COLLEGE PROMPTS
Common App Prompts for 2020-2021 -- Same as last year -- 650 word count
1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, 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. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma — anything of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
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 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.
UC Essay Prompts for 2020-2021 – The prompts alone are followed by prompts with discussion.
You will write 4 essays from these 8 prompts. The word count is 350.
Prompt 1: Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
Prompt 2: Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem-solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
Prompt 3: What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
Prompt 4: Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
Prompt 5: Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
Prompt 6: Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.
Prompt 7: What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
Prompt 8: Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?
HERE ARE PROMPTS WITH SUPPORTIVE DISCUSSION
Prompt 1: Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
Don’t feel the need to list every leadership role. Think of a time when you had to work particularly hard as a leader. Perhaps, you always helped siblings with their homework and had to work hard because one of them had a learning disability. Maybe you worked as a camp counselor and had to get a group of kids to work together in harmony for a song or dance.
The point of the question is to isolate a single moment of leadership and bring that moment to life. Describe the situation in detail and set the scene. Don’t be afraid to reflect on moments of failure, either. Consider the character-building experience that made you who you are today.
Prompt 2: Every person has a creative side, which can be expressed in many ways: artistically or through problem-solving and original, innovative thinking, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
This question appears to be aimed at creative types, but a closer look reveals that the question could apply to anyone. It doesn’t stick to a single definition of creativity and even asks applicants what the word means to them. Creativity could include things like approaching a problem from a unique view, seizing an opportunity to bring old talents to new situations, and other such things.
Prompt 3: What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
All of us have a talent that sets us apart, something we’ve honed over the years. It shouldn’t be challenging to think of something you can do that makes you proud. Think about things other people say about you and times when you’ve put in great effort. Consider what you do well. Write about your answers to these questions: What challenges did you face? How has it affected your growth? What did that experience teach you? How will you continue to develop that talent in college?
Prompt 4: Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
There are two ways to approach this question. The first is to write about attending an afterschool program, special class, or something similar that inspired and helped you overcome a challenge. Discussing how you participated in a course for aspiring lawyers, for example, showcases your ambition and how much you enjoy a challenge.
The other option is to discuss how you overcame disabilities or struggled in the face of challenges and financial hardships that many students didn’t have to deal with. Discuss your struggles and how you overcame them. Highlight the qualities that helped you succeed and how overcoming the challenge helped you develop in some significant way.
Prompt 5: Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
Questions that let you write about failures and struggles give you the chance to talk about success. Discuss the steps you took to address a problem. Don’t worry if things didn’t go perfectly because you can still talk about the lessons you learned. Did the experience teach you something important about yourself or those around you? Focus on the positives. Discuss how the challenge changed you and how you plan to apply those lessons to college life.
Prompt 6: Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.
These kinds of UC transfer essay prompts are for people who consider themselves nerdy or geeky. This is another topic you can approach from two different directions. Talk about how an academic subject you love inspired you to pursue extracurricular activities or discuss how a hobby you have developed from the classroom. Perhaps, school taught you a love of language, so you decided to work in a coffee shop and meet people you could speak with in another language. Maybe you did a research project on historical currency, and it inspired you to start a coin collection. The prompt asks you to bridge the gap between your academic and personal life.
Prompt 7: What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
Writing about community service is good, but it’s easy to get caught up in cliché. Make yourself the center of the answer and write about your life in particular. Focus on the motivations that caused you to take action instead of the act itself. Write about what you learned. Whether you fought for increased minimum wage or against it to protect hours and jobs, what prompted you to take that action? What did you learn about how wages impact society during the process?
Maybe you weren’t even looking forward to the project but came to love the work. Why were you apprehensive at first? How did you make things more fun and beneficial for you and the people involved? Don’t feel the need to talk about the most impressive development or result. Talk about the what mattered most to you. Chairing the Honors Society is impressive, but if you didn’t like that work, write about something else.
Prompt 8: Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?
If you feel there is something that the UC admissions people should know, this is your chance to say it. Make sure that you go into detail and use descriptive language to bring the topic to life. Include some thoughtful reflections about the subject and why it matters to you. Don’t forget to mention why the topic makes you a great candidate for UC admission.
