Common App Essay Tip: Dig Deep in the Brainstorming Phase

Common App Essay Tip: Dig Deep in the Brainstorming Phase

By BMC BloggerMay 02, 2025

Often, the subject that makes for the best essay is the one you least want to talk about. So stay open as you begin the brainstorming process, even to your most sensitive relationships and memories, and notice if there’s a story you’re afraid to tell. Maybe that is your best topic. Most importantly, don’t hold back or self-censor: don’t be afraid to show your messiness and flaws, and know that no story from your life is too small or too silly to include (as long as it’s not from when you were a very small child!).

It takes courage to be vulnerable and imperfect, to admit to your mistakes and regrets. A tip? Be courageous as you brainstorm.

The following questions are some that we use in our 1:1 work, and that you might find helpful to answer as your brainstorm:

  • To start, make a timeline of turning points in your life so far. These could include:
    • confrontations
    • arguments
    • mistakes
    • catastrophes
    • challenges
    • betrayals
    • failures
    • successes
    • life reversals
    • epiphanies
    • breakthroughs
    • beginnings
    • births
    • death

Try to identify 6-8 (or more!) of such turning point moments and write three or more sentences about each. Turning points tend to suggest scenes with dramatic potential in addition to being moments of change and growth, and nearly all the essays our students write revolve around them. Keep in mind that turning points can be minor, like an argument with a friend about who will take charge of an extracurricular project.

  • Describe your immediate family members and your relationship to each one. What makes your family different from other families?
  • List four words you would use to describe yourself and explain why you chose each one.
  • What is something you struggle with and would prefer most people not know about you?
  • What are you scared to write about? Why does it scare you?
  • What do you most enjoy doing with your spare time? Why?
  • What is your greatest weakness? What are you doing to work on it?
  • What do you do better than almost anyone else?
  • What topic or idea (or TV show or book or sport…) could you read about (or watch YouTube videos on) for hours? What makes it so fascinating to you?
  • Do you collect anything? If so, what is it, and why do you feel compelled to collect it?
  • Do you have any rituals or routines that may seem odd, obsessive, or out of the ordinary?
  • Is there any part of your identity that is important to who you are and that you have not mentioned elsewhere?

Think fast:

  • A time when you discovered that you were stronger than you thought: 
  • A time when you realized you were just plain wrong or messed up: 
  • A time you struggled over a tough choice:
  • A problem you solved: 
  • A question that you believe must be answered or a mystery you’re trying to get to the bottom of: 
  • A mark you want to make on the world:

When we work with students one-on-one, we review the brainstorming document, noting the narratives, ideas, themes, and details that interest us the most. It can be easier for us, as outside readers, to notice recurring patterns (for example, how you constantly link your ideas back to collecting objects) or to make new connections between disparate experiences and interests (like between your love for puzzles and your brothers leaving for college). Since it will be harder for you to do this for yourself, you should: 1) wait a week between completing and evaluating your brainstorm, and 2) find an outside reader who can read your brainstorm and give you feedback.

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New Museum Teen Fellowship

New Museum Teen Fellowship

By Brittany MaschalApr 30, 2025

The NewMu Teen Fellowship is a paid, after-school program for New York City public high school students. The Fellowship spans two school years, allowing time for Fellows to develop their creativity, critical thinking, and self-expression. They work directly with professional artists, Museum staff, and community members and gain creative and professional development through mentorship, work experience, and leadership opportunities. The Fellowship amplifies youth voices and ideas by supporting large-scale projects, including a public display of their artwork and a Youth Summit.

The Fellowship meets weekly on Tuesdays, from 4 to 6pm, and will run from September 2025 through June 2027, excluding summer breaks and school recesses. Fellows are expected to commit to the full program, consisting of two school years.

Read more here and apply by May 18!

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What’s The Common App Essay All About?

By BMC BloggerApr 28, 2025

The school year is winding down, which means it’s time to start working on college admissions essays. This month, we’ll share some excerpts from our book, The Complete College Essay Handbook, starting with some personal statement tips!

