US Admissions

Essay Guide
Introduction to US Admissions Essays

The US admissions process includes a number of different essays you may be required to write.
The first step for you is to find out how many essays you’ll need to write, and then make a plan
for writing them.

Typically, applicants to the US will complete one or (in most cases) many more of the following
pieces of writing:

The Common App essay

This goes to all universities you apply to on the Common App.

The Coalition App essay

Similar to the Common App Essay, this goes into your Coalition ‘locker’ and can be reviewed by
all of the universities you apply to on the Coalition app.

Supplemental essays
Some universities will require another essay, or will want short answer phrases to a series of
questions. Each university has its own weird and wonderful requirements, so do your research!

Other University Group essays

Sometimes university groups will ask for a specific essay tailored to them. For example, UC appli-
cations.

The main thing to bear in mind when you’re preparing to write your US application essays is that
most US essay prompts are intended to help you tell the admissions team more about yourself,
so that you stop just being some grades on a piece of paper, but instead a full and dynamic per-
sonality that they can imagine having as part of their student body.

When you sit down to write your essay, spend time thinking about what experience or passion in
your life defines you and what you would be most excited to write about. In many cases, this will
be the basis of a good college admissions essay, and it will make it easier for you to put across
your enthusiasm, which is always infectious!

In this guide, we will walk you through how the various different pieces of writing works, along-
side some guidance from admissions teams and some examples that you can interact with.

Good luck and happy writing!

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The Common App Essay Prompts
The Common App essay is your chance to stand out from the crowd and bring your personality to life for
admissions people at your chosen universities or colleges. As the Common App says “you have a story to
tell. Collleges want to read it.”

With a word limit of 650 words, this is your opportunity to show off your storytelling, as well as to intro-
duce how impressive and interesting you are, what inspires you and what you are passionate about.

The Common App essay has a number of prompts that are designed to help all applicants, regardless of
background or access to college counseling, respond with their own compelling stories. They are de-
signed to help you express your character, community, identity, and personal goals or dreams.

The Common App Essay Prompts (2018-2019)

1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they be-
lieve their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share
your story.

2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Re-
count a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what
did you learn from the experience?

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

4. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual
challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no
matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to
identify a solution.

5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth

and a new understanding of yourself or others.

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?

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.

As you will see from the prompts above, you have a lot of room to make this your own (in fact, the final
question allows you to completely design your own topic!). This means you can draw inspiration from
multiple sources, or go entirely with your own creativity.

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Good Practices for Writing Your Essay
It can be hard to get started on writing a creative essay, so this guide is here to help you through each
step. We’re going to start wtih some basic good practices to bear in mind throughout the process of writ-
ing your Common App essay.

1. Expect to do a lot of editing

You have 650 words to explore your topic, which isn’t very much. Editing will be an important
part of your process.

2. Don’t fill space for the sake of It

This may seem obvious, but if you’ve finished your story in 500 words, don’t just come up with
another 150 to fill the 650 word limit. The Common App recommends between 500-650 to fully
respond to the question, so as long as it’s not super short, you should trust your judgment on
when you’ve finished rather than the word count.

3. Don’t try to cover everything

The Common App essay prompts ask you to explore a theme or topic. This may inspire a lot of
different ideas, in which case you’ll need to resist the urge to explore all of them. It will be more
impressive if you are able to go into detail on one or two thoughts/ responses, rather than cover
your entire life story in 650 words!

4. Be yourself and be honest

Your personality will come to life much more effectively if you’re not trying to be somebody else.

5. Get descriptive
Don’t just list things that you enjoy doing/ are committed to - describe them in vivid detail! Paint
a picture that the person reading will be able to easily imagine.

6. Be entertaining
Drama, intrigue, comedy or sentiment - try to remember that you’re writing for an audience who
reads *hundreds* of essays - you need to cut through, so be entertaining!

7. Be memorable by creating your personal brand

Imagine admissions officers talking about hundreds of people - how will they remember you?
Are you the kid who held his breath for over a minute to get through an underwater tunnel? Or
the kid who meticulously researched his parents heritage? Think about how your story will be
summarized!

