Think of your best “experiences” before you start answering either of these prompts

College essays are tools that serve a specific purpose — admissions officers use them to see if you’ll be successful at college and beyond. Sometimes, they do it with straightforward essay questions. Sometimes, as with UGA, they do it with a “fun” question. But what they’re actually looking for in the answer doesn’t really change. It’s about your potential.

With “fun” questions, it’s all the more important that you keep the focus of your answers on what you’ve done that shows you can be successful. You don’t want to get distracted. 

As you’ll learn if you walk through our free brainstorming materials in our dashboard (create a free account), Prompt’s method is first to spend time writing down all the experiences you’ve had in high school — think broadly of everything you’ve done academically, extracurricularly, with your family, at a job, over the summer, and independently. 

Your experiences will form the basis of your essays. As you develop your answers, start thinking about which of the 5 Traits you demonstrated in each experience. (The traits are: Drive, Initiative, Intellectual Curiosity, Contribution, and Diversity of Experiences.) 

The more you write with the traits in mind, the more you’ll add details that impress your admissions officers — and stay away from details that don’t add value. By the end of this process, you should have a lot of valuable info to share. 

Next, take the best experiences you’ve come up with — the ones that most exemplify one (or more) of the 5 traits and slate them in your two UGA slots:

• Common App personal statement prompts (7 choices) — 250-650 words
• Tell an “amusing story” about yourself — 200-300 words

We’ll tackle each below. 

Don’t take our examples too seriously — there are many “right” ways to answer UGA’s prompts

Quick interruption: at Prompt, we’re on record as being against modeling yourself on influencers, New York Times college essay writers, and, really, anyone who isn’t you.

On the other hand, we know that you want concrete examples of what our brilliant but (we’ll admit it) abstract advice can actually look like in practice. So, we’re illustrating with some made-up examples.

Please read them with a big grain of salt. You can have a different writing style. You can go a million other directions. And if the example sounds too impressive, it just might be — our examples are generally loosely based on real examples, but still fictional. You’re working with reality, and that tends to be harder.

With that caveat out of the way, back to our regularly scheduled programming. 

Q1 — Choose the right Common App prompt and write it fast and well using our proven method

Alright. Prompt has you so, so, so, so covered when it comes to the Common App personal statement.

First, here’s a really fun, quick article on how to choose the best of the 7 prompts (and avoid the trickier ones). 

Second, here’s the most comprehensive article you’ve ever read on how to write a personal essay that’s not only super-strong and acceptance-worthy but also doesn’t take forever to get done!

Yup. That’s it for #1. 

Let’s move on to #2. 

Q2 — Be light-hearted in your “amusing story” essay — but don’t lose sight of the goal to impress!

For the other UGA application essay, all applicants respond to the same prompt:

‍The college admissions process can create anxiety. In an attempt to make it less stressful, please tell us an interesting or amusing story about yourself from your high school years that you have not already shared in your application. (300 words max)

As we see it, there are two parts to acing this:

1. Answer in the spirit the question is asked — be “interesting or amusing,” not serious or pedantic, but also
2. Choose a story that shows off 1 or more of (you guessed it) the 5 traits

First, to be “interesting or amusing:”

• Don’t aim for funny.
• Unless it just comes out funny and other grownup people, ideally an essay coach, agree it’s funny.
• Otherwise, don’t aim for funny. Funny is a lot harder than it seems. Just read any comedian’s memoirs, and you’ll know what we’re trying to say. 
• “Interesting” is a better target to shoot for than “amusing.” “Quirky” or “unusual” could also be better guideposts than “amusing” to get you in the right spirit. 

True story: UGA has gone on record as lamenting the large number of recent essays that touched on “bodily functions.” Steer clear! Admissions officers aren’t into “gross-out” moments.

Second, to show off your traits: 

• Ignore the prompt, and go to your brainstormed list of experiences.
• Choose the best one that can reasonably fit this question.  
• Feel good knowing you’re giving the admissions team exactly what they want.
• And, we can’t say this too many times: what they want isn’t gross-out humor. 

Example:

Every morning, I make toast for my little sister before school. My parents are constantly worried: “Did Isabel eat this morning?” my mom will ask (she works an early shift, and can’t be home for breakfast). But I always make sure my sister eats. “You fed Isabel, right?” my dad will ask on the phone (he travels for work, and is rarely home on weekdays). But I never forget to feed Isabel.

Sometimes, Isabel says she’s not hungry, so we negotiate. Sometimes, she sleeps in, so I make it to-go. But always I make sure it happens. It’s a small, but deeply satisfying win for me — a way to set up larger wins for the day. 

Reflecting on how much I love these daily moments made me realize that they’re at the heart of what I want to build my life around: helping others. 

It’s why I re-started the Tutoring Club, which currently has 32 members who help younger students with homework 2 or more times per week. It’s why I tutor 3 students myself — and why I’m more proud of helping to raise their GPAs from an average of 3.1 to an average of 3.6. It’s why I survey tutors and tutored students every semester, to keep making the Club better — we now play soft music that everyone loves (I would never have thought of that!); we raised enough money for after-school snacks (good for concentration), and it’s why I had to “fire” a tutor once — a really hard thing to do, but a necessary one.

I want my life to be about helping people as tangibly and concretely as I do every morning when I make toast for my little sister: sometimes it’s a joy, sometimes it’s a challenge, but it’s never not meaningful. 

Notes:

• This essay focuses on contribution, one of the 5 traits.
• The first part focuses on a small, intimate moment — you don’t need to be flashy.
• The essay moves on to action steps the student took, with lots of specifics about Tutoring Club, showing more of the 5 traits (drive to keep it successful; initiative to get it going). 

Helpful info on all the “other” stuff you’ll consider as you apply to U Georgia (and other schools)

Here are some additional resources that can help you ace every aspect of your U Georgia application:

• Activities list: here’s how to write your activity list descriptions so they really impress. 
• Common App: UGA allows you to use the Common App, Coalition App, or their own system. If you choose the first of those, we have a guide for acing everything to do with writing your Common App application. 
• Applying early or regular: UGA offers “Early Action” as well as “Regular Decision.” Read our guide to early/regular decisions — it's a great overview of this decision at any school.  
• Note: UGA is not test-optional. 

BTW, here’s our guidance for approaching any college supplement + here’s where you can find our guides for almost every college’s supplements. 

Feeling inspired? A great place to start is at our College Essay Help Center. 

More articles on Prompt.com’s admissions-boosting methods:

• Work with a college essay coach
• Strong essays increase your chance of admission by up to 10x
• Don’t let influencers influence your college essays
• Should I apply test-optional?
• Early admissions: Everything you need to know
• College Essay Help Center