Hello to our loyal readers who are back for the second installment of our Common App Essay “hot or not” guide, Prompt #2 edition. If you’re here after checking out our blog on Prompt #1 and deciding against it, first of all, congratulations, and welcome to the right side of history. If this is your first foray into this series, all you need to know is that we’re breaking down the pros and cons of every Common App prompt and walking through essay strategies for each one.
We haven’t kept quiet about our favorite prompt, lucky number 7, but the “choose your own adventure” nature of it isn’t for everyone, and we believe you can write a great response to any of these options if you go about it the right way. Without further ado, here’s Prompt #2:
Common App Prompt #2
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 did you learn from the experience?
Our Assessment
While nothing can dethrone Prompt #7 in our hearts, we think there are some really solid arguments to be made for this one! What we like best about it is that it’s straightforward and basically gives a built-in structure. Unlike Prompt #1, it doesn’t put the onus on you as the writer to figure out why the topic is important or what admissions officers would want to hear about its significance to you. Better yet, the question directs you to tell a story, and a specific kind of story at that. The instructions are clear: talk about a time you struggled with something (the beginning), consider what made it difficult or how the situation developed (the middle), and conclude by demonstrating how you’ve grown (the end).
There are a few reasons you might want to pass over this one. “Growth” or “perspective” questions are classics of the genre, which means similar prompts will likely pop up in several school-specific supplements. If you want to make sure there’s no chance of redundancy between your Common App essay and supplementals, or if you just want to showcase the broadest range of topic and writing ability overall, you might want to save the story you have in mind for Prompt #2 for additional essays you’ll need to write down the line.
And, finally, the language of this question sometimes leads applicants to believe they have to write about incredibly personal, heavy topics. From our perspective, that is its biggest potential pitfall, because we really don’t believe students need to disclose a trauma or write about the worst thing they’ve ever experienced for college acceptance, especially if that makes them uncomfortable. This kind of material also makes it difficult to keep the focus on you, where it should be, if a system or another person is responsible for what happened to you. We’re not saying you shouldn’t reference hardships that affected your education and development, but we really recommend the Additional Information section for elaborating on those circumstances and putting them in context. That way, you are free to use this space to really be yourself and kick off your application in a more light-hearted tone.
Remember that the Common App essay is all about making the person behind a piece of paper come alive for overworked admissions officers reading hundreds of applications a day. Above all else, we want this essay to make you the main topic of conversation — to show off your personality and unique voice.
How to Do It Right
With those caveats aside, Prompt #2 can be a great option if you’re strategic about choosing your topic!
Before we get into some sample ideas, we should narrow down your options by telling you which are complete non-starters. Here are the major mistakes you want to avoid: spending too much of the essay on the negative part of the story, or choosing to write about a mistake that leaves such a bad impression of you that the silver lining element (“what you learned” or how failure led to later success) can’t redeem it.
Not to get all armchair psychologist, but this question is a bit of a social litmus test, and you want to lay out your story in a way that frames you as relatable and self-aware. It’s a bit like this job interview ol’ faithful: “What is your greatest weakness?” If you try to repackage strengths as weaknesses to make yourself look good (“I care too much” or “I’m too much of a perfectionist” come to mind), your response comes off artificial and calculated, and you seem like the kind of candidate who’s either not introspective, not capable of growth, or simply not honest.
You will write a bad essay if you’re trying to give the impression that you’ve never fallen short or done anything wrong in your whole life. Respectfully, no one wants to read that. The whole point of this essay is to show how you think and how you adapt; are you capable of changing your mind and becoming a better person in the process? Are you capable of falling down and getting back up? That’s what colleges really want to see.
However, there are limits to the kind of challenges or mistakes you can cover with depth and insight when you only have 650 words, and you shouldn’t choose anything that makes you look like A Walking Red Flag™. To err is human, and all that, but you don’t want to spend more time on the failure than on the success, because ultimately you want to end on a positive note that shows you’re a thoughtful and stand-up person. You also don’t want to talk about a lapse in judgment that might seem like fundamental character flaws that cause extensive damage in teaching you a lesson — cruelty, violence, greed, etcetera. Like, oh, you murdered someone but realized after suffering the consequences that killing someone in cold blood is bad? Congratulations! But also this gives off rancid vibes.
The bottom line is common sense. Admit your imperfections, of course, but make sure the anecdote you choose sets you up to show off your best qualities, too.
Getting to Your First Draft
This might sound like a tall order, but with a little brainstorming you’ll realize you have a lot of experiences at your disposal. A few questions that can you started on the ideation phase:
Have you ever overreacted to a situation that’s funny in hindsight? What were you worried about? What ended up happening instead?
Have you ever been disappointed by an outcome that turned out to be for the best?
Has a simple mistake ever led you to a eureka moment you wouldn’t have had if everything had gone as planned?
What is something inconvenient in your life that is also deeply worth it?
Thinking of your happiest memories, do any of them surprise you? Have you discovered a passion or hobby that you never would have expected to like a few years ago?
Maybe you added salt instead of sugar to your homemade cookies, and that batch was disgusting — but it gave you the inspiration for a savory secret ingredient that has become your signature touch and guarantees you sell out at every bake sale. Maybe you begged your parents for a puppy and tried to handle grooming yourself, and you’ve got a few scratches (and the first dog to ever slay a bowl cut) to show for it.
There are a million ways to approach this prompt, but it works best when you know what you want your story to say about you and you can have fun with it. This is a great chance to make admissions officers laugh, to demonstrate that you are flexible in the face of setbacks, and to prove that you are creative and motivated, able to turn a challenge into an opportunity.
Once you’ve landed on a concept, you’re good to go. Do some free-writing, then turn that into a rough draft. Take a break before returning to your essay, and then try to read it aloud so you can experience it from a distance. Are there places where you get bored? Did you stumble over a word or sentence? You’ll find some major revisions to make, probably, in terms of writing new content or rearranging the order of paragraphs, and you’ll flag line-edits that have more to do with style and voice than theme. When you’re ready to show it to a friend or advisor, share it with them, but ensure the quality and amount of feedback you receive by only consulting one or two trusted readers.
And voilà — you’ve got a Common App essay on your hands!
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