What Are the Most Popular Common App essay topics?
If you’re applying to college this Fall, you may be curious about what topics most students choose for their college essays. And as it turns out, we have the answer! We recently got in touch with the Common App to ask them some questions about the history of the essay. They’ve been around for almost 50 years now, and a lot has changed since the 1970s, both in terms of the prompts students are given and their essay topic preferences. Here are some highlights from Common Apps past and present!
The most popular college essay prompt in 2023 was our least favorite
As we’ve written about elsewhere, we actively discourage students from writing on a “topic of your own choice.” There are three key reasons for this. First, it’s really hard to write a college essay from scratch without practice. Second, the other prompts make it much easier to understand what admissions officers are looking for. And third, the open-ended topic tends to elicit gimmicky essays — and this just about never works.
But, surprisingly, of the 8 total essay topics in the 2023-24 application season, “Share an essay on any topic of your choice” was the student favorite — selected by 27.8% of all students. Go figure. The runner up, chosen by 22% of students, was the prompt that asks students to “Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?” Maybe after reading our advice, you’ll shift these numbers!
Common App questions have changed a lot over the course of their history
The original Common App had only one essay prompt — and funnily enough, it resembles today’s open-ended question. It read as follows: “It is our aim to get to know you as well as possible through this application. With this in mind, please describe in detail some special
interest, experience, or achievement or anything else you would like us to know about you.” Over time, the Common App added multiple prompts that asked a range of more specific questions. In 2000, the application included a prompt that asked students to “Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.” In 2014, it gave students the chance to “Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content.” In 2021, perhaps influenced by the experience of the early pandemic, they added a new question about gratitude.
Since the Common App formed in 1975, the essay prompts have been changed 11 times. Perhaps the biggest change came in 2014, when the Common App started soliciting feedback from students, counselors, and member colleges on the effectiveness of the prompts with the goal of making sure that they are helpful for showcasing students’ unique stories.
Student preferences have changed, too
We know that currently most students favor the open-ended Common App question. But this hasn’t always been the case. In 2013 the most-selected topic was the following: "Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story." And today, student topic preferences are actually more varied than they have been in the past. While the favorite topic in 2023 was chosen by just over a quarter of students, in 2013 it was the preference of 43.4% of students.
What will you choose?
We hope this blast from the Common App past gets you thinking as you consider what topic to choose yourself. There are really great topic options for just about everyone. Get started by checking out the 2024-25 application season prompts, and reading our advice on how to choose a topic. Of course, if you get stuck on this or any other part of your college essay writing process, we’d love to pair you with one of our experienced college essay tutors!