Top 10 Common Application Essay Misconceptions / Sarah O'Neill Chester County

 Sarah O’Neill Coatesville Chester County Supreme Editing

What is the Common Application Essay Personal Statement?

The Common App essay is your primary writing sample within the Common Application, a college application portal accepted by more than 900 schools. All prospective schools accepting the Common App will read this essay to understand your character, background, and value as a potential student. Since many colleges read the essay, avoid mentioning any college names or programs; instead, save tailored answers for the supplementary school-specific essays within the Common App.

#1 Misconception: I need to read the Common App essay prompts and answer one of the seven prompts directly.

Not true.

Every story you want to tell about yourself will always satisfy prompt 7, which reads: “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.

When tackling the Common App Personal Statement, it’s crucial to recognize that the prompts themselves hold minimal significance. The heart of the matter lies in crafting an impactful Personal Statement that vividly portrays your personality, growth, and maturity through a compelling narrative. The prompts serve as a framework rather than a strict guide.

The best approach is often to develop your topic and Personal Statement arc first, allowing the essay to naturally align with the most fitting prompt.

Admissions Officers (AOs) focus more on your reflective writing abilities and the narrative of your personal development rather than the specific prompt.

Ultimately, the goal is to communicate a genuine story, and as long as that objective is met, any prompt is fair game.

#2 Misconception: I NEED to pick a unique topic.

There is no such thing as a unique topic; there are unique ways of representing that topic.

Let’s restate differently. There is no topic that hasn’t been written about before. However, there are different, novel, unique, exciting, engaging, and compelling ways of executing even the most mundane topic.

Even though we’re talking about misconceptions today…

Again: you can write about anything, your family, the pleasure you take in an activity, surfing, an afternoon walk. Your topic will serve you well as long as you write it well.

#3 Misconception: You MUST write about your family.

Discussions of your family (usually parents and/or grandparents) are overrepresented and can be detrimental to your application. Usually, writing about your family is a bad call — remember, this is a Personal Statement! Though family members can be featured in your essay, they should not be the primary focus. The primary focus is YOU!

•Your family can act as a secondary character.

• Your family can provide a setting. Are you at the dinner table? Are you in a car? Doing an activity? Keeping the story in one place helps familiarize the reader with your surroundings.

So, how do I write about family?

You don’t start out with writing an essay about family as your goal. You end up there organically.

•Identifying the specific personality trait you aim to convey in your essay is crucial. This serves as a compass for your writing journey. Consider making a list, consulting with friends, and pinpointing three characteristics that truly define you.

•Take a minute to write down three characteristics that truly define you.

•Now, brainstorm stories that exemplify those traits. Let’s say you want to write about the fact that you have strong communication and mediation skills. Come up with 3–5 examples.

•If (and only if) the truest and most genuine story is related to your family, then you choose that one. But you should only do so if you can tell a cohesive story about yourself, and the secondary characters won’t overshadow your presence. You might also consider telling three vignettes, one of which is centered around family.

• Approach your essay writing with the same structure as any other piece: keep the story in the spotlight, use secondary characters to illustrate your personality trait, and ensure your narrative has a well-defined beginning, middle, and end.

#4 Misconception: Writing about Music/Drama/Sports

I love music and drama. Who doesn’t? The most important thing to keep in mind is that your common app essay needs to be about YOU. And we get that music might be a big part of your life. But there are two traps that we don’t want you to fall into:

TRAP #1: WRITING A COMMON APP ESSAY ABOUT AN EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITY.

•We don’t try to fit people into boxes, and we love uncovering layers of depth that speak to a diversified list of interests, passions, and qualities. However, if you’ve been playing jazz music since sixth grade, it’s likely that “jazz musician” will be on your common app activities list.

•Many people like to write about music or drama through a common lens: music or drama helped me come out of my shell and allowed me to express myself.

• While this may be true, colleges have read these essays for years. Your essay will be placed into the “music” pile, and that’s not a good place to be. So, suppose you’ve been making music or studying music outside of school, and it’s on your resume. In that case, we suggest you use your Common App essay as an opportunity to showcase other unique qualities or experiences that make you stand out and could be interesting to colleges.

TRAP #2: WRITING A COMMON APP ESSAY THAT’S A LOVE LETTER TO YOUR FAVORITE MUSICIAN or actor

Whenever you write an essay about someone else (your grandmother, your favorite teacher, your best friend), you unfortunately miss the mark. By definition, your common app essay is no longer about YOU. And that’s problematic because colleges can’t tell what kind of person you are based on your favorite musician. So, no matter how deep your love for Taylor Swift runs, it’s best to skip this approach as well.

