10 Do’s and Don’ts for Writing The Common Application Essay

10 Do’s and Don’ts for Writing The Common Application Essay

By Brittany MaschalMay 22, 2025

Our essay experts know best. Check out these 10 tips from Emma that will help you write the most effective personal statement.

Interested in completing your college essays this summer?  Summer is the best time to tackle this important essay, so start coming up with a plan now!

  • Don’t worry about the prompts. It’s helpful to read through the prompts to see if doing so sparks any ideas; however, there is no need to stress about writing an essay that exactly “answers” a prompt. Your goal is to write the best essay you can about whatever you decide is best to write about. Working with students 1:1, we totally disregard the prompts and usually find that their essay still easily fits under one of the questions. And, if not, there is often an open-ended prompt such as: “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.”
  • Do open with a scene. A strong opening scene draws the reader into your essay. Admissions officers and their first-round readers have hundreds of applications to get through—make yours stand out from the first sentence. Intrigue them or scare them or make them laugh. Make them want to keep reading.
  • Do focus on a single story. You only have 650 words. Perhaps that sounds like a lot to you: it’s not. There is no reason you should worry about filling it up. Nor should you worry about cramming as much as possible into the personal statement. Remember that colleges have all of your application data and that trying to do too much in the essay will only end up making your essay feel rushed and scattered.
  • Do make sure that your story has a clear beginning, middle, and end. You can tell your story out of order—for instance, opening with a scene from a stressful moment in order to build suspense before jumping back into chronology—but you always want to make sure your story has each of these elements. Skipping any single one will confuse your reader and make your story feel incomplete (because it is!).
  • And yet don’t get bogged down in detail. We usually find that students have trouble generating enough detail. But sometimes we get a student who is unable to summarize effectively, too. Having too much detail can make your story confusing and also mean that your reader will have trouble understanding what the most significant elements are. It usually also means you don’t have room for reflection—the most important element in the essay!
  • Do present yourself in a positive light. We actively encourage you to tell a story that showcases your vulnerabilities, failures, weaknesses, and mistakes. However, either your narrative or your reflection (or some combination of the two), needs to ultimately redeem you so that your essay, in the end, shows you to be someone who is actively working to improve—to rectify mistakes, move past failures, or strengthen weakness. Your essay should be honest, but its main purpose is to make you seem like someone admissions officers want to see at their colleges! Make sure you come off well.
  • Don’t use huge thesaurus words. Again: you aren’t trying to impress the admissions officers! You are trying to show them who you are—and you are trying to make them like you. Using big words can mean using words you don’t quite know how to use, and that will show. Even if you do know how to use them, unless your essay is about how much you love long words or languages, using the big, 25-cent words can make you sound pretentious and overly formal. The language should sound like you and be relatively casual—not curse-word, talking-with-friends casual, but maybe talking-with-your-grandmother casual.
  • Do use vivid, interesting words and varied sentence structure. Being casual doesn’t mean the writing shouldn’t be good or interesting! Do push yourself to use words you might not use in your everyday speech, and do mix up the sentence structure to keep the writing varied and exciting. Do feel free to include words from your personal vocabulary—words from the language you speak at home or from a regional dialect or words you’ve made up. That can add a lot of texture and personality to an essay. Just make sure you define the words for your reader if the meaning isn’t clear from context.
  • But don’t use emotional language: I was happy; I was sad. Instead, let an action depict the emotional state. That is, instead of saying “I was happy,” you might write, “I couldn’t help skipping a few steps down the street after hearing the news.” And, instead of saying “She was sad,” you might write, “Her shoulders slumped, and she cradled her head in her hands.” You can’t see an emotion, and you always want to give the reader something to see.
  • And don’t use cliche—i.e. common, predictable, overused—language. Cliche language includes (but is definitely not limited to!) phrases like:
    • I need to be true to myself.
    • Time heals all wounds.
    • Every cloud has a silver lining.
    • Good things come to those who wait.
    • I learned more from them than they did from me.
    • Every rose has its thorn.
    • You win some, you lose some.
    • Little did I know.

Of course, your essay might have one of these messages at its heart. Maybe you did learn more from the kid you tutored than they learned from you. Maybe you did find the “silver lining” in a terrible situation. Both of these could make for great essays. But you want to verbalize that realization in your own unique and surprising way.

Contact us if you’d like help completing the CA essay (or other essays!) this summer so you can apply ASAP after August 1.  

