College Application Essay Prompts

If there is one thing that most seniors would agree with, it would definitely be the fact that, for any high school senior, nothing is more nerve-wracking than the time when they have to submit applications to the colleges or universities they are planning to enroll into. Also, what comes with these is the need to submit a clever and interesting application essay that would surely secure an aspiring student a slot in the university where he wants to enroll into.

Because a college application essay can be considered this important, this also means that it is truly a must to be aware of how college application essay prompts work and how can one respond to this essay prompt ingeniously.

College application essay prompts simply refers to the questions, guidelines, or instructions that are given to an aspiring university student as a prerequisite to his admission in the university or college he intends to enroll. They usually require a short 300-700 word response and may range from various topics.

Some common essays prompts that most universities and colleges usually include asking the applicants how he envisions or observes certain things based on certain times or particular parameters. When this is the case, it is very important that the applicant writes the essay in the most vivid way possible. It is very crucial that whoever reads it would understand the message of the essay in the way how the writer wants it to be understood.

There are also prompts that tell a student a situation and asked them to describe how they will respond to that particular circumstance. There are also times when these kinds of prompts include additional instructions such as including a particular phrase on a key point inside a composition; following on certain restrictions related to the actions that may be done as a response to the given situation; or using certain tools along the action that would be done for the situation given.

There are also prompts that are very technical and require the student to be as knowledgeable as possible. Answering or responding to these kinds of prompts would definitely necessities a very concise and vivid response for it is important that the reader of the essay would understand the essay in the “language” that he and the writer both knows. There may also be cases that these kind of technical prompts require the student to prove a particular theorem using his own assumptions and knowledge.

Lastly, there are also instances where the questions become too tricky and weird. Instances are the famous University of Chicago’s “How do you feel about Wednesday?” and University of Pennsylvania’s “Submit the 217th page of your 300-page biography. These kinds of prompts would usually require a very clever reply.