Caroline Koppelman
Ultimate Guide to Letters of Continued Interest ...

Getting waitlisted or deferred from your dream school is hard. We know it’s hard! You feel rejected, but it’s this weird non-rejection rejection that can leave you feeling lost and confused. And while a lot of things in college admissions are totally out of your control, there is something you can do if you’ve been waitlisted or deferred to give yourself another chance. A letter of continued interest, sometimes known as a waitlist letter or deferral letter, is one of the few, actionable things you can control when admissions decisions seem so out of your control. It’s your only chance to make a good second impression, and we help students write them every single year.

Caroline Koppelman
Ultimate Guide to Getting Waitlisted 2025

Getting waitlisted is the ultimate limbo – it’s not not a rejection, but it’s not a full-on denial, either. And depending on your circumstances, you could be feeling everything from mild disappointment to full-on panic. Don’t get yourself into a tizzy just yet, because there are things you can do to give yourself a shot at getting off the waitlist and make sure that you have a plan in place for the next year.

Caroline Koppelman
Best Early Decision II (ED2) Schools 2024-2025

Hey, look, sometimes ED doesn’t work out the way we want it to, and we have to change strategies. If you just got rejected or deferred from your ED/EA option, we’d like to introduce you to our good friend, Early Decision 2. ED2 is just as binding as ED, and it signals to the school that you are serious about attending that school, and guess what? Schools like when you’re serious about them.

Caroline Koppelman
Why This College Essay Question Guide and ...

Why do you want to go to school here? If there’s one prompt you are certain to write more than once, it’s this one. This prompt comes in a few different flavors, but at the end of the day, they all want to know why their school is the perfect school for you and why you’re the perfect student for them. No pressure or anything.

Caroline Koppelman
Official Common App Essay Guide 2024-2025

We’ve spent the last few weeks breaking down the Common App essay prompt by prompt, and today we’re going to give you our ultimate guide to writing the Common App essay. There might be seven different prompts, but ultimately, all schools want the same thing from their applicants’ Common App essays: a story.

common app

How to Write Common App Essay Prompt 5: Example and Guide 2025-2026

As summer marches on, so does our series breaking down each Common App essay prompt. If you’ve spent any time on our blog, you already know we’re big Prompt #7 people (the “write whatever you want” one). We love the freedom it gives you, but we also know that a structureless prompt can feel overwhelming for some students. So today, we’re diving into Prompt #5, sharing our honest takes along with tips and tricks to help you write it well.

How to Write Common App Essay Prompt 4: Example and Guide 2025-2026

We’re continuing our deep dive into each of the seven Common App essay prompts, giving you advice on how to brainstorm, write, and refine your Common App essay. If you’ve been here a while, you know we don’t always follow “conventional” college essay advice, and honestly, that’s why our students get results. Today, we’re tackling the newest Common App prompt: Prompt #4.

How to Write Common App Essay Prompt 1: Example and Guide 2025-2026

It’s time to apply to college! The 2025-2026 college application cycle is underway, which means we get to share with you our favorite part of the application: the Common App essay. If you’re just now learning what the Common App even is, we wish we could live in your world, but it’s a single application platform that lets you apply to up to 20 colleges at once. Sounds efficient, right? It is. Kind of. Except, notably, some big names (looking at you, UC system, Georgetown, MIT) don’t participate in the Common App, which is a little (a lot) annoying.

Common App Essay Prompt 6 Example and Guide 2024-2025

We’re almost through our series on all seven Common App essay prompts, and today we’re talking about Prompt #6. A sleeper hit prompt, we actually really love this one. As you all probably are well aware by now, our favorite prompt is always #7, but we know that a lot of students really value having the structure a traditional prompt offers them. If this prompt is right for you, we think it’s a great one to write.

Common App Essay Prompt 5 Example and Guide 2024-2025

As the summer continues, so does our series on various prompts of the Common App essay. If you’ve spent any time on our blog, you’re probably aware that we’re huge prompt #7 fans—aka, write an essay of your own design, but we know not all students are ready to embrace a structureless prompt. So today, we’re going to give you our takes on prompt #5, and give you some tips and tricks on how to write it.

Common App Essay Prompt 4 Example and Guide 2024-2025

We're continuing our dive deep into each of the seven Common App essay prompts and guiding you on how to brainstorm, write, and perfect your Common App essay. As you may know by now, we don’t follow the conventional college essay-writing rules, so what you’ll find here might be fairly different from other advice you’ve seen. But trust us, our methods get results! Today, we’re talking about the newest (albeit, like three years old) Common App prompt, Prompt #4.

Common App Essay Prompt 3 Example and Guide 2024-2025

We’re back with another post in our series decoding and exploring each prompt in the Common App, and this time we’re tackling prompt #3. Honestly, we’ve typed the word prompt so much it’s lost all it’s meaning, but we press on. Here at TKG, we are huge prompt #7 people (aka, write an essay of your own design) because we love that you can do so much with it. But, we know some students don’t love something so unstructured. Prompt #3 might be a good option for you, but we have some caveats to mention.

Best Common App Essay about a Job

We have many rules of thumb when it comes to writing an excellent Common App essay. That’s because we take all of our clients’ writing—every word that they put on an application—very seriously. College admissions have gotten to be incredibly competitive, verging on absurd. And whether or not you think it’s morally correct that it’s so hard to get into an elite school these days, if that’s where you want to go, you have to stand out above thousands of other qualified applicants.

How to Write the COVID-19 Section of the Common App

As you all know very well, “post-pandemic” refers to the world in the wake of COVID-19 (not a world rid of it). Yes, we’re better equipped to prevent infection, mitigate spread, and treat corona, but the virus is still circulating. Beyond that, the pandemic stopped our old status quo in its tracks and interrupted schools globally, changing — if not entirely suspending — academic development in tandem with extreme social and emotional upheaval.

How to Write A Unique Activities Section for the Common App

It’s time to talk about everyone’s least favorite and most annoying part of the Common App: the activities section. Why is it annoying? Well, first of all, they give you extremely limited space to talk about your extracurriculars. We’re talking less than half a tweet’s worth. Well, only if you’re a regular Twitter user and you don’t give Elon $8 a month, because then it’s like 1/100th of a tweet.

What Goes in the Additional Information Section of the Common App?

There are 24 subsections of the Common App, not including the dozens of other ones within the specific college apps themselves. Thankfully, most of them are straightforward, like activities, grades, testing, demographic data, etc. However, there is one section that seems to trip up even the most resolute high-achieving high school student: the additional information section.

What Is the Activities Section (Supplement) of the Common App?

The Activities section of the Common App is deceivingly straightforward. It asks you to report 10 activities (arts, athletics, clubs, employment, personal commitments, and other pursuits) that are of importance to you. Of course you’re going to report everything that you’ve been up to for the last 3 and change years. This is not optional. Students and parents alike struggle with the activities supplement because you have to condense your activities into a few short sentences and rank them in terms of importance. Fear not. We’re here to help.

How to Write the Common App Essay Prompt #1, 2021-2022

The 2021-2022 college application season is upon us, and we’re here with a series about how to approach and answer all seven of the common app essay prompts. At times, we will suggest things that seem difficult. We’ll write about things that don’t align with what you might have read on the internet. We’ll also let you know when we think it’s best you skip a prompt. We’ve gathered quite a few tips and tricks over the years, and we want to help our blog readers write essays that work. Let’s dive into the first prompt: