Common Application Essay Topics

Website: https://www.commonapp.org
Forms:    https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/DownloadForms.aspx

SHORT ANSWER (150 words maximum)
Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences.

PERSONAL ESSAY (250 words minimum - typically 500-750 words)

Note:  Your Common Application essay should be the same for all colleges. Do not customize it in any way for individual colleges   Colleges that want customized essay responses will ask for them on a supplement form.

The personal essay helps the college become acquainted with you as a person and student, apart from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data.   It will also demonstrate your ability to organize your thoughts and express yourself.

Choose one of the following topics:

1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national or international concern and its importance to you.
3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
4. Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated their importance of diversity to you.
6. Topic of Choice

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