Write Your Way to College, Part 1 of 7

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Common App Prompt #1: You Complete Me

Let’s take a close look at Prompt #1 by analyzing the key words and developing key questions we can answer to see how well this prompt might work.

Here it is:

Some students have a  background, identity, interest, or  talent that is  meaningful they believe their application would be  incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Why is This Prompt Here?

The real advantage you can leverage in the essay is the opportunity to include things you can’t explain anywhere else on your application. Sometimes, these are the most important things about us. They just aren’t related to school.

A good example comes from a girl I worked with named Izzi. She’s been acting on stage since she was two years old. But she’s always worked in productions outside of the schools she has attended. Sixteen years of work in the theatre and there’s no easy way to explain it in the application.

And yet, this is the one thing Izzi feels has shaped her most as a person, especially one who works hard, tackles complicated things, is a good team player, always makes the best of bad situations, and isn’t afraid to get up on stage and show people who she is.

You can get some advice form Izzi here about her experience of working through the essay process here:

Background Knowledge

What if the thing you value most about yourself has to do literally with who you are? Maybe it’s something about your racial or ethnic heritage, the places you’ve lived, your immediate family, or a special role you play in your family. Maybe you’re active in your faith community. Maybe you’ve created your own community organization to help others.

These are all parts of your background. They may be such big parts of who you are that you really should talk about them in your essay. This is especially true if you feel that your background is unique in some way, has shaped you more than anything else in your life, and can’t be explained through any other part of the application process.

Key Question: What is it about who you are or how you’ve grown up that has shaped you the most?

Key Question: Do you have an unusual family background that is a deep part of your life that isn’t easily communicated through your academic accomplishments?

Your True Identity

Who are you? Yes, you can answer with your name. But we all have multiple identities: writer, artist, athlete, musician, nerd, rebel, superhero, mystery, enigma, magician, philosopher — you can develop anything, literal or figurative, that you feel best describes your true identity.

Key Question: Do I have a way of being in the world that expresses who I am better than anything I’ve accomplished?

Key Question: Do you have a significant nickname or something your friends or family members refer to you as that defines you in their esteem?

Interest Survey

Some of us have near-obsessive interests in certain things. It’s not uncommon to pick these up when we’re very young and carry them through our entire lives. What are you most interested in?

In some ways, writing about a deep interest you have, something you’ve been interested in for a long time, and with great intensity, could be the best and easiest thing to write about. Why? Because instead of writing so much about ourselves, we can’t write about our interest and why we’re interested in it.

It’s always harder to write about ourselves than it is to write about something outside of us that we know well. Here again, if an area of interest is a big part of your life, and there’s no other way to talk about it on your application, this is a good candidate for your essay.

Key Question: Is there one thing you’ve been interested in for a long time that you spend a lot of time on outside of school?

Key Question: Our most interests often show up in our lives as hobbies. Do you have a hobby you’ve been deeply involved in for a long time?

Talent Show

We all have talents, even if the talents we have aren’t the obvious ones recognized by our society. For example, some of us live in such difficult circumstances that we develop special talents just to get by in life.

Or perhaps we do have a talent our society regards as such but it’s not part of what we do at school. If this is the case, this prompt may be the one for you.

There’s an interesting opportunity here: the opportunity to surprise a reader by defining a talent you possess that isn’t a talent most of us think of. This can be a wonderful opportunity to introduce humor, humility, and irony into your essay. These are things most applicants have a hard time expressing. If you can do this well, your essay might give you a real advantage.

Key Question: Do I have a conventional talent that is an important part of how I think of myself and that cannot be explained anywhere else on the application?

Key Question: Do I have an unconventional talent or can I describe a part of myself as being a talent in a way that’s surprising, funny, or ironic?

Meaning Matters Most

It’s easy to read this prompt and think that it’s about backgrounds, identities, interests, and talents. It is, but it’s really about what these things mean to you.

The meaning you take from these things is more important in this context than the things themselves. Why? Because many people might have the same talent but no two people will find the same meaning in it.

Keep in mind that these essays are your best chance to stand out from the crowd. The meaning you take from things in your life is unique to who you are. That’s why colleges want to know so much about that. Your background, identity, interest, or talent is just a vehicle you use to deliver to your readers an explanation of what is most meaningful to you in life.

Key Question: What does my background, identity, interest, or talent mean to me?

Key Question: How does a part of myself or my life define me in ways that are unique to my experience?

Key Question: How would I be different if I didn’t have this thing in my life?

A Rare Opportunity

The essay is your chance to include in your application something that isn’t easily covered by any other part of it. It’s also your best chance to convey your uniqueness: the one thing that is your biggest advantage when it comes to standing out from the crowd.

No matter what you think of the other prompts, put some time in thinking about how you might respond to this one. As the wording of the prompt suggests, this is your opportunity to “complete” your application in a way that completes the picture of who you are.