The Common App Prompts 2022

The Common App has officially announced that this year’s prompts will be … the same as last year’s! This is great news for applicants for two reasons. One is that the people you’re relying on to show you the way—English teachers, guidance counselors, and potentially college essay coaches!—know these prompts really well. Prompt 4 was new last year, but the other 6 have been around now for several years, and you can find great advice about tackling them all over the internet. Like—here, for example 🙂

The other reason this is great news is that they really are good prompts. That is, they are great prompts to point toward stories that engage admissions readers. They are great containers for stories worth telling. But as prompts they are quite vague in their phrasing. This vagueness is what allows for such a breadth of possible responses (pro!) but also makes it difficult for them to spark ideas and memories for you (con!).

What you need is a guided tour that points out what they’re really asking. So get comfortable—there are seven of them.

Prompt 1:

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.

Everyone has a background—you come from somewhere. You have a hometown, a family, and possibly an extended family with roots in other places or countries.

Everyone has an identity. You have attributes that together make you … you. Some of these are relational (you’re a sister, a twin, a middle child). Some are physical (a life-altering medical condition). Some are character- or personality-based. That is, you see yourself as a certain kind of person (intellectual, empathetic, a leader).

Everyone has interests. And everyone has talents, though they may not be talents that strike you as important.

If this prompt doesn’t “sound like you,” it might not be the right choice—it isn’t for everyone. But don’t write it off immediately. The evaluation “your application would be incomplete without it” scares off some students before they’ve even considered any of the many options they certainly have. I encourage you to spend time with each of the prompts before you decide it’s not for you.

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?

You will never fail to find something to say if you write about failure. Failure is both common and a natural path to growth. This prompt is even more generous, though. It includes both failures (mistakes and challenges of our own making) and “obstacles, challenges or setbacks” (not necessarily of our own making). This allows you to tell a story in which you eventually succeed—if you have one to tell. It’s really important to remember, though that you need to learn and grow from the experience you describe—but you don’t necessarily need to succeed in the end.

If you lose an important race, for example—whether it’s in a track meet, a robotics competition, or a student election—you don’t need to go back and win the next one to prove you learned from the experience. In fact, if you’re not careful, a later win can sound fake or forced—so if it really did happen, make sure it feels authentic through thoughtful details.

Prompt 3:

Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

This prompt overlaps at the edges with both prompts 2 and 5, but might also turn up a story of its own. Make sure, though, that it is a story and not a philosophical treatise. That is, there should be some event or outside trigger that causes you to wrestle with the belief. This will not only make the essay more engaging, it will make the topic easier for you to find in your memory.

The wrestling may take place entirely in your head—you don’t necessarily need to fight or discuss with someone else. And in the end, no one around you needs to realize that you either changed your belief, or didn’t. But your behavior needs to show your new or renewed commitment to the belief you end with.

Prompt 4:

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?

This is the prompt that was new last year. It’s a sweet effort to acknowledge that life right now is emotionally harder than it’s been in … well, recent memory, and that the Common App knows teens are struggling. Trying to bring a bit of joy into college applications. What’s not to love?

Well, as a prompt, a lot, actually. I really do appreciate that the Common App made this effort—I think it was really good of them. But here’s the problem with this prompt: It’s not about you. No matter how important a person is to you, I personally don’t recommend making them the topic of your essay. (For more on that topic, check out my discussion on the Who Cares About College podcast.)

The other thing I notice about this prompt is better said with a picture. This illustration of a fried egg is actually a Venn diagram:

Any really good prompt 4 story is actually going to be a prompt 5 story, and I think you’ll be better served writing it through that lens.

Prompt 5:

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Although it has been many years now since this prompt was edited to its current version, I still believe it makes this extremely vague phrasing more clear to understand where it came from: Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

Transitioning to adulthood—maturing or taking on more responsibility—is something that both requires and causes a period of personal growth, along with a new understanding of yourself or others. It’s almost as though the prompt in its current form leaves out the story it’s actually looking for—because in being more vague, it’s not forcing you into one particular kind of story. (I sometimes wonder if they edited that original prompt because they got too many essays about driving and drivers licenses.)

Keep in mind, if you’re applying to college this fall, and you can’t think of an answer to this prompt … it might still be in front of you. Many Prompt 5 experiences happen in the summer after junior year. If you don’t yet have plans for your summer, I strongly recommend finding some, whether it’s a volunteer position, a job, a research opportunity or leadership program—there are many possibilities, and they range from expensive to free to paid. Find something that speaks to you, and ideally something that helps you explore your potential areas of career interest.

Prompt 6:

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

This prompt has been an option for several years now, which means students write it every year and people have given feedback that it was a successful prompt. So … other people like this prompt. That’s the nicest thing I can say about it.

As with Prompt 4, there’s a glaring problem with this prompt: It’s not about you. I could imagine a student pursuing engineering writing an essay about, for example, space travel—demonstrating their fascination with and commitment to their future career. After all, they’re applying to be a student, right? They should show how academically minded they are, or so the argument goes. The essay runs the risk, however, of turning into more of a research paper.

And it’s unlikely you can say anything so breathtakingly brilliant in 650 words that the school will think you’re smarter than any other applicant. The fact is, the rest of your application is already there to prove how smart and academically capable you are. The essay is meant to show what kind of person you are. Thousands of students share your passion for space travel, movies, robotics, criminal justice, or what-have-you. Your essay is your chance to show who you are. I wouldn’t waste it.

 Prompt 7:

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.

Short tangent—this is going to make sense in the end, I promise—the SAT guidebook Up Your Score has an incredible section on the “Rules of Guessing.” One of the rules for math answers is, If a bunch of the answer choices feature a particular number in some part of the equation—and one answer choice doesn’t feature that number anywhere—the “odd one out” is definitely wrong.

(The answer is definitely not D because every other option has the square root of 3.)

(If your SATs are still ahead, and you haven’t read at least the “Rules of Guessing” section in Up Your Score—if not the entire book—I recommend you do so!)

Prompt 7 is actually the most popular choice for applicants, but I still see it as the “odd one out.” Here’s the thing: Prompts 2, 3, 4 and 5—and even to some extent, Prompt 1—are looking for stories of growth. So you can make up your own prompt, or tell a different story that you don’t feel fits one of the other prompts, but I feel that risks your essay not telling the story admissions people want to hear—one of growth.

You will hear admissions officers speaking of the essays they remember and encouraging students, “It doesn’t have to be about something special! It can be about anything!” I want to add an important caveat that I believe those speakers are honestly overlooking. They don’t mean to be misleading. But if they only remember a handful of stellar essays every year, they are remembering the best writers who applied, and only the best.

Every applicant who is accepted has some stellar combination of attributes, but not all of them can be the best writers. I believe with the right tools, everyone can write an essay they are proud of. But the right topic is part of that equation. If writing is not your passion, choosing a story that will be inherently engaging—instead of a vague philosophical exploration or a long description of a place you love—is a stronger strategy.