The Common App first-year essay tips UAS

APPLICANTS TO THE UNITED STATES:   The Common Application (“Common App”) first-year essay is required by most Common App schools. You will be able to apply to many (but not all) universities in the States using the Common App. This essay plays an important role in universities’ admission decisions. Here is the list of the Common App first-year essay prompts for 2024-2025. It is the same as it was last year.   My suggestion is that you look through all of the prompts and see if any jump out to you. Ask your friends or your parents and see if they have any ideas of which one you may want to write about. (you will have to respond to ONLY 1 prompt!). The more passionate you feel about answering the prompt, the easier it is to write about. Look through the resources below and generate ideas.   Draft your essay  on a Google Doc, give College Counselor edit access and share it when you have your first draft finished. I will give you feedback on as many drafts that you need me to.   UAS ESSAY WRITING TIMELINES: End of April: First draft completed and feedback from College Counselor prior to end of grade 11 End of May: Supplemental essays for colleges that you will be applying to are listed on a google doc End of August: 1st or 2nd draft submitted to College Counselor (depending on your college list) Mid Sept: Supplemental essays drafted and submitted to College Counselor October 1-10: College essay is completed, supplemental essays are well drafted/ready to submit   Tutorial Videos to Watch:`

• Brainstorming for College Admissions Essay (4-minute video).
• Brainstorming for the College Essay: What You Need to Know (there are several tutorial videos, each dedicated to each of the seven prompts).

  Articles to Read:

• How to Answer the 2024-2025 College Essay prompts. Each prompt lists “questions to consider” and “examples to think about.” 

  Quick, Helpful Brainstorming Exercises:

• The Values Exercise (PDF worksheet of this exercise) and Warm-Up Exercises (take a look at the “I love…” exercise).
• Watch this video and this video to get a broad overview of what and how to write, what to do, what not to do, etc.
• This is pretty sound advice.  Don’t pay or sign up for anything, or take a course.  Take the free advice and it will give you some ideas for how to get started.  

  For those applying to the University of California (UC) schools): If you are applying only to the universities within the University of California (UC) schools system in the States, you do NOT need to work on the Common App first-year essay. For the UC application, you will need to work on what they call “personal insight questions.” Please refer to the official link here to access the questions and to start working on them.