So, how can you write a common app essay about music or drama?

Writing about music or drama can be a helpful lens if it shows how you see the world and how you think, but it has to be done correctly.

For example, a student who loved learning about other countries and cultures was sitting in French class one day and trying to figure out how he could learn about France without his textbook. He decided to start listening to French music to brush up on his pronunciation skills and knowledge of the country. He continued along this path, listening to playlists from almost every country in Europe. This is a great example of an essay that incorporates music but isn’t exclusively about music.

Connections

Writing about music or drama connects to so many aspects of the human experience, and it’s a powerful subject for a college essay if you harness it in a focused and specific way.

SPORTS

”I can’t write about sports. That’s what EVERYBODY does.”

The notion that all students who play sports write college essays about their athletic pursuits is simply inaccurate. Athletes are not just athletes — they are complex humans with varied talents and experiences, many of which are worth exploring in essay form. Sports teach valuable skills like leadership, teamwork, and discipline. They foster bonds of friendship that often last decades or longer. A working knowledge of sports can even be a lifelong conversation starter among strangers.

SHIFT the Lens

Students do not have to shy away from detailing these experiences and what they learned from them — they just have to shift the lens, add another layer, or approach these topics from creative perspectives to make them both original and reflective of a greater range of interests and talents.

For Example

•Maybe your experience diving for the ball as a volleyball player allowed you to take a risk in applying for the job of your dreams.

•Perhaps the qualities needed to be a good basketball player and also the skills needed to command a boardroom.

• Students might want to steer away from major tropes like getting injured before a big game or scoring the winning goal — though if those stories are treated with sincerity and an innovative perspective, they can make for effective essays as well.

The Test

•The test of whether or not you have achieved the level of creativity necessary to set a sports essay apart from all the rest is this: Could any other basketball player have written your essay? If another lacrosse player put her name on your application, would the details still be mostly accurate?

• If the answer is yes, find another way in; add another twist; push towards a more compelling and creative conclusion. So, yes, you can write a sports essay — it just has to be a sports essay unlike any other.

#5 Misconception: Politics

Why is Talking About Politics NOT Recommended?

•You have no idea who will read your application, so you cannot know that person’s political beliefs.

•It’s also advised to tread carefully around politics because institutions can have cultures that align with specific political ideologies. For instance, liberal arts colleges are typically associated with progressive and left-leaning values, while certain religious universities lean towards more conservative beliefs. This underscores the importance of conducting thorough research before applying!

• That said, if politics is an essential part of who you are, you can learn how to write about politics in an effective, non-offensive way.

Where Can You Mention Politics in Your Application?

•2 main places where politics will come up:

•Your Essays

•Essays are a place where you can discuss politics because they allow you to expand on your passions.

•You could use your involvement with politics in a variety of essays, including your personal statement, community involvement topics, and extracurricular topics.

•Your activities

•This section is a valuable opportunity to showcase your leadership and commitment through your involvement in political extracurriculars.

• If you were the President of the Young Democrats/Republicans Club at your school or the social media manager for a state representative, you should include those activities with pride.

How NOT to Talk About Politics in Your Application

Stating Your Beliefs Without Providing Context to Your Life

•Your political beliefs didn’t just appear out of nowhere — they were shaped and have evolved over years of life experience. Colleges care way more about the life experiences that shaped you and led you to hold your views than what the views are themselves.

•Provide perspective on the experiences that shaped your opinion will make it easier for people with different beliefs to empathize and appreciate where you are coming from.

Describing a Politician’s Beliefs in Detail

• No one needs to hear about a politician’s views on immigration or the bills they’ve sponsored and passed. Instead, focus on your unique experiences, such as writing memos, attending town hall meetings, and answering constituent questions. This emphasis on your personal experiences can make you feel that your application is truly about you and your unique journey.
• Openly Trashing Other Viewpoints
• •Don’t outwardly criticize and demonize opposing political beliefs.. It goes back to the saying from kindergarten: if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it.
• Lying About Your Stance
• •Students might be tempted to say their views align with the overall vibe of the school, but no good can come from lying on your application. Even when a school has a reputation for leaning towards one political ideology or the other, admissions officers want to create a class of diverse perspectives, so you don’t need to conform perfectly to the average student to gain admission.

