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. Here’s prompt #2:
2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter 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?
This prompt invites students to showcase their growth mindset. What does it mean to have a growth mindset? According to Stanford professor and mindset expert Dr. Carol Dweck, “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” Let’s examine how that concept applies here.
The question mentions “lessons we take from obstacles we encounter,” which might also be interpreted as “the way we grow by overcoming challenges.” So the question is seeking an essay about a difficult experience, how the writer responded, and – most importantly – takeaways from this experience. To give a complete answer, you will want to touch on each of these aspects of your experience as well as their impact on your subsequent endeavors or future outlook. Consider the following touchpoints as a way to sketch an outline and then get to work writing a growth mindset essay.
Tell the Story
Begin a response to this prompt by portraying your own challenge, setback, or failure story. Bear in mind that Common App essays have a limit of 650 words, which is usually a bit longer than one page. You will want to tell your story in one paragraph in order to allow enough space for reflection and a discussion of personal growth. One way to achieve this is to write out the whole story, including every detail, as your first draft. This process can activate your memory about the situation and highlight details that might be more important than you initially thought. You can then work on reducing your word count through a couple of rounds of edits. Simplifying your story can be hard, so consider asking a trusted teacher or counselor to offer a round of edits and suggestions. Give yourself a target word count and see if you can tell your whole story briefly, clearly, and vibrantly in just 250 or 300 words.
How Did It Affect You?
While telling your story you will surely mention emotions and use adjectives that show the reader how the experience made you feel. After you tell the story, explain in detail the most important one or two impacts the experience had on you. Be clear and candid in this section and use phrases like “[this experience] made me feel…” and “[this challenge] made me realize…” and then tell the reader how you reacted or why you had those emotions or realizations. For example, someone whose grandmother has died might say, “The depression my mother experienced after my grandmother’s passing made me realize the different ways that I could support my loved ones.” Another version might be, “Supporting my mother after the death of my grandmother made me feel that I have a knack for supporting others who are dealing with grief.” Bear in mind when you are making your outline and writing your essay, that this section will need to be directly tied to the next section for the greatest impact.
What Did You Learn?
The reader now knows your story and understands how you were affected, so this section will focus on your growth mindset – the most crucial section of your essay. In this section, you’ll take your feeling or realization statement from the paragraph above and tell us how that has changed you, which is how you have grown. Here’s an example. “Losing my first karate match in three years humbled me. I had been relying too much on my natural ability and not practicing the fundamentals, even though my coach was pushing me to. After some soul searching I became a gym rat again, focusing on mastering the basic techniques. Each day I am reminded that practice makes perfect and that awareness has impacted my life both in the gym and my everyday life.”
Who Will You Become?
To wrap up their essays, many students will take their growth mindset story and use it to look to the future. In our examples above, the supportive person might be planning to study psychology in order to become a therapist. The karate student could be using their discipline to master a meticulous computer programming language. By wrapping up your essay with a future-looking statement, you are forming a strong link between your growth mindset and future goals. This can help the admissions committee envision how you will approach being a student in their program.
Conclusion
Challenging situations often shape us as people by showing us our strengths, weaknesses, and inclinations towards interacting with and helping others. Learning from these experiences and showing the self-awareness to understand your growth can be the foundation for persuasive Common App essays. If you’ve overcome a hardship or failure in your life, maybe it’s time to reflect on that and tell the story of how it’s made you stronger and more likely to succeed in the future.