The 2025–26 college application season is here—and with it, a new batch of essay prompts that offer students the chance to reflect, reveal, and stand out. Whether you’re applying through the Common App, Coalition App, or directly to selective universities, your personal statement and supplemental essays are your opportunity to show admissions officers who you are beyond grades and test scores. In this guide, we break down this year’s essay prompts, explain what colleges are really looking for, and offer insights to help you craft responses that are compelling, authentic, and uniquely yours.

Common App Prompts (Personal Statement)

If you’re applying to colleges that use the Common Application (which is a vast majority of US colleges), the main essay you write is your personal statement, and you will choose one of the Common App prompts to answer. Both the general concept of a “personal statement” and the specific Common App essay prompts aim to achieve the same goal: for you to reveal your personality, insights, values, and experiences to the admissions committee in a narrative format that cannot be captured by grades or activities lists. They want to get to know you as a unique individual.The essay written in response to a Common App prompt, serves as a crucial component of the admissions review process, allowing colleges to understand your character, maturity, and potential contributions to their campus community.

Prompts for this admissions cycle; in 250-650 words, respond to one of the following prompts:

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.

Coalition Application Essays

Select a prompt from the list below, and share an essay of about 500-650 words that will help admissions counselors get to know you.

1. Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.

2. What interests or excites you? How does it shape who you are now or who you might become in the future?

3. Describe a time when you had a positive impact on others. What were the challenges? What were the rewards?

4. Has there been a time when an idea or belief of yours was questioned? How did you respond? What did you learn

5. What success have you achieved or obstacle have you faced? What advice would you give a sibling or friend going through a similar experience?

6. Submit an essay on a topic of your choice.

Boston College

We would like to get a better sense of you. Please respond to one of the first four prompts below (400 word limit). Students applying to the Human Centered Engineering major should respond to Prompt #5 instead.

1. Strong communities are sustained by traditions. Boston College’s annual calendar is marked with both long-standing and newer traditions that help shape our community. Tell us about a meaningful tradition in your family or community. Why is it important to you, and how does it bring people together or strengthen the bonds of those who participate?

2. The late BC theology professor, Father Michael Himes, argued that a university is not a place to which you go, but instead, a “rigorous and sustained conversation about the great questions of human existence, among the widest possible circle of the best possible conversation partners.” Who has been your most meaningful conversation partner, and what profound questions have you considered together?

3. In her July 2009 Ted Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warned viewers against assigning people a “single story” through assumptions about their nationality, appearance, or background.  Discuss a time when someone defined you by a single story. What challenges did this present and how did you overcome them?

4. Boston College’s Jesuit mission highlights “the three Be’s”: be attentive, be reflective, be loving – core to Jesuit education (see A Pocket Guide to Jesuit Education). If you could add a fourth “Be,” what would it be and why? How would this new value support your personal development and enrich the BC community?

5. Human-Centered Engineering (HCE) Applicants only: One goal of a Jesuit education is to prepare students to serve the Common Good. Human-Centered Engineering at Boston College integrates technical knowledge, creativity, and a humanistic perspective to address societal challenges and opportunities. What societal problems are important to you and how will you use your HCE education to solve them?

Georgia Tech

Why do you want to study your chosen major, and why do you want to study that major at Georgia Tech?

Purdue

1. How will opportunities at Purdue support your interests, both in and out of the classroom?
2. Briefly discuss your reasons for pursuing the major you have selected.

U Chicago

Required

How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.

Required one more; choose from below

In an ideal world where inter-species telepathic communication exists, which species would you choose to have a conversation with, and what would you want to learn from them? Would you ask beavers for architectural advice? Octopuses about cognition? Pigeons about navigation? Ants about governance? Make your case—both for the species and the question.

If you could uninvent one thing, what would it be — and what would unravel as a result?

“Left” can mean remaining or departed. “Dust” can mean to add fine particles or to remove them. “Fast” can mean moving quickly or fixed firmly in place. These contronyms—words that are their own antonyms—somehow hold opposing meanings in perfect tension. Explore a contronym: a role, identity, or experience in your life that has contained its own opposite.

The penny is on its way out—too small to matter, too costly to keep. But not everything small should disappear. What’s one object the world is phasing out that you think we can’t afford to lose, and why?

From Michelin Tires creating the Michelin Guide, to the audio equipment company Audio-Technica becoming one of the world’s largest manufacturers of sushi robots, brand identity can turn out to be a lot more flexible than we think. Choose an existing brand, company, or institution and propose an unexpected but strangely logical new product or service for them to launch. Why is this unlikely extension exactly what the world (or the brand) needs right now?

Statistically speaking, ice cream doesn’t cause shark attacks, pet spending doesn’t drive the number of lawyers in California, and margarine consumption isn’t responsible for Maine’s divorce rate—at least, not according to conventional wisdom. But what if the statisticians got it wrong? Choose your favorite spurious correlation and make the case for why it might actually reveal a deeper, causative truth.

And, as always… the classic choose your own adventure option! In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, choose one of our past prompts (or create a question of your own). Be original, creative, thought provoking. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun!

American University

American University students identify as changemakers and describe themselves as passionate. Describe a belief, hobby, idea, issue, or topic about which you’re excited.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

If You’re Applying to a Specific Major:

Prompt 1:
Explain, in detail, an experience you’ve had in the past 3 to 4 years related to your first-choice major. This can be an experience from an extracurricular activity, in a class you’ve taken, or through something else.

