“What do you do?” It’s a question that comes up time and time again. Whether at a cocktail party or a business meeting, we like to talk about it. The reason? We are pretty proud of what we do.

“In this blog post, we will tell you how to write the best college essay introduction…” We’re diving right in with a what-not-to-do. College essays are always challenging. That’s why most of our blog is about the ins and outs of essay writing and it’s what most of our clients come to us for help with, too. You’re sitting there on your laptop, blank screen, with absolutely no idea where to start. Should you go corny? Saucy? Informative? What if it sounds bad? What if it makes me look dumb? Take a breath. Let’s figure it out together.

As summer draws near, the school year comes to a close, and decisions start getting sent out, it’s easy to start daydreaming about your future college. You have images of walking from your dorm to class, crossing campus, sitting in a lecture hall, cramming for midterms in a giant library. You dream of going to school in a college town, or in a city, maybe it’s a big school – or small. You think about all the different things you could study, friends you will make, and clubs you’ll join.

The common app essay can provoke a lot of anxiety, but we find that, when done correctly, it provides a chance for students to showcase their personalities. When you drill down to it, the anxiety around the common app is really a brainstorming problem. As such, most of your effort should go into finding a topic (a story) that allows you to demonstrate who you are as a person. Think of it as an opportunity—while a lot of your application is standardized, this essay is open-ended and allows you to get creative.

Imagine you are an application reviewer. You are tired. The room is either too hot or too cold. You have already read 8,000 essays and need to read 400 more today and every single one feels like it starts with something like “3 summers ago, I….” or “My grandfather was the strongest person I knew.” How would you feel? If it were us, we would be some combination of bored, tired, and antsy. You turn over the next essay and it’s written as a screenplay and is titled Act 2 Scene 3. You are immediately thrown out of your routine and, more importantly, you’re grateful to this student for livening up your day.

“Hey, can you write a new post for the blog?”

“Sure any idea of what we should write about?”

“I think we need to do one on form and the common app essay.”

“On form?”

“Yeah about how good common app essays break form.”

“Of course! I will work on one about how breaking form can make a really memorable reading experience.”

Even the most prepared students are usually surprised by some part of the college application process. Maybe it’s a supplement that really makes them think or how short some essays have to be, but there’s one thing that everyone knows about before starting the process: they are going to have to write a killer common app essay.

We made it! We broke down the first six prompts and we’re concluding this series by diving into our favorite prompt #7. Let’s get right to it:

Hooray, a good prompt is lurking below! Prompt #6 is a little different than the rest and we’re here for it. Below you’ll find our tips and tricks:

In continuation of our common app essay series, we’re diving into the fifth prompt. Most prompts fall firmly into one of two camps: absolutely not or maybe. This prompt started as a hard maybe for us, and then ended in the “Thank U, Next” camp after we did some internal brainstorming. Keep reading for our thoughts:

This year, a new prompt replaced an old (and highly unpopular) prompt. Let’s take a look:

Let’s start with some hard facts! This may be disheartening to hear, but college admissions officers spend just a few minutes reading your application. We know, we know. You work on it for weeks, months even. It feels unfair, but it’s true. Let’s say they spend five minutes reading your application in its entirety. What this really means is that you have five minutes, and just a few opportunities, to add depth to your application and to show them that you’re a dynamic high school student who has a lot to offer to any given college.