First, what exactly is a personal statement like the Common Application essay?

A personal statement is a creative essay of 650 words or less that reads like a short story, memoir, or novel—not like an academic essay, textbook, or newspaper article. The best personal statements tell a story that culminates in a meaningful realization and offers the reader a glimpse of a mind in the process of thinking.

The personal statement is not the place to brag about accomplishments (student body president, team captain, founder of a schoolwide service project), or about how amazing you are (“I’m a world-changing revolutionary!”).

Although people you don’t know are going to read it, the personal statement is not a public form, like a school-wide speech. The personal statement is an intimate form, like a secret. It is the place to be honest, vulnerable, and raw, to reveal mistakes and weaknesses, to open up about an experience you’d only tell someone you were really close with, to explore what you struggle with and what scares you.

The personal statement is not “about” an event or achievement. It is about the psychological and emotional processes that occurred “behind the scenes.”

The same story, told from one angle, can be impersonal whereas, from another—told with a focus on the process rather than the outcome—can become deeply personal. Here are a few examples to help explain what I mean.

  • NO (Impersonal): The story about how you got elected student body president and a detailed account of everything you plan work on once in office
  • YES (Personal): The story about your internal struggle to overcome a crippling fear of public speaking in order to run for student body president
  • NO (Impersonal): The story about how you changed lives by raising money for an orphanage in Africa
  • YES (Personal): The story about how you decided to start raising money for an orphanage because you yourself had been adopted and always struggled with the fact that your birth parents had abandoned you
  • NO (Impersonal): The story about how tearing your ACL was hard because you couldn’t play football or see your friends for a few months
  • YES (Personal): The story about how tearing your ACL gave you the time to reflect on who you are and you realized you didn’t want to just be an athlete so you started writing poetry and made new friends at school

Notice how all of these negative examples focus on the superficial event: I was elected; I raised money; I tore my ACL. By contrast, the positive examples explore the story behind the event—what was going inside of the writer that either led to this event (the student body president and orphanage examples) or the internal change that resulted from it (the ACL example). They also explore intimate, potentially difficult topics.

Since the personal statement is a creative essay at its heart, there is no set formula for success—however, our process and essay samples will give you the tools and examples you need to write your own standout personal statement.

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Talking To Teens About College

Talking To Teens About College

By Brittany MaschalApr 17, 2025

The college process often amplifies anxiety among teens and their parents, yet stress is inevitable. The goal is to manage it healthily, according to Lisa Damour, a clinical psychologist, author of The Emotional Lives of Teenagers, and host of the Ask Lisa podcast.

Lisa joined Jeff Selingo on a special 30-minute edition of “Next Office Hour” last week. Let’s all give the episode a listen. Some top takeaways:

Accept discomfort. Parents should acknowledge emotional stress as normal. “We cannot prevent emotional pain in our teenagers. Rather, we should help them manage discomfort when it comes,” Damour said. The focus should be on helping teens cope constructively, like allowing space for healthy distractions or emotions rather than harmful habits

Encourage healthy coping. Crying, spending time with friends, physical activity, and mindful rest are all beneficial ways teens can process stress. Parents should be alert only when teens use costly coping mechanisms like substance use or self-criticism.

Reframe high school. Teens should focus on cultivating genuine interests and strengths rather than solely trying to impress admissions officers. Enjoying downtime without guilt is crucial for mental health.

Recognize parental roles. I loved Lisa’s analogy of the Pit Crew vs. the Tow Truck. Parents often feel pulled between supporting their kids (pit crew) and pushing them (tow truck). Constant towing suggests a teen may not be ready for college, highlighting the value of considering gap years or alternative pathways.

Dealing with rejection. College admissions isn’t always meritocratic. When teens face rejection, validate their feelings but emphasize they’ll thrive by focusing on what they can control.

The big picture? Parents and teens often overestimate how much college prestige matters.

