Ah, the classic community essay! The ol’ standby! This essay is probably the most common prompt behind the “Why” essay that so many schools ask. You can spot a community essay from a mile away – it almost always has the word community in it, but it also might ask about your background, lived experiences, or something a little more broad. You can really spot a community essay if it asks you to connect back to the community at that school.
A few notes: a lot of the community essays are also diversity or background prompts. If you are not diverse (straight, white, cis, able-bodied, etc.), you need to stick to the community aspect of these prompts. Also, these questions might make you feel like you absolutely must write about hardship, trauma, or another less positive topic. First of all, you do not have to write about things like that to get into college – full stop. It’s honestly kind of a myth, and so many students think they have to do this to get into college. You do not have to retraumatize yourself to write a college essay. If you did have an experience, especially during high school, that affected your grades, caused you to switch schools often, or otherwise impacted your academic career, those things should go in the additional information section.
With that, it’s time to jump into how to write a community essay!
Brainstorming
Start by thinking about the communities you’re a part of – and this can include anything. You might write about things that are pretty obvious, examples of community, like a club, a team (maybe not this, though), or other structured activity. You could also talk about family, your neighborhood, your church, your friend group, or another place where you engage with others. We see a lot of students automatically talk about community service – we know it’s in the name but you don’t have to do that here. But that can work well with the prompts that ask you to connect back to the school’s community!
Try to choose something that’s not otherwise reflected in your Common App, so if you already have that community service org in your activities section, maybe don’t write about it here. We encourage you to think outside the box a little with this prompt. Community can be a lot of different things, it can even be nebulous concepts. Students have written about their online communities, even! It could be about how you’re like, insanely tall, and whenever you see another insanely tall person, you connect on the astral plane and immediately know each other’s thoughts, or something. Maybe you feel very identified with your Subaru and got really into getting those little Subaru badges.
With your community in mind, it’s time to think of a story that best exemplifies your interactions within this community and maybe reveals something about your values. With a formal group, it might be a snapshot of your time working on a project with others, a time you worked through a conflict with this community, or a time you took charge and developed some kind of new initiative. For more person-to-person community stories it could be an interaction with family, your friend group doing one of your unique traditions, or a funny story about a night gone awry.
Your goal is to drop us into a moment in time with your community. If you write about community service, don’t just write something that makes you look just sooooooo good and sooooo wonderful – not that you aren’t, it's just annoying to read humble brags. Instead, focus on a moment in time that made you see something in a new way, how you recruited friends to join you, or how you handled a conflict that popped up during your shift.
The Essay
You’re telling a story, and what do stories have? A beginning, middle, and end! This essay also should be full of sensory details. Which we know can be hard to do in 150-350 words, but do your best.
The beginning of your essay should really set it off with detail – bring us into the moment with you. If you talk about your summer job at a nursery, describe all the colors and smells of greenery! Maybe the roughness of the plants, who knows! Make sure the reader knows where we are and why we’re here.
The middle of your story should bring in some kind of conflict, doesn’t need to be radically serious or anything, but something that will require a resolution of sorts. Perhaps some hijinx have ensued, or you lost something, or you have to fix a small crisis at work. It could also be you starting something, undertaking a new project, or challenging yourself.
And finally, your conclusion should resolve the issue at hand. College essays should have positive resolutions, and we know that’s not always reality, but we want to have endings that wrap everything up nicely and don’t bum anyone out. That doesn’t mean everything has to end perfect, but we shouldn’t end on a low note. If you messed something up, the ending might be about you trying again! Just end positive, okay? We promise it’s the best way to go. If the prompt doesn't ask about how you’ll engage in community at the end, you’re done.
If they do ask how you’ll engage in/contribute to the community at their school, this is where you want to find an organization doing similar work at their school. If you talked about how you started a recycling thing with your neighbors, join an environmental group. If you wrote about how you started an online newsletter and have amassed a following, talk about how you want to join the school paper! Just make sure it makes sense with what you told them.
And that is the community essay! Don’t be afraid to think outside the box on this one, and don’t forget to write a story!
Need help with your community essay? Or any of your supplements? Reach out to us today.