Guide for seniors writing the Common App essay
Common App Essay Examples That Got Students In
Real essays published by the colleges that admitted their writers, what admissions said about each, and the lessons to borrow for your own.
The most trustworthy Common App essay examples are the ones colleges publish themselves. Johns Hopkins, Hamilton College and Connecticut College each post full essays by students they admitted, and Hopkins and Connecticut College add notes from admissions on why each one worked. Below are short excerpts from six of them, with links to read each essay in full.
After the examples: what the strong ones share, short sample openings for each kind of prompt (written for this page), the mistakes to avoid, and how to turn what you've read into your own draft.
Real Common App essays colleges published
Each excerpt is the essay's opening lines. Read the full essays for the reflection, which is where they earn their place. Johns Hopkins says its students "were able to share stories from their everyday lives to reveal something about their character, values, and life."
My to-do list always had one unfinished task. No matter how much time passed, I could never check off “clean closet.”
My closet is a time capsule going on eighteen years.
- What it does. An ordinary task carries the whole essay. Toys, leotards and memory boxes become a way to show who she was and who she is becoming.
- Admissions said. The committee praised its "vivid and specific details" and noted that it "shows change through action": donating belongings and making room for new interests.
I lay on the bamboo mat in a pool of my own sweat, swaying with the ship. A net around my cot attempted to keep out the mosquitos, and the room’s thin walls leaked every crewman’s cough. Yet as I looked outside the porthole, the greatest discomfort was my own shame.
- What it does. It opens inside a scene, then turns on one word, shame, that tells you the essay is about her, not the ship.
- Admissions said. She tried "something new that didn't live up to expectations on the first try but still has the courage to return."
An authoritative voice bellows my name in the crowded school cafeteria: “MATZ!”
“Remember,” he says, standing in front of me with eyes fixed on mine, “the lemon squares.”
- What it does. Dialogue and humor make the reader like him in two lines. Baking becomes a way to show community and creativity without claiming either.
- Admissions said. The committee wrote that the essay "allowed us to envision him as a key member of our campus community."
75,000 flipped pages. 11,520 packed boxes. 6 school maps.
I began measuring my life in flipped pages, packed boxes, and school maps when I was 6.
- What it does. Three numbers sum up a childhood of moving before the first full sentence. The essay then turns to the fantasy novels that helped her through it.
There are seven days a week. For the five days I'm in school, if my name is called at least once in each class, my name is said at least eight times that day.
- What it does. A funny, slightly obsessive calculation draws you in, then opens onto a serious subject: the weight of being the one everyone at home relies on.
- Admissions said. Conn's counselors wrote that "we get a really great sense of Nancy's growth, maturity and storytelling ability," and pointed to how repeating her name lets the reader hear what she hears.
The clinking of measuring spoons always fills me with joy. Those shiny metal utensils know all of my secrets.
- What it does. A snow day and one giant pancake carry a bigger idea. Sound and small physical details make the scene feel real.
Sample openings for each kind of prompt
These short openings were written for this page about invented students. Each shows one way into a prompt. The full list of prompts is in our Common App essay prompts guide.
At my grandmother's dinner table, there are three languages and one rule: whoever is translating gets the last dumpling. I have eaten a lot of last dumplings.
- A family rule shows a role and a culture without explaining either.
The robot drove straight off the table in front of forty people and two judges. I had written the code that told it to.
- Owning the mistake in the second sentence earns the reader's trust for the rest.
Somewhere in my phone are 412 photos of manhole covers. My mom thinks it is a phase. It has lasted three years.
- An odd, exact number makes the passion believable before any explanation.
Common mistakes in Common App essays
- Retelling your résumé. The essay is the one place to show what lists can't: how you think and what you care about.
- All story, no reflection. If the last paragraph only says "I learned a lot," the reader still doesn't know what.
- Making someone else the hero. A grandparent or coach can matter, but the essay must end up about you.
- Copying an example's shape too closely. Readers see many essays that open with a line of dialogue. Borrow the lesson, not the trick.
- Writing for a college. Every Common App college reads the same essay, so leave college names out.
- Sounding like a thesaurus. Plain words in your own rhythm read better than impressive ones.
Turn these lessons into your own draft
Read three essays in full
Pick ones whose subject feels nothing like yours. You'll notice the structure more than the story.
Find your small subject
A place, routine, object or job you know in detail. List ten specific things about it.
Write the scene, then the meaning
Put the reader in one moment for the first third. Spend the rest on what it shows and what changed.
Get a reader's view and cut to 650
The college essay grader scores the draft the way a reader would, and the essay shortener brings it under the limit.