If you don’t follow Jeff Selingo, you should. See past issues and subscribe to his newsletter. You can also find him on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Threads if social is your thing!

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High School Class of 2025 Admission Results

High School Class of 2025 Admission Results

By Brittany MaschalApr 01, 2025

Congrats to all of our seniors! This post includes many of our students’ results released through the end of March:

Abilene Christian
American U*
Auburn*
Barnard
Baylor*
Boston College
Boston University
Brown
Cal Poly Pomona
California Institute of Technology
Catholic U.
Clemson*
College of Charleston*
Colorado State
Cornell* (A&S, Nolan, Human Ecology, CALs)
East Carolina*
Elon*
Emory
Florida Tech
FAU
Fordham*
Franklin & Marshall
Georgetown
Georgia Tech
Harvard*
Hamilton
Hunter College
Indiana U (Kelley)*
Ithaca College
Johns Hopkins*
Kenyon
Lehigh
Loyola Chicago
Loyola Maryland*
Michigan State*
Miami Ohio*
Northeastern*
Northwestern
Notre Dame
NYU
Ohio State*
Pace*
Penn State*
Pepperdine
Purdue*
Quinnipiac
Rhodes
RPI
Rutgers*
San Diego State
Seton Hall*
Steven’s Institute of Technology*
Skidmore
SMU*
St. Andrews*
St. Johns*
St. Joseph’s (Philadelphia)*
SUNY Albany, Binghamton*
Syracuse*
Tarleton State
TCU
Texas Tech
Tulane*
University of Arizona*
UC Berkeley
UC Davis*
UC Irvine*
UCLA
UC Santa Barbara*
UC San Diego
University of Chicago
University of Delaware*
University of Colorado, Boulder*
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign*
University of Georgia*
University of Maryland*
University of Massachusetts, Amherst*
University of Michigan*
University of Miami*
University of Minnesota*
University of Montana
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of Oregon*
University of Pittsburgh*
University of Rochester*
University of Southern California*
University of South Carolina*
University of South Florida
University of Texas, Austin*
University of Vermont*
University of Virginia*
University of Utah*
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin*
US Coast Guard Academy
Vanderbilt
Villanova*
Virginia Tech*

*multiple students admitted

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Trends in High School GPAs among Incoming Freshman Classes of Big Ten Schools

Trends in High School GPAs among Incoming Freshman Classes of Big Ten Schools

By Brittany MaschalMar 04, 2025

I can’t think of a better example of nerding out to post on a blog about college admissions than Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider and Louisa Zhang’s (Illinois ’27) “Trends in High School GPAs among Incoming Freshman Classes of Big Ten Schools.“

They analyzed 286 reports to source Questions C11 and C12 in the Common Data Sets. The reports accessed in this work are published publicly by each University. 

Other data nerds can join in the fun through a MicroProject they built to spread the data love. Oh, and their work also highlights the need for near-perfect grades for some of the more selective Big 10 schools! 

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2025–2026 Common App Essay Prompts + Changes to Additional Info Section and Old “COVID” Question

2025–2026 Common App Essay Prompts + Changes to Additional Info Section and Old “COVID” Question

By Brittany MaschalFeb 28, 2025

The main CA essay prompts are the same, but there’s an updated “challenges and circumstances” question, which replaces the old COVID-19 question. The post from the CA is below:

We are happy to announce that the Common App essay prompts will remain the same for 2025–2026. 🎉

Based on positive feedback from students, counselors, teachers, and colleges, we’ve decided to keep the essay prompts unchanged. We will continue to explore trends in prompt selection across different student populations and use those insights to inform future updates.

Students will see two changes to the optional “Additional information” questions as of August 1, 2025.

  • The current “Community disruption” question will be updated to a “Challenges and circumstances” question. The new question language will expand to capture a broader range of impacts students may experience. The word/character limit will remain the same (first-year app 250 words max, transfer app 1250 characters max).
  • The “Additional information” question word/character limit will be reduced. The first-year app limit will be reduced from 650 to 300 words max. The transfer app limit will be reduced from 3500 to 1500 characters max.