How to Effectively Talk About Politics

Focus on Your Involvement Rather than Your Beliefs

•When describing political extracurriculars in the activities section or in your essays, the focus should be on your involvement, achievements, and lessons learned. When writing about your work with the Young Democrats, say how you “Organized annual voter registration drives where over 150 students registered for the upcoming election” rather than how you were “Part of a club that promoted Democratic perspectives on topics like abortion, immigration, and the economy.”

• Present your political extracurriculars as a platform for skill development, just like any other activity. Use your involvement in politics to demonstrate your character and achievements, but also emphasize the skills and qualities you’ve developed rather than focusing solely on your beliefs.
• How to Effectively Talk About Politics

Be Open-Minded to Different Perspectives

•Having an open mind and being willing to hear new perspectives is not only an invaluable skill for future politicians but also for any productive citizen. You want to demonstrate in your application that although you might hold certain beliefs, you are always committed to learning and engaging in productive debate to expand your perspective.

Align With the School’s Culture (As Best You Can)

•If politics are a significant aspect of your life, and you find that the school you’re applying to necessitates self-censorship, it’s worth considering if that institution aligns with your values. Avoid

Racism, Sexism, and Bigotism of Any Kind!

#6 Misconception: Writing About A Tragedy

While overcoming hardships is admirable, focusing on growth rather than suffering is key. Avoid writing about the worst experiences solely for pity, as AOs are more interested in how challenges shaped your identity and contributed to personal development.

Choose topics relevant to your applicant identity, such as experiences that influenced your community engagement and self-awareness.

Ensure your narrative reflects resilience and growth rather than emphasizing suffering for its own sake.

For example, writing about how a severe childhood illness shaped your awareness of isolation and influenced your community engagement as you developed could be strong. On the other hand, writing about how a severe sports injury taught you how to “bounce back” is less effective and contrived.

Why So Sad?

Remember, college essays are not just writing samples; they are also opportunities for applicants to highlight their values, identities, hobbies, academic interests, professional goals, or any number of meaningful experiences.

Sometimes, the easiest way for a student to highlight these aspects about themselves is to focus on the idea of a “growth journey.” In that sense, if a student wants to highlight a growth journey, then a story about overcoming an obstacle in life fits the bill.

To be clear, your personal statement is not a therapy journal!

•Some students also choose a difficult topic because it is cathartic for them to revisit a story that had such a large influence on their lives. Many students have never had an opportunity to speak about some of the obstacles they’ve overcome, much less write about one in a formal setting.

• Your personal statement is not the place to explore a newly traumatic or previously unresolved event. If you don’t feel that you can approach a difficult past event with some closure, distance, and proper healing, then it might not be a good topic to proceed with.

If I have a sad story, should I write about it?

•Many students have been significantly impacted by the obstacles in their life, but they don’t want to be defined by them..

•Parents, teachers, peers, and professionals need to be keenly aware that students might not feel comfortable writing about a tragic event in their lives, and that’s okay.

• It can be done, but the focus should be on your growth and how each event shaped your identity to better prepare you for the next challenge.

#7 Misconception: Bad Educational Opportunity

Be clear that you accept responsibility for this negative experience. Your story is a redemptive self -narrative– a type of narrative that may resonate with others.

In a redemptive narrative, bad things can happen to good people, but you must still demonstrate that you could have improved your performance and that you understand your role in the situation.

Perhaps you did not take your high school internship seriously and then learned a hard lesson about consequences.

Or perhaps you were let go from your summer job because you did not ask for clarification of your duties. Although it is possible that your supervisor should have explained your duties more clearly, you could have also taken the initiative to ask.

You should also demonstrate that you understand why you faced difficulty. Share the factors that were outside of your control — for instance, insufficient information or unclear objectives — but do not assign blame.

In other words, do not say, “My poor performance was actually Bob’s fault because he did not give me the reports on time.”

Instead, state, “Without the information in the reports, I could not complete my part of the project prior to the deadline. In retrospect, I wish I had not just waited for the information but had tried asking my supervisor for help.”

Discuss the Lessons Learned

The most important element of your essay is the lesson you learn that turns your failure into a valuable life experience. This lesson could involve learning to ask for help or to embrace new experiences. It could even be as simple as learning to keep a calendar with important appointments noted. You should connect the lesson you are discussing with the responsibility you already admitted. For example, if you described your unwillingness to take the initiative to locate essential information, then you may have learned the importance of having a proactive mindset.

Apply the Lessons Learned

Do not conclude your essay with a list of lessons. Instead, describe a scenario where you have already put your hard-won wisdom to work. This should be a brief, one-paragraph anecdote illustrating how you have changed your behavior for the better. For example, you might refer to a situation where you received a homework assignment with ambiguous instructions. Detail how you remembered your prior experience with unclear instructions, asked your teacher to clarify expectations , and averted disaster for yourself — and the rest of your class.