Plagiarism Checks
Turnitin, a software program designed to check for plagiarism is now used in admissions by US univer-
sities and colleges. If you are caught plagiarising, your application may be cancelled, or you may be
expelled if it is discovered after you have started college - in other words, it’s not worth it!

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 Planning Your Common App Essay
Make notes before you start writing on the things you could include about yourself. Make sure that you
have evidence and examples of the core areas admissions officers look for below:

Teamwork Leadership & Resilience

Entrepreneurial Spirit
• What have you done to show •
Have you led clubs/ teams? • Have you got through a
you are a team player? • Have you started something or challenging situation?
• Was there a moment when you pushed it to be bigger/ better? • Have you committed to some-
learned about team work? • Have you put your ideas into action? thing difficult in addition to your
• Have you achieved something note- studies and succeded?
worthy or unusal? • Have you shown yourself to be
hard-working?

Global Perspective Community Service Work Experience &

Extra-Curricular Activities
• What understanding do you • Have you given back to your • Have you committed to
have of other cultures? community? activities for a long time?
• Do you speak more than one • Do you volunteer/ help members • Do your extra-curricular
language? of your wider community? commitments connect to
• What has traveling you have • How do you show you care about
your academic passions or
done taught you? the welfare of others?
career goals?

In BridgeU, you can go to the Strategy Advisor and log your experiences, and then
find out areas where you can improve to demonstrate all the skills, attributes and
evidence that admissions officers look for.

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Brainstorm Your Essay Topic/ Focus
Think about an experience or challenge in your life that has shaped who you are today. Communicating
something unique or unusual about your background, personal history or family can give you an advan-
tage by distinguishing you from other applicants.

How can I tell the

story and keep my
reader interested?
What moments in my
life have really chal-
lenged/ helped me
grow as a person?

Does this story

show my
capabilities in their
best light?
What personal
experience is an
interesting story
to tell?

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Advice from US Admissions People

Make a list of things that matter to you. What are you passionate about?

Prepare to write by reading. Read good quality texts; it will impact your writing!

Expect to write several drafts, so start early!

Ask people you trust for their feedback

Hassle college staff, or treat them rudely (and make sure your parents aren’t either!)
- interactions are tracked and it may negatively impact your application.

Overuse cliches - it won’t help the admissions officer get to know you.

Rely on spell-check - check and check again!

Use the essay to repeat your resume/ CV - tell them something they don’t know!

“As an admissions officer, I analyzed students’ personalities. If I read an admissions es-

say, and the student came off as arrogant, entitled, mean, selfish, or, on the flip side,
funny, charming, generous, witty, I wrote that exact trait in my notes. It’s not enough
just to be smart at top schools. Students must also show that they’ll be good class-
mates and community builders.”

Former Assistant Director of Admissions, Dartmouth College

“As an admissions evaluator at Brown, we really had to keep up a rigorous reading pace
with the regular decision applicant pool. We were expected to read 5 applications per hour,
which equates to twelve minutes per application. In those twelve minutes, I reviewed the
application, standardized test scores, the transcript, the personal statement, and multiple
supplemental essays—all while taking notes and making a decision on the admissibility of
the applicant.”

Former Admissions Evaluator, Brown University

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Getting Started: Your Opening Line

A good first sentence gets you noticed - it grabs and engages the reader. A bad first sen-
tence is dull, generic or confusing.

Do Don’t
Introduce your theme or topic with some • Use generic-sounding phrases
intrigue. • Start with something that isn’t true/
isn’t you.

5 Winning Opening Lines at Stanford University

The Stanford Magazine published examples of opening lines that their admissions staff rated particularly
highly.

1. I change my name each time I place an order at Starbucks.

2. When I was in the eighth grade I couldn’t read.
3. I have old hands.
4. I almost didn’t live through September 11th, 2001.
5. The spaghetti burbled and slushed around the pan, and as I stirred it, the noises it gave off began to
sound increasingly like bodily functions.

More example first lines from real common app essays:

Harvard admit
Prompt: Free choice of topic. “I have a secret. Every day, after school, I come home late.”

Yale admit
Prompt: Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence. “I hail
from those kinds of households where I have to draw a table to explain why so and so is my uncle’s wife’s
brother even though I call him cousin.”