We are making these changes after conducting listening sessions and consulting with our member, counselor, and student advisory committees to ensure we gather diverse perspectives and input. Students in the first-year app who have text in their “Additional information” question that exceeds the reduced word count limit after August 1 will see an error message alert letting them know they have exceeded the new max. They will not lose anything they have written prior to August 1, but they will need to go back and adjust their response. In the transfer app, student responses to the “Additional information” question prior to August 1 will not roll over.

Here is the full set of essay prompts for 2025–2026.

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

This is the updated “Challenges and circumstances” question language students will see beginning August 1, 2025

Sometimes a student’s application and achievements may be impacted by challenges or other circumstances. This could involve:

  • Access to a safe and quiet study space
  • Access to reliable technology and internet
  • Community disruption (violence, protests, teacher strikes, etc.)
  • Discrimination
  • Family disruptions (divorce, incarceration, job loss, health, loss of a family member, addiction, etc.)
  • Family or other obligations (care-taking, financial support, etc.)
  • Housing instability, displacement, or homelessness
  • Military deployment or activation
  • Natural disasters
  • Physical health and mental well-being
  • War, genocide, or other hardships

If you’re comfortable sharing, this information can help colleges better understand the context of your application. Colleges may use this information to provide you and your fellow students with support and resources.

Would you like to share any details about challenges or other circumstances you’ve experienced?*

(   ) Yes

(   ) No

Please describe the challenges or circumstances and how they have impacted you.

 

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Final Call for Inspiring Girls* Expeditions 2025 Applications!

Final Call for Inspiring Girls* Expeditions 2025 Applications!

By Brittany MaschalFeb 08, 2025

🚨 DEADLINE TODAY!

Applications for Girls* on Ice Canada are due tonight at 11:59pm PST!

📅 Upcoming deadlines for the rest of our expeditions are:

        February 9th for Girls* in Icy Fjords and Girls* on Rock (in two days!)
        February 14th for Girls* on Ice Schweiz, Girls* on Ice Suisse, and Girls* on Ice Austria
        March 2nd for Girls* on Ice Alaska and Girls* on Water

Share this with teachers, parents, and students who might be interested! Appy here. 

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Course Planning: All Five Cores, All Four Years!

Course Planning: All Five Cores, All Four Years!

By Brittany MaschalFeb 04, 2025

Colleges have long-loved students who take English, Math, Social Studies, Science, and Language every year of high school. It’s my most despised suggestion so I’m sharing College MatchPoint’s blog as backup. I do believe there are exceptions depending on the student, their school goals, major, the selectivity of their list, and where they go to high school, but either way, read more here!

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New UC data dashboard sheds light on admissions for each academic discipline

New UC data dashboard sheds light on admissions for each academic discipline

By Brittany MaschalNov 15, 2024

This is very cool! 

From the University of California:

Our researchers collect and analyze all kinds of information about the world. We also track all kinds of UC stats, many of them available on detailed public dashboards in the online UC Information Center.

This fall, UC published a new data dashboard that shows how many first-year students apply to and are admitted at each campus by academic discipline. Until now, UC published the overall first-year admission rates for each campus. The new dashboard expands that by providing additional detail on admissions by academic discipline. For each broad area of study, you can see the admit rate, along with how many students applied, were admitted and ended up enrolling. The dashboard lets you see the admission rate for a discipline versus the overall campus admission rate. You can look at just one campus, or you can compare disciplines across UC’s nine undergraduate campuses. (A separate dashboard shows transfer admission rates by major.)

The goal of the dashboard is to offer the public more transparency into UC admissions. Being able to compare the selectivity of disciplines and campuses gives applicants an additional piece of information in their process and a more refined understanding of the competition. That said, the dashboard shouldn’t be used to assess any particular student’s chances of admission.

Continue reading about the new data dashboard in this October 18 article and explore the dashboard yourself.

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