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 #3:
3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea.
What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
In this question, students are offered the chance to showcase their critical thinking and open-mindedness. The ability to question or challenge a belief tells us that someone can think critically. Wondering if a certain process is the best way to do something or if a rule is best-suited to those it applies to are examples of this kind of thinking. Critical thinking and open-mindedness are key traits for collegiate and professional success, so understanding when is an acceptable time to question the status quo, how to form a persuasive argument for or against a belief or idea, and a willingness to change one’s mind, are strong indicators that a student can thrive in Socratic method style college classroom discussions. Here’s a strategic approach you might take if you feel that critical thinking and open-mindedness are strengths you’d like to spotlight in your application essay.
Your idea or someone else’s?
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 answering this prompt, your story will come from either challenging another person’s or organization’s idea or belief (external), or challenging your own idea or belief (internal), and it’s important to consider how these different directions will alter your essay. When writing about challenging an external belief, you are more likely to focus on the critical thinking aspect(s) of the story. This may be especially beneficial for people who want to show that critical thinking will help them in their career, such as those students interested in law, sciences, philosophy, or entrepreneurship. Alternatively, when writing about challenging a personal belief, the writer will want to include both critical thinking and open-mindedness as part of their experience. This direction could be relevant for those pursuing psychology, social work, and communications careers.
Why did you challenge the idea or belief?
After telling your story, explain why you felt compelled to challenge this idea or belief. The origin of your argument will show the reader how and when you choose to think critically about things, which reveals your values and motivations. Here are a couple of examples. After attending a diverse summer camp in London, James’ ideas about people from different countries and cultures changed through his interactions with his peers. This motivated James to explore his ideas about people and cultures more closely. Here is another: When Amanda learned that her customer service coworkers who did the same job in a different language earned less money, she raised the issue with her boss and pointed out that it was an unfair business practice.
What happened?
Next, you’ll need to tell the reader what happened after you made your challenge and then go one step further by sharing how you will continue to be impacted by this experience going forward. Conflict, debate, disagreement, enlightenment, and changing one’s mind for the better are some of the many things one might face when challenging an idea or belief. Continuing the examples from the last paragraph, James went on to have several interesting and eye-opening conversations with his civics teacher and his aunt who works in a social-impact organization. Today, James plans to study sociology to continue exploring his ideas and cultural norms and behaviors that cause conflicts between different groups of people. Meanwhile, Amanda’s challenge sparked an interest in workers’ rights, and she spent the rest of the summer learning about how she could stand up for equal opportunities and better business practices. Now Amanda is considering becoming a lawyer so that she can represent unions and individuals who encounter unfair work practices.
Conclusion
Sharing a story about challenging an idea or belief can reveal strong critical thinking and communication skills, the ability to be open-minded, and personal traits like curiosity and support for social causes. If you have experienced or instigated this kind of challenge and believe it is a strong representation of some of the skills and traits listed above, this could be the right prompt for you.