The Common Application essay prompts are designed to help give college admissions officers a personal, holistic view of who you are beyond your grades, test scores, and extracurriculars. But you can only choose one prompt. Here are some tips for choosing the topic for your Common App essay. 

The Common Application Essay Topics for 2025–2026

• 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.
• 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 lessons did you learn from the experience?
• Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
• 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?
• Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
• Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
• 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.

What Should Your Common Application Essay Be About?

Think of the Common App essay topics as starting points. As Yale Admissions says, "It doesn't matter which topics you choose, as long as they are meaningful to you. Your perspective – the lens through which you view your topic – is far more important than the specific topic itself."

Consider what you want admissions officers to know about you. Perhaps you want to share a specific personal quality, such as your curiosity or drive, provide some insight into your unique family circumstances or an impactful lesson you have learned, or showcase your academic accomplishments.

How to Choose Which Topic to Pursue

While there are different schools of thought here, some college essay coaches encourage students to ignore the prompts at first and instead think about their most meaningful stories. In its guide to the Common Application essay prompts, College Essay Advisors writes “The prompts don’t really matter. What matters is the story you want to tell.”

However, you may not immediately know the story you want to tell. In that case, it can be helpful to look carefully at each topic and ask yourself what personal experiences come to mind. Write them down and then review your list.

• The experiences that are most meaningful to you will make great themes for your essay. As Wellesley Admissions advises, "An essay about some small, even insignificant-seeming thing can be more powerful than the 'How I'll save the world' essay."
• Experiment with several topics before picking one. This will help you uncover the deeper connections that will bring your essay to life.
• Beware of cliches. Some college essay experts advise students to avoid “overused” essay themes, such as death, divorce, sports, travel, and brief volunteer experiences. In her blog, independent college counselor Lee Shulman Bierer deems the “last-minute sports victory” and the “mission trip epiphany” to be of the worst subjects for college essays. “Unless a student has a particularly inspiring, amusing, or heartfelt story, colleges have seen it, heard it, and read it all thousands of times” and it can be very hard for a student to stand out.
• Don't use AI. It might be tempting to use AI-powered tools like Chat GPT to write your Common App essay, but don't. Essay readers at colleges are on the lookout for AI-writing (some use AI to detect it), and some colleges have enacted policies prohibiting the use of AI in college applications. Your essay should reflect your original thinking and your unique voice. 

More Tips for the Written Portions of the Common Application

• Heed the 650 word count limit. The essay and any writing supplements should include a maximum word limit.  You don't have to write to the maximum, but your essay shouldn't be longer or significantly shorter than the limit. In fact, the Common Application will automatically reject any essay shorter than 250 words.
• Don't overlook supplemental essays. Some colleges require supplemental essays in addition to a longer essay or personal statement. Although supplemental essays are usually shorter than your main essay, they can matter just as much to your admission chances and therefore require just as much thought and care.
• Consider Answering the Common App’s “Additional Information” Question. This optional section of the Common App has a 250-word limit and allows students to write about how their educational experience has been affected by a specific challenge or special circumstance, such as natural disasters, death of a family member or close friend, health issues, as well as achievements or activities not mentioned elsewhere in your application.  

Choose an essay prompt that allows you to express your values, goals, accomplishments and lets your unique voice and personality shine through. Students often say that when they figure out what story they want to tell, the right prompt is obvious, and their essay practically writes itself.