Common Essay Prompts for Bachelors Admission Abroad

The benefits of studying abroad are almost endless since it ignites an iota of a spark that leaves you speechless at first and then turns you into a storyteller. When applying to foreign universities, the essay(s) in your application should convey predominance. A college or university's admission officers pay close attention to each of these small but mighty factors while assessing your application for pursuing education overseas. The caliber of your essay hinges on the validity of your selection process, therefore a well-written essay can lead to substantiating your selection whereas a poorly written one can hurt your chances of admission.

Before starting really quickly, let us first begin with the question that is spiraling in your mind: what is the common application essay and why does it matter?

What is the Common Application Essay?

The Common Application (also known as the Common App) is a college admission operating system or software program that can be used to apply to any of the 900 participating colleges and universities in the USA (and other countries). Though there is no upper limit to how briefly you can write an essay, approximately 650 words are taken into consideration to be the standard limit for the Common App Essay.

Common app essays provide admissions committees with concealed insights into you. As part of a portfolio of essays submitted to colleges, the Common App essay serves as one of the components. Hence, supplemental essays are required measures at individual colleges. A Common App essay provides a unique opportunity to cast college your inner voice, identity, and personality in conjunction with grades, course load, and tests.

Altogether, universities abroad have a tendency to prefer candidates having essential or required knowledge, as a consequence, theyre likely to query their applicants to have a bachelors degree pertinent to further education. So get in touch with our admission professionals to reserve your seat like many of our students did in the past few years. Know More

Prompt#1: The Gap Year Essay

The trend of taking a gap year is growing and university admission committees are placing greater emphasis on gap year justification essays in the application process. It is still a relatively new trend in India. To gain experience in your profession of choice, you are allowed to take your own time or choose to work in a relevant field and then transition to your program of choice after having gained experience in your chosen field.

Ways to Prepare Your Answer for PROMPT #1:

• Mention why you decided to take a gap year. You need to specify exactly why you took a gap. There are several reasons why someone might take a leave of absence, including sickness, improving grades, gaining relevant work experience, and preparing for other exams.

• Cite some details about your pursuits by extending the value of your time away from college life or academics. Share a detailed description of the activities you have completed and how they enriched your personality as a compassionate individual.

• Focus on showcasing your growth as a professional individual as well as a non-collegiate individual by including the statistics of knowledge and gained personal experience.

Also Read: Common Mistakes to Avoid While Writing an SOP or Application Essay

Prompt #2: The Cultural Shock Essay

Culture and cross-cultural understanding can be immensely improved through international education, but it comes with a price. During a move to a new country or when adjusting to a new culture, students may experience culture shock and a sense of uncertainty, confusion, or anxiety. It is normal to experience this cultural adjustment when living in a foreign land. For example, students migrating for educational purposes in foreign may face cultural challenges if they are unfamiliar with the weather, language, food, local customs, and values.

Ways to Prepare Your Answer for PROMPT #2:

• You have an extroverted personality (you turn strangers into friends in half a second).

• You carry a soft-hearted familiarity with other cultures (holidays with friends, vacations with friends).

• You have already worked or studied abroad.

• You are in a routine habit of reading and speaking English (or the local language).

• You belong to socio-economic background.

• You have a strong family support system, both financially and emotionally.

Prompt #3: Problems Faced by the Young Generation

Attending universities overseas is fetched at a cost authorized by determination and persistence because this is a challenging process. You may need to face many academic and social difficulties. Taking advice and listening to others can make it easier. It might seem difficult at first, but you'll learn to deal with unusual challenges in patterns of time.

Ways to Prepare Your Answer for PROMPT #3:

• You can easily adapt behaviour and emotions in coordination with wavering environments (new school, new home, new city in your country).

• You are fascinated in dealing with new traditions and youre adaptable to quick changes in currencies, weather, food, culture, etc.

• You can even mention an event, accomplishment, or realization that spurred personal growth and an increased understanding of yourself or others.

Prompt #04: The Biggest Achievement Essay

You can mention a list of achievements and accomplishments that showcase your credibility during your academic career. Usually, students perform well in academics, which is evident by good grades and timely assignments. You must differentiate yourself from your competitors if you want to stand out and succeed. Therefore, you should deliver your greatest academic achievement in a meaningful way.

Ways to Prepare Your Answer for PROMPT #4:

• Try to highlight your best qualities that inspired you to achieve academic or non-academic success.

• Ensure that your mentioned accomplishments are recent, relevant, and specific.

• Append that you possess desired soft skills such as communication, teamwork, creativity, adaptability, leadership potential, and problem-solving. Give prominence to your ambitions and a driving desire to succeed.

Prompt #05: A Moment of Learning From Failure

The truth is, failure hurts, and it can be disheartening, but it can also be counted as a valuable learning experience. We know that innovation is the key to success and failure is success in progress. Therefore, you can derive your personal narrative as a turning point in your life.

Ways to Prepare Your Answer for PROMPT #5:

• Discuss an anecdote of how the fear of failure helped you succeed in the long run.

• Explore some opinions of yours that helped you to realize that experience is always the best teacher.

• Express yourself in an honest way as to how failure taught you to embrace change.

Prompt #06: Future Academic and Career Goals

An educational goal is a statement that describes the skills, competencies, and qualities you should have after finishing an educational program or course. An effective plan usually includes establishing objectives, choosing attainable short-term goals, and crafting a plan to accomplish those goals.

Ways to Prepare Your Answer for PROMPT #6:

• Mention some powerful points about why you are making a career switch by registering for a particular university abroad and how it will efficiently prepare you to reach your career goals.

• Give an example of how internships at a certain university will help you to gain practical experience for starting your own business.

• Represent a detailed view of career plans outlining what you are planning to do with the new skills you earned at an abroad university and how it will boost your networking abilities to become an expert in your chosen field.

Also Read:Canada or USA? Which is Better for Pursuing MBA?

Prompt#07: Second Major You Would Choose

Studying abroad provides you with the chance to gain knowledge about your major as well as the second area of study you wish to pursue. This is an opportunity that you might not have had in your hometown. As a consequence, your essay should dwell on the privileges you are getting studying overseas and even the core reason of interest.

Ways to Prepare Your Answer for PROMPT #7:

• Emphasize muscular intentions behind selecting your desired discipline and shed some light on synchronized proportions of interests.

• If you are interested in accompanying a particular major in a theoretical manner and a second major in a practical researching way or vice versa, then you can even mention specific reasons as well.

• Share some academic or career benefits you would like to learn by isolating the second major.

Prompt #08: Academic Interests and Strengths

In this section of prompts, you should sound quite appealing and show a deeper understanding of what interests you and why. By this, an admission officer can gauge what level of attentiveness you possess and the academic interest should reflect the breadth or depth of your strengths.

Ways to Prepare Your Answer for PROMPT #8:

• Your essay should highlight strengths, abilities, skills, or talents which are inspiring you to widen your academic interests in a foreign university.

• When describing your strengths as a student, you can use words such as wisdom, humanity, courage, bravery, honesty, perseverance, and problem solver.

• Demonstrate your ability to see situations from multiple perspectives and the ability to get your work done despite difficult obstacles.

Prompt #09: A Life Experience That Influenced Your Character

In this prompt, you have to narrate a tale relating to the lessons you learned from a life experience with an emotional touch. It could be the struggle of your parents or uninterrupted financial hardships you eye-witnessed that have made you thirsty to accomplish great things in life. The purpose of this part is to identify how you handled uncertain situations that influenced your character.

Ways to Prepare Your Answer for PROMPT #9:

• Discuss how external and internal influences have helped you crucially in developing a higher creative potential.

• Describe your unique character as a fighter influenced by an unforgettable life experience and how you adopt a positive attitude.

• In addition, you can describe how you took a big, life-altering decision by trusting yourself for the first time, which proved to be a milestone for you.

Prompt #10: An Essay on a Topic of Your Choice

Thanks to the "Topic of Your Choice" option in the 2020-21 Common Application, now you have endless options for your essay to mirror your extraordinary personality traits in order to impress the committee members. Almost 24.1% of all essay writers used this option in last year's admissions cycle, making it the most popular essay option.

To write off an essay on the topic of your choice offers too many choices. In other words, don't be worried about having too many ideas, or not having enough ideas, at the outset of idea generation. Decide on a topic that includes some of the threats mentioned above, and then narrate a compelling story that allows the reader to visualize your personality.

Ways to Prepare Your Answer for PROMPT #10:

• Put your inner being at the centre of the story and provide the moral of the story by showing how you went from being a zero to becoming a hero.

• Dont try too hard to be clever as you may sound fake.

• Make sure your essay is an essay, not a fictional appealing story.

Prompt #11: The Gratitude Essay

Taking into account the prompts which haven't changed since 2017, the gratitude essay is the most recent one added. Take a moment to think about how someone has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this feeling inspired you to feel good about yourself?

Think about times when you felt recognized, heard, and seen. There have been times when they have felt their heart grow three sizes as it swells in their chest. Make a list of what you are grateful for.

It's not necessary to be intimately acquainted with the person who inspired your gratitude, but you can consider the actions of a distant relative or even a public figure who has impacted your life in some way. In this essay, make sure that you focus on how you comprehend, appreciate, and draw inspiration from others' actions, so make sure to express that in a way that is unique to you.

Ways to Prepare Your Answer for PROMPT #11:

• Come up with a meaningful story that is connected to your personal life history and your understanding about the world.

• Adding a kind act from a stranger inspires you to continue paying it forward.

• If you feel compelled to express appreciation to a public figure for their work to raise awareness about issues that are important to you, do not hesitate to mention them and their inspiration.

• If you want to highlight your passions, actions, or aspirations, be sure to relate the act of kindness to them. Describe how this gift impacted you back then and how it still motivates you.

Also Read: How to Maintain Vocabulary, Grammar, and Word Limit in SOPs and Application Essays?

In response to one of these prompts, each student can find an interesting story to tell. Remember that admissions officers are looking for a glimpse of your character, your values, your interests, your passions, and your determination to work hard. Their objective is to learn more about how you will contribute to classroom and campus life. Spend a few minutes exploring your memories, collecting your stories, and discovering your creative spirit. We all have a brilliant essay hidden within us - these prompts can help you discover it.

For admission-related queries or guidance on writing your application essays to apply to universities abroad, write to us at abroad@collegedekho.com. To date, our experts have assisted a thousand aspirants regarding all the prompts of the common application process for a bachelor's degree. Know More.