This document provides 26 potential essay prompt topics for college applications. Some of the prompts include reflecting on a failure and what was learned from it, describing a problem solved or to be solved and its significance, and discussing an event that marked the transition from childhood to adulthood. The document also provides sample essays responding to some of the prompts.

2. Common App Essay Topics 2016
Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe
their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your
story.
1. The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or
time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the
experience?
2. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would
you make the same decision again?
3. 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 that is 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.
4. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from
childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
The changes you see reflect the feedback and consensus of nearly 6000 individuals who responded
to our recent survey. Among the survey highlights:
1. Huge Experience - "You'll be dead in a month"
I left the specialist's office. Perplexed. Distrusting. Distressed. I was going to bite the dust.
I was 14 years of age, and I lived in hellfire. I have been cursed with skin inflammation my entire life,
however it was distinctive when I was more youthful. At 14 years old, I didn't have dermatitis. It had
me. It had me in a cr
2. The Pen Drill™
I wended my way through the first through fourth grades for the most part without talking. My
presentations amid that time went in two sections: a stilted "My name is - ," then some kind of
mime. So I was astounded when I got a section in the class play, despite that everyone got a section.
I played t
3. Characterizing Yourself
Glancing back at first year, my life was similar to a cityscape, occupied and energetic. I was simply
one more youthful soul avid to meet life's difficulties. I gladly came to specific objectives that
characterized the understudy I needed to be: made it into the science foundation: check, varsity
soccer: check, a natio
4. Subject of your Choice - "Precipitation on Ink"

3. The previous evening I was pondering ink. At the point when downpour falls on a written by hand
page, the ink spreads out a bit, loses its freshness. It's seldom charming. Be that as it may, once in a
while, concealed hues rise. All of a sudden you find that straightforward dark ink is green and
shades of blue and a delicate pink edge. On the off chance that so
5. Assess a Significant Experience Essay - "PC Wizardry"
I never proposed to contract anyone. Truth be told, I never looked to get work myself. I was
excessively occupied with playing around with PCs, making it impossible to be irritated with any of
that. Be that as it may, when you know how to hit "ctrl-alt-erase," it appears everybody needs
technical support, and one thing prompts another.
All I&
6. Short Extracurricular Activities Essay - "Volleyball Co-chief"
Mr. Trupe, World History educator and previous Torrey Pines volleyball mentor, was shocked he
heard I was a competitor. "Kevin—you play volleyball? I could thump you down with my breath!" It's
actual—I'm 5'10" and a feeble 130 pounds. I don't have the fram
7. Rubbing My Malady
I have an illness, a questionable ailment that constrains me into putrefying in a silly circumstance
until it's considerably more unbelievable determination and urges me to compound the occasion by
my own particular eccentric nature. With neither cure nor immunization for this illness, it can create
at any age. Its sympt
8. The Color of Passion
I attempted to hold the canvas as near me as could be allowed without gambling touching it. It was
dry, however with oil paints you never truly know. It's work of art consideration 101: Don't move
your artistic creation around when it's wet. Any craftsman worth her salt realizes that. Be that as it
may, in the event that you had spent the bett
9. Piano Improvisation
Following a long school day, I much of the time return home and surge straight to my piano, where I
close my eyes and play out my feelings. In any case, however I have been playing conventional piano
for a long time, you will be unable to discover me producing an overwhelming Chopin exercise for

4. the sake of entertainment; rather, my most prominent satisfaction co
10. "The Pub"
I never knew I'd locate a second home. I get it waltzed itself into my life the minute I hesitantly
strolled into the propelled news coverage "bar," taking a seat alongside the main other green beans
who had been acknowledged onto staff that year, a tall, awkward looking kid with a splendid smile
and a young lady who looke
11. Sci-fi
I let him know that it was similar to outsiders. Like flying saucers. Like Star Wars. Like Transformers.
Be that as it may, regardless of what relationship I made, the young man remaining before me
couldn't get a handle on the idea of sci-fi.
"Does that mean you can't contract this?" The young man uncovered a little, green H
12. Liquor's Daughter
Dear Jack Daniels, Bacardi, Budweiser, alternate suppliers of my mom's wardrobe clothing crate, and
Edna Ferber Elementary, Thank you.
It is the mid year before Kindergarten. Face powder-colored, she falters toward me, the substantial
footfalls matching up with my throbbing heart. I hold up as she weakly endeavors to p
13. Football and Journalism
One dot of sweat sprinkles over the daily paper feature. Still wearing full football cushions, I sit
alone in the news coverage PC lab, altering duplicate a couple of minutes before 9 p.m. Three hours
after football hone, my spikes, loosened, stay stuck on my feet and I have scarcely even made a
scratch in th
14. Clarinets, Calluses, and Chemisty
For as elite as it seemed to be, Copley's soloist room was fairly straightforward, outfitted with just a
piano and a seat. It was slender as well: the modeler must not have considered the results of
claustrophobia before a performance execution. Regardless, I sat down on the seat and began to set
up my clari

5. 15. Karate Extracurricular Essay - "Little Ninjas"
Each weekend after my karate class, I volunteer for 60 minutes and a half educating kids ages 3-12.
The top notch is the "Little Ninjas," who are only 3-5 years of age. These are among my top picks to
instruct in light of the fact that they have no predispositions or state of mind. They take a gander at
you unjudgmentally and li
16. It's Not Just A Sport
I venture up to the beginning line-palms sweating, heart hustling. Three short impacts of a shriek
took after by one long impact and the trembling begins. Following three nerve-wracking seconds,
the weapon goes off.
I am splendidly content when I set foot on the track. The tra
17. Western Civilization
In some cases all it takes is one individual, or one task, to have a permanent effect. For my situation,
first year Western Civilization and my unconventional educator permitted me to take in the
advantage of diligent work and determination. My thin, uncovered, and enlivened educator, who
regularly wore different social outfi
18. Nourishment Drive Short Essay
In 2007 my school gathered 30,000 pounds of nourishment for nearby families in its ninth yearly
drive. At that point it began flopping. As the drive had developed, additional procedures were
constantly heaped on and, similar to Microsoft's old working framework, general association and
relative quality were not reevaluated. Nobod
19. Living Deliberately
Uncovered skin meets crude iron. Such a relationship must be found in this precise circumstance.
The center is intense to the point that nothing else matters. Immaculate fixation and expression
deciphering into impeccable execution - it's a physical wonder. It's the craft of the ideal lift.
Every time I snatch the str
20. Section To New Ground

6. My life was definitely changed on January sixth, 2014. It was around 7 A.M. on a Saturday morning. I
was stirred by the sound of a blast. At the point when my eyes opened I got myself suspended
noticeable all around and not able to move. Underneath me, the floor started to collapse and split,
the roof began to disintegrate abo
21. The very beginning
"Take my recommendation, I've been here for some time." How long? What did you do? "Try not to
drive anybody up the wall, don't tell the specialists reality, and remember to grin."
The auto arrives at a speedy stop, the kind that ought to have crushed my knees into the back of the
22. Instructions to Be Happy
Everybody aches to be <a href="http://www.happy.com">happy</a>. A few individuals appear to be
cheerful paying little heed to whatever they are experiencing in their lives. Others feel secure and
fulfilled notwithstanding when they don't have the material things that different persons have.
Another gathering appears to be glad
23. Neediness
There has dependably been a distinction between the have and the poor in the public eye. Riches
and neediness has been maybe the single greatest partitioning issue following the presentation of
cash a large number of years back. It was the Wu-Tang Clan that so broadly said that money ruled
everything 'around me&rd
24. Lifetime Goals
Expand the weight in my bow-arm. Convey the bow closer to the scaffold to get a resounding sound.
Pull the bow while keeping all my weight in my shoulder. Develop the moderate throb to a quick
vibrato. It is these movements and considerations that prompt one delightful
25. Untitled
The wind was wailing so uproariously that I could scarcely hear the incidental auto that cruised by. It
was raining intensely. Sloppy water clung to my jeans as I made every stride. "I need to go on!" I said
to myself.
As I came to class at 8.05am, I saw that the lobby was practically void. Just four

7. 26. Air contamination
Conceptual The wellbeing impacts of air contamination have been liable to serious study as of late.
Presentation to poisons, for example, airborne particulate matter and ozone has been connected
with expansions in mortality and healing facility affirmations because of respiratory and
cardiovascular sickness. These impacts h
27. Crushing the Devil Inside
Frequently, individuals think back on their disappointments and fixate on how they could have kept
their slip-ups. They ask themselves, "What might I be able to have done another way?" The answer
is not worth finding. Concentrating on unanticipated results impedes our capacity to lift ourselves
up and push ahead
28. The Ball and The Beast
The shriek pierced through my ear drums, proclaiming the end of an hour and a half session of
absolute mortification. I exited the pitch, eyes settled on the turf that has quite recently seen this
football slaughter, as the glimmering summer sun of Dubai sent its blazing tongues licking the back
of my stooped neck, and the
29. Test Essay
While snatching lunch between diversions at a water polo competition, I saw one of my new
buddies once in a while looked at me without flinching. Rather than taking the unfilled seat
alongside me, he selected to sit over the table. Notwithstanding when I attempted to begin a
discussion with him, he just looked down, and muttered, &ld
30. Movement
Such a variety of characters and universes show up before me as I sit before the TV screen, watching
toons. Nothing controls my hunger for a break from reality more than liveliness. At the point when
seeing vivified universes spread out, faculties of supreme rapture, opportunity, and quietness surge
through me. Anythi
31. The Power of Daydreams
Fantasies are regularly viewed as a diversion and an indication of lethargy. Be that as it may, I have
faith in the innovative force of fantasies, which permits me to escape from reality. Wandering off in

8. fantasy land perm