Prompt 2:
Describe your personal and/or career goals after graduating from Illinois and how your selected first-choice major will help you achieve them.

If You’re Applying Undeclared (Division of General Studies):

Prompt 1:
What are your academic interests? Please include 2-3 majors you’re considering at Illinois and why.

Prompt 2:
What are your future career or academic goals? You may include courses you took in high school and how these impacted your goals.

If You’ve Selected a Second-Choice Major:

Please explain your interest in your second-choice major or your overall academic or career goals.

University of Notre Dame

Short Essay (Required – max 150 words):

Everyone has different priorities when considering their higher education options and building their college or university list. Tell us about your “non-negotiable” factor(s) when searching for your future college home.

Short Answer Questions (Choose 3 of 5 – 50 to 100 words each):

1. How does faith influence the decisions you make?
2. What is distinctive about your personal experiences and development (e.g., family support, culture, disability, personal background, community, etc)? Why are these experiences important to you and how will you enrich the Notre Dame community?
3. How do you foster service to others in your community?
4. What compliment are you most proud of receiving, and why does it mean so much to you?
5. What would you fight for?

University of Michigan

Prompt 1 (100–300 words):

At the University of Michigan, we are focused on developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future. Share how you are prepared to contribute to these goals.
This could include the people, places, experiences, or aspirations that have shaped your journey and future plans.

Prompt 2 (100–500 words):

Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate college or school (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying. How would that curriculum support your interests?

Duke University

Required Essay (250 words max):

What is your impression of Duke as a university and community, and why do you believe it is a good match for your goals, values, and interests?
(Feel free to discuss academic programs in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences or Pratt School of Engineering, or co-curricular opportunities.)

Optional Essays (Choose 1 of 4 – 250 words max each):

1. We believe a wide range of viewpoints and experiences is essential to maintaining Duke’s vibrant living and learning community. Please share anything in this context that might help us better understand you and your potential contributions to Duke.
2. Provide an example of a difference of opinion you’ve had with someone you care about. What did you learn from it?
3. What’s the last thing that you’ve been really excited about?
4. Tell us about a situation when you would or would not choose to use AI (when possible and permitted). What shapes your thinking?

UNC-Chapel Hill

Prompt 1 (250 words max):

Discuss one of your personal qualities and share a story, anecdote, or memory of how it helped you make a positive impact on a community.

Prompt 2 (250 words max):

Discuss an academic topic that you’re excited to explore and learn more about in college.
Why does this topic interest you?

Cornell University

General Cornell Prompt (Max 350 words):

We all contribute to, and are influenced by, the communities that are meaningful to us. Share how you’ve been shaped by one of the communities you belong to.

College of Engineering Applicants:

Long Essays (200 words each):

1. Fundamentally, engineering is the application of math, science, and technology to solve complex problems. Why do you want to study engineering?
2. Why do you think you would love to study at Cornell Engineering?

Short Answers (100 words each):

1. What brings you joy?
2. What do you believe you will contribute to the Cornell Engineering community beyond what you’ve already detailed in your application?
3. What is one activity, club, team, organization, work/volunteer experience, or family responsibility that is especially meaningful to you?
4. What is one award you have received or achievement you have attained that has meant the most to you?

Emory University

Required:

(200 Words Recommended Length)
What academic areas are you interested in exploring at Emory University and why?

Answer one of the following questions

(Four options – 150 Words)

1. Emory University has a strong commitment to building community.
   Tell us about a community that you have been part of where your personal participation helped to change or shape the community for the better.
2. Reflect on a personal experience where you intentionally expanded your cultural awareness.
3. Emory University’s unique mission calls for service to humanity.
   Share how you might personally contribute to this mission of service to humanity.
4. In a scholarly community, differing ideas often collide before they converge.
   How do you personally navigate disagreement in a way that promotes progress and deepens meaningful dialogue?

Wake Forest University

Prompt 1:

List five books you’ve read that have intrigued you.
(150 character limit per book title)

Prompt 2:

Tell us what piques your intellectual curiosity or has helped you understand the world’s complexity. This can include a work you’ve read, a project you’ve completed for a class, and even co-curricular activities in which you have been involved.
(150 word limit)

Prompt 3:

Dr. Maya Angelou, renowned author, poet, civil-rights activist, and former Wake Forest University Reynolds Professor of American Studies, inspired others to celebrate their identities and to honor each person’s dignity. Choose one of Dr. Angelou’s powerful quotes. How does this quote relate to your lived experience or reflect how you plan to contribute to the Wake Forest community?
(300 word limit)

Prompt 4:

Give us your Top Ten List.
(The choice of theme is yours. 100 character limit per line)

University of Miami

Required Prompt:

(MAX 250 WORDS)

The university of Miami is situated in one of the most vibrant cities in the world, fostering a community filled with varied backgrounds. Our students come from an array of cultures, traditions, languages, and experiences. We value the unique perspectives each student brings and the meaningful contributions they can make.

Reflect on a community that has influenced you—be it your school, neighborhood, club, team, ethnic group, or any other group that has played a role in shaping who you are. What significance did that community hold for you, and in what ways did you contribute to it?

How will you bring those experiences, values, and insights to enrich our campus community at the University of Miami?