The prompt is not where the college essay begins

Originally sent as an AltView newsletter on June 13, 2026.

One thing I kept coming back to during our Class 12 briefing was the essay.

Many students think essay work begins when the prompt appears. That sounds logical. The Common App has prompts. Colleges have supplemental questions. So the student opens the prompt and asks, “What should I write?”

I think that is often the wrong first question.

The prompt is useful, but it is not the starting point. If the student has not done the discovery work yet, the essay usually becomes a safe answer to a question. The student says they led something, worked hard, recovered from a setback, or became more curious.

Those may all be true. The problem is that thousands of students can say something similar.

The better first question is:

What should an admissions reader understand about this student that will not be obvious from marks, activities, awards, or recommendations?

I wrote a new note on this here:

College essays do not start with the prompt

We also published the recording and recap of our June 6 briefing:

Class 12 has started: watch the June 6 briefing

The larger point is connected. I would not turn June and July into panic months. But by August, a Class 12 family should not still be blank on essay direction, broad college-list logic, recommenders, testing decisions, and what the application needs to make visible.

If your child is in Class 12 and applying abroad this year, this is a good moment to get serious without getting frantic.

Best,
Apoorv & Sanjeeta