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Vivid Story-telling

Regardless of the topic you’re writing about, descriptive, evocative language are an important part
of the storytelling you’ll be expected to produce in your Common App Essay.

Key
Yellow: Descriptive language and vivid imagery
Green: Getting personal - sharing passions/ things that are important to the writer
Blue: Story-telling techiques

When a mobile phone rings at four in the morning, it usually means trouble. The girl at the end of the
phone line, breathing hard into the receiver, I identified as my sister, half way through a Spanish language
program in Barcelona. In between muffled sobs and short, Tempanicked
quassuntbreaths,
vendam I could decipher fragments
natetur
of her sentences; “Mummy and Daddy,” she spluttered, “terrorists... thevolorumet
sint, que pre tube... bombs exploding in Lon-
aut eaque
don.”

Swinging open the door of my sheltered dorm room, I dashed through the corridor, veering towards the
lounge. My sister, intermittently coherent, was acquainting me with the morning’s events. It was the 7th
of July, and four suicide bombs had detonated in London. The city itself, typically a bustling, urban jungle,
had been paralysed; tourists, office-workers, and residents were trapped like foxes in their holes.

Each day, I was used to reading and talking about current events. Understanding world events is my
passion. Evaluating their importance is my responsibility. Today, however, these same events were threat-
ening to tear my life apart.

Ignorant of the welfare of our family, Kate bravely bid me farewell, and promised to call with any news.
Flicking through the television channels, I witnessed a decelerated replay of a double-decker bus spewing
its insides onto the pavement. I scanned the map that appeared on the screen, metaphorically searching
for my family and friends. Seated in the dusty lounge of the National Debate Institute, where I had been
polishing my Lincoln Douglas debating skills, a wave of vulnerability swept over me. Even in rural Mary-
land, where we had been debating the respective merits of Platonic and Stoic ideals, there was no bubble
of safety, no privilege of isolation. My ivory tower was under attack.

Every bomb scene served as a reminder of the knife edge we all live on. Every bomb blast was a battle
cry. For what cause would four young men destroy themselves? I tried to imagine how any religion could
not only condone but encourage these actions. I thought about how our Western culture had become
irredeemably intertwined with other cultures, all of which seemed mutually uncomprehending. Wasn’t
achieving a greater level of cross-culturalism meant to be a good thing?

On the television screen, I stared at the victims staggering away from the destruction. A tourist from Mich-
igan on a shopping trip; a Brazilian mechanic mistaken for a terrorist; an Afghan in London to escape the
Taliban. Wars half a world away were following them.

Collapsed on the sofa, I realised that the mission I had chosen, to convince my school community to
connect with the rest of the world, to some extent was no longer necessary. July 7th, like September 11th,
would do the job for me. I got through that day, as did my family, physically unscathed, but emotional-
ly charged. We all have a choice: to connect with the rest of the world or to cut it off. The events of that
morning reaffirmed my choice. Non-interventionism is no alternative. Hell is not other people.

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What Good Storytellers Do

Do Don’t
• Feel free to describe mundane or • Use cliched descriptions.
everyday items/ experiences in detail. • Rely on quotes for your descriptive
Tem quassunt vendam natetur sint,
language.
• Come up with unusual descriptions
que pre volorumet aut eaque
that stand out. The admissions team want to hear from
you!

In BridgeU, you can go to the Writing Builder and interact with essays which
have been annotated to indicate how they are strong and where they incorpo-
rated their strengths into the narrative.

Descriptive language and vivid imagery

The essay on the previous page has a number of examples of using vivid imagery and descriptive
language to bring to life the emotional experience being related. One example of this is “a dou-
ble-decker bus spewing its insides onto the pavement”. Compared to “a destroyed bus” or “people
who had fallen out of a bus onto the pavement”, this sentence personifies the bus and therefore
makes the image a lot more powerful.

Getting personal - sharing passions/ things that are important to the writer
The writer of the essay on the previous page shares a highly personal experience, that was not only
traumatic at the time, but had a profound impact on how she thinks about her place in the world
(this is exemplified in the final few sentences “We all have a choice: to connect with the rest of the
world or to cut it off. The events of that morning reaffirmed my choice. Non-interventionism is no al-
ternative. Hell is not other people.”. She also highlights the reader what she cares about, both implic-
itly (safety, her family) and explicitly “Understanding world events is my passion.”. She shares a vul-
nerable moment where she realised that she did not understand a world event when she says “I tried
to imagine how any religion could not only condone but encourage these actions.”. Through this, we
are allowed into something that is very important to the writer, and we’re able to see her grappling
with it and coming to her own conclusions about it.

Story-telling techniques
The writer begins with some intrigue: “When a mobile phone rings at four in the morning, it usually means
trouble.”. She then proceeds to use techniques to keep the audience interested and maintain a coherent narra-
tive. One example is the use of repetition or mirroring of parts of sentences. This is often used in speech-mak-
ing as it helps to build up momentum and is an effective way to emphasise a point. The writer does this when
she says: “Every bomb scene served as a reminder of the knife edge we all live on. Every bomb blast was a
battle cry”.

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Beyond

Common App
The Coalition App

The Common App is the older, more established application portal and is accepted by around 800
universities. The Coalition App, on the other hand, is accepted by around 140 universities, although
this is growing as it is a relatively new option. Its main difference from the Common App is its ‘lock-
er’ tool whcih allows you to collate a more diverse academic and extra-curricular record of achieve-
ment. Take advantage of this if you’re applying through the Coalition App!

Note that even if a university accepts an application via the Coalition App, that doesn’t mean they
don’t have special requirements, which may include supplemental essays. The Coalition App recom-
mends your essay is 300 to 550 words. The Coalition App has a number of prompts that, similar to
the Common App, are designed to help you tell your own personal story. They are designed to help
you express your character, community, identity, and personal goals or dreams.

The Coalition App Essay Prompts (2018-2019)

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

2. Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater
good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution.

3. Has there been a time when you’ve had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged?
How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs?

4. What is the hardest part of being a teenager now? What’s the best part? What advice would
you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)?

5. Submit an essay on a topic of your choice.

Do Don’t
• Use your response to the prompt you • Just list your attributes.
choose to ‘show’ rather than ‘tell’ the • Incriminate yourself (i.e. talking about
college about who you are. vices that you have learned from) -
• Be creative and imagine what you don’t give the admissions team a rea-
could bring to a topic that the average son to reject you.
candidate could not. • Replace your words with fancy alterna-
• Take a chance and get out of your tives from the thesaurus - use your own
comfort zone! voice.

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Supplemental Essays Intro & Exercise

Supplemental essays are typically shorter (often 200 words) and different from the Common App essay
in that they only go to one university. This means you can tailor the message to what is important to that
admissions team at the university. In fact the prompts that you will get for supplemental essays often relate
to the university explicitly. Supplemental essays vary from place to place, and may vary by subject or by o in
this guide we’re going to look at a couple of common examples.
Tem quassunt vendam natetur sint,
que pre volorumet aut eaque
Some universities get really creative with their essay prompts, which means you are expected to respond
creatively.

Practice thinking outside the box!

Look at the prompts below and select one. Then spend 15 minutes planning and making notes on the prompt. Take
a break, then come back and review what you wrote and see if you can think of an another way to respond to the
prompt from your personal experiences.

Stanford University
What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed?

University of Southern California

Hashtag to describe yourself

University of Chicago
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...

Yale University
You are teaching a Yale course. What is it called?

Supplemental essays focusing on subjects

Supplemental essays may vary depending on whether you are applying to a specific college within
a university. For example, at Duke, there are two prompts:

If you are applying to the Pratt School of Engineering as a first year applicant, please discuss why you want
to study engineering and why you would like to study at Duke. (Please limit your response to no more than
150 words.)

If you are applying to the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences as a first year applicant, please discuss why you
consider Duke a good match for you. Is there something particular about Duke that attracts you? (Please
limit your response to no more than 150 words.)