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Common App Essay Tip: Writer’s Block

By BMC BloggerMay 12, 2025

Writer’s block is no joke! It happens to the best of us, so don’t get too frustrated if some days you just can’t get in the groove with your writing. When it strikes, try using these ideas to help jumpstart the process:

  1. Remove all distractions: Put your phone in the other room, close out all the browsers on your computer, close the door, put on some headphones, give your laptop to your parents, and spend an hour with just pen and paper.
  2. Set a timer: Don’t spend hours staring at the screen. After removing all distractions, set a timer for 20 minutes and follow the next step.
  3. Write like nobody’s watching: The college process can feel high stakes, and the pressure can make you feel like every word you put down has to be perfect. If you get stuck, try to “just write.” Forget that you’re writing a college admissions essay; imagine you’re writing a diary entry or a letter to your best friend instead. You can even use bullet points if writing sentences seems too intimidating right now! You can repeat this exercise as many times as needed.

If you aren’t getting anything down in 20 concentrated minutes, it might be time to skip to 4 and 5.

  1. Change of scenery: Maybe you are used to doing all of your writing at your desk or kitchen table or bed or parent’s office. Change it up from time to time, especially if you feel stuck. You might find that the local library or coffee shop, or maybe even a WiFi-free setting like the park, is the place where you really get in the zone. You won’t know until you do some exploring.
  2. Try this mantra: You CAN write your college application essays, and you WILL write them. Take this on as your mantra—or come with your own—then write it on an index card and tape it above the space where you usually work.

Ultimately, the only way to get over writer’s block is… to write! You can do this!

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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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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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Preventing self-sabotage while applying to college

Preventing self-sabotage while applying to college

By BMC BloggerAug 08, 2024

James Gross, a professor of psychology and expert on emotion regulation at Stanford University, talks about what parents can do to help teenagers avoid self-sabotage. We love the idea of weekly check-ins, especially for seniors who are in the thick of juggling academics with applying to college. Even the students who say “they’ve got it” can benefit from some extra parental touch points and cheerleading.

Here are a few highlights:

Teenagers sometimes resist input from mom or dad about how to live their lives. Do teens need parents?
Absolutely. A teenager might say, “I’d like to get great grades this term.” But then their behavior isn’t aligned with that. In fact, you may notice they’re doing the opposite of what they need to do to get great grades. Instead of studying, they’re playing video games and texting. They’re staying up too late instead of getting enough sleep. In other words, teenagers, like the rest of us, sometimes self-sabotage: They say they want one thing, but their behavior points in a completely different direction.

What can parents do to help teenagers avoid self-sabotage?
As parents, we can see what’s going on in their lives from a place of clarity. That perspective can be really helpful. For instance, on their own, without you, your son or daughter may not do so well at finding the balance between having fun with their friends, on the one hand, versus studying and being productive on the other. 

What are some dos and don’ts for parents trying to help their teenagers achieve their goals? 
Don’t get into antagonistic interactions right after school. Instead, pay attention to your own emotions and notice when you’re most likely to be patient and helpful rather than impatient and snappy. 

Don’t try to talk about homework or whatever else you know should get done when your kid is telling you how their day went. You’re missing the opportunity for them to open up and really connect with you, maybe tell you about something that they’re upset about. If they’re trying to do that, and you say, “Tell me about your homework,” they’ll think, “Wow, I feel totally unheard. Dad’s getting on my case without even listening to me.” 

Do make yourself available. For instance, I literally make sure my home office door is open when my kids come home. An open door tells them I can be interrupted. 

What if my kids never bring up their problems?
One practice that my wife and I found to be helpful was to have regularly scheduled check-ins with each of our kids once or twice a week. Basically, we would just have a conversation about whatever was on their minds, whether it was relationships with their siblings or what was going on in school or with their extracurriculars. We’d build an agenda together, like you would for any business meeting. 

Let’s say I saw in the school portal that my kid didn’t do well on a math test. My wife and I might say, “Hey, are there some things on your mind that you want to check in about? From our side, it would be really nice to check in on how things are going in math. Our sense is, that hasn’t been the easiest thing for you these past few weeks.” 

And then, of course, we really listened. The nice thing about scheduled check-ins is that you’re talking about issues before they become a crisis. As a parent, you want to build routines for talking with your kids about what matters to them and to you.

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Elevating Your Extracurriculars for Summer 2024

Elevating Your Extracurriculars for Summer 2024

By Brittany MaschalFeb 22, 2024

The strength of your curriculum (rigor), the grades you receive in academic courses (core academic GPA), and your extracurricular activities (ECs) are what matter most in the evaluation of a college application. 

