Most students are actually puzzled as to which they should choose in the Common App. Students often wonder if there is a preferred question or which one they should do. Well, first of all, there’s no preferred question. There’s usually six or seven options offered each year by the College Boards on the common app, but most US college essay prompts revolve around a certain fairly restricted list of topics.
For example, they might ask you what is your proudest moments or greatest achievements? Or they may go down the route of asking you what distinguishes you from all the other students? Or perhaps they’ll say, what was a difficult time in your life? And how did you experience this? And how did you grow and overcome the problem?
Perhaps they might ask you to write about your favourite book or movie, but more particularly how that book or movie influenced you. Then again, they might ask you about a life changing moment and how you see things differently after having experienced that life changing moment. What is your most noticeable character trait? This is a very difficult one for any person to answer honestly, because we sort of see ourselves in a certain light, and we normally like to see ourselves in a positive light. I think if you were to attempt a question based on character trait, it’s probably good idea to ask your friends to describe you. The Good, the Bad, and the perhaps less good as well
The overall general advice would therefore be, that you need to pick a topic that speaks to them, the student should pick something which is personal, something which you the student can support with concrete examples. It’s much better and much easier for the student to write from personal experience, rather than trying to take something which is a little more obtuse. So, please, as a student, always go for something which is personal because your listener or rather, your reader will actually want to hear about you.
