Students targeting American universities are likely to submit one or more applications through the Common App platform. In this series, we will discuss strategies to write strong, memorable essays based on each of the six prompts offered by the Common App. This post focuses on prompt #4:
4. Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
Prompt #4 takes as its themes gratitude and, more subtly, impact. Gratitude is one of the most contagious and motivating emotions that we can experience and its spectrum of related positive feelings might include feeling thankful, humbled, pleasantly surprised, and moved to inspire those feelings in others. The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley notes that, “Over the past two decades, studies have consistently found that people who practice gratitude report fewer symptoms of illness, including depression, more optimism and happiness, stronger relationships, more generous behavior, and many other benefits.” Universities are keen to recruit people with these soft skills and the ability to make emotional connections.
This question specifically indicates that the feeling was surprising, meaning that an unexpected turn of events or a kind act by someone you wouldn’t have anticipated led you to feel gratitude. The simple act of feeling gratitude tells us that someone or something has made a significant impact on you and the question asks you to share how you have been affected and, potentially, motivated to give others similarly warm and fuzzy feelings. So the prompt is really asking if we have ever had an experience so personally moving and positive that it has changed the way we see the world, the way that we do things, or the way we want to treat or make an impact on others. Students who have clear goals in social impact, education, healthcare, social work, and other careers that involve helping others might be especially drawn to this prompt. This post will offer some ideas about how to write about such impactful experiences.
What kind of experience is “moving enough”?
In the Common App Prompt #2 blog post, we gave a recommendation about how to open an essay with a story. We recommend that you review that strategy as it also applies here.
When considering this prompt it is common for students to feel that their personal story doesn’t sound impressive or important enough. This kind of hesitation is common when facing most impact-related essay questions. What’s really important in this type of essay is sharing a personal experience, even if it occurred in an everyday situation like standing in line in a grocery store. After this, discuss its impact on you, and how it continues to motivate you. So, when starting this kind of story, it’s advisable to first write an outline that explains what happened, why it was surprising, how it affected you at first, how your feelings and understanding have changed, and how it now motivates you to take action. In this way, you can see that the intent of this prompt is not to seek awe-inspiring, world-beating stories, but instead to invite genuine examples that inspire the writer to “pay it forward” or help others in the future.
Continue to Explore Your Feelings
The question specifically mentions the feeling of surprise, but the feelings that develop and evolve after the surprise will be essential to helping the reader understand how you continue to feel the impact of the experience. When someone does something kind for us, we will no doubt feel thankful or even lucky. But what comes next? Share with the reader how you spent time considering the other person’s kind actions and any self-reflections that you felt. Here’s what Ting wrote about when a musician she looked up to unexpectedly offered to tutor her in guitar:
Because I couldn’t afford lessons, I always assumed that I would just have to continue learning on my own. But after joining a workshop with Belle, she invited me to be her student and offered me the chance to pay for classes by interning in her studio. Suddenly, I felt that my hard work had been validated because someone else could see my progress and offered to help me pursue my dream. It’s hard to describe the level of gratitude and motivation that overcame me.
What Are You Going to Do About It?
Now we come to the part of the essay that gets to the heart of the question and highlights the impact you want to make. Your goal is to show how you are driven to make a positive impact in the lives of others or in the name of a cause you believe in, such as environmentalism or educational equality. How has the act of kindness you received changed you as a person, and how will it motivate you going forward? Here, you should draw a strong connection between your experience and your goals or values. For some students, this will influence their college major and career goals, for others, the focus may be a shift in their worldview and the way they want to treat or help others. Here are a couple of examples.
Max’s family immigrated to a new country when he was in middle school. Through this, Max gained a firsthand understanding of the challenges, stresses, fears, legal issues, and cultural differences that immigrants encounter. A teacher also hailing from his home country spent a lot of extra time helping Max adjust to the new culture and even offered his parents guidance on settling down. This has motivated Max to study immigration law to help improve existing laws and help others who find themselves in similar situations.
Continuing our example above, thanks to the generosity of another musician, Ting gained a new understanding of how important it is to encourage young musicians and artists with limited resources. She started volunteering at a music camp while she was still in high school and plans to look for ways to give back to young people in her music-learning communities in the future.
Conclusion
The ability to be inspired by the actions of others shows our openness to making connections with others, which in turn shows our potential to make an impact. Universities view a desire to help others and a vision for impact as strong positive traits that can define your application profile. Sharing a personal story about the way you’ve been touched by an experience can have an empathetic reaction from the admissions officer reading your essays, helping you to stick in their mind as a desirable candidate.