College counselors can help students choose the right courses and connect them with the learning support they might need to achieve excellent grades, but advising on the extracurricular activities that will help students stand out is much more complicated!

It’s getting harder and harder to stand out extracurricularly; a lot has been done before, and it can be tough to come up with original ideas when the internet provides conflicting information. It is easy to pay to undertake research or get published; spend time on a college campus taking a course alongside peers; or travel the world serving communities you don’t have an intimate connection to but that are exciting to visit and experience. For some applicants, these ECs do the trick—really! 

However, if you are targeting selective schools, you’ll benefit from not taking the easy path when it comes to ECs. 

Your ECs will need to not only support a clear academic narrative and demonstrate your intellectual curiosity but also highlight what matters most to you and what you care about in your world. You will benefit from getting creative! 

We understand not everyone needs or wants full-blown college counseling, but we also want to make sure students really understand the role of extracurriculars in the college admissions process and spend their time wisely. If you are interested in a standalone extracurricular planning session to maximize the summer of 2024, reach out!

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Jeff Selingo – Upcoming College Admissions Book

Jeff Selingo – Upcoming College Admissions Book

By Brittany MaschalDec 19, 2023

I’m excited for Jeff Selingo’s upcoming book and its emphasis on considering the vastness of higher education beyond a handful of selective schools—much needed. Read more about it below.

—

Lots of people have been asking me what I’ve found so far in the research and how they might help, so I wanted to give a quick update before the calendar turns to 2024.

First, as I’ve talked to parents and college counselors in recent months, I’ve been thinking about what this book needs to do. In much the same way as Atomic Habits and The Power of Habit tried to shift our mindset about developing better habits, my belief is that this book must help us reexamine what makes a “good” college. The goal is not for students and parents to settle for a second choice, but to consider the vastness of higher education beyond a handful of selective schools.

As I map out the book, the first half will be focused on explaining to readers why they need to reevaluate their college strategy in the first place. If you’ve been through the process recently, you’re probably thinking duh, of course they do. But everyone approaches this process as newbies, thinking their experience will be different. And as my editor reminds me, we live in an aspirational society: we want to aim for what we’re told is the top.

In the first half, I plan to illustrate how the admissions landscape has shifted in just the last few years by following the college-going experiences of recent graduating classes at three or four high schools that I’m in the process of identifying now (if you’re at a high school and want to be considered, reach out). For that section, I’m often reminded of this scene from Jeff Makris, director of college counseling at Stuyvesant High School, for a piece I wrote in New York magazine last year:

While we spoke, Makris pulled up the admissions results for his students going back to 2016. He rattled off a bunch of college names. About the same number of his students get accepted at the usual suspects in the Ivy League now as six years ago, though many more apply too. What might surprise students and parents from a few years ago, however, is the next set of colleges Makris mentioned: Northeastern, Case Western, Boston University, and Binghamton University. In 2016, 298 students applied to Northeastern, and 91 were admitted; last year, applications to the Boston school jumped to 422, but only 49 were admitted. Last year, 129 Stuy students applied to Case Western, about the same number as in 2017, but admits were almost cut in half to 36. In 2016, the acceptance rate for Stuy’s students who applied to Boston University was 43 percent; last year, it was 14 percent. Normally, Makris said, about 50 to 75 graduates enroll at Binghamton University, one of the state’s top public universities but a safety school among many Stuy students. This fall, 124 students went there.”

So how can you help? He says:

I’m always on the lookout for families who’ve been through the process at least once and have a kid in college (or recently out) and might have a story to tell about how they were on the path for Plan A and it didn’t work out—they didn’t get in, they couldn’t afford it, or for some other reason it wasn’t the right fit—and they turned to Plan B, which in the end turned out better.

If you can help in any way as a potential source, please complete this short form. I won’t be able to respond to everyone, but I will reach out if you fit what I’m looking for to illustrate the research.

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Perfectionism and the College Application Process

Perfectionism and the College Application Process

By BMC BloggerNov 06, 2023

Perfectionism and applying to college don’t mix! 

A quote from Angela Duckworth exemplifies precisely why:

Perfectionistic people work hard but unsustainably so. They often find themselves in the sapping zone of diminishing and inverse returns to their efforts.

We work with many students who have perfectionist tendencies. These students spend extreme amounts of time focusing on aspects of the college process that have little to no ROI. We see this in parents, too! 

There is no such thing as a perfect college application because there is no such thing as a perfect applicant. 