1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, 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. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma — anything of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
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 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.
UC Essay Prompts for 2020-2021 – The prompts alone are followed by prompts with discussion.
You will write 4 essays from these 8 prompts. The word count is 350.
Prompt 1: Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
Prompt 2: Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem-solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
Prompt 3: What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
Prompt 4: Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
Prompt 5: Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
Prompt 6: Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.
Prompt 7: What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
Prompt 8: Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?
HERE ARE PROMPTS WITH SUPPORTIVE DISCUSSION
Prompt 1: Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
Don’t feel the need to list every leadership role. Think of a time when you had to work particularly hard as a leader. Perhaps, you always helped siblings with their homework and had to work hard because one of them had a learning disability. Maybe you worked as a camp counselor and had to get a group of kids to work together in harmony for a song or dance.
The point of the question is to isolate a single moment of leadership and bring that moment to life. Describe the situation in detail and set the scene. Don’t be afraid to reflect on moments of failure, either. Consider the character-building experience that made you who you are today.
Prompt 2: Every person has a creative side, which can be expressed in many ways: artistically or through problem-solving and original, innovative thinking, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
This question appears to be aimed at creative types, but a closer look reveals that the question could apply to anyone. It doesn’t stick to a single definition of creativity and even asks applicants what the word means to them. Creativity could include things like approaching a problem from a unique view, seizing an opportunity to bring old talents to new situations, and other such things.
Prompt 3: What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
All of us have a talent that sets us apart, something we’ve honed over the years. It shouldn’t be challenging to think of something you can do that makes you proud. Think about things other people say about you and times when you’ve put in great effort. Consider what you do well. Write about your answers to these questions: What challenges did you face? How has it affected your growth? What did that experience teach you? How will you continue to develop that talent in college?
Prompt 4: Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
There are two ways to approach this question. The first is to write about attending an afterschool program, special class, or something similar that inspired and helped you overcome a challenge. Discussing how you participated in a course for aspiring lawyers, for example, showcases your ambition and how much you enjoy a challenge.
The other option is to discuss how you overcame disabilities or struggled in the face of challenges and financial hardships that many students didn’t have to deal with. Discuss your struggles and how you overcame them. Highlight the qualities that helped you succeed and how overcoming the challenge helped you develop in some significant way.
Prompt 5: Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
Questions that let you write about failures and struggles give you the chance to talk about success. Discuss the steps you took to address a problem. Don’t worry if things didn’t go perfectly because you can still talk about the lessons you learned. Did the experience teach you something important about yourself or those around you? Focus on the positives. Discuss how the challenge changed you and how you plan to apply those lessons to college life.
Prompt 6: Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.
These kinds of UC transfer essay prompts are for people who consider themselves nerdy or geeky. This is another topic you can approach from two different directions. Talk about how an academic subject you love inspired you to pursue extracurricular activities or discuss how a hobby you have developed from the classroom. Perhaps, school taught you a love of language, so you decided to work in a coffee shop and meet people you could speak with in another language. Maybe you did a research project on historical currency, and it inspired you to start a coin collection. The prompt asks you to bridge the gap between your academic and personal life.
Prompt 7: What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
Writing about community service is good, but it’s easy to get caught up in cliché. Make yourself the center of the answer and write about your life in particular. Focus on the motivations that caused you to take action instead of the act itself. Write about what you learned. Whether you fought for increased minimum wage or against it to protect hours and jobs, what prompted you to take that action? What did you learn about how wages impact society during the process?
Maybe you weren’t even looking forward to the project but came to love the work. Why were you apprehensive at first? How did you make things more fun and beneficial for you and the people involved? Don’t feel the need to talk about the most impressive development or result. Talk about the what mattered most to you. Chairing the Honors Society is impressive, but if you didn’t like that work, write about something else.
Prompt 8: Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?
If you feel there is something that the UC admissions people should know, this is your chance to say it. Make sure that you go into detail and use descriptive language to bring the topic to life. Include some thoughtful reflections about the subject and why it matters to you. Don’t forget to mention why the topic makes you a great candidate for UC admission.