We have good news for those of you following this series on how to write your personal statement based on each Common App prompt in this list: we’re definitively in the homestretch of our guide now with Prompt #5.

As is tradition, we’ll remind you here that our favorite prompt by far is #7 because it lets you freestyle, and the personal statement is all about leaving an impression. But don’t despair if you’ve given Prompt #7 some thought and decided that the “look ma, no hands!” approach just isn’t for you. All that really matters is that you choose the option that sets you up to succeed in 650 words — that is, to get across in a succinct and entertaining way who you are on a human level beyond a set of activities and academic accomplishments.

This is the most important part of your application for a variety of reasons. One is that it’s the first essay any admissions officer will read, and it’s also the only essay that goes to every single school on your Common App list of colleges. Your stats and accolades will come through on your transcript and your activities section, and the college-specific supplemental essays you’ll write later on will give you the opportunity to explain your interests, define your undergraduate goals, and demonstrate why you’re a great candidate for one program or another.

Since your bases are covered, you don’t have anything to prove in the personal statement — and in fact, Common App essays that regurgitate your resume not only waste space and come off a bit redundant, they sound robotic and unrelatable. This is your time to shine and show off your personality! As long as you have that goal in mind, you can write a great personal statement in response to any prompt, so let’s get into the dos and don’ts of #5.

Common App Prompt #5

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Our Assessment

We won’t lie… we’re not super enthusiastic about Prompt #5, because there are a few ways it could lead you astray. Obviously, we understand the stakes of college applications, and we know you’re under immense pressure to make yourself look good. However, what makes you “look good” in your personal statement might look different than you think.

As we previously mentioned, your greatest victories (as they relate to high school) will already be accounted for in your application. If your most meaningful commitment over the last 3.5 years has been the academic decathlon team, you’re obviously going to list your involvement — and the time your squad won nationals — in your activities section and the honors subsection of the education section. The problem is that this prompt can understandably lead some students to believe it’s a good idea to write about the biggest win they’ve experienced because it’s most impressive or noteworthy, but that’s actually not the case. If you go that route, at best you’re wasting your chance to communicate something new about yourself that doesn’t appear anywhere else on your application; at worst, you’re taking a victory lap that can appear braggy or, arguably worse, boring.

Let’s put it this way. If you’re a star student, your academic records and letters of recommendation are all the evidence you need to prove that point. Admissions officers aren’t going to emotionally invest in your journey if your personal statement is just a way of drawing attention to your perfect SAT score; that’s not real, personal, or engaging. You want to write something that makes readers feel they’re getting to know you and that they’d like to get to know you better. That doesn’t mean showing off; it means being authentic, putting your unique point of view into words, telling a good story, and maybe even making your audience laugh.

Another common response is to take your personal statement to the opposite extreme, but we feel really strongly that applicants do not need to write about their trauma to get into college. If you experienced a significant hardship that affected your high school experience, the "Additional Information” section is great because it provides space for you to elaborate on how you were impacted and ensure your application is considered with adequate context. However, we don’t ever want students to feel pressured into writing a personal statement that reduces them to the worst thing they’ve ever experienced or delve into painful memories they’d prefer to keep private. Remember: this is your space, and you have every right to introduce yourself exactly as you’d like to!

How to Do It Right

And on the note of “introducing yourself exactly as you’d like to,” we can get into topics that work now that we’ve covered the common mistakes you should avoid. As always, we advise you to tell a story — it’s the best format for getting a message or “so what” across while keeping details concrete and writing with clarity and entertainment in mind. Luckily, this prompt has a natural story format built in: the beginning is the inciting event, the middle is the direct aftermath and period of personal growth (consider this your personal “Rocky training montage”), and the end is the takeaway or “new understanding of yourself or others” you’ve realized through hindsight.

That all makes sense in theory, of course, but an anecdote that fits these criteria might not immediately come to mind — and that’s ok! Normal, in fact! Don’t worry about feeling a bit daunted; it’s a natural part of the process, and nothing a little brainstorming can’t fix. Remember: keep it small and specific.

First, think about the character trait in yourself you’d like to highlight with this essay, and then try listing experiences you’ve had that would allow you to illuminate that quality. If you need a little push to get the ball rolling, start by asking yourself open-ended questions like these:

What is an alternate definition of “accomplishment” in your dictionary? Is there anything you’re proud of that wouldn’t necessarily show up on a resume or brag sheet but that feels personally significant nonetheless?
Can you think of any clear “before” and “after” moments in your own timeline? Small moments or inflection points that might sound ordinary on the surface but that changed how you saw the world?
Do you feel like the same person you were freshman year? If not, what’s different? How did those changes develop?
Do you have any low-stakes goals or surprising ambitions? Have you ever tried to set a personal record? What made you want to pursue those things? What did those achievements represent to you?

Getting to Your First Draft

Once you’ve arrived at your idea, you’re ready to move it from your brain to the page. If you like to work from an outline, sketch one up and expand it into your rough draft. If just the idea of an outline or an official full-length draft makes your creative juices dry up, ease yourself into it with some free-writing. Set a 20-minute timer and write without stopping until the alarm goes off; this keeps you from self-censoring or editing thoughts before you even set them down, and at the end of the exercise you’ll have more writing than expected. Is it polished? No. But you’ll see interesting points you want to expand on, and once you’ve gotten started it’s easier than you expected to keep going.

Your first draft will probably be longer than 650 words, and that’s fine! What matters most is getting the full story down. From there, you can see what’s essential and cull down. At this point, you can make big-picture revisions — finessing transitions, adding material for clarity, removing unnecessary information, enlivening boring passages. Next, we recommend you read your essay aloud, make note of any sections that drag or sound awkward, and make sentence-level edits.

Now you’re ready to show your essay to a small selection of trusted readers — and by “small selection” we mean one or two editors, max. Too much advice from too many people with differing opinions can be overwhelming and ultimately counterproductive, so leave it with a person or two who understands you and can provide useful feedback. With a few more rounds of revision on your own, you’re at the finish line!

You can write a great personal statement in response to Prompt #5. Just remember: tell a story that doesn’t appear anywhere else in your application, think small, and be yourself (with style!).

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