1. College Entrance Essay Pre-Writing Strategies
Tips and Reminders

2. Common Application prompts 2018:
Instructions. The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don’t feel obligated to do so.

3. 2018-19 Common Application Essay Prompts
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 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? 

4. Common Application Topics, continued:
4. Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. 
5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that 
sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. 
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? 

5. Common Application Topics…still
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. 
Just FYI: 
The most popular essay prompt of the application year (through January 5, 2018) is "Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth..." (23.6%), followed by the topic of your choice option (22.5%), and "Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful..." (21.4%). 
"Through the Common App essay prompts, we want to give all applicants - regardless of background or access to counseling - the opportunity to share their voice with colleges. Every applicant has a unique story. The essay helps bring that story to life," said Meredith Lombardi, Associate Director, Outreach and Education, for The Common Application.

6. ApplyTexas Essay Prompts A, B and C For U. S
ApplyTexas Essay Prompts A, B and C For U.S. Freshman and International Freshman Applications (Fall 2018)
Topic A: What was the environment in which you were raised? Describe your family, home, neighborhood, or community, and explain how it has shaped you as a person.
Topic B: Most students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. Tell us about yourself.
Topic C: You've got a ticket in your hand - Where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there?
Last updated June 21, 2018

7. Apply Texas Special Topic Only Use This Topic IF Necessary
Topic D: Please Note: The essay in this section is specific to certain college majors and is not required by all colleges/universities that accept the Apply Texas Application. If you are not applying for a major in Architecture, Art, Art History, Design, Studio Art, Visual Art Studies/Art Education, you are not required to write this essay.
Personal interaction with objects, images and spaces can be so powerful as to change the way one thinks about particular issues or topics. For your intended area of study (architecture, art history, design, studio art, visual art studies/art education), describe an experience where instruction in that area or your personal interaction with an object, image or space effected this type of change in your thinking. What did you do to act upon your new thinking and what have you done to prepare yourself for further study in this area?

8. [let’s practice] Dissect the Prompt
(Common App #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?
Pick out key words, ideas, concepts—define anything that is unfamiliar—and focus on the main point(s).

9. You Choose a Topic & Dissect It:

10. .
Once you have selected a topic [or two], try one of the following

11. The “Old Stand-by” of the sunburst or the spider web:
Put the topic (a shortened version) in the middle of a page and see how many ideas burst forth or radiate out from the middle.
Add details to these ideas—becoming more and more specific as you continue.
Would this make a good essay? Does it answer the prompt?

12. Lessons from Failure

13. Listing
Listing: Create a list of the ideas that come to mind when you read through the topics.
Cross-Reference this list to see which ideas or concepts appear more than once
Select one [or more] of these listed topics and see how many details [who, what, when, where, why, how] you can recall.
Would this make a good essay? Does it answer the prompt?

14. Identity, Interest or Talent [both Common App & Apply Tx]
Amateur Magician:
What is an interesting introduction
End [thesis] with how / why / what about this defines [shapes / focuses] me?
Offer two or three examples to support the thesis
Support with details
Tone
Voice

15. Free Writing
Free Writing: Literally set a timer for 3-5 minutes [or you can do this to your favorite song] and sit down with pen/paper or at the computer and write/type continuously until the time expires.
Don’t over think this—just try to get your ideas on the page
Don’t stop to check your work or ponder what you should write
Don’t stop to check your text messages, either!
After the time ends, examine your work
What should your keep?
What should you “move” to another section or put aside for another topic?
What should you add / or detract to fully and concisely answer the topic?
Have you included all the details needed to make this piece real and interesting?
Is your essay lacking voice? In other words, does it sound too generic or fake?

16. Remember
*Ultimately, the word count is designed to make a good, concise essay. Many colleges will ask students to upload responses, and when the essay is too long, it will be rejected or cut short.
**You may be asked to recall a specific event or story, BUT most college essays insists that you have grown, developed, changed, or continued to process the experience. It is not JUST the moment, the person, or the event that concerns the reader; your growth is the focus.

17. Don’t Forget
Be sure to put the handwritten pieces in your Portfolio Folder after you have typed the Rough Draft.
Once you type your Rough Draft piece, submit it to turnitin.com.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA