Common App essay prompts 2025-2026

It’s official: The Common App essay prompts for 2025–2026 will be the same as last year! 

Common App gathered feedback from students, educators, and colleges and decided to keep the current set of prompts. It plans to continue analyzing the trends in prompt selection and will consider insights from different student populations for potential future updates.

List of Common App prompts

The 2025–2026 Common App prompts have been posted and are listed below. Please take some time to review each prompt. 

1. 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.
2. The lessons we take from obstacles can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
4. Reflect on something someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

How to pick a prompt

Now that you have an idea of exactly what prompts you can choose from, how do you pick the best one? Short answer, there is no “best” one. It is more a matter of what you make of it and how you can personalize your essay using the prompt as a guide. 

Take some time to review each prompt listed above. These are directly from Common App, exactly how you would have to answer them. 

Next, shortlist two or three prompts that you think you can write something about. Pick prompts that have experiences or stories that resonate with you. 

Now you want to lay out each prompt and create a list of ideas you can write about for each one. Make sure you are able to answer each part of the prompt, connecting it back to your story. You want this to feel natural and flow smoothly. 

Go through your lists and decide which one you feel more strongly about. Which one do you feel more of a connection with? It is important to genuinely feel passionate about your choice because emotions can be conveyed in the writing and can help the essay stand out. You may even find it helpful to write a draft for each prompt you shortlisted and choose which one you like better. 

What changes will be made?

In August 2025, Common App will change its “Additional information” questions. It will be changing some of the wording to clarify and expand the range of responses. After the responses of the students, educators, and colleagues, Common App enforced the following changes. 

Common App will change the “Community disruption” question to a “Challenges and circumstances” question. The word limit will remain the same for first-year applicants and transfers at 250 words max and 1250 characters max, respectively. 

The “Additional information” question word limit will be reduced. The first-year applicant limit will also be reduced, from its previous 650 words to 300 words max. The transfer applicant limit will go down from 3500 to 1500 characters max.

What is the “Challenges and circumstances” question?

Students apply from different backgrounds and experiences. Some students may have experiences impacting their applications, and Common App created this question to help colleges better understand each student’s situation. Some examples of situations and circumstances a student may face that can impact their application are listed on the Common App website, but a few are listed below: 

• Access to a safe and quiet study space 
• Reliable technology and internet 
• Discrimination 
• Family (divorce, incarceration, job loss, health, loss of a family member, addiction, caretaking, financial support, etc.) 
• Housing instability, displacement, or homelessness 
• Military deployment or activation

You are not obligated to answer this question or provide any information, but if you feel a situation may have impacted your application process, it may be helpful to include it.

Conclusion

The 2025–2026 years Common App prompts will remain the same. With a few updates to the “Additional questions” section, there will not be much of a change. Take some time to review all the prompts to find the one that works best for you. Good luck on your academic journey!

Achievable ACT - $129

Achievable's ACT course includes endless math quizzes, hand-crafted practice exams, and our easy-to-understand online textbook (including the Writing section) with proven strategies to hit your target score.

View ACT prep course