Rethinking the Common Application Essay Requirement
When you work in an admissions office, you are often invited to participate in various school-based programming, from mock interview sessions to panels on everything from athletic recruitment to “demystifying” college admissions.
One type of program that is particularly popular in college counseling offices at high schools is an application essay workshop. Typically, these are offered over the summer to rising senior students and consist of inviting various college admission reps who speak on the essay to all participants and then actual brainstorming and revising sessions with a small group of students.
The first time I was invited to one of these workshops, I offered pieces of advice that were not too off the beaten path (e.g., the importance of being authentic) while battling the voice inside my head saying, “If they only knew how little time we actually spend reading their essays when reviewing applications.” Since I was still relatively new to the profession at the time, I lacked the confidence to say this aloud.
As time went on, however, during these panels I began to emphasize how I personally value the mechanics of writing just as much (if not even more) than the content of the writing itself. Essentially, if you show me that you could connect a hobby or specific experience like a part-time job or internship to your future academic interest (e.g., tinkering in the garage with your grandfather sparked an interest in studying engineering) and write in a way that was easy to follow, that was all I needed. To me, the essay should reinforce what was already present in the extracurricular involvement and counselor and/or teacher recommendation sections of the application. I would joke with the school counselor that I am either the best or worst choice for these workshops, depending on their perspective.
Each year, the Common Application offers students a choice of prompts, ranging from explaining a specific obstacle overcome or a time when you experienced personal growth. These prompts are typically announced well before the Common Application opens and the college/university’s respective application deadlines (the 2025-2026 prompts were announced via the Common App’s website in February 2025).
While the timing of these announcements thankfully allows more time for students to carefully compile their thoughts before submission, it has also inadvertently created a cottage industry of “essay experts” charging sometimes exorbitant rates for assistance and the ensuing dialogue in which the essay can “make or break” an application. With all this added pressure, students either often write something they think an admissions officer would want to read or repeatedly revise until they feel too paralyzed to submit when they should. Voltaire’s “perfect is the enemy of good” is becoming more and more relevant when it comes to the college application essay.
So Now What? Alternatives to Requiring the Common Application Essay
Since I have grumbled enough about this, I thought I would offer some potential solutions. It is worth mentioning that not every college or university requires an essay in the first place (mostly larger public schools and those that offer automatic admission to students with certain GPA and/or test scores). However, most highly selective schools (especially those that practice holistic review) do.
Require short answers that are specific to an individual school or academic major/field of study
When I was working in admissions, we were expected to review an entire application in 5-8 minutes. This meant interpreting the student’s transcript and high school’s profile in terms of academic performance and rigor; reading two letters of recommendation, applicant biographical information, extracurricular involvement, any submitted writing (primary or supplemental); and comparing how the applicant fits within other students from the same school (either that year or based on historical data). As you can see, that is a whole lot of stuff to go through in a short time period, so a 500-word essay on a mission trip a student took or a sports injury an athlete overcame might not be the best gauge of a student’s potential fit at a college or university.
Rather, simply asking “Why us?” or “Why X major or academic interest?” allows application readers a quicker way to understand more about the student and assess the overall genuine interest a student has in their school. For example, if a student has never visited campus (virtually or in-person) or has not interacted with the college in any measurable way and submits a general essay, the application reviewer has no idea whether this student is actually interested in their school (now that applying to multiple colleges has never been easier). Restricting these responses to a couple hundred words should help admissions professionals gain a greater sense of a student’s passions and motivations within application review time constraints.
Emphasize interviews or video submissions
According to most admission professionals, authenticity is the primary purpose of any personal writing used as part of the application process. However, what if that singular piece of writing has been carefully crafted and altered over several months, with or without outside assistance? Does that authenticity remain intact? This conundrum is exactly why I am a big fan of interviews as part of the application process. Just to be clear, I do not mean the dreaded “job interview” in which candidates are often asked to answer “gotcha” questions. I am talking about a conversation where students share in a less-rehearsed way their interests and passions, a chance for students to even learn more about the school they’re applying to from faculty, staff, alumni, or even current students. Sure, you can prepare for interviews, but you typically will not have access to the questions beforehand.
Additionally, asking students to share a brief video perhaps explaining their favorite book or ideal dinner party guest list allows for a bit more informality while learning valuable information about the student. As can be expected, the issue of access comes up when advocating for the inclusion of interviews in the college admissions process, but colleges and universities have offered both on-campus and virtual options for the last few years. Ensuring that the college or university has enough interviewers (either paid or volunteer) before each application is crucial, so admission offices need to commit to this early and completely.
Using timed writing prompts from standardized tests (if test-required)
Admittedly, this is the most difficult alternative to employ given the proliferation of test-optional and test-blind colleges and universities. Additionally, the SAT eliminated the essay from their test a few years ago and the ACT has made the writing section optional. However, offering a timed writing prompt solves one of the most pressing issues facing education presently: the use of AI for idea generation and full-scale creative content.
Rather than offering an exhaustive examination of the current state of AI, I will leave it to Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan to sum it up: “I hate AI. AI is the world’s most expensive and energy-intensive plagiarism machine.” Writing that is being evaluated for admission to a college or university should be done only by the student, so making it part of an examination in which tools like ChatGPT are not allowed at least takes care of the issue of who is actually writing the essays. Furthermore, an essay done in a single setting allows evaluators to see a student’s thought process and writing structure in a compressed time frame, helping them identify fundamental strengths or weaknesses.
As an independent educational consultant working with students who almost exclusively are looking at liberal arts colleges and universities, I strongly value writing and believe it should be a cornerstone of any educational choice. However, placing all this undue pressure on teenagers to produce exemplary writing when very few teenagers have written books that stood the test of time (Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein being the notable exception) needs to be eliminated.
If I had to pick one of the three alternatives I outlined above, I would prefer that colleges simply ask “Why would you like to attend our school?” or “What do you want to study?” Yet, including increased required specificity in the application will reduce individual schools’ application numbers, thereby making them less selective, an outcome few colleges or universities would accept willingly.
