Common App Personal Statement Premium Example Library

Do you know what college admissions committees are really looking for in essays?

The Common App essay.

This one piece of writing causes ambitious students all across the country to freeze up with anxiety. These mere 650 words in response to one of seven prompts are meant to condense your child’s achievements into a digestible and compelling narrative for college admissions committees. The Common App personal statement is your child’s chance to communicate their accomplishments, personality, goals, and dreams in the hope that they appear captivating enough to be granted admission to schools such as Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, and Harvard.

The Common App essay is the most consequential piece of writing your child has encountered in their lifetime. It could not only determine where they spend the next four years, but the connections they make and even the trajectory of their life. With so much riding on one essay, it’s no wonder we consistently receive questions like:

• What are college admissions committees really seeking to learn about me from my essay?

• What writing techniques will grant me an edge in the admissions process?

• Are there any topics or formats that should be avoided?

• How can I tie my experiences together in a narrative that gets their attention?

• Isn’t there one thing in particular they’re looking for that will help me stand out?

Answering these questions is not as straightforward as you think. Students often seek answers online and find an endless variety of tips on how to write a Common Application personal statement—tips that range from ideas like “start with a hook,” to “be authentic.” While the intention is in the right place, following these vague statements rarely sparks creative essay writing.

Crafting an engaging Common App personal statement requires a deeper level of understanding of what makes an essay work. Without this, your child will be at risk of writing something cliché that’s sure to fall flat to adcoms. Something they’ve read thousands of times before—nothing memorable, nothing to differentiate it from all the others.

Enter the Common App Personal Statement Premium Example Library—created to focus not only on strong, expertly crafted examples but also on why those examples work.

We refer to this as our QPUD method. Each one of the 25 unique essays includes a paragraph-by-paragraph analysis framed by the following four questions:

• Qualities — Does the applicant demonstrate positive qualities related to their personal growth? If so, which ones?

• Personal — Is the paragraph mostly about the applicant, or other people?

• Unique — Could anyone else have written this paragraph, or is it unique to the applicant?

• Depth — Does the paragraph cover too much, or is there real depth?

Our Common App Personal Statement Premium Example Library features 25 full-length sample essays, each one meticulously written and analyzed so you know not only what works, but why it works. Knowing why means being done endlessly scrolling through Common Application personal statement examples and worrying you’ll never write something as interesting.

Pairing each essay with in-depth QPUD analyses will give your child the inspiration they need to produce an essay that captures their individuality, aspirations, and most importantly adcoms’ attention.

So, whether your child is starting their Common App essay from scratch or refining an existing draft, our curated examples and insightful analyses will guide them to success. And with all 25 examples available anytime, anywhere, and on any device, they’ll be able to tap into inspiration wherever they are.