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Supplemental Essay Example

Yale Admissions Essay Prompt: Write about something that you love to do

The sound of my doorbell starts off high, then the pitch mellows out, and the whole effect
mimics an instrumental interpretation of rain finally finding a steady pace at which to fall.
I have spent several minutes analyzing its tone because I have had many opportunities to
do so, as one thing I love to do is order pizza and have it delivered to my house. When the
delivery person rings my doorbell, I instantly morph into one of Pavlov’s dogs, salivating
to the sound that signals the arrival of the cheesy, circular glory. It smells like celebration,
as I love to rejoice a happy occasion by calling Papa John’s for my favourite food. It tastes
like comfort, since having pizza delivered to my quiet home is a way for me to unwind.
It looks like self-sufficiency, because when I was younger, ordering pizza made me feel
grown-up, and it still provides that satisfaction for my child at heart. Accepting those
warm cardboard boxes at my front door is second nature to me, but I will always love
ordering pizza because of the way eight slices of something so ordinary are able to evoke
feelings of independence, consolation, and joy.

Key
Yellow: Descriptive language and vivid imagery
Green: Getting personal - sharing passions/ things that are important to the writer
Blue: Story-telling techiques

Story-telling techniques
This essay employs story-telling techniques to make the narrative feel coherent and well-structured.
This is done through repetition/ mirroring of sentences (“it smells like..”’; “it tastes like...”; “it looks
like...”) in which the author evokes several senses to link the pizza to important moments and experi-
ences for her.

Descriptive language and vivid imagery

Interesting descriptions are used throughout the essay. The idea of a doorbell that “mimics an instru-
mental interpretation of rain finally finding a steady pace at which to fall” is extremely creative and
evocative.

Getting personal - sharing passions/ things that are important to the writer
The topic of this piece is ‘write about somthing that you love to do’. The writer entertains the audience
by giving deep, intimate meaning to a relatively normal and mundane topic (ordering pizza) - this is
her personal experience and therefore allows her to share an unusual passion and why it is important
to her.

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Answering ‘Why This College?’

Many supplemental essays will ask you to explain why you think you’re the best candidate for them.

Do Don’t
• Your research! If you’re going to talk about • Only use emotional language. “I really really
the college, make sure what you say is accu- want to go to Duke because I just have this
rate. feeling that it’s the place for me” is not com-
• Think of it as explaining why you are per- pelling!
fect for the college, and why they’re perfect • Focus on non-academic aspects of university
for you. Don’t just focus on one side of the experience: “I can see myself partying after
equation. watching the college team play basketball”.
• Mention specifics (activities, classes, individu- • Focus on ‘key stats’ (the size, location, campus
als) that you’re excited about gaining from. amenities) of the college.

Tufts Admissions Essay Prompt: Which aspects of Tufts’ curriculum or undergraduate experience
prompt your application? In short: “Why Tufts?”

In addition to providing a strong foundation in economics, Tufts provides me the opportunity to further
explore global health care policy through an International Relations Program that leverages the strengths
of 18 related departments and programs. I’m also keen to continue my study of the Chinese language
through Tufts’ Chinese Department, studying with Professor Mingquan Wang and perhaps study abroad
at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, to receive the full immersion experience. Tufts’ Experimental
College intrigues me as I can take unconventional courses such as Game Strategy and Rising Tide: Cli-
mate Change, Vulnerability, and Adaptation (EXP-0021-F). Further, Tufts’ urban backdrop provides me the
opportunity to play league cricket year round to train for my bid to become the first Jumbo on the US
National Cricket Team, while studying abroad at Oxford would provide me with not only global economic
perspectives, but also the opportunity to continue my pursuit of cricket in its birthplace. Visiting Tufts,
my mother’s alma mater, I felt I was at home in Singapore. Its strengths in Chinese, Econ and International
Relations, combined with its beautiful suburban campus, academic rigor, and global reach have confirmed
that Tufts is the place for me.

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Go get started on your first draft!

Once you’ve finished, do a read-through and check that it flows, puts you in your best light,
makes sense, is grammatically correct and avoids cliches.

Some final thoughts from our team of advisors:

Ask for feedback, but only take it on board if you agree and it feels like *you*.

Take a break if it’s feeling overwhelming or you’re not making progress.

Write from your heart - only you know what makes you interesting and unique

Write simply and honestly - you are different from other candidates.

Above all, make sure you STAND OUT!

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