosen story with sensory detail. Then, use the majority of your essay to describe multiple ways that this event has impacted you. You can describe the people you now help, the leadership you display, the qualities you enact, and hobbies or habits you’ve taken up as a result of your chosen story. Separate each resulting benefit into its own paragraph.

College Essay Prompt #5: Growth and Development

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

Insight

This prompt has two parts: the event itself, and then the transformation and growth resulting from the event. Think about experiences and accomplishments you’ve had that created a “ripple effect” – like a stone hitting the water and your benefits and changes that rippled and expanded from it.

Questions to Guide Thinking

• In which ways have you recently grown? Think about the positive impacts this growth has made on you, your community, and your environment.

• What is something you realize now, that you didn’t realize previously? What caused this realization?

• How do you help or provide service to those around you? Why do you do this, and what caused you to start doing it?

• What are your most productive habits, practices, or routines? How did you develop them?

Topic Brainstorming Strategies

• Bullet-point list (5 minutes): List all words, images, people, and places that come to mind based on the above questions, and choose. Put a star next to the top 3 as potential topics.

• Moments of leadership T-Chart. Label the left-hand column Leadership and under it, make a list of situations or groups where you assumed a leadership role–with friends, in school, on a team, or any other group. Label the right-hand column New understanding, underneath describing what you learned from that leadership experience.

• Timeline: Draw a horizontal line across your page. Choose a starting point when some significant period in your life began–a school year, a stressful time period, joining a team, a single day, or a week-long summer camp. Create a timeline, plotting key events and moments from beginning to end. Create multiple timelines for key time periods in your life, and consider using one to outline your essay.

Essay Structure Ideas

• Chronological, mixed storytelling and reflection (ABABAB): Beginning your essay with the timeline’s first event, use each paragraph to walk one step forward through your journey of personal growth and understanding. In each paragraph, mix storytelling and reflection. Explain what physically happened, intermixing reflection to comment on how you grew at each stage. For support, use the ABABAB outline template.

College Essay Prompt #6: Your Interest

Prompt: 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?

Insight

Universities want to see your interest and curiosity in the world. They also want to see that you take initiative and act on these interests, creating projects and building something new. Think about projects you’ve started, things you’ve built, and tasks you’ve designed to further pursue your passions.

Questions to Guide Thinking

• What are your favorite projects or tasks that you’ve ever created? What inspired you to begin each project?

• How do you spend most of your free time? What are your favorite hobbies, and how do you progress at them?

• What are your goals, both school-related and non-school-related? Why are these goals important to you, and how do you work toward them?

Topic Brainstorming Strategies

• “My Dream Day”: Imagine you had a whole day to do whatever you wanted, with no obligations. How would you spend your time to balance fun and productivity? Schedule your day, mapping out time blocks for each activity. Consider using one of these activities, and your related goals, as an essay topic.

• Take inventory of your environment: Look around your room, house, or phone photo gallery. Consider your clothing, posters, trophies, and the objects you have. List all the activities and interests that seem significant. Star your favorite 5 and consider them potential essay topics.

Essay Structure Ideas

• “A Timeline of my Relationship with ___”: Structure your essay as a chronological timeline of your relationship with your selected topic. Begin at the initiation of your relationship with the topic–years ago or months ago. Use each paragraph to chronicle a new stage in your relationship with the topic, mixing storytelling and reflection in ABABAB style.

• “Snapshots of my relationship with ___”: Pick out three or four images (“snapshots”) of your history with the topic. These can be seemingly regular, mundane moments, like working in your room or practicing with a team. Devote one paragraph to each image, bringing the mundane moment to life by describing your internal excitement, and using vivid sensory language to describe your environment and actions.

For more, check out my tips on how to write a personal statement for college.

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