#8 Misconception: Listing Accomplishments

Avoid a “resume-style” essay! If your PS feels like a prose version of your Activity List, you should start over!

Common App personal essay. Your personal essay is an opportunity for you to showcase who you are, what you have achieved, and what you have learned from your experiences.

When mentioning your accomplishments, it’s important to strike a balance. You should focus on how these accomplishments have shaped you as a person, what you have learned from them, and how they have influenced your personal growth and development.

Avoid simply listing out your accomplishments without providing context or reflection. Instead, try to weave your accomplishments into a narrative that helps the admissions committee understand more about you as an individual.

Remember that the personal essay is a chance for you to show your personality, values, and character, so make sure that your accomplishments are presented in a way that adds depth to your application rather than coming across as boastful or self-centered.

Show Off A Little

•Show off a little. But remember that stating too many will just seem like a rewrite of your activities section, which they also look at. It’s better to mention accomplishments only if they add to the narrative of your essay or if you’re expanding upon them. For example, if you talked about how you threw yourself into extra-curriculars to help yourself get out of a tough time, feel free to name some just to show how deep in you got.

If you’re trying to show how an experience made you a better leader, describing one or two important moments in detail will serve you better than listing out your leadership (which, again, they can see already in your activities section).

Telling Rather than Showing

To captivate AOs — who read through entire applications in a matter of minutes — your Personal Statement should be creative, engaging, and enjoyable to read. Avoid presenting a mere list of facts and opt for a storytelling approach. Blend creative writing with personal reflection, incorporating anecdotes, thoughts, and memories to breathe life into your narrative. The goal is to make your experiences memorable and stand out amidst the multitude of applications. AOs appreciate the effort to make the essay an enjoyable and insightful read.

#9 Misconception: About Being Yourself

Paint a Picture of YOU

The purpose of the college essay is to paint a complete picture of yourself, showing admissions committees the person behind the grades and test scores.

A strong college essay shows your unique experiences, personality, perspective, interests, and values — ultimately, what makes you unique. After all, people attend college, not their grades or test scores.

The college essay also provides students with a considerable amount of agency in their application, empowering them to share their own stories.

•Don’t exaggerate or lie in your Common App essay!

• Present yourself in an honest way, and you will find it much easier to write an essay about your genuine thoughts and feelings.

Write your OWN VOICE

•Don’t exaggerate or lie in your Common App essay!

• Present yourself in an honest way, and you will find it much easier to write an essay about your genuine thoughts and feelings.

Don’t Hyperbolize

This essay is about the authentic you. Lying or hyperbolizing to make yourself sound better will not only make your essay — and entire application — less genuine, but it will also weaken it. More than likely, it will be obvious that you’re exaggerating. Plus, if colleges later find out that you haven’t been truthful in any part of your application, it’s grounds for revoking your acceptance or even expulsion if you’ve already matriculated.

#10 Misconception: Being Verbose

Throw out the Thesaurus

From Tufts University Admissions Blog:

“Here’s the thing. When it comes to college essays, we are trying to hear your voice. Sure, it can be a voice amplified by self-reflection. In essays that you’ve worked hard to write, you might come out sounding funnier, or more curious, or just plain cooler than you do in a typical conversation with your friends. But the cadence of your words and the perspective you bring to the page should be genuinely you.”

Sound Natural

When you’re trying to communicate something important about who you are with the reader of your application, you want your words to sound natural.

Natural is the doorway to our understanding of you and our appreciation of your story.

That doesn’t mean your writing can’t make use of literary techniques, or read lyrically, or show off a good grasp of vocabulary.

It also doesn’t mean that specific words are off-limits.

“Just don’t let formality, “overwriting,” or obsessively polishing your essays squeeze them completely dry of your voice, your playfulness, and your identity. Get rid of your thesaurus and let us really get to know you.” –Tufts Admissions

Last Thought!

Since this essay goes to every school through the Common App, it’s crucial to submit a polished and well-crafted essay. Beyond ensuring that you’ll have adequate time to perfect your essay, starting early streamlines the application process overall. Remember, most of your work will be outside of the Common App-specific components — supplement prompts can be the most time-consuming part of your applications. Most top schools have multiple extra essays and pose highly specific questions. The consistency of Common App essay prompts allows for an early start, providing ample time for thoughtful reflection, revisions, and the creation of a compelling narrative that distinguishes your application.

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