Common App 2025-26 essay prompts announced: How to write a winning essay

I first encountered economics early in my life. My father introduced me to one economic principle by explaining why a Barbie Little Mermaid he bought me was a depreciating asset and will not hold as much emotional value in a month. The principle of diminishing marginal utility was tough to swallow at six. As I grew up, I realized that economic principles are the pillars on which one’s life are built. Their versatility makes it possible to improve global markets or, perhaps, even just one young adult. As I prepare for university, I want to use my favourite economic principles to explain what shaped me and what I hope for the future.

People Face Trade-offs: people will sacrifice one thing in order to gain something of value.

I love Russia. The grounds of Pushkin’s Mikhaylovskoye estate, in Pskov Oblast, inspired Russian literature and my love of Russia’s beauty. My mother’s Tatar pie, a unique combination of rice, raisins, and eggs sweetened with milk encased in pastry is my favorite treat. I left these for school in London. This was a classic tradeoff—and one I feel acutely every day. However, the opportunity to have an international education, my school has over 60 nationalities, was something I needed. The academic challenges at my London school exceed what was offered in Moscow. Sacrificing my home's comforts was the right trade—off for my education.

Opportunity Costs: the benefits people lose when they choose an opportunity.

This is an economic principle that shapes modern teenage life. I am not alone when I say with each new school year my responsibilities grow. How can I study, run, play the piano, read Bulgakov and still sleep? Choices have to be made every day. Sometimes I will stop studying in the hope that a good run will improve my performance because of the mind-body connection. Sometimes studying economics gives way to practicing the piano so I can improve those skills, too. My day consists of choosing between all these opportunities. Sometimes the outcomes are not immediately evident. But I am conident that I am making the best use of all of my options.

Rational People Think in the Margin: people should choose a marginal beneit if it exceeds the cost.

This principle challenges me the most. Growing up seems to be about iguring out when to be rational and if a beneit will exceed the cost. Though economics can guide, it can also make you feel adrift. For me, richness of experience cannot always be quantiied. Experiences are characterized by emotions, not logic. A two-hour hike up Mount Kazbegi to an old church with nothing else around it might seem irrational. Certainly, no calculus could determine the beneit. But here you can meet a man who has dedicated his whole life to keeping the church open for pilgrims and patiently relies on others to bring him bare necessities through a pulley system. I cannot determine on a graph what I gained from this experience but sometimes pushing against an economic principle is how you develop a new theory of living.

People Respond to Incentives: a system of rewards and punishments shape decisions.

When I was six, my mother decided it was time I learned to play the piano. Obedient, I went to my lessons. Trained through the Soviet system, my piano teacher was the perfect person to teach traditional music. But her way of teaching was less traditional than her skills. I learned the piano theme from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. She rewarded me by playing Beatles and The Rolling Stones songs. This incentive created an internal and authentic love of music and the joy it can bring. Incentives shape behaviour but the principle works best when it creates internal motivation.

What new principles will I learn at university? I don’t know! But I do know how to test a principle and expand on a theory. 

Our comment:

This student started the US personal statement process committed to writing about her intellectual passion: economics. However, because the personal statement needs to provide a way for admissions committee to understand how the applicant will contribute to the greater university commiunity outside of the classroom, we needed to develop a strategy that honored the student's interests and met the needs of the readers. By using economics as the frame, but not allowing it to be the core content of the essay, we were able to write an essay that reflects the student's interests and also met the criteria for the personal statement.

“What’s happening in the human tank dude?” Since Disney’s Finding Nemo I have been fascinated by turtles. Sir David Attenborough, an English naturalist, celebrates these explorers from the late Jurassic period in his many documentaries that I have watched, captivated. Turtles’ ability to explore by riding the waves and slowly, but steadily, inding their way inspires me. Their love of both home and adventure made me want to see them in person. Sadly, few come to England. I would have to travel, like my intrepid animal friend, to Costa Rica to encounter the animal that has helped shape my way of being in the world.

Turtles may ride the waves but my trip to Costa Rica required more planning. My classmates and I trained in the Ashdown Forest for three days so we knew we could handle trekking the highest summit, Cerro Ena, in Costa Rica. We raised £4000 through selling at fairs and I happily walked dogs through London to pay my own way. After two years of planning, we were prepared to walk through the jungle, climb mountains, and work at a turtle sanctuary so we could help the creatures that have so much to teach us all.

My backpack became my turtle shell both providing essentials of home and protection. My purple waterproofed bag functioned like a dense layer of keratin and bone. I discovered through the knowledge that only comes with experience that turtles move slowly because carrying your home with you is heavy! Yet, slowing down makes you carefully observe the world around you. In the jungle, I watched out for poisonous snakes hanging from trees. I had to trust that the summit was above the clouds and I was able to see the valley from the peak. Turtles are often synonymous with wisdom. I think this is because they move so carefully and I am glad that I did, too.

Like one of my favorite turtle species, the Olive Ridley, I travelled in a large group. Olive Ridleys, the smallest sea turtles, travel in groups for protection. I was traveling with twenty other young explorers from my school. Sharing living spaces together and never being apart fostered a deep bond. Camaraderie is key to any successful venture and essential when you live like a turtle. I did in fact land on my back, with my hard shell of a backpack weighing me down. My friends pulled me up and I understood better why the Olive Ridleys travel en mass when they feel vulnerable.

At the turtle sanctuary, Osa Turtles, I inally met my totem animal. We irst found them in the dark-when they would swim to the beach to lay their eggs. This irst encounter made the work of protecting them that much more real. In the morning we would sweep the beach for poachers’ traps. We also worked to maintain the hotel that was the primary source of income for the sanctuary. Helping the sanctuary prevent turtle poaching and preserving the birthplaces of the next generation made me feel part of the wider eco system. And it made me think that we all need to work to protect wise turtles.

Just as turtles return to the beach where they were born, I returned home from my adventure. Whilst being away from my family, I realised that I could ind home in the furthest away places just like a turtle. Meeting turtles taught me that the characteristics that I have admired are now qualities I have adopted. I know that slow and steady can win the race and help me learn about my world as I move through it. I know a protective shell is sometimes necessary but you still need friends to help you when it weighs you down. At university in the US, I know I will bring these traits with me and hope to meet others who love turtles, too.

Our comment: 

This essay uses the “Objective Correlative” method (see exercise two in the drafting section). By writing about turtles, the student is also describing herself—but in a more subtle way. Also, by using turtles and her trip to Costa Rica, the student has found a coherent way to describe values and qualities she has spent a lifetime developing. The visual scenery of her trip also engages the reader’s sense and thus keeps them engaged.

As you can see from these two samples, successful personal statements can deploy different structural and narrative strategies. There is no single style that students need to emulate. However, both of these essays contain the four key components: personal relection, vivid details, clear examples, and clear takeaway points for the reader.