As a student getting ready to enter college, you have to fill out the appropriate application for whatever school you want to attend. In some cases, this will be one application, and if you have more than one choice, it means more than one essay. A lot of times, the admissions office will want you to explain something unique or personal about yourself. If the school hasn’t given you any essay prompts to use as a guide, you can write whatever you want, and even use the same essay prompts for each application. However, for some colleges, you will be given prompts on what to write about for your essay application. Then you will have to follow whatever instructions that you’ve been given. For those that haven’t given you any clue as to what to write about you are expected to come up with application essay with prompts on your own.
You can share anything that you may have taken the time to learn with prompts from your own experiences in your application essay. For instance, you can tell about your decision to go to their school, or you can write on whatever skill you have that you belive is going to stand out. You may not be able to find the time to think about a topic that is going to make your essay application move to the top of the list. Like with other academic essays, you have to do research, even though it is about your own life. For the most part, your research is only going to involve reflection into your own past.
You may want to start off your application essay by doing some brainstorming before looking for specific prompts. By quickly jotting down a bunch of ideas that first pop into your head, you may surprise yourself at what kind of topics you already have stashed away.
Follow These Prompts and Ideas for a Stand-Out Application Essay
Following an intense brainstorming session, if you’re really stuck on coming up with an idea for your application essay, take one of the prompts from this list. After you have prompts that can get you started, composing the rest of the essay should be fairly simple. After all, it is a paper about yourself. Nobody knows more on that topic than you do. With the right prompts for your application essay in mind, the sentences should easily flow out onto the paper. Even though you will have to do some research into your own life, it’s nothing compared to writing an academic report that requires a ton of facts and statistics to back up an opinion or point of view.
Remember when you are thinking of what prompts to use for your application essay, you want to answer a question and describe to the reader what makes you an individual person. The officers in the admissions office do not want to hear about your friends, your social life, or your daily routine. They want something inspiring that speaks to them, and something that they can tell you wrote with compassion and interest.
Take a look at some of the best topics to pick from. You can find some creative essay prompts for your application in this valuable list:
- When telling the world the story of your life, what would you title it and why?
- Discuss what role sports played in your life and why it was important.
- What do you see as the biggest challenge to society and why?
- Answer the questions why you are where you are today and why aren’t you somewhere else?
- Provide a possible reason for a law to be reversed within your community and the process to make it happen.
- Name something that you always want people to know about you when first meeting them but you never say.
- Describe your personality when you were starting in high school and how it has changed in the four years you were there.
- Tell a story about your family and how they have shaped you into who you are.
- Write about how the people from your neighborhood have turned you into a success.
- Reflect on your life and imagine what the first 150 words of your autobiography would say.
There is one thing in common in all of these prompts that can be used for a college application and that’s the word “you.” Your application essay is going to be all about you! Take advantage of the opportunity you have to write something on one of the easiest topics in the world. Make sure you enjoy the prompts you pick and they are something that you are excited about. Your passion and interest will come through in your writing. It really makes a difference to the person reading it.
Using Your Prompts to Make Your Application Essay Stand Out
Regardless of what you decide to talk about, failure to submit something that is attention grabbing and unique can make the difference between you getting the spot at the college amongst all the other applicants that also took a chance at writing something that discussed years past. If none of the ideas we have listed above fit what you have envisioned, you can find an extensive list of more by looking online. There are several pages like this one that have even more prompts for you to consider.
If you really can’t figure out what to write about using all the prompts out there for your application essay, there are professional writing companies out there that can help you. You can get assistance with coming up with just prompts, or the expert writers can do your entire application essay for you. Just remember you are going to have to give them all the details about you because that is something that can’t be made up!
