How to brainstorm ideas for common app essay

Common App paper is a 650-word essay that contains seven broad prompts to choose from. In fact, the prompt you pick doesn't matter by itself. We recommend starting with the essay first and then matching it with the prompt (will talk about it a bit later).

As you're brainstorming and preparing to write your Common App essay, you'll want to keep these tips in mind. You'll have to search for the best topic, just like this bird is searching for food. The point of a personal statement is to, well, make a personal statement, that is to say, tell the reader something about yourself.

Before reading the prompts, brainstorming is a critical exercise to develop high-level ideas. One way to construct a high-level idea would be to delve into a passion and focus on how you interact with the concept or activity.

Now that we've established the basic ideas you need to keep in mind as you brainstorm, let's go through the 2020-21 Common App essay questions one at a time and break down what admissions committees are looking for in responses. Keep in mind that for each of these questions, there are really two parts.