Our work also highlights another one of her sentiments: perfectionists tend to self-sabotage because they retreat when things get tough or they sense imminent “failure” instead of reaching out for help. This one always gets us because we exist to help. 

Perfectionists are world champions at self-sabotage. When things get tough, when it looks like failure is heading their way, the anticipated shame and embarrassment are so fierce that perfectionistic people are reluctant to put forth any further effort that might allow others to discover their shortcomings. So, they procrastinate or simply give up to ward off fears of failure.

Perfectionism doesn’t lead to success. It’s also exhausting. If you struggle with it, seek out help before you get too deep into your college app journey—students and parents! 

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College Admissions Interviews

College Admissions Interviews

By Brittany MaschalAug 24, 2023

General interview prep questions below!

High School Experience

  • Tell me a little bit about your high school.
  • Tell me about the courses you are taking currently.
  • Tell me about your favorite class(es) you have taken. Why favorite(s)?
  • Which class has been your least favorite? Why?
  • Which classes have been the most difficult (or most challenging)?
  • What subjects do you plan on studying at [school name]?
  • What activities and/or classes have you taken part in related to that field?
  • What does your dream career look like, what is your dream job?

Extracurricular Activities

  • What extracurricular activities are you involved in?
  • What do you like to do for fun?
  • When you’re not in class, studying, or doing homework, what do you do with your time (organized activities or things for fun)?
  • How did you get involved/started with ____ activity?
  • What activity is the most meaningful to you and why?
  • What extracurricular activities do you hope to be involved with in college?
  • How have you spent your high school summers?

University Specific

  • What type of environment are you looking for in a college/university?
  • How did you become interested in [school]?
  • What do you find most appealing about [school]?
  • Why do you think you [school] might be the right fit for you?
  • Do you know any students at [school]?
  • If you had an opportunity to tell the Admissions Committee anything about yourself, what would it be? Why?
  • What would you want the Admissions Committee to know about you that may not come across on your application?
  • If I were to ask you to think back in three months to your visit to [school], what would be the first thing to pop into your head?
  • What have you learned about [school] that seems unusual or surprising?

Miscellaneous

  • If you got up and your best friend sat down, how would they describe you?
  • How would your teachers describe you?
  • If you had a year to do anything you wanted, what would it be and why?
  • What books are you currently reading? Or what have you read recently for school?
  • What has been a controversial issue at your school? What was your reaction, and how did you get involved?
  • Where have you made the biggest impact at your school or in your local community?
  • Where is your favorite place you have ever been? Why? Where would you like to go (if money and time were no object)?
  • Would you and where would you like to study abroad? Why?
  • What do you think is the most pressing issue of our time? Why?
  • What is your favorite book and why?
  • Is there anything we haven’t talked about that you wanted to talk about?

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Colleges Using The Self-Reported Academic Record — SRAR

Colleges Using The Self-Reported Academic Record — SRAR

By Brittany MaschalAug 22, 2023

Applicants must complete the SRAR for the following schools, where required. You can typically find more information about the SRAR on a school’s application instructions. Please read them. 

Examples: 

https://www.clemson.edu/admissions/applying-to-clemson/srar.html

https://admissions.northeastern.edu/application-information/required-materials/

https://admissions.psu.edu/apply/srar/ 

List:

Baylor University (TX) — optional

Binghamton University (NY) – optional

Clemson University (SC) — required

Duquesne University (PA) – optional

Florida A&M University – optional

Florida Atlantic University — required

Florida Polytechnic University (NOT Florida Tech) – optional

Florida State University — required

Kean University of New Jersey — optional

Louisiana State University – optional

Montclair State University (NJ) – optional

New College of Florida — optional

New York University – required

Northeastern University (MA) – required

Pennsylvania State University — required

Rutgers University (NJ—Camden, New Brunswick and Newark) — required

Texas A&M University — required

United States Air Force Academy (CO) — required

University at Buffalo (NY) – optional

University of Connecticut – optional

University of Delaware – required

University of Florida — required

University of Minnesota Twin Cities – required; also uses CA Courses/Grades Report

University of North Florida — optional

University of Oregon – also uses CA Courses and Grades Report (need to submit only one of the two—not required to complete both)

University of Pittsburgh (PA) – required

University of Rhode Island — required

University of South Florida — required

University of Tennessee Knoxville – required

University of Texas Arlington — required

University of Texas San Antonio – required

University of West Florida — required

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) – required

***Please be sure to check with each individual college website to determine if this information remains current***

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