Your instinctive approach to Common App might be to address your accomplishments and what you’re proud of. Although UC essays want to see “resume” content in their essays, Common App doesn’t want this at all. The Common App is a place to showcase your personality and softer skills to colleges. You will have plenty of places in your application to present your accomplishments and awards (Think supplement essays, transcripts, and activities lists). The Common App essay is not the place to do it.
My second piece of advice is that you have to have a conflict, a problem, tension, or a challenge: something to create a narrative arc in your essay. This essay is really more storytelling than it is an academic paper. How many books or short stories have you read that didn’t have a conflict? I’m going to safely assume your answer is zero.
Now, if you have decided upon a quality or trait that you think is representative of yourself and appealing to colleges and you have a conflict you’ve faced or a problem you’ve solved, how do you structure the essay?
There are tons of options, but here are a few pointers.
First, open strong. Your introduction could be a scene (start right in the middle of the action), a list, a quote, or a piece of dialogue (again, start right in the middle of the conversation). Be descriptive. Give colors, names, smells, and sounds to pull the reader in.
Then, provide the background information needed to understand the situation, followed by presenting the problem you faced, and finally show what you did to overcome it. This section should tell the story of what happened and what you learned.
Finally, reflect. What’s the big picture here? What are the applications and implications of this experience? And, the most important question: So what? Why should a college care? Make sure you answer these questions, without being clichéd about saving the world or curing terminal illnesses.
Overall, this essay should be unique to you. It should be clear that no one but you wrote this essay. Write what is true to you, rather than what you think